Apple’s latest software release saw a small divergence for iPhone and iPad. Although they both run a version of iOS, the iPad variation is now called iPadOS. This is because of the increasing number of iOS features that only work on an iPad. Here are some of my favorite additions to the new iPadOS as well as a quick guide on how to enable them.

The new iPad home screen includes a sidebar of widgets and an increased number of app icons. The scrollable list of widgets can be customized to include updates from all your favorite apps, and the day and date is displayed above them for a nice, clean look. If 30 apps on one screen is too many for you, head over to Settings > Display & Brightness where you can revert to the previous configuration of 20 apps, but more apps on one screen should mean less swiping, and maybe less hunting around for the one you need.

In iPadOS, Apple upgraded the Safari browser so that it performs much more like the browser on your laptop. This means you will no longer see the mobile version of webpages like YouTube or Google Docs. It’s not perfect, but if you or your students are feeling hamstrung by the lack of features in some of Google’s iPad apps, you can get the full web experience when you use Safari, and you won’t have to request the desktop version because you get that by default. Live collaboration, Add-ons, and just about everything else works just as it should. There is also a download manager that makes downloading video and audio from the web quick and easy!

If you’ve ever longed for mouse support on the iPad, then the time has finally come. Apple included it as an accessibility feature for those who have difficulty interacting with a touch screen.  It allows you to connect a Bluetooth or USB mouse to control a cursor and navigate your iPad hands-free. It is also great for making instructional videos when students can’t see where you are tapping on the screen.

To get started, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > and turn on Assistive Touch. Then go to Devices and configure your mouse to work the way you want. You can assign different actions to each button on your mouse. The cursor size, speed and color can also be adjusted to your liking.

There is a new screenshot tool in iPadOS that includes some new markup tools, as well as the ability to take a scrolling screenshot of a webpage. Simply invoke the screenshot tool by pressing and holding the home button and the power button, then tap the thumbnail in the corner to get started. You can save a screenshot as an image, or as a PDF by tapping Done in the top left-hand corner.

You can now add multiple apps to Slide Over by dragging and dropping an app from the dock onto an existing Slide Over app. You can switch between these apps the same way you do on your iPhone by swiping up from the home indicator at the bottom of the stack. For even more flexibility, power users will be glad to hear that you can also open more than one instance of the same app. This means you can have Notes and Safari open in Split View in one window, and have Notes and YouTube open in another window. With practice, this can make you more productive than ever on an iPad.

Are you ready to take a trip to the dark side? Turn on dark mode in Settings > Display and Brightness to make the switch, or do what I do and have it turn on and off automatically at sunset and sunrise. Not apps support dark mode yet, but an increasing number do and this can make it easier on your eyes when you are catching up on school emails on your iPad at night.

Remember when you used to be able to split your iPad keyboard in two for thumb-typing mastery? That feature is no longer there, but if you pinch the iPadOS keyboard with two fingers you can shrinking it down to an iPhone-sized keyboard and use swipe-to-type to enter your text. You can drag the smaller keyboard anywhere on the screen. This is perfect for quick text adjustments or for times when you don’t want the iPad keyboard to cover important areas of the screen. Bonus tip: You can use QuickType on your iPhone with iOS 13.

These are a few of the features that I have been enjoying from iPadOS when I was using the public beta this summer. If you are interested in finding out about the rest of the iPadOS features, make sure you check out Apple’s website for the full coverage. iPadOS can be installed on an iPad Air 2 or newer.

Jonathan Wylie
Digital Learning Consultant
Grant Wood AEA

This is the third and final part of our blog post series that looks at innovative ways to use Google's iPad apps in the classroom with students. If you haven't read Part 1 or Part 2, you should check those out. Otherwise, here are five more tips and tricks for making the most of Google on your iPad. If you have great tips of your own, feel free to add those to the comments below. 

I wrote a bit about this in part one of this series, but in the last few days, Google has updated several of their iPad apps so that they now support drag and drop. You need to have a device that is capable of running iOS 11, but once you have that taken care of, you are ready for some multitasking goodness. With drag and drop you can research content from Safari on one side of your screen and drag that into a Google Doc, Slide or Sheet on the other side of your screen. You can drag images, URLs, and text simply by pressing and holding, then dragging them over. (just be sure to cite your sources!) Right now, it only works to drag things into Google apps, (as opposed to out of them), but it's a great option to have and will hopefully be expanded to other apps like Keep, (see below), in the near future.

Also new in iOS 11 is the ability to record your iPad screen without using any additional software or devices. You simply turn it on in your Control Center settings, and start recording. Here's how to do it. This new functionality is great for teachers who may want to flip their classroom or create instructional videos for students to use as part of blended learning rotations. Students can also use the screen recording function to present their slideshow and turn it in as a live video. All screencasts are saved to your device and can be uploaded to Drive or submitted as assignments in Google Classroom. Best of all, it's quick and easy to do. If you need some iPad screen recording tips, read this.

