14 DAY TRIAL // Primary school teacher Simon Haughton decided to make his classes more interesting by employing an Apple TV to project large images and switch between slides from afar. He discovered it was "fantastic" for the job.
After using Apple’s set-top box in just one class, Haughton decided to make a blog entry and let everyone know that, “Using Apple TV in a lesson is FANTASIC!”
“Having read about it online I sort of knew what to expect but it was only when I actually tried it out in a lesson did I realise the huge impact that it has on teaching and learning,” he explains.
One of the key benefits, Haughton notes, is the ability to stand anywhere in the room to showcase something – “you aren't confined to just standing next to the projected display,” he writes.
Thanks to AirPlay integration, “the fact that you can pass an iPad to a child to write on makes it much more flexible,” in Haughton’s opinion, “and easier too for the shorter children who can't always reach the top of the board.” Talk about a thoughtful teacher, eh?
The third and last key benefit outlined by Haughton in his post, teachers can mirror any child's iPad display “to share it as an example of 'what a good one looks like' to the rest of the class.”
In other words, the class no longer requires a visualiser, thanks to the Apple-based solutions.
“When I used it in Year 4 on Friday, the children were that impressed by the whole setup that they even asked me to mirror the iPad screen of one of the more confident children for a short while so that they could watch the process they did to create such super work,” Haughton said.
The teacher admits that he does have one small problem, and that is finding a suitable app for presenting lessons on. Maybe the next iOS will open the door to that.