Tech Hub
Every kindergartener will be receiving an iPad to use this school year to get access to powerful learning & creating tools. This will be their primary tool for connecting to synchronous & asynchronous learning while school is happening remotely. This page will provide information about key apps and tech trouble shooting.
Skills to Practice
There are a lot of skills we can help teach you and your child to help them be productive with their iPad. However, there are some basics that will help avoid frustration and are easiest to practice with someone in person. Take a moment to learn the skills below.
Plugging in the iPad to the Charger
When we will use this: Students will be using their iPad for most of the school day. A lot of our apps can drain the battery. If students learn how to plug in the charger they are able to be more independent throughout the day. *In order to avoid having students using wall outlets, please have the charger already plugged in so students only need to plug into their device*
How to do it: Plug the charger into the wall. Students will use the smaller end of the charger and plug it into the charging port located at the bottom of the iPad.
Leave an App Without Closing It
When we will use this: We will most often do this to leave Zoom running while completing other tasks either on the iPad or on paper. This makes the transitions more independent for kindergarten students and allows them to access their teacher to ask for help.
How to do it: Press the circle home button once to return to the home screen. (To return, see Switch Between Apps or just click the Zoom app again.)
Switch Between Apps
When we will use this: When switching back to an app after going to the home screen or after following a link from a Seesaw activity when ready to return to Seesaw.
How to do it: Begin with your finger touching the iPad on the bezel (not the touch screen part) below the screen. Without picking up your finger, quickly slide your finger up toward the middle of the screen. Without lifting your finger, pause and wait for the app tiles to appear. Then pick up your finger and tap the one you want to switch to. (Note: you can also practice quickly double tapping the circle home button, but this is generally harder for kindergarteners and often accidentally triggers Siri.)
Change the Volume
When we will use this: All the time!
How to do it: There are two ways to change the volume, with the physical buttons and from the control center. To access the control center, swipe down from the upper right corner toward the middle of the screen. Use the volume picture and drag up or down to adjust. You can also use the volume buttons on the edge of the iPad, but this can be hard for kindergarteners especially through a rubber case.
Close Out Apps
When we will use this: When too many apps are open, the iPads get bogged down. Closing out all apps and trying again is the first line of problem solving defense.
How to do it: After swiping up to see all open apps (see Switch Between Apps), touch an open app and, without lifting your finger, swipe it up and away. Repeat with all open apps.
Close All Safari Tabs
When we will use this: Clever has a habbit of opening way too many tabs in Safari and having 100 tabs open is another way to bog down the iPads. If things are running slowly, check this. It's not a bad idea to close all tabs at the end of the day or the end of the week.
How to do it: In the Safari app, look in the top right corner for the two overlapping squares. Press and hold until a menu appears. Chose "Close All ## Tabs" to close all the tabs at once.
Turn the iPad On/Off
When we will use this: When the iPad is having issues and nothing else helps. It's not a bad idea to restart the iPad each weekend to help avoid problems.
How to do it: Press and hold the power button until the screen darkens and you see the red oval. Swipe to shut down. Once the screen is entirely off, count to 10 slowly. Then press and hold the power button until the apple appears on the screen.