Some people have ignored Apple Classroom because they think it's just Apple's version of Google Classroom. It's not. Instead, it's a free suite of classroom management tools that you can use to monitor and control your classroom iPads. Do you want to open Google Docs on all your student iPads and lock them in that app so that they don't get distracted? Use Apple Classroom. Do you want to see what's on the screen of all your student iPads? Use Apple Classroom.  Would you like to lock all the screens on your iPads so that students pay attention to you? Use Apple Classroom. Looking for a quick way to share the URL for a website to every iPad in the room? Use Apple Classroom. It's not for assignments, discussions or quizzes. For that, you absolutely should use Google Classroom, but for more control and easy sharing, you can use Apple Classroom alongside Google Classroom and the rest of your Google apps.

As we learned in Part 2 of this series, not all Google apps have Google in the title. Another great example of this is Toontastic 3D, a fun digital storytelling app that is completely free for teachers and students to use in the classroom. With Toontastic 3D, you can create animated cartoons that include a recording of the student's voice. There are multiple themes, scenes and characters to choose from, and if you can't find what you need, you can always create your own using the built-in 3D drawing tools! Completed projects are saved as videos to your Camera Roll so that you can upload them to Google Drive or YouTube for sharing with others. Download the app here.

Google Keep is quickly becoming a real favorite in the tech savvy teacher's toolbox. It's a versatile note taking app that syncs across all your devices. You can use it for quick notes, checklists, to-do lists, and more. On the iPad you can create drawings, take or add photos, and record voice notes. You can even create location based reminders! This collection of multimedia tools makes it a compelling addition for any classroom, so if you are looking for awesome ways to use Google Keep in your life, be sure to check out episode 32 of our podcast where Stacy Behmer talks about all the great ways that teachers AND students can use Google to help make them more productive at school.

So, there you have it. 5 more ways to use Google's suite of apps on your iPad. Do you have innovative or unusual ways to use Google's iPad apps in your classroom? If so, please share so that others can learn some new ways to enhance teaching and learning with the iPad.

Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie)
Digital Learning Consultant
Grant Wood AEA

Recently, I wrote a post called iPad and Google Apps for the Classroom: Part 1. In it I shared a number of quick tips and ideas on how students and teachers can take better take advantage of using Google apps on their iPad. The following post is part 2 in this series.

One of the challenges of using G Suite apps in a classroom with shared iPads is the problem of dealing with multiple student logins. If multiple students are using multiple iPads, then it can quickly get messy. You don't want students accessing each others files accidentally, and especially not on purpose.

The solution is passcodes. When Student A logs in to the Google Drive, Docs, Slides or Sheets app on the iPad, get them to add a 4-digit passcode in the app Settings. This protects their account from unauthorized access on that device. When Student B wants to use the same Google app on that iPad, they add their account and also choose a passcode. From this point onward, when you launch the app all students need to do is choose the account they want to log in to, and then enter their 4-digit passcode!

Now, I know what you are thinking. What if students forget their passcode? Easy. Simply go to the app Settings, tap Manage Accounts, then Manage, and remove the account that the student forgot the passcode for. The student can then sign in again and choose a new passcode. This is not a perfect system, but with practice, it can be pretty efficient because it does solve some of those login issues you typically get with shared iPads.

Did you know that you can create new Docs, Slides or Sheets without any internet access at all? Well, you can! Once you get connected to Wi-Fi again, the app will automatically sync that file with your Google account in the cloud. By default, this only works for new documents, but you can work on existing files offline too by tapping the three dots next to the file you want to work with and toggling the button next to Available Offline. This saves a local copy to your iPad that will be available when you have no network connection, and it will sync to your account when you get back on Wi-Fi. If you tap the menu icon in the top left-hand corner, you should see an Offline filter. This is a quick way to see what files you have saved for offline access. You may want to check this periodically because offline files do use up storage space on your device.

If you or your students are collecting research or want to archive a version of a web page as a PDF, you can do that quickly and easily from the Share menu on your iPad. Here's how...

In iOS 11, all you need to do is navigate to the web page you want to save, tap the Share button, and then tap the Create PDF button from the bottom row of icons. This quickly converts the website to a PDF and opens it in a new window. All you have to do now is tap the Share arrow again, and choose Drive. From here you can pick a folder to store your newly created PDF.

In iOS 10 (and earlier), navigate to the web page you want to save, tap the Share button, and then tap the Print button. Next, pinch outwards with two fingers on one of the print preview thumbnails. This quickly converts the website to a PDF and opens it in a new window. All you have to do now is tap the Share arrow again, and choose Drive. From here you can pick a folder to store your newly created PDF.

If you want to take some notes or add highlights to the text, be sure to tap the pen icon to open the annotation tools before you save to Drive. This reveals a selection of pen tools, shapes, and text objects that you can use to annotate your PDF. This can be useful for reminding you why you saved a particular article or to call out sections that you want to use in your research.

Many presentation tools like PowerPoint and Keynote give you the ability to present your slides over the web in a live broadcast. With this option, people can follow your slides in real time and hear you presenting the content. To do this in Google Slides, tap the Play button and choose Present to new or existing meeting. Next, create a meeting ID and tap Invite to share your presentation with others. Then all you have to do is tap Present to get started.

