Things you should know about your iPad

Now that we are a 1 - 1 district and have put iPads in the hands of every student and almost every staff member, I thought this would be a good time to highlight some important tips and tricks about the iPad.  My list has been adapted from an article by Mark Anderson.  You can view his article here.

Photos:

Screen shots:  Pressing the home button and the standby button will take a screen shot and add it to your camera roll.
Alternate method:  In the Camera App, don't fumble around trying to press the button on the screen, press the volume button and that will take the photo for you.
Brightness: When taking a photo, if the sunlight is too bright or too dark, simply tap on the screen and then press and slide up the sunlight icon and it will allow you to adjust the exposure as needed.
Emailing photos:  While in the email app, press and hold on the screen and an option to insert a photo should appear.  Select that option and then pick your photo.

Control Panel: 

Access it by swiping up from the bottom of your screen. Access bluetooth, wifi, the clock, rotate lock, volume, brightness, AirDrop, AirPlay and a host of other features.

Passcode:

Keeping your iPad secure is highly important.  You do not have to settle for a simple 4 digit passcode.  If you go to settings, Touch ID & Passcode, enter hour passcode and switch simple passcode off.  It will then ask you for a new passcode.  This can involve letters, numbers, and punctuation characters.  If your passcode involves characters other than numbers, a full keyboard will appear.

Accessibility:

If you haven't checked out the Accessibility features within Settings, I urge you to do so. You can access these by going to Settings, General, Accessibility and within there, you will find several features to help children with a range of special educational needs. A helpful feature is the speak selection which adds an extra icon to your toolbar when you highlight text. Simply highlight the text, choose the new speak option and it will read the selected text to you. This works in any App on your iPad.  

Shortcuts:

To add a keyboard shortcut, just go to Settings, General, Keyboard, Shortcuts. An example would be: Tap the + icon in the top right hand corner. Next to 'Phrase', type your email address,  dawn.bodden@d214.org, Then, next to the word 'Shortcut', type 'daw', then tap 'save' in the top right hand corner. If you go into any App, whenever you type your shortcut, the shortcut will appear. To engage it, simply press Space and the full email address will drop into place.

Siri

Save time. Use Siri to make your life easier. Try simple commands such as, 'Grade Algebra tests today at 8pm', or set an alarm by saying, 'Set an alarm for 6am tomorrow,'. Try saying 'make a note' and give Siri the note and it will make a note for you. Siri isn't just for asking silly questions waiting for a silly response, it is a serious productivity tool.  See what Siri can do to make your life easier.

Privacy: 

Check your location settings!  We want our location services on for the Find My iPad app, but do you really need your location on for your photos or your twitter posts?  Have this conversation with your students too.

Troubleshooting:

Sometimes you just need to restart!  If nothing is working, do a hard restart by holding down the home button and the reset button at the top.  Press them together and hold for a few seconds.  Wait for the screen to go dark, an apple to appear, and then the screen to go dark again before releasing the buttons.  

Would you like more suggestions or helpful hints for using your iPad?  Here is a link to an article titled, "50 really useful iPad tips and tricks."

What are some of your favorite tips or tricks for the iPad?  Add to the comments below.  We would love to hear from you.