After teaching a few classes with Sphero, I realized I was having trouble deciphering which Spheros we’d used and which Spheros students would need to use in the next class. My problem was that I needed a return system! Hence forth, the ugly AV cart and the green Sphero holders.

Giving Sphero back- Pro Tip 

It’s not much- but it is a lifesaver!

Now, I’ve organized one of my charging carts to hold Spheros 1-10, the other charging cart holds 11- 20 and we have 21-24 at the circulation desk for checkout. (Read more about my mobile Sphero charging stations here.)

The first class that comes in to use the bots will use Spheros 1-12 and when they are done, instead of charging them, I have students place them in the green holders in numerical order. The next block then gets Spheros 13-24 and when they are finished they bring them back to the Sphero return cart (with the matching iPad of course!)

Luckily our groups work in partners, and the class that has been coming in to use Sphero only has class for two blocks a day. I’m not sure what I would do if we needed to use them all day since they only hold a charge for 3 hours!

I love this robot, but sometimes I wish I had a class set of Ollie robots. Ollie doesn’t have the same monogamous relationship to a device like Sphero does. Connecting to Ollie is a breeze since you can just place it right on top of the iPad. Then students could use Ollie with a different iPad everyday or even connect to their own devices!