Whetting your APPetite Vol. 11: Reflection of Happiness

For those of you who can't afford the $99 for an AppleTV (and possibly the extra $179 for the AirPort Extreme it would require to bypass your local network), here's a $15 way to get your iPads mirrored wirelessly to your computer. That's right, wirelessly to your computer!  If you're like me and have been struggling to find a seamless way to show kids how to use new apps, iOS features, or screencast iPad demos for colleagues, friends or pupils, now it's as simple a swipe, tap, mirror.

Meet Reflection App for Mac. My friend and fellow tech adventurer, Chad Kafka spread the word about this and I've been obsessed ever since. So big thanks to Chad for sharing!

So far I've used it to share student work on my interactive whiteboard, mirror and display videos students have created using apps like Educreations or Toontastic, and create screencasts using QuickTime to teach my kids how to navigate new iOS features.

One surprising feature I've discovered is that when we wirelessly mirror through this app, videos are opened through my computer's QuickTime Player... and as a result are downloadable. Now I can get videos off of any of my students' iPads as they display them for the class.

The developer is super helpful and responsive. He's currently offerring the App at $14.99 per Mac (note: this app runs on your Mac - NOT your iPad... so it only needs to be purchased ONCE per classroom - no VPP required), or under $10 if you're purchasing 5 or more. He seems to suggest deeper discounts if you are buying in even larger bulk (say, for an entire building of classrooms).

Although I think the Apple TV will ultimately be the way to go - especially once the new Mac Mountain Lion OS is released and allows for AirPlay mirroring of your computer - this is a great route for those who can't afford the AppleTV or can't make it work with their wireless constraints. And if you can afford both, I say get this too... the ability to screencast my iPad and quickly download video off of any iPad has been incredibly helpful.

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