Managing the iPads

We received our iPads and syncing carts near the middle of August.  While the preference would have been to take them right from the box to the classroom, that was not a possibility if we wanted to do this successfully.  Each iPad (yes, all 96 of them) needed to be registered, named, updated, and synced in order to make them "user ready".  Below lies the process. As you can well imagine, it took more than a minute to get through all of them!

Step 1: After connecting the iPad to the Macbook iTunes launched automatically.  A 'welcome' screen appears.  Click "Continue" to register.

Step 2:  Next you'll be asked to read the "Terms of Agreement" novel.  Accept the terms by placing a check in the box and click "Continue".

Step 3: The next screen will ask you to identify yourself based on your Apple I.D.  I set up a school account at our first training session.  Click "continue".

Step 4:  Now it's time to register your new iPad.  Because this is a school account that I won't be accessing on a regular basis I unchecked the request to receive emails from Apple.

Step 5:  There is a "must have" app that comes up next:  "Find My iPad".  This app is tied into your iTunes account.  If you happen to misplace an iPad or it is stolen you can use this application to lock or erase your iPad remotely.  It also uses the GPS signal to locate the iPad on a map.  I have personally known two people that have used this app on their iPhones to locate them (both, ironically were left in cabs and later retrieved).  On the flip side, I know someone that thought they had the feature but did not, losing their stolen phone.  While not required, it's certainly highly recommended.

Step 6:  Now it's time to set up your iPad.  Here you have two options the first time you connect:  set up as new, and restore from a previous account.  I chose to set each iPad up individually as a new iPad.  When I tried to set them up from the restore feature it changed the name of my iPad to that account name and had to be changed back.  Click "continue".  

Step 7:  This step allows you to name your iPad.  We have 3 sync carts.  Each iPad is named based on its location:  A-1, B-1, C-1, etc.  As a personal choice, I unchecked "automatically sync songs".  I kept "automatically sync apps" checked.

Step 8: You'll be prompted to create a password in order to access a backup file that is created each time you sync.  This will come in handy if you ever need to restore from a back up.  I chose to keep the same password that I have for my school Apple ID account to make it easier to manage.

Step 9: Now that your password for backup has been entered any apps you have installed on the MacBook are synced to the iPad.

Step 10: One part of this process that surprised me was that iTunes University videos did not sync automatically.   I picked up the icon for the iTunes U app (or in our specific case Little Kids Rock) and dragged the icon on top of the iPad icon within iTunes.  It then appears as "iTunes U" under the device subheadings.

Step 11: Once all the apps and videos were synced to the iPad I clicked on the name of the iPad under the "Devices".  This allows you to see a summary of all the information associated with your device, including whether the software is up to date.

Step 12: If you look at the picture for step 11 you'll see that there is an updated version of iPad software available.  Click on "update", then "continue" to launch the software update.

And that's it!!  In our case....only 95 more iPads to go.