Getting Ready for Listening to Reading

Well!

I honestly don't know what was going through my head when I thought "hey, a bunch of iPods to snap QR codes will make my Listening Centre TOP NOTCH"

Seriously? I managed the 30 Kindergarten iPads for the last 2 years. Did I ever have a tech day to update the iPads that went swimmingly? No. Not once. I should have remembered that.

For some reason I thought iPhones/Pods would be easy. There's only six of them... WRONG-O.

Silly girl.

So I have 3 old iPhone 4s, 3 iPhone 5s... I charged them, reset them back to factory settings, and was totes ready to reset and sync them all up together. And that's where the problems started.

FYI iPhones need SIM cards to set them up, even if you're not going to use them as phones. And make sure your phones aren't locked to a network (my 6 phones are locked to 3 different networks... excellent). So today I ran to Officeworks and purchased SIMs for 3 different networks (and they didn't come with nanoSIMs for the 5s... kill me).

STEP 1: Download Apple Configurator 2

At school I've only worked with the original version of Configurator... this is my first stab at the new one... it looks different! I'm sure I'll figure it out though.

I plugged my first phone in and got it set up (finally, yay!) but it's a super old iPhone 4, so the software is out of date, and Configurator only works with iOS 7 or later. It's so out of date that the little angel couldn't even link up to WiFi to download the new iOS... gah!! It's currently still plugged in, 3 hours later still downloading and installing the new iOS through Configurator. It's way past my bed time.

STEP 2: Create a Backup

I need a main phone. That will be my go-to for changes, setting up profiles and app settings that I can then push out onto each iPhone. My plan is to have every app except for Settings in one app folder on the Home screen (even though the phones won't be optional as phones, I don't want the kids to be tempted to open the call or message apps which can't be deleted), then download the QR Reader and position that right down the bottom of the screen above the Home button.

Everything is looking kind of strange in Configurator 2... I think I'll be making a blueprint to put on all the profiles?? That's all new.

Step 3: Plug In All Other iPhones and Sync

I purchased a 7-port USB hub so that if I need to, all my iPhones can be plugged in at the same time. This will come in especially handy for syncing the phones.

At this stage I don't have 6 cords for the 6 phones... that's next on my shopping list. Good forward planning ;)

Step 4: Snap QR Codes and Away We Go!

'Cos it's that easy, right?

Ha, unlikely... but that's the plan. I bought some super cute phone cases to protect and identify each iPhone. Each one will be named the character name so if a student tells me that Pikachu was playing up, I know exactly which phone I need to check out. Plus it's cute, and I love me a bit of cute!

How adorable are they? Stitch is my favourite.

Well, that's all from me... probably until all the phones are up and running. I'll tell you more about it then.

Until next time,