After returning to my classroom from a glorious summer break, I was very excited to see a classroom set of iPads in my room. I had applied for a grant in the spring of the previous year, and so I knew I was receiving the iPads; however, finally seeing the small, but powerful devices made me giddy with excitement. I knew I would need to set them all up, and so I quickly began gathering information on how to set up my iPads.
Because I was setting up the iPads for my classroom, I had to do many extra steps that involved setting up extra e-mail accounts, understanding Apple's Volume Voucher Program, and downloading or syncing the apps to the actual iPads. I found the process of setting up a classroom set of iPads quite tedious and cumbersome. I hope that the following tips will help alleviate some stress of setting up a classroom set of iPads.
I learned that if you are setting up iPads for your school, your school must create an administrator e-mail account. Additionally, each teacher that has iPads in their classrooms need to set up three additional e-mail accounts. Apple suggests creating generic e-mail accounts (for example itunesfamily&consumerscience@...), so if teachers leave the next teacher can easily access the needed accounts.
The first e-mail you need to create is a Program Manager e-mail account. You will also want to go to http://apple.com/itunes/education and enroll to become a Program Manager. This will take a few days because Apple verifies that you are associated with the correct school.
While you are waiting for Apple to verify your Program Manager Enrollment, you can do the following:
- Create another e-mail account that will serve as your Purchase Facililtator e-mail account.
- Create a third e-mail address that will serve as your means to download the apps.
- Get the itunes store unblocked from your school's server, as you need itunes to download the apps to the iPads.
- Download itunes on your computer. (If you already have an itunes account on the computer you will use to sync the ipads, I believe there are some additional steps you need to take.)
- Set up an Apple ID without a credit card. Click on the following website for directions. (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534) Use the third e-mail account you created for this Apple ID.
Once Apple verifies your Program Manager Enrollment, they will send you an e-mail telling you how to set up your Program Facilitator Account. You are now ready to use your Program Facilitator Apple ID (e-mail) to sign in to the Volume Voucher Store. After you sign in, then you will need to redeem your voucher. You will scratch off the back to find your code to enter. Now you can purchase apps. (Note: You can only get the educational discount if you purchase 20 of the same app. You must purchase one app for each iPad.)
After you purchase the apps, you will be sent an e-mail with the codes. To download the codes to your itunes account, you will need to go to the app store in itunes. Click on the link that says to "Redeem Codes." You will enter the codes and then you can sync your iPads with the apps.
This process took me three weeks. I found it somewhat confusing. Hopefully this information gives you an overview of what to expect when setting up your classroom sets of iPads.
