Use Reflection to Mirror and Project Your iPad

Teachers often want to project and share their iPad screen with the students in their class. One way to do this is to physically connect the iPad to an LCD projector using the Apple VGA Adapter. The major drawback to this is that your iPad must stay next to the projector. Teachers like to move around the class so this is not a great option. 

Last year, one of the one Oak teachers used an Apple TV ($99) setup to wirelessly "mirror" his iPad and project it onto a screen. This is very expensive and not reasonable for most teachers. 

During the Shrewsbury Summer Institute, presenters from EdTechTeacher used a great program called Reflection that allowed iPad to connect to their Mac laptop using AirPlay. When their laptop was connected to an LCD projector, this image was then able to be projected for all workshop participants to see. One great benefit of this program, other than having the ability to walk around the room with your own iPad, is that you can "mirror" any student iPads onto your laptop as well. For example, imagine you have students use a "whiteboard" app such as Educreations or Show Me to draw food webs. When finished, the students can take turns displaying the food web on their screen and project it for the class. It's very quick to turn on and off which lends to great classroom management. 

Shrewsbury has purchased enough licences for all Sherwood and Oak teachers to download the program onto one school-issued laptop! 


Directions

1. Go to http://sln.shrewsbury.k12.ma.us/node/1157. 

This is an article on the SLN that explains how to download the program and display an iPad onto your laptop screen.

2. Once the program is downloaded, go to http://tinyurl.com/spsreflection. 

This is a Google Form that will dispense the license key when a user enters their initials and hits submit. 

3. Select all the characters and choose "Copy" from the Edit menu.

4. Launch Reflection, paste the license key into the box, and click OK.