How to use an older Apple TV in the category
Apple TV is a powerful educational tool
An older Apple TV is a powerful tool for education. You can use it to access media from multiple sources. Teachers and students can also view their own content directly from iPhones and iPads. This means it’s a good platform for presentations, tutorials and more. Here’s what you need to know to set up an older (v.2 or v.3) Apple TV for classroom use.
Oh, what do you need?
A v.2 or v.3 Apple TV
A Wi-Fi network
An audio or video cable
A monitor or projector
Optional : A SMART board, an HDMI to VGA adapter.
Setting the scene
Education is going digital. Tech companies offer all kinds of education-related features, like iTunes U. When you find an Apple TV, you’ll usually find it set up to show material from students and teachers iPads and Macs on a big screen that the whole class can watch. classroom, allowing teachers to share what they want to teach.
First step: After you connect your Apple TV to your TV or projector and to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll need to give it a unique name. You do this in Settings > AirPlay > Apple TV Name and select Custom … at the bottom of the list.
Copy using AirPlay
Apple’s AirPlay is one of the easiest ways available to get information from a device to the big screen. Teachers use it to explain how to use the software, share reference material, or share class notes with students. Students can use it to share multimedia, animations, or project files.
Full instructions for using AirPlay with Apple TV are available here but provided all iOS devices are on the same network, once you have the media you want to share you should be able to swipe up from the bottom part of the iOS Center screen, tap the AirPlay button and select the correct Apple TV you want to use for sharing.
What is the appearance of the meeting room?
Meeting Room View is an optional setting on Apple TV. When enabled on
ad
Settings> AirPlay> Display Room Display , the system will show you all the information you need to connect using AirPlay on a third of the screen. The rest of the screen will be taken up by the images you may have available as a screen saver or by an image you may have set.
Adjust Apple TV settings
There are some default Apple TV settings that are great at home, but not at all useful in the classroom. If you plan to use an Apple TV in the classroom, you should be sure to change these settings as follows:
How many channels?
How many channels do you need in the classroom? You probably don’t need too many of these – you can use YouTube to find some videos to use in class, but you’re unlikely to use HBO. To get rid of channels you don’t want to use in class, visit Settings > Main Menu and manually scroll through the list of channels where you can change each one from Show to Hide.
Delete unwanted app icons
You can also delete almost any channel icon.
To do so, grab the silver gray Apple Remote and select the icon you want to delete.
Once selected, you will need to press and hold the large center button until the image on the page starts to vibrate. When this happens, you can delete the icon by pressing the Play / Pause button and choosing to hide this item in the menu that appears.
Rearrange icons
You can also use the Apple Remote to rearrange the icons visible on the Apple TV home screen. Once again you have to select the icon you want to move and then press and hold the big key until the icon emits. Now you can move the icon to the appropriate position on the screen using the arrow buttons on the remote control.
Get rid of the art of film
Older Apple TV devices may display artwork as a screensaver. This isn’t great if you’re managing kids in a classroom as they can get distracted from the topic at hand. You can avoid this distraction from Settings > General > Restrictions. You will be prompted to enable restrictions and choose a password. You should then set the
the Buy & Lease to “Hide” .
Use Flickr
While you can use iCloud to share pictures on Apple TV, I wouldn’t recommend it, as it’s very easy to accidentally share your own personal pictures there. It makes a lot more sense to create a Flickr account.
After creating your Flickr account, you can create an album of images for use through Apple TV. You can add and delete images from this account and set the image library as the screensaver for the decoder in
ad
Settings > Screensaver , as long as Flickr remains active on the Home screen. You can also adjust transitions and schedule how long each image appears on the screen in these settings.
Now you’ll be able to use these shared project files, text-based images about topics, class-based information, timelines, and even presentations saved as individual images. There are lots of ideas on ways to leverage this here.
Type better
If you plan to type on Apple TV, you’ll need to use a third-party keyboard or the Remote app on an iOS device. If you want to use the iOS app, you’ll need to turn on Home Sharing on your Apple TV. You will also need to assign Remote in Settings > General > Settings > Remote App. Instructions for using a third-party keyboard are available here.
Do you use an Apple TV in the classroom? How do you use it and what tip do you want to share? Drop me a line on Twitter and let me know.
