The 1 iPad Classroom - Holding Students Accountable

My iPad is nearly used for everything now day. I order from Amazon, I check my e-mails, I connect to facebook. This is my convenience technology and I would hate having to enter in my login material every single time, because most importantly my iPad is an effective tool I use in the classroom.

Well there is an amazing solution to hold students accountable and keep them on the app you want them to be on, while leaving your personal apps safe. Apple has always made their products with features intended to be used in the classroom. One of the latest IOS updates in IOS 6 features a brand new teacher tool called "Guided Access".

We will first discuss what Guided Access is and then give you directions to set this tool up on your iPad. In short, guided access prevents a person from leaving whatever app is currently running. This means hitting home does nothing and multi-finger gestures are disabled. When you enable guided access, you simply have to triple click home and select guided access. You will already have a 4 digit code enter and only need to hit start, by hitting start the student is now restricted to that sole app. You can also disable touch capabilities and/or motion capabilities.

Using a calculator on the iPad, you can disable the extras

Now Apple has gone a step farther, suppose you have this great educational app, but not only does it have the material you want the student to go through now, but it also has very basic. In math, perhaps I want a student to work on algebra, but the app also has a choice on basic math facts such as 1+1. Well I can draw a circle over the area I do not want the students to use and a shield is drawn on top of that part of the app, thus preventing the student from doing anything other than what I want them to do. What an amazing feature to provide so much accountable and security for teachers that use their own iPad in the classroom.

To start using this feature follow these simple instructions:
1) Go to settings
2) General
3) Accessibility
4) Tap the Guided Access, enter a passcode and it is now enabled!


To use Guided Access follow these intructions:
1) Go to the app you want the student to use
2) Triple click home
3) Choose guided access
4) Circle anything on the app you also want to disable
5) Hit start

To exit Guided Access follow these instructions:
1) Triple click home
2) Enter your 4-digit passcode
3) Hit end.

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