Apps for Professional Development Twitter App (free) Twitter is one of the most active and beneficial social networks on the web. All educators would be wise to join the conversation. If you haven’t used Twitter yet, I would recommend that you read these excellent blog posts: Google Voice (free) Text and call for free! Skype (free) A beautiful app that allows you to make and receive VOIP calls on your iOS device. HeyTell (free) A fun “walkie-talkie” app for quick voice communication. Consumption Apps FlipBoard (free) A beautiful app that turns your RSS reader (such as Google Reader) into a magazine. Zite (free) Similar to FlipBoard, however instead of just providing a beautiful interface to view content you select, Zite tries to introduce you to new content sources based off of sources you currently read. QR Code Readers Quick-Response codes are the strange black and white boxes that have begun appearing everywhere. Diigo (free) Research Apps: Genius Scan (free)
The Ultimate Guide to Using iPads in the Classroom There is no doubt to anyone who has used an iPad or any tablet for that matter that they show a clear alternative to teaching learning in the classroom beyond laptops, screens and monitors. The iPads simplicity of use and massive range of apps give it a great deal of appeal as a teaching and learning tool and the future looks bright for this trend to continue. Yes it does have a number of shortfalls in some areas - like any early technology so I am going to share some great resources with you that I have come across which highlight the benefits of iPads in the class room and hopefully they will be of use to you. The DEECD located in Victoria Australia has some brilliant resources located at their iPads in the classroom trial website including. The 21 Steps to iPad success which is a document created to assist schools to smoothly implementing their iPads in the classroom, and have provided each school with some support materials. Planning Preparing Implementing Evaluating
40 Wonderfully Creative iPad Apps We all have the capacity to be creative, it’s in our very nature. The iPad is a wonderful tool for creation is almost every sphere you can imagine, from expressing poetry to capturing artistic ideas, from exploring musical invention to manipulating captured light. Whether you consider yourself a creative professional, or are simply a person who loves to dream and imagine, there are hundreds of awesome iPad apps to help you do just that. Exercise your mind, make something new today! Artistic Apps Procreate Procreate touts itself as possibly the most exciting digital painting app on a mobile device, I think it lives up to that claim. It features a great deal of functionality that’s packaged in an effortlessly intuitive interface, it can’t fail to appeal to the artistic among you! Zen Brush Zen Brush is a beautiful way to get involved and make your own art! Rather than being a fully fledged painting app like Procreate or Brushes, the beauty of Zen Brush lies in the simplicity of the concept. djay
My 5 Favorite Tablet PC Tips for Educators With all the growing interest in tablet-based computing in schools, I thought it would be timely to share once again “My 5 Favorite Tablet PC Tips for Educators”. These are simple ways you can use a digital pen to support your teaching – especially in math and science, where diagrammatic discussions are key. I also include a tip at the end for using your existing laptop to take advantage of the power of digital ink… As with anything new, especially education technology you’ve never used before, start with someone simple. The best starting point for learning to use your digital pen is marking up PowerPoint. This feature has been in PowerPoint for years, and you can do it with a mouse – but a pen makes it so much more useful. What’s interesting is that teachers who are doing this have discovered that they make better use of PowerPoint: Because they leave more whitespace so they can draw as they talk, the presentation slows down to the speed of thought.
Technology and Education | Box of Tricks Posted by José Picardo on January 22, 2012 Apple recently announced the launch of its free iBooks Author desktop application, which – they claim – “allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.” This post takes you through my humble first attempt at making my first iBook using iBooks Author. [imagebrowser id=2] First Impressions When Apple announced the new iBooks Author app, my first reaction was to say about time! Using iBooks Author iBooks looks very much like a cross between Pages and Keynote (Apple’s answer to Word and Powerpoint respectively). An important aspect for someone, like me, who has lots of older word documents already saved in my hard drive, is that importing into iBooks author is as easy as dragging a word document into the application. Interactivity Drawbacks José Picardo
50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks An absolute gem of an article by John Brandon and Graham Barlow from MacLife on 30th March over at TechRadar. This is going to become my iPad manual from here on in. Customised iPads for all iPad 2 tips and original iPad tips - get 'em here! iPad 2 review It's also fully capable of running the latest version of Apple's iOS operating system and great apps like iMovie and GarageBand. 1. iOS now supports folders. 2. Double-clicking the Home button shows you all the apps that are running on your iPad in a bar along the bottom of the screen. 3. The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. 4. If you're carrying around sensitive data, you can now enable a feature that'll erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. 5. First, turn on Home Sharing in iTunes (Advanced menu) and on your iPad (Settings > iPod and enter your Apple ID). 6. Have you ever played Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone?
A Few Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology (Cross-posted at TechLearning) Many years ago I helped operate a soup kitchen on San Jose’s (CA) Skid Row. We were well-meaning, but not the most responsible neighbors. On day I was sweeping around the passed-out men and women on our front porch when a police car drove-up. I’ve often thought about that incident during my nineteen year career as a community organizer and six years as a public school teacher. The issue of educational technology is, I believe, no different. In my community organizing career, I learned that a key to engaging people to move beyond their comfort zone is to first build a relationship — a reciprocal one. Based on the conversations I’ve had with many teachers, here are some of the simple ways I’ve introduced using educational technology as tool reluctant colleagues might want to consider — after I’ve developed or deepened relationships with them. 1) Using a Computer Projector. 2) Using a Document Camera. To Make It Easily Viewable By Other Classmates:
How to Edit and Publish a Video with iMovie for iPad - Playing with Media The following steps are included in the “Video” chapter of the forthcoming EPUB eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.” This is an example of “quick-edit” videography, which can compliment “no-edit” videography in support of the “ethic of minimal clicks.” This final video, “Learning About NASA Mission Control in Houston,” is available on YouTube. After recording a series of videos using an iPad, the iMovie app ($4.99) can be used to edit and combine the videos into a single file. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Seventeen steps may seem like a lot, but if you’ve ever edited and published a video using desktop software you’ll recognize this workflow is substantially simpler. iMovie for iPad can be used to support “the ethic of minimal clicks” in classroom technology integration. I challenge you to give it a try!
Call of Duty® Classroom Mosaic www.top-ipad-video-converter.com/100 iPad Tips and Tricks.pdf