iPads Mania

The science teacher wanted students to demonstrate their knowledge of how matter transfers from the food they eat to the energy they produce.  Students are able to demonstrate any activity that they love to do through video and still pictures.  Each still picture can be enhanced through the use of the Skitch app.

I was able to teach the basic functions of iMovie and Skitch before the students engaged in using the app.

I prepped with the teacher for about 30 minutes prior to the lesson.  This way she was able to know the features of the apps.  This helped because she was able to answer questions that students had while using the app.

I was impressed by the engagement that the iPad's caused with the students.

See how it worked.

ThreeRing is bringing a great concept to the web by allowing teachers/students/parents to upload images of work completed.  On top of that, the items can be tagged and searched for easily.

Uploading names of students is easy.  Simply download a copy of your classroom roster in an excel file or word file and place the list of names into ThreeRing.

This will be a great tool for assessing students by standards.  Sharing them with parents and students is also easy.

Pictures can be taken with their iPhone/iPod, iPad, or Android apps.

See the web version of Three Ring

Using these apps allows for you to capture a still image, video, or audio recording.

Instead of the traditional format of lecturing the content by the teacher, Lindsey Wilcox & Heather McCumber created a menu of learning for their students.  Hear and see how iPads or computers plus a menu of options for learning allow the students to "take charge of their learning".

Every other week, our team of learning support teachers checks in with our staff via email.  To enhance the content of that email, I incorporated a tech tool tip called ...In 20 Seconds.  While my email states if I can help in any way, it now provides a helpful tip that doesn't take much time to learn.

...In 20 Seconds refers to a tech concept that can be learned in 20 seconds.  So many teachers are so bogged down by so many things that time is of the essence.  20 seconds actually does provide enough time to provide a helpful tip. I use Screencast-o-matic or Reflection app to produce the video. I use the Skitch app and iMovie to place it togther.  A great fun idea I have started to incorporate is interesting sounds at the beginning of the 20 seconds.  (Chad's idea, see below)

Today, marks creation of #10.  Can't believe it! View List Here
I received the idea from @chadkafka !  Thanks, Chad.  

Feel free to use any of them or better yet, start creating your own and let me know what you created!

Now...go learn something in 20 Seconds and share it with the rest of the world.

There really are so many features to Google Chrome that one step at a time I am going to inform our staff about the features of Chrome.  The first feature centers around having the most frequently visited websites by a user one click away.  See how to get this feature for your computer.

I am one technology integration teacher. There are over 100 teachers in two buildings that I want to help. 

How.Do.I.Do.It?

I create 2-3 minute videos for teachers to show to their classroom.

What.Does.This.Do?

It creates a library for teachers to access on tech tool tips for integration into their classroom. They can access this any time, and they can refer to it multiple times throughout the year. In addition, they don't have to spend a ton of time learning the "tricks" of the tech tool. However, as they watch it, they learn the "tricks" of the tech tool. It really is a win-win-win for teachers, students, and me! Present in multiple classrooms at one time.

See one that a teacher is using on Friday.

How did I create it?
I do not have Camtasia Studio at the present time due to reconfiguring of our computer work stations. Because of this, I use Screencast-o-matic for computer instruction or Reflection for iPad instruction for the actual recording.  Whichever the tool used, I upload it to YouTube and then use the Tubebox app to download it from YouTube to my iPad.  After using the Skitch app to create a bumper page, I add the video, bumper page, and some copyright free music to the iMovie instruction.  Finally, I upload the video to YouTube and email the link to the teacher.

The process does become easier as it is practiced.

Today, I co-taught with the Spanish teacher.  It was the second time that Twitter was being used.  The purpose for using the tool was to have a place for students to converse in Spanish.  While we didn't expect any technical issues, we experienced them.  What isn't present in the video is the wonderful team teaching that occurred. In each class, two to three students didn't know their password or Twitter wouldn't recognize their account settings immediately.  The classroom teacher took these students aside and worked on configuring the accounts.  I took care of using Twitter for the purpose that the classroom teacher wanted.  Also, one student hadn't created an account.  I worked with that student to set up the account while the classroom teacher set out the Learning Targets for the day.

It was a great example of team teaching!

See how it works:


She also created a wonderful Digital Footprint Agreement with the students.  The students needed to read and digitally sign before heading onto twitter.  See her blog post.

One of our model classroom teachers, Tina Mills, has really utilized the folder aspect of the iPads.  She has had students organize the apps according to similarity.  This provides students the choice to use an app, but provides some direction from the teacher.

Hear why she did it.


I used the fantastic app, Sonic Pics, and an iRig Mic to record the video.  The Sonic Pics app allowed be to take photos and easily scroll the pictures while telling the story.  See what it looks like.

Students in another social studies class, presented some of their digital posters about U.S. Citizenship.



View some of the SMORE creations here and here  and some of the CHECKTHIS here and here.

The students did a fantastic job of making the digital posters come alive with pictures, text, and videos.

Using Remind 101, the Spanish teacher will be communicating with parents and students.  View the method.

