Using Fronter on an iPad

My school uses Fronter as our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and whilst IOS devices have always been able to display content held in Fronter, they have never been able to download files (such as PowerPoints, Word documents etc). That is until today! OK, you might have been able to do this for a while but I just discovered it today.

We have been having a few "issues" regarding our Managed Learning Environment (MLE)/VLE integration and today, our Director of E-Learning sent me a link to a way of accessing Fronter without having to go through the MLE part first. I was asked to try it with some students and though I would give it a go with the iPad (logging in through the MLE was always a torturous affair, always slow and often unsuccessful) so anything would probably be an improvement. So, I logged in. Whilst in Fronter, I thought I would look up a document and one thing led to another and a minute or too later, I had a spreadsheet downloaded and open in Numbers. Result!

So how do we download from Fronter?

1. Log into Fronter and go to the room the file is in.

2. Click and hold on the link to the file you want to download.

3. A dialogue box opens up, select Open in a New Page.

4. The document will open and you can click open in.... In the right hand corner.

5. Your document will open in the appropriate app.

And that is that, now all we need to be able to do is send files to Fronter.

I'm not sure whether this is a new feature in Fronter 10, OS4.2 or I just missed it previously but it does mean one less excuse not to consider iPads for use in the classroom.


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