Connecting the iPad to my Projector

I have never been the 'techy' kind of person...until I bought and iPad on a whim!  Yes, I was a complete sucker for the Black Friday ads and convinced my husband to let me get an iPad!  I sold it to him by saying I would use it for school - yet I had no idea the world of possibilities that awaited me in the world of 2.0 education. 

My first challenge with my iPad was figuring out how to hook it up to my projector in my room.  I soon found out that just a small screen was not going to cut it when trying to show things to my kiddos so I had to hook it up to some sort of projection device in order to make it work.  So this started me on my treck to figure out what works...and more offten than not - what does not work.

I found the Doceri app and I LOVE IT!  It allows me to control my laptop on my iPad or to directly show what is on my iPad in the doceri app onto the computer screen.  The downfall was that I couldn't show any other of my neat apps that I found, I could only show what was in the Doceri program. 

My next challenge was to connect my desktop to the iPad via Doceri - I figured it was at least a stepping stone compared to not using the iPad at all.  Well...the initial few tries was a fail.  But what I did figure out is how to finally do it. 

First - I had to get my desktop wireless!  This is fairly easy, all you need is a Wireless USB Adapter (roughly $40) Then your desktop and your iPad need to be on the same wireless network that does not have a ridiculous amount of firewalls that prevent the ability to control another device.  Then you need to download AirServer on your desktop.  (teachers -$11.99, others - $14.99)  Click here to download.  This license will allow you to put AirServer on multiple devices.  I used my licenses on my laptop at home, my desktop and I have an extra if needed somewhere else.  You do not need to put it on your iPad - it comes in already installed. 

Once AirServer is installed on your desktop (make sure it is on - you should see the icon in your bottom toolbar).  Double click the home button on your iPad and scroll all the way to the left. 

Click on your computer and turn mirroring on.  You should see what is on your iPad on the computer screen now.

If you are doing this at school and your desktop is hooked up to your projector - turn your projector on and WAH BAM!  It WORKS!!!!  You should be as excited as I was :) 

Since I have hooked up my iPad I have used Doceri multiple times with my classes for going through PowerPoints and showed them a lot of apps.  I have really lucked out because I teach Anatomy and Physiology and there are TONS of apps out there for the medical field.  It is very cool to show my kids CT scans, XRays and abrasions that I would otherwise have more difficulty either interpreting (most have descriptions to use) or showing them the content.  I also use it with my freshmen Physical Science to look at the elements on the periodic table, building atoms and showing the basics physics concepts. 

The bottom line - I may have been a sucker for good marketing when buying my iPad, but my kids have reaped the benefits of what it has to offer in the classroom.