To Change Password on school computer,

• Press [ctrl] and [alt] and [delete] at the same time.
• This will provide a screen with four choices.
• The third choice will be "change a password".

Or Watch The Video


4 Tips To Really Secure Password
View REASONS to CHANGE Password!


LastPass
1Password

Strong Passwords Aren't Enough

Check Google Account Settings
Official Google Blogs 4 Keys

Additional Password Info

Last week the social studies teachers began this project.  Today, students presented their digital posters.  The teacher used a Google form to acquire the group names, link to the CheckThis, and the collaboration Google document.

View the presentation and how the Google form was used.

One week ago, the English teachers had an idea.

Learn about the terms that describe action and parts of a book or movie (setting, irony, conflict) via movie clips.  Students were given the opportunity to use presentation tools such as SlideRocket, iMovie, or Pinnacle to demonstrate their knowledge.  Along with these tools Skitch and iCab Mobile were used on the iPad to create slides and use movie clips on the iPad.

Today, they presented their final projects.  Fortunately, I was able to view some of the projects while the students presented the information.  The students did a wonderful job.  I even remembered a digital tool (TubeChop) that I forgot about when a student used this resource for clipping movie clips from YouTube.

View some parts of the presentations.

On the weekends, I send our administration examples of integration of technology from the previous week.  I firmly believe that we need to share the great teaching and learning moments that occur in our district.  I recently found the site Multiurl.com  which allows shortening of multiple links into one link.  Customization of the shortened link is also possible.

My example this week:

• With Toolbar
• Browse List
• With Summary

I believe this site (service) could be a great way for teachers who may not have a digital presence (i.e. blog or site) to send multiple links that students should use.

While you can create an account, no account is needed.

Check out Multiurl.com

The social studies team wanted a Web 2.0 tool to use on computers (not iPads) so their students could meet requirements of a project.  The project allows high school students to teach fourth graders how to become U.S. citizens.

Two options were used.

CheckThis.com

Smore.com

Both services are free.  Both services allow for text, video, images, and links.
Smore.com allows for slightly better configuration as far as variety of layout.  CheckThis.com provides for easy login as it connects to a Google.com account.  This option made it quite easy for the students to start working on their project.

Overall, each tool can provide a great service for creation projects.



To collaborate, students did need to create a Google Document for sharing resources that eventually will be placed onto their creation.




While I haven't used Checkthis.com , I have created multiple Smore.com creations for our weekly staff
Lunch N' Learn.

The physics teacher wanted to use iPads during the 15th annual Steve's Fashion Show.  The tool was to be used to engage and enhance the already successful activity.  Students create a walking pattern that is reflected in two types of graphs.

I thought that the PicPlayPost app would be beneficial since it allows for three to six different videos and or still images to be displayed on one screen.  If multiple videos were used the videos could be run consecutively or simultaneously.

Having this option would allow for graphs detailing the activity and video of the activity to be displayed in one screen.  Add in a picture of the group and now a digital representation of the activity is created.

We will be uploading the videos using the Google Drive app as all of the videos from PicPlayPost can be exported to a number of areas.  We chose the Camera Roll on the iPad.

Great. Day.

The media teacher wanted students to create "how to" videos revealing how the seven deadly sins of videoing can be avoided.  Instead of videoing with a camera, uploading it to the computer, and then completing the editing, he chose to use iMovie on the iPad.  This allowed students to video tape and edit all on the same machine.

Removing the step of uploading.

I entered the classroom and in five minutes instructed the students on the small amount of details functions of iMovie.  The students then grabbed their iPads, their media passes, and headed out to make the videos.

Google Drive Resources on Laptop:


Google Drive Resources on iPad:

Big Thanks to Anthony Dilaura creating and sharing the iPad video.

Get Google Drive App For iPad

Yesterday, the anatomy teacher and I co-taught using the email features on the iPad, photos of tissues from the teacher's website, and the Skitch app.  The students saved the pictures of the tissues to their camera roll and proceeded to mark the important parts of each picture with the Skitch app.

As explained by the classroom teacher, this individual review option allowed him to see exactly what each student understood.  In addition, in the past each one slide would be shown on the projector with the entire class providing feedback.  This always allows for some students to not participate as much as they should.  Another option in the past was to have students view the slides through the microscope and then draw and label the items in their notebook.

As you will see, all students were engaged and created a stack of visual flash cards in their email inbox.  In the future, setting up a Gmail folder for these emails would help organize the emails for easy access and studying.

See how the students used the app:

The eighth grade allowed students to tell the story of America using three apps: Toontastic, Sock Puppets, or iMovie, or Explain Everything.  To share the productions with the masses, we needed a work around YouTube as students don't have access to YouTube in our school.

To do this, we had students get everything to the camera roll on the iPad.  With iMovie and Explain Everything, we had no problem.  Students simply exported the creation to the camera roll.  With Toontastic and Sock Puppets, students filmed the production of the apps with another iPad.  This created the movie on the iPad.

We then used the Google Drive app and a laptop to complete the process.

Once the creation was on the iPad, students completed this step by step process.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS.

See the steps of the process for exporting in action.






Not a perfect process, but certainly an effective one!