Air Server

Last Friday I had another "ah ha" moment.  Why am I not using Air Server?  As I was sitting in the presentation about document cameras, we had the opportunity to share some of our favorite sites.  I'll be honest, I was a little unprepared for that part of the session.  I had focused all my energy on planning my own presentation for that day.  I thought surely there would be lots of others to share sites and I could get away without sharing.  No such luck.  We were a small group from a wide range of backgrounds and we did not have a lot of common teaching ground (music, home ec, junior high, grade one, resource etc).  When I realized this I began frantically searching my wiki for a favorite site or two that just might interest some of the crowd.  When it was my turn to share I offered to come up to the desk top and type in my sites.  It was then suggested "well just turn on the air server and share from your ipad."  Air server?  My ipad to your lcd?  Wirelessly?  Yup - it was true.  Our school purchased some licences for air server ( I am unclear on those details).  I do know our tech person had to install air server on the desk top hooked to the lcd.  From there, any device in that room could connect to the air server with nothing installed on the actual device.  How do you do it?  First you need air server installed on your computer, then..........

• Double click your home button fairly quickly
• When the bar of running apps appears at the bottom of the screen, swipe to the right with your finger to get it as far to the left as it will go.  You will see your volume controls, your music icon and and a little button that kind of looks like a pointing up arrow.
• Tap the little button
• This will open a screen of all the available computers with air server installed asking you which you want to connect to.  Our school has it set up by room number.  
• I chose the room number and turned on the button that says allow mirroring
• After about a 15 second delay my ipad took control of the desktop.  My home screen was mirrored on the desk top screen and on the lcd projector!  So cool!  
• When I was done I clicked turn off mirroring and away it went!  My ipad was private again!  So COOL!  

So I tracked down the tech guy and had it installed in my room too!!!!!  And then I discovered I can mirror both my ipads at the exact same time if I want to.  Not sure why I would, but also a very cool feature!  I am sure as I learn and play I will discover so much more.  

Tip:  When it is mirrored on my screen if I click the view button and choose full screen it will make my ipad as large as my desk top screen (16:9). 

I found a you tube tutorial video in case you are interested.  There is also a 7 day free trial available!

And are you a tiny bit curious about the sites I shared?  Well I went for some art sites.  

Deep Space Sparkle  

That Artist Woman

enjoy!

 

Cords and Accessories

This week has been a trial with few tribulations when it comes to cords and accessories!

Dilemma 1:
A wonderful little student of mine proudly came to school with an ipod full of her photos from Disney World.  How do we share that with the class well.... logic says hook it up to the lcd.  Well I do not have a cord to connect my ipad to my lcd!  So off I go on a borrowing mission to find the 1 cord in the school... lone behold it is not in the building today.  So I sadly break the news to my student.

Dilemma 2:
I get a cord........ my lcd projector is not sophisticated enough to work with the connector cord.  Now I go looking for an lcd to borrow.  That is how I come across .......

Dilemma 3:
I have a teacher ready and willing to lend the lcd that will attach with the cord.  When I tell her my plan she breaks the news that guess what....... the ipod will not connect to the lcd.  An ipad will, an iphone will, and ipod will NOT!

Ahhhhhhh!  Can you feel my frustration?

Now thankfully this little student has a techie mom, who happens to be our school secretary!  She willingly loaded 67 of the photos on to a smilebox and 2 days later we see the wonderful Disney adventures to which Phineas and Ferb got huge applause and 17 students were left dreaming of their own Disney adventure....someday!  Have I left you curious about that Disney adventure, swing by my wiki to check her Smilebox out.  I created a special page called Student Adventures!

Now for the accessories dilemma........
Months ago we purchased the Camera Connection kit.  I have tried the card reader and it worked like a charm.... check out my post about it.  Just this week Lois tried out the cord connector and it would not allow her camera to load pictures.   I am unsure of the error message she got, but she got one.  So she asked me to give it a try.  So try I did with my expensive Canon Rebel t3 dslr and it worked with my camera.... all be it was SLOW compared to the speedy card reader!