One of the things I love about using my iPad in school is the way it frees me from being stuck at my desk while demoing a lesson. There are various apps available that let you control your desktop using your iPad. For me, this is a wonderful tool – I hate being stuck at my desk while teaching, I’d rather be up and moving. Now I can demonstrate a lesson on the Promethean Board from anywhere in the room. I can walk around and make sure students are on task while in the middle of a demo. I can even hand the iPad off to a student to have them demonstrate what they just learned!
Last year was the first time I used an iPad in class, and I tried out the Splashtop Remote Desktop app as a means of controlling my desktop remotely. It worked very well! I was able to teach from anywhere in the room. It made me more aware of what my students were doing, and it made my students pay more attention.
When I learned we were doing an iPad pilot this year, Splashtop was one of the first apps I thought of. I knew my colleagues would find it as useful as I did. The only problem was the cost. We have a very limited budget for apps right now, and we want to make the most of the money we have. Thanks to one of our techs, I discovered LogMeIn. LogMeIn is another remote desktop app. It does everything Splashtop does, but it’s FREE! I like free! There are paid versions of LogMeIn available, which offer some upgraded options, but for basic classroom use the free version is plenty.
