Archive for category Web 2.0

Augmented Reality with the Aurasma App

I am a big fan of Two Guys and Some iPads.  @techminock and @techbradwaid are very passionate about teaching and do an amazing job of sharing that passion and resources with the world.  They got me interested in Augmented Reality, and their site has a wealth of resources to help you understand what Augmented Reality is and how to get started with it.  Now I am working to get teachers here as excited about it as I am!

Aurasma

While there are more and more apps out there with auras already made, the real value I see for educators is the ability to create your own triggers and overlays.  This allows you to make it relevant to whatever concepts you are teaching.  Aurasma is a great resource for this.  It is free for you to use…you only need to set up an account.  While you are able to create more intricate auras through their website, a great place to start is with the Aurasma App.  It is fairly simple to use and gives you immediate results.

Two cheat sheets have been created to help you with the process of creating auras with the Aurasma app.  Click below to download each.  I hope you find them useful.

Best of the Week – December 21, 2012

 

 

Each week our Instructional Technology Team meets and shares the best ideas that crossed our Twitter feeds, RSS Readers, and minds as we were out working with teachers. Recently it occurred to us that we should be sharing our Best of the Week with you all! So here’s this week’s installment. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Tiny Tap App

Click to View     Level of Bloom’s:  Create

Create your own educational games from everyday moments. Creating a game is simple – add a photo, record some questions, trace the answers and you’re ready to play!

Funny Movie Maker

Click to View     Level of Bloom’s: Create

Choose any face (even from your own images) and replace their mouth (or entire face) with your own!  Project idea:  Have students research a historic or literary character, then write and produce a video interview!  What a fun way for students to show what they’ve learned!

Word Mover

Click to View     Level of Bloom’s: Create

Student’s can create ‘found poetry”  by choosing from word banks, existing famous works, or by adding new words.

NearPod

Click to View     Level of Bloom’s: Create

Students can design a costume for their fairy tale character, and then photograph their character in any setting (even within their own classroom!)  These images would be great fodder for a creative writing project!

Grammaropolis

Click to View      Level of Bloom’s: Remember

Reinforce knowledge of parts of speech in a fun, student-friendly way!  (Nouns are Free, other parts of speech are available for In-App purchase.)

 

 

 

 

iPad Apps 4 School

Click to View

Brand new site from the author of the Free Tech 4 Teachers blog (another great resource!)

 

Skitch – for Windows

Click to View

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then if you could add text, arrows, and annotations to an image, that would be priceless right?? Skitch, a great FREE photo annotation app, is now available for desktop computers with Windows, and Windows 8.  Not sure what you or your students can do with Skitch?  Check out Skitch in Education to see the software in action!

 

35 Digital Tools that Will Work with Bloom’s Taxonomy

Click to View

Edudemic has a ton of great ideas and resources for teachers, but their post matching digital tools to Bloom’s is a must read, if you’re searching for product creation tools for the classroom.

 

Learni.st

Click to View

Think:  Pinterest – but ONLY for educators sharing resources you can use in your classroom.  This site is great for anyone who’s begun to create a flipped classroom.  Not sure what a flipped classroom is?  Check out Brian Bennett’s Video on the Basics of the Flipped Classroom.

 

One Word

Click to View

Hit the “Go” button and students are presented with a single word, a 60 second timer, and a text entry box–the motto being “Don’t Think, Write!”  Accounts can be created to archive writing.  This would be a great warm-up or vocabulary activity for writers of all ages!

 

Holiday Fun from It’s A Message

Click to View

Enter your address, and It’s A Message automatically creates a fun holiday message featuring your home (if Google Earth has a street view of it!)  Ok, Ok, it’s a tiny bit creepy, but it’s pretty cool, and fun to share with friends, nonetheless!

 

Chart Editor, by Google

Click to View

Though still in beta, it’s easy to see how Google’s Chart Editor has the potential to become a valuable tool for educators and students who need to visualize data.

 

Google Story Builder

Click to View

Invite students to write collaboratively, choose an audio track that matches the tone of their writing, and then play back the writing process using Google Story Builder.  Fun, and for best results, this is an activity that requires pre-planning/storyboarding on the part of the student.

 

Become a Power Searcher

Click to View

Sharpen your search skills & join this free online course from our friends at Google to help you become a better searcher.  Knowing how to find answers on any search engine is an important skill in today’s digital age.  A little time invested in this course now, will have long term benefits down the road – for both teachers and students!

 

Pixlr

Click to View

Powerful photo editing online from your Mac or PC – check out their mobile apps and browser plug-ins too!

Hello Sign

Click to View

Tired of chasing people around for signatures?  Sick of the endless Print-Sign-Scan cycle?  Hello Sign allows you to invite up to 50 folks to sign your documents for free.  It’s safe, secure, and best of all…legally binding.  Oh – and there’s an app too!


Holiday Greetings 2.0

If you’ve decided your hum-drum holiday card could use an upgrade, you might consider saving paper – and postage – by sharing your holiday wishes online this year.

Here’s a a few resources and inspiration to set you on your “merry way!”

Holiday Video Cards by vlix

Click Here to View

This simple iPad/iPod Touch app allows users to import or record videos, add holiday borders and background music before sharing via email, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook.  Something as simple as recording students in your class saying “Happy Holidays” would be really neat to share with parents!

