As I mentioned in my previous post, I intend to use my iPad to do as much of my work as possible and that includes setting up and producing this blog. I am using Blogspot for the blog as (a) its free and (b) I use Google Docs a lot so it made sense to stick with a Google service so I needed to find an app that would work with Blogspot. Step forward Blogpress, £1.79 from the app store, 2 minutes to set up and we're off! Having set up a Blogspot account, chosen my blog name and layout (all done on the iPad), it was now time to make a graphic for my header. Next, I used Photopad to crop the header to the size I wanted and again it was saved to photos. Now I cheated and used my Mac to access the header graphic from Dropbox and upload it to Blogspot to set as my header. This particular post was created entirely on an iPad including the graphic showing the apps I used. So there we go, my first piece of blogging done completely on an iPad.
iPad Apps for Education Add As the first real contender in the category of streamlined computing tablets, the iPad has captured its share of hype. The iPad’s potential remains undeniable, particularly in education. Education is discovery, education is interaction, and education is exploration. These are all activities facilitated by the iPad. I believe that the ultimate goal of the iPad (and its future ilk) is to be so intuitive that the user will forget they are interacting with a piece of technology. The iPad (or any technology) will not replace live instruction, as some have suggested, anytime soon. Few barriers stand between my vision for the classroom of tomorrow and the iPad concept as it stands today. For a more concrete sense of what the iPad can do, I’ve made my picks for the best existing iPad apps for education, and provided examples of where I hope developers take their apps in the near future. Top 3 Education Apps of Today 1. 3D Cell Simulation and Stain Tool 2. Star Walk Screenshot 3. 2. iSalieri 3.
Becta Science Resources In recent years, the ASE has worked closely with Becta to support the effective use of ICT in learning and teaching science. Many of the following resources were produced by ASE for Becta. The Becta website closed on January 31, 2011. On this page you can find a selection of science education resources from the Becta website. Hard To Teach (2008) - Ideas for teaching difficult science topics using ICT Case studies written by outstanding practitioners in the use of ICT in science teaching. Science Symbols in Different Languages (1985) Additional Resources These materials have been provided on a non-exclusive basis under the new Open Government License and the UK Government Licensing Framework to enable and encourage the free use of government information covered by Crown copyright and database rights.
Khan Academy Seven Videos All Educators Should Watch - StumbleUpon Summer is a time when many of us are thinking about and planning professional development workshops for our schools and for other schools. I've always found that a short 3-5 minute video can be a good introduction to a PD sessions and or make for a nice thought-provoking break during a PD session. Here are seven videos that I think serve those purposes well. The "classic" of course is the various incarnations of Karl Fisch's and Scott McLeod's Did You Know? Educational Change Challenge is a video that I came across just last week on the first day of ISTE 2010. Here's another "classic" in the field. Social Media Revolution is a must-watch for all of those who think social media is nothing more than a time-sink. And when you're wondering what teachers make, Taylor Mali has some answers for you. Here's a good one produced by Kevin Honeycutt about the need for teachers to continuously improve, adapt, and adopt new strategies for reaching their students.
Working laterally: how innovation networks make an education epidemic Helping students to learn better is on everybody’s agenda, and there are many different views about how this is best achieved. It argues that knowledge about good teaching practice will only spread around the system quickly by schools and teachers linking together into "innovation networks" - run by teachers for teachers as a shared professional resource over which all have ownership. Visit the Innovation Unit website The challenge of transformationWhy innovation networks? 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! With great new features like two video cameras, a faster processor and a thinner design, the iPad 2 is the world's best tablet device. 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. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Teacher Resources and Classroom Games :: Teach This Becta Schools - Curriculum - Science - Using SMART Notebook to understand chemical reactions Summary Becta and the Association for Science Education (ASE) have been working together to investigate how ICT can be used to address hard to teach topics in science. This project produced over 25 case studies on using ICT tools, such as animation software, podcasting and datalogging to enhance teaching and learning. Particles and their behaviour are a hard-to-teach component of chemistry, not least because these are difficult concepts to visualise. Organisational information Name: Chris MasonOrganisation: Salendine Nook High School Technology CollegeAddress: New Hey Road, Salendine Nook, Huddersfield, W. The project arose out of a conference in 2008. Salendine Nook is a much larger than average school and has been a specialist technology college since 1997. Project overview The science department uses SMART Notebooks to cover most modules in Key Stages 3 and 4. The Notebooks are uploaded to the school's learning platform so that: What were the aims and objectives of the project? Conclusion
The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials The Apple iPad is an amazing tablet, and to help you get the most out of it, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of every tip, trick, and tutorial for you. Read on for more. Note: This article was originally published earlier this year, but we’ve updated it with a real lot more content since then, so we’re republishing it for you. We’ll be keeping this page updated as we find more great articles, so you should bookmark this page for future reference. How to Maximize Your iPad’s Battery Life So you got yourself a shiny new Apple device, but you’re so addicted that the battery is running out way too soon—what you need is a couple of tips to keep your battery running for as long as possible, and we’ve got them here. How to Maximize Battery Life on Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch How to Lock the Screen on Your iPad with iOS 4.x How to Lock the Screen Orientation on Your iPad (with iOS 4.2) How to Pause an iPad App Install How to Force Reboot and Quit Apps Multitasking on the iPad iPadPeek
Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction The Pew Research Center released new data this week on Americans' text-messaging habits. According to Pew, 83 percent of American adults now own cell phones and almost three-quarters (73 percent) send and receive text messages. The research only looks at adults' usage of text-messaging, but it does find that younger adults are much more active texters than older age groups. Cellphone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages a day -- that's more than 3200 messages per month. The Pew study doesn't look at the texting habits of those under age 18, but a study released last year by Nielsen found that those cellphone users in the 13 to 17 age range were the most avid texters among any age group. Certainly that age group -- in fact, all those under 18 -- are increasingly likely to be cellphone owners. With the ubiquity of cellphones, many schools are facing questions about what to do when students bring cellphones to school.
Education Eye - Mapping Innovations About Education Eye Futurelab's Education Eye brings you a wide range of exciting, relevant and useful innovations which are selected from the best of the web and updated daily. The Eye provides a way to discover, explore and share new ideas. It maps hundreds of the top educational websites, blogs, forums and practitioner case studies. With additional features like saving your own favourite innovations, Futurelab's favourites, customisable email digests, and a widget version, it is invaluable. Visit the links below to find out more about Education Eye: Many thanks to Becta and Futurelab's design and development team for supporting and working hard on the Eye. Tour of features The Education Eye key features include A searchable, browsable space which leads you to discover new and exciting innovations tailored to the education industry and brought together in one easy-to-use location. Try the 'More like this' suggestions to discover similar innovations that you will likely find interesting.
10 Revolutionary iPad Apps to Help Autistic Children | Gadgets DNA Teachers and doctors are using iPads as a tool to reach out to children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome and the results are remarkably great. Autistic children are showing tremendous improvement after playing fun-filled exercises on iPad which is less stressful and more fun for both the teachers and the students. Below is the list of 10 best iPad applications to give Autism a voice. Photo Credit: Kelly Nikolaisen Those who don’t know, Autism is a lifelong disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to other people and the world around them. Proloquo2Go – A must have app that provides you with a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for autistic children who have difficulty speaking. It contains text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary and much more. You can easily customize the app by using picture and photo vocabulary of your choice. “A must have if your child has autism!