iPads and Printing to (gasp!) PAPER!

I have a stock answer to the question, "What about printing? If we get iPads for our students, how do we print their work?"
That answer is, "Why?" And I truly mean it! Why do we want to print all the time? It's costly, it wastes resources, and it wastes time. Meaningful work by our students can be saved, edited, transported via pdf files wirelessly through all types of ways and shared with the teacher and other students - with the world when we want to have that audience.
For instance - we can use Quickoffice Pro HD or Google Docs or DropBox or Box or a lot of other applications to exchange files in the cloud. We can e-mail pdf or jpg files to teachers, who can mark papers using apps like Type on PDF or DocAS to use the digital markers and write all over them, then send them back to the student. Blackboard and Moodle have apps that allow students to still use those platforms for class - and there are many others as well.
Or, we can encourage creativity and have students demonstrate their understanding of content using the iWork suite and sharing their work to the cloud. How about VoiceThread? iMovie? Poplet? ScreenChomp or ShowMe? Blogging? Sharing with Idea Flight? Creating an online ePortfolio that follows them throughout their school careers? I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Creating virtual paper/pencil assignments might be convenient, but the real power behind the iPad lies in the creativity, in the ability to differentiate for all students and all learners. Giving flight to the ideas and abilities of all our kids is what education ought to be about!
So, when you ask me about printing from your iPad, I will always first ask you, "Why?" And then I will likely recommend that you either need new printers or a program called Printopia that will let your iPad talk to your Mac, which can handle the given print job.
Or, you might visit this wonderful blog article, written by Apple Distinguished Educator Andy Brovey, Ed.D.: http://ipadacademy.com/2012/03/how-to-print-from-your-ipad-summary-of-printer-and-printing-options
It's a great article and outlines all your possible printing options that are available at this point in time. You might add Andy to your list of bloggers to follow while you're at it.
:) Linda