ArtSet - Great for building confidence in young artists
ArtSet was an impressive app that I was introduced to last week. I was presenting at a conference and one of the organisers asked if a number of the presenters could go through a workflow to illustrate how a series of apps might be able to be used to deepen student learning. The idea was the the product of one app would become the input for the next. The story of The Lion and the Mouse was suggested as an idea. Each presenter was given three minutes only. There was a cross section of both primary and secondary teachers in the group.
I was lucky to be the first person and simply did a demonstration of drawing a lion using Artset. The next person then took the image and put it into WordFoto using words students might use to describe a lion. This could be easily developed further into a language lesson. Then they used Comic Touch to illustrate the Lion's thoughts and feelings.
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The third presenter used VoiceThread to collect images and then re-order them to tell the story of the Lion and the Mouse. He even recorded a voiceover for his version of the story. This was great for students to illustrate their understanding of the concepts of the story.
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The next presenter used Doodle Buddy and the My Story to have the students tell the story with their own images and then insert them into a digital book and add the text to the story. The second last presenter used Popplet to brainstorm all the areas they would need to research if they were going to investigate lions. This included habitat, environment, what they ate, how they lived and what their social structure was. Finally, we had Puppet Pals with the presenter's image and one of the student's drawings as puppets re enacting the story of his encounter with a lion.
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IWB, Mirroring Apps or Apple TV? Big iPad Decisions
There has been a great discussion forum within our school system about iPads, Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and sharing student's work. It started with a question from a teacher just wanting to connect their iPad to the IWB. What followed has been a great discussion about classroom practice and workflows.
We have all spent time and energy creating resources for our IWB but is it time we move to new technology. We can in fact connect our iPads to an IWB via the VGA Adaptor but would you choose to if you had other options.
What we need to do is have a wider conversation around the way we want to interact with our students and how we have them share with others what they are doing on their devices.
There are many tools out there that give us this functionality. Tools like AirServer and Reflector are good for this because they create a link to a laptop that you have connected to your projector and therefore the iPad is shared with a group of people. For many people this is a great solution. For appropriately $15.00 you have a good way to share your iPad and maintain all its interactivity.
There are many tools out there that give us this functionality. Tools like AirServer and Reflector are good for this because they create a link to a laptop that you have connected to your projector and therefore the iPad is shared with a group of people. For many people this is a great solution. For appropriately $15.00 you have a good way to share your iPad and maintain all its interactivity.I originally preferred AirServer. It was difficult to get it working within our closed network but once it was, it was a great way to present, giving you the option to walk around the room just as you would normally in a class. I have had a few connectivity problems with AirServer lately and so have switched over to Reflector.
BUT....
Is Apple TV the better way to go. As IWBs are getting to the end of their lifecycle and school executives are starting to look at replacement costs the IWB struggles to compete with a 55 inch HD TV and Apple TV. Schools can buy a 55 inch TV for under a $1000 and Apple TV for $99. If you were buying 8 or 10 I guarantee you would get the Televisions even cheaper. Compare this to a IWB and a new data projector and you are looking at closer to $3000. Three for the price of one is hard to ignore in this current economic climate.
The IWB can not compete with the performance, the ease of use or the ability for one students to pop their work up on the TV before another one does and another, all without getting out of their seats. So how do the options for Projecting on a TV compare? Tony Vincent developed a great poster and published it on his blog Learning in Hand. It was reimxed by Seth Hansen last month and republished at Edudemic. It is well worth a look. The link is here
I know people have limited resources and are often looking for immediate and simple workaround but we do need to start the conversation with our school community about how we see the proliferation of iPads being taken to the next level. The ease by which people can mirror their iPads is one of those seamless examples of best practice and invisible technology - getting out of the way of good educational outcomes and student centred workflows.
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Skitch Primary Poster
This is the second in a series of posters for supporting Primary students in an iPad environment. I love Skitch as a tool for my students to show me what they have learnt. I know a lot of the students navigate freely within the touch and swipe environment but this is for those little ones who might forget what some of the buttons do.
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iPad Poster for Primary School
It has become increasing clear that many primary or elementary schools are moving into the touch and swipe environment in a big way. This is sometimes part of a system wide decision but many times this decision has been made at the local level in consultation with the parents. In order for this move to be successful we need to ensure that the students have their learning scaffolded in much the same way that we have always done. Introducing iPads into the classroom is not an alternative to good teaching but rather it is another tool that good teachers use. This poster is one that might be used at the very beginning of a iPad program to help the students in their first few days with their devices.
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New Google App Search Feature
A friend of mine @miss_martins tweeted a great find today on Google. It is a search feature just for apps. Type in any subject or category and let Google bring the apps to you. This is a great new feature from Google.
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Video inside your Google Drive App
I am lucky enough to be attending a Google Apps Summit today in Sydney, Australia. Whilst I have seen heaps of very cool tips, tricks and new features for apps one of the most impressive for me was the ability to Video from within your iOS Google Drive app. We all know that some of the Google products do not have full functionality on the iPads, yet. The new features being enabled does seem to happen regularly - sometimes daily.This new feature of Google Drive (well new to me anyway) is one that I can see having a huge benefit within the classroom.
1. The students simply open their Google Drive app go to the + icon in the top right hand corner.
2. Select Use Camera. This opens a small window in the top right hand corner of the screen and you can take photos or video. As you can see you even have the option to upload existing ones.
3. The photo or video is taken and then you are given the opportunity to use it or not. if you chose Use it, it is automatically saved to your My Drive. Look for your little Google Movie Icon to appear in your my drive. This is a great way to move video onto and off the iPad.
I love this! I can't wait to get this into the hands of a group of kids to see what other ways we can this feature.
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Collaborative App Guide for the Classroom - Monique Dalli (Guest Blogger)
I came across a tweet about iPad apps yesterday from @1moniqued and was impressed with a Google Doc she had started. I thought it might be something that we could crowd source further. I am going to hand over to Monique now so she can explain her concept.
Guest Post from Monique Dalli
As a "self-confessed-geeky-teacher" (aka edu-nerd) I play video games, I own multiple devices (of which I have issues with separation anxiety, but that's normal right?), I download loads of cool apps on these devices and occasionally, I find a way of connecting these to my classroom content giving me not only an excuse to "play" in the classroom, but to excite my learners and connect the syllabus to stuff they enjoy.
The first issue I had however was that I wanted more excuses to do this. I wanted to know MORE ways of integrating apps into my classroom teaching and students learning. The second issue, was that I was purchasing TWO apps that did similar things? This was happening without the experienceto discern between the best option, or after purchasing an app I realised it could not do what I actually wanted it to do in my classroom.
THE SOLUTION! (now here is where you can tell I'm a teacher of D&T, every problem has a designed solution right!) I created a GOODLE DOC that tabulated apps, their functionality AND their numerous applications in the classroom being a google doc I could access to from multiple devices, YAY!
This document wasn't amazing with just adding what I knew though? SO, I changed the SHARE settings on the google doc to allow all who had the link the ability to edit it!! . . . . I tweeted the link, it got re-tweeted, some other clever teachers added their ideas and VOILA! I now have access to the BEST edu-list of current apps and classroom tips for integration ON THE PLANET! :)
You want access to this document right? . . . You want to add your fave apps that you use in theclassroom with examples of teaching strategies don't you?. . . You want to share it with your twitter followers and
Here is the link;
A huge thank you to the contributors of this document, their details are on the bottom of the page, add yours too when your done.
If you want to contact me, you can do that via twitter: Monique Dalli (@1moniqued)- or find more STUFF on my blog here: www.moniquedalli.
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