I was so excited this week to find out how to lock the iPad to the current app (directions below). I have been wanting to hand my iPad over to students to use (unsupervised) with ExplainEverything, but have worried that they might want to investigate everything I have on my iPad.
In my last week in my placement, the kids had an online research project, and it was taking the netbooks forever to login to the network, so I tried my iPad and it was fast, so I gave it to a group of kids to use. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, a group of girls had managed to login with their netbook, and they had interrupted their research to search google for "what is [one of the girls names] good at?" It turns out that, somewhere in the world, someone with that name is good at some things that are not rated G. I'm not sure if the school network would have let them click through to the site, but they sure could see the list of the search results. The kids were redirected back to the research project, and I'm happier handing over my iPad having some control over what the kids do with it (which isn't to say that I think kids shouldn't use google, but that perhaps they need closer supervision and direction when they do).
To lock the iPad to the current app: go to Settings, General, Accessibility, and then scroll down to Guided Access. Flip the switch and tap Set Passcode to create a four-digit passcode. Next, find the app you want to give the kids access to and launch it. Once it comes up, tap the home button three times. At that point you can disable buttons and portions of the screen. To leave the app, you would have to enter your passcode.
In my last week in my placement, the kids had an online research project, and it was taking the netbooks forever to login to the network, so I tried my iPad and it was fast, so I gave it to a group of kids to use. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, a group of girls had managed to login with their netbook, and they had interrupted their research to search google for "what is [one of the girls names] good at?" It turns out that, somewhere in the world, someone with that name is good at some things that are not rated G. I'm not sure if the school network would have let them click through to the site, but they sure could see the list of the search results. The kids were redirected back to the research project, and I'm happier handing over my iPad having some control over what the kids do with it (which isn't to say that I think kids shouldn't use google, but that perhaps they need closer supervision and direction when they do).
To lock the iPad to the current app: go to Settings, General, Accessibility, and then scroll down to Guided Access. Flip the switch and tap Set Passcode to create a four-digit passcode. Next, find the app you want to give the kids access to and launch it. Once it comes up, tap the home button three times. At that point you can disable buttons and portions of the screen. To leave the app, you would have to enter your passcode.
Very cool that you found this feature and told us about it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I agree completely: Kids need to have clear direction and expectations about searching.
Oh wow..what a great feature, I never knew it existed. I just tried it on my iPad and iPhone and it works well. Now I can have my 6th graders use it unsupervised. I had a similar experience in my main placement, about internet safety. One of the student was reading an article that he needed, on the website, which passed through school's network. While the content of article was fine, there were some ads on the sides, which were not very appropriate. I wondered how that website was able to work, however, it blocks emails or other websites which could be used for educational purposes.
ReplyDelete