How to Diplay Your iPad on the Promethean Board for $12 or Less

If you have an iPad, you know that it has so many cool features that you'd like to share with your kids, but sometimes getting your iPad to display on your Promethean board is a pain.

Before this summer, I only knew of two ways to show your iPad on your Promethean:

1. Purchase an outrageously-priced and stupidly-short dongle... and be tethered in one spot whenever you use it
2. Shell out $100 for Apple TV.

I am excited thrilled doing happy dances about an alternative I was shown this summer; it's called AirServer.

AirServer basically works just like Apple TV... but it is $12.

TWELVE DOLLARS! 

And you can actually get it for less than that if you buy more than one copy at a time. :)

You must have iPad 2nd generation or newer -- including retina and mini models, iPhone 4s or newer, or iPod Touch 5th generation or newer for this to work. You also have to have iOS 4.3 or newer, but if you have one of the devices mentioned above, you probably also have the updated software.

You can check out the features on this page of the AirServer website, but here they are, in a nutshell:

• Download the AirServer software to your computer. There is nothing to download on your iPad. Connect it to your iThing with AirPlay. Your iThing screen shows on your computer screen. {Of course, if your computer is connected to your Promethean, your iThing screen will show there, too}
• Any person in the room who has a compatible device can join the display. If multiple people join, AirServer will shrink the displayed screens so everyone is displayed simultaneously.
• Choose to enable a password for your AirServer so that no one without the password can display their screen. {Toggle the password off and on as you please.}
• This is 100% wireless, so you can move freely around the classroom with your iThing without losing connection.

If you have AirServer, you have the ability to roam the room while you teach from your iPad without being tethered to your Promethean. You could display a whiteboard or brainstorming app and then pass the device around the room to let every student contribute to it...without getting out of their seat.

This was LIFE CHANGING for my students and me!

The educational pricing is anywhere from $8.00-$12.00. I actually purchased two copies of the software -- one for my MacBook at home and one for my school laptop, which is a PC. {I planned on presenting with my laptop later in the summer, so I wanted to have the software on both screens.} I was able to purchase both software access codes for $20, which obviously brought the price down to $10/each. I'm not sure how many copies you have to purchase at once to get that $8.00 pricing, but I do know it is more than 4.

When you purchase, you immediately get the access code(s), which you type in to the AirServer website to verify that you did, indeed, purchase a copy. The entire set up process took less than 10 minutes!