You can turn on your microphone as required and toggle between your slides and a webcam view by tapping the camera icon once you are live. This is one of the simplest ways to start a live broadcast with others because they can see your presentation in a web browser and they don't need an account or other software in order to join the learning! Note that this is a one-way communication. Your audience can't talk to you or ask questions, but it could be a good accessibility option for students who need that accommodation.

Snapseed is a powerful image editor that Google acquired a few years ago. It has a lot of fantastic options for creating striking images with the filters and adjustment tools. However, one of the lesser used options is the ability to add text over an image that you captured with your camera or one that you retrieved from your Camera Roll. There are a number of stylish, modern "word art" styles to choose from. You can change the color, size and position of the text on your image. This can be a great way to share magic moments from a conference keynote, to create blog post images, or simply to share the learning in your classroom with parents. It's quick, easy to do and gives professional looking results. Alternative apps for this purpose include Canva, Adobe Spark Post and Word Swag.

If you have enjoyed this series of posts, stay tuned for part 3 where I will round up some more of my favorite tips and tricks, and if you haven't read part 1 yet, you can do that here. If you are a seasoned Google iPad user, feel free to leave a comment below with your own favorite uses for making the most of Google on the iPad. I would love to hear what you are doing in your school.

Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie)
Digital Learning Consultant, Grant Wood AEA

Recently, I read a great blog post by Eric Curts about the Amazing Mobile Features of Google Classroom. In it he talks about some features that are unique to teachers and students who use G Suite apps on mobile devices like an iPad or a smartphone. His collection of tips are well worth checking out, but they are not limited to Classroom, because there are lots of other great ways to use Google apps on mobile devices. To that end, here are some of my favorite iPad tips for teachers.

On the web, the Research Tool that many loved has morphed into the Explore tab. It's a sidebar that pops out on the side of your screen to let you do different things like some quick research on the web. This feature is not yet available in Google's mobile apps, but many recent iPads have something just as good - the ability to use Split View or Slide Over. This lets you have two (or more) apps open on your screen at one time. With Split View, you can quickly mimic the Explore tool on the web by having Docs open on one side of your iPad, and Safari (or Chrome) open on the other. What's more, when the Google apps for iOS get updated some time in the near future, iOS 11 users will gain the ability to drag and drop text, images and URLs from other apps right into their Google apps while working in Split View!

When Google added Voice Typing to the web version of Google Docs it was greeted with universal praise. However, some people forgot that this option already existed on mobile devices for some time. On the iPad, it's called Siri Dictation and it's available on the iPad 3 or later, and on the iPad Mini 2 or later. Simply tap the microphone on the keyboard and your words will turn into text quickly and accurately. On the web, Voice Typing is only available in Google Docs, but on an iPad you can use it in any of the Google apps that allow text input. This is great for kids that need that extra accommodation or even for slow typists. For more ideas on why you should use voice typing, read Kasey Bell's blog post, 7 Reasons You Need to Try Voice Typing. Note that you need a WiFi connection to use Siri Dictation.

Eric touched on this in his blog post on Google Classroom, but one of the major advantages to having a mobile device like an iPad is the ability to shoot photos and videos anywhere and at any time. For me, it is one of the most important apps on your iPad. It means you can do things like collect photos from your entire class in a shared Drive folder. Students can add images that they took to their writing projects and Science reports by adding them to Docs or Slides on the iPad. The camera feature also lets you do photo scavenger hunts or share paper based learning with everyone via a collaborative Slides presentation. Of course, you don't need to take photos if you already have images saved on your Camera Roll. This means you can add a cool design from Adobe Spark Post, an image from PicCollage Kids, or a green screen photo from DoInk, and "app smash" it into your Google app of choice.

If you go to docs.google.com you will have the option to create a Google Doc from one of several pre-made templates. You get things like Science reports, letters, essay outlines, resumes and more. The same is true for Slides and Sheets. However, these options exist on the iPad too. Simply open Docs, Slides or Sheets app on your iPad and tap the red plus button to create a new file. Then tap Choose Template. Here you will find the same selection of templates that you can access on the web. They can be a great way for students to get started quickly on a new project and have the added bonus of being styled with great fonts and images to save you time with the design.

A class set of Google Expedition headsets and smartphones is more expense than many schools can afford. However, did you know you can use Google Expeditions on iPads? Well, you can! If you already have a cart of iPads in your school, you can absolutely take advantage of Google's virtual field trips using the free Expeditions app. The experience is not quite as immersive as you get with a VR headset, but your students can move the iPads around in the air to explore the scenes that you direct them to, (just like they would with the headsets), and all from the teacher's iPad. What's more, a recent update to the Expeditions app added an annotation tool for the teacher to draw on the screen to highlight areas they want students to pay closer attention to.

So, are you feeling inspired yet? Like I said above, these are just some of my favorite tips for using iPads and Google in the classroom. Stay tuned for part 2 of this series where I will dig a little deeper and show you some more ways that you can make the most of using Google on iPads at your school.

Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie)
Digital Learning Consultant, Grant Wood AEA