WHY? In my school district (Surrey, BC), we are fortunate to have many apps uploaded to our school iPads. However, this can be distracting and overwhelming for young students using iPads. This is especially true when we want our students to use iPads for a specific purpose such as Listening to a Story. In Harnessing the Science of Learning, Nathaniel Swain shares a quote from Lovell (2020) in regard to cognitive load theory and the impact of instruction and environment on student learning. “Teachers harnessing the science of learning work hard to minimize sources of extraneous load in the manner or format of information shared for learning; and to remove sources of distraction in the environment (reduce extraneous load). They also modulate the level of difficulty or complexity of a given task, so that no student is significantly overstretched…” (p.48).
If we want to maximize learning, we must consider how we can minimize distraction for our students.
Organizing iPad apps into folders is one way to do this.
HOW? Start by talking to teachers in primary classes and explain how organizing the iPad apps into folders will make it easier for students to access the apps you plan to use and will also limit distraction, allowing students to focus on Listening to a Story. If teachers are on board, approach the teacher overseeing iPads/Technology at your school and explain why you’d like to organize the iPad apps into folders. It’s great to keep administrators in the loop as well. You’re now ready to begin!
1. Sit down with the teacher overseeing iPads/Technology at your school and choose one iPad as your ‘sample iPad’. Consider the apps you have and begin to think of categories that would make sense. At Hjorth Rd. Elementary, we came up with the following categories for our apps and these became the names of the folders we created: ADST, Audio Visual, Draw & Tell, Literacy, Numeracy, Office, OSMO, Spaces, System, and Translators. We started by simply writing them all down on paper and then organized our ‘sample iPad’ accordingly. Here is what ours looked like (original pencil version on the left so that we could erase and move apps as needed and then typed up on the right!)
Download our typed up version of the “File Folders for iPads” chart so that you can use it as a starting point for your own conversations about app organization. Make sure to adapt the categories for what makes sense with the apps you have on your iPads.
Please note, Tumblebooks does not appear in the App File Folders lists because it is the one app we left outside of the folders since it would be the first app we would introduce to Kindergartners and we wanted it to be very easy for them to find.
HOT TIP: Keep the app folders on one page and the Tumblebooks app on a completely separate page so that students have no problem finding it and to limit distraction!
2. Now that you have a ‘sample iPad’ set up the way you want it, invite teachers to join you in organizing the rest of the iPads. Many hands make light work! At our school, lunch was the most convenient time for the primary teachers, so we just worked at it until it was done ( it took us 6 lunch breaks to organize the 28 iPads in our Upstairs iPad Cart with six of us working on it). We did ask the district tech department to see if they could do the folder/app organization on their end, but they could not. However, it is worth asking if you are in a different district as it will save you time.
When you are ready to start organizing, it is helpful to use a projector so that everyone can see the apps in a specific folder on a large screen. Next, go through each iPad and create that one specific folder with the corresponding apps. Do this for all the iPads in the cart before moving on to the next folder. For example, we started with the “Spaces” folder:
HOT TIP: It is more efficient to start organizing the folders that have the fewest apps as it is easier to scan the various pages of an iPad for a few apps than for many different ones. As you pull apps into folders, there are fewer and fewer apps to look through and eventually all the apps left will go into the last folder…the largest one!
3. Once the apps on all the iPads in the cart are organized, use your ‘sample iPad’ to take screenshots of each folder (like the screenshot shown above of the ‘Spaces’ folder). Use MSWord or another program to create an index of apps. I found it worked well to put six folder screenshots to a page to create a reference sheet for anyone looking for a specific app.
4. You’ll also want to add some basic guidelines for iPad use. At our school, the teachers organizing the iPad apps discussed a few basic guidelines and we included them on the reference sheet. These are the guidelines we felt were important:
*Some iPads have a few additional apps, these have been put in a folder named Oddballs.
*Please train students to leave apps in the folders (instead of pulling them out).
*Please have students ‘clean up’ by closing (swiping up) all used windows before putting the iPads back in the cart.
Thank you!
5. Display the iPad App Folders Reference Sheet where it is easily accessible. In our case, one set of iPads are housed in a cart. We slipped the printed reference sheets into page protectors and used packing tape to tape them on to the top of the cart. We left the open side of the page protector untaped so that we can easily change the reference sheet in the future if needed.
Downstairs, our iPads are housed in bins so that they can be carried out to portables. In order to ensure the iPad App Folder Reference sheet would be easily accessible, we put the sheets in page protectors, on a ring, and hanging on the wall.
Although it does take a while to get the apps organized, it means we have had very few issues with students going onto other apps when they are supposed to be using Tumblebooks to Listen to a Story. In four primary classes, we have had this come up only once all year! In previous years, when it has not been possible to organize the iPad apps, there have been numerous instances of students distracted by the other apps. If we want to maximize learning, we must consider how we can minimize distraction.
It can actually be quite fun to sit around a table with colleagues and organize apps as you chat 🙂 Happy organizing!
