Dish Drainer iPad Charging Center

We use a dish drainer iPad charging center for our classroom iPads.

When we heard last Spring that we would be getting a set of 4 iPads for our classroom, I started researching the best way to charge them all at the same time.  Up until that point,  when our two ipads needed to be charged, we had just plugged them into a random outlet in the back of our office.  With six ipads to manage, I wanted a more systematic method.  I’d stumbled across a dish drainer charging center on Pinterest, and decided to make my own.  It really wasn’t that challenging.  I bought the largest size which allowed room to place the surge protector at one end. It’s similar, but not identical to this one.

I used velcro strips that I found at the grocery store ( they were next to the zip ties) to channel the wires.  I had initially considered using zip ties,  but I wanted to be able to remove the wires from the charging center if the need arose.

I hadn’t expected to use the silverware basket, but it turned out to be a good place to keep the USB hub that I used to configure the iPads and other miscellaneous wires. (Read about how we configured the iPads using Apple Configurator here. )

I was worried that the iPads wouldn’t fit with their thick Griffin covers,  but they do,  just barely.  Right now we keep the  charging center in our office so that it can be easily locked up. I’m looking forward to discovering whether this system turns out to be as practical as it looks!