With Term 3 starting next week and HBL/virtual tuition/lessons continuing for some of us, the iPad remains the perfect companion for learning, whether you’re working through SLS for school or clocking in some meaningful, educational screen time with the family.
Here are some remote learning hacks and insights from parents, along with some tips on iPad to make the best of learning from home, as well as fun activities and app collections that are bound to spark creativity anywhere, anytime.
Learning at home tips for learners
From multitasking to collaborating, these tips have learners covered.
Tune out the distractions
Need some help staying focused? You can silent your notifications by turning on Do not Disturb.
Take creative notes using iPad
Taking notes with iPad and Apple Pencil opens up more creative ways to capture your ideas and organize your thoughts. Try taking handwritten notes during your next virtual learning /tuition lesson.
Use dictation to capture your thoughts into the Notes app
If your ideas are popping up faster than you can type, try dictating your thoughts into the Notes app instead. You can even add punctuation and formatting with your voice.
Take notes during video lessons using Split View
It can be hard to follow along on a video lesson. To help make it easier to take notes, try using Split View on your iPad with Notes on one side, and your video lecture on the other.
Scan and search documents using your iPhone or iPad
Sure you can take photos of documents, but why not try scanning them instead? It’s easy to scan a document in Notes. When you do, they’re easier to read and you can even later find the notes based on the text inside of the scanned documents.
Use Group FaceTime for group projects
Need to collaborate with your classmates but don’t want to bother setting up a virtual meeting? Just use Group FaceTime to easily connect from your iPad, Mac, or iPhone. You can even add fun effects or use a Memoji to cover up bed head.
Keep organised using Reminders
Try using Reminders to keep track of when assignments are due, and set up alerts to remind you of upcoming deadlines. You can even set up separate lists for different classes or projects and share them with your classmates.
Keep your Apple products clean
It’s important to keep your most-touched surfaces clean, and this includes your Apple products. Fortunately, it’s easy and simple to do. Check out these tips for keeping your screens and keyboards clean.
Remote learning hacks from parents
Jamie Yeo, Media Personality/Founder, Lula J Jewelry
- My oldest, who is 10, is a master at iPad. She uses it for her school’s home-based learning, and tuition classes. Recently, she taught my 71 yr old dad, who’s a tutor, how to Zoom on iPad so he can teach his students over Zoom. It was very sweet to hear her telling my dad that “It’s so easy to share screen!”
- Kids should be independent and HBL shouldn’t mean more work for parents. That’s why the iPad has been such an enormous help.
Elizabeth Wu, Cofounder and COO, Trehaus
- Quiet corners are a must. If learning is in progress, everyone in the house tries to minimise our movements and noise level as well. Also important to ensure working headphones/ earpieces and microphones. Different remote learning sessions require different apps. My kids use Zoom, ClassIn, SLS, and Google Meet so we always ensure the apps are working well. Usually, we test them out and navigate each app together. My husband and I standby as their IT tech support for the first time they use each app.
- I am quite particular about their studying and learning space to be clutter-free as I believe it helps reduce anxiety and helps with setting the mood for learning. The kids are reminded to get their stationery, files, notes, and books ready and within reach while they prepare for their screen sessions. One advantage of using iPad is that they can screenshot and revisit if they have questions or wish to revisit their learnings.
Creative Learning from home
Free resources are available on Apple’s Learning from Home website. For parents specifically, we have easy-to-use guides to organise iPad for learning, using Screen Time, creating a compelling story, as well as guides with creative activities and getting started with coding.