JibJab

Click Here to View

This online resource is perfect for creating a holiday ecard featuring classic music and the ability to add your face, or the faces of up to 5 friends to the card.  Elf Yourself!

Animoto

Click Here to View Online      Click Here to View iOS App

For several years now, Animoto has been our go-to site for creating stunning photo slideshows in just a few minutes.  Their site is great year-round, but it’s especially handy for putting all those holiday photos into a format that your family or students will be excited to watch.  Educators can even create Animoto Plus accounts for free.

Sharenik

Click Here to View

Create an online card that features photos, videos, a letter, or pretty much any combination of the three!  This FREE site is great for those of us who just can’t bear the thought of abandoning their annual holiday letter.  Share up to 15 photos/videos and select from tons of templates and format options.

 

Windows Live Movie Maker & Photo Gallery

Click Here to View

Want a little less “wizard’ and a little more precise control over your holiday video project?  Windows Live Movie Maker & Photo Gallery provide user-friendly interfaces for editing video, or creating a photo slide shows.  The software is free, and great for PC users!

For Apple lovers, iMovie on your iOS device or Mac is the way to go!

Whichever venue you choose for expressing your holiday cheer, be sure you challenge yourself, and share your project with us!  We’d love to see what you come up with!

 

 

Metamorphosis: Converting Files to New Formats

Occasionally during the course of creating a digital project, you’ll need to change the format of the audio or video clip you’d like to use so that it matches the formats accepted by whatever editing software you’re using.  Here at the iCafe we have a few tricks up our sleeve when it comes to reformatting audio or video files.  Below are a few of our favorite FREE converting tools.

 

Format Factory

Format Factory is a great piece of FREE software that can quickly reformat files already saved on your computer.  Have a video file that was taken upside down or sideways?  Format Factory can take care of that too!

Download Format Factory

If you’re using Format Factory for the first time, view the Format Factory Video Tutorial before getting started. (1 min 30 sec)


 

MediaConverter.org

Media Converter is an online tool that does a fantastic job of reformatting files, and even allows you to download media from various online sources.  As always, be sure to practice good Digital Citizenship when downloading files by honoring any copyright restrictions that may apply.

Visit MediaConverter.org 

 

 

Online-Convert.com

Similar to Media Converter, Online-Convert is an online tool that can be used to re-format files.  What we like about Online-Convert is the fact that they offer an ebook converter so that you can convert your .pdf or Word .docx into .epub so that they can be read in apps such as iBooks.

Visit Online-Convert.com

Happy Converting!

 


 

 

 

 

Access Audio Files via QR Codes

Image Courtesy, Flicker: Charley Lhasa

QR Codes are everywhere.  You find them in stores, on flyers, on billboard signs along the highway (although that may be the DUMBEST thing ever!), and now all over schools.  More and more teachers are using Quick Response codes in the classroom for all types of situations, such as a self-checking system, to give directions, or just to grab a student’s attention.  They are finding that these adventures are fun and easy for everyone.  Students are even creating codes for other students to use!

I want to share with you yet another way to include QR codes in the classroom: linking to audio files.  Teachers and students alike can create audio files online and then link them to a QR code so anyone with the code has easy access to them.  The audio files could be a student sharing a story or problem they have created.  It could be a teacher giving directions or prompts.  Classrooms or campuses can share upcoming information with parents.  The opportunities go on and on.

Making this happen cannot get much easier.  A website, Recordmp3.org, will allow you to record yourself online.  It then saves the recording to the web. It supplies you with a URL that will take anyone who has it to your audio file.  Copy this link and you are then ready to create your QR Code.

There are many sites that you can use to create a QR Code.  My favorite is QRStuff.com.  Once you open the site you have 4 steps to take:

  1. Choose the type of data you are creating a code for.  In this case it will be a Website URL.
  2. Paste the URL you created for your audio file from Recordmp3.org.
  3. Choose the color of your QR Code.  Keep in mind that darker colors make it easier to scan.
  4. Download the code.  It is a good idea to rename each code and place all your codes for a project into a folder as you are downloading them.  This will help you keep your codes organized. You will need to know where each code will take you.

To walk you through each of these steps from audio files through QR creation, click here to download a cheat sheet that has been created.

Depending on how and where you are using the codes, it is likely that you will need to print them out.  The QR codes do not need to be the size of a full size sheet of paper.  In fact, they scan easier if they are a bit smaller.  A good size for codes is 3.5 x 5 inch or even a wallet size photo.   Click here to download a cheat sheet that will walk you through the printing process.

How are you using QR codes in your classroom?  Audio files would be a great addition to add to activities or to share the amazing things your students are creating each and every week.

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Build a QR Talking Museum

Recently, Janis Knuckols, Jane Long Elementary – Art Teacher Extrordinaire, approached me with the idea of having her students use QR codes to create a talking art museum. I immediately got ridiculously excited about the idea, my teacher-brain nearly spinning out of control thinking of all the great ways this idea could be used across the curriculum!

Think about it! Posting student work throughout your campus attached to a QR code that links back to a student’s audio explanation of what they learned. This same idea could also be used to create an indoor scavenger hunt, give audio directions for a learning center, create an talking picture book…and so much more!

Is your brain spinning too?  Ready to get started? Here’s what needs doin’!

 

Your Kiddos

Have your kids write about their work.  We don’t want this to be super short, but we don’t want it to be super long either…students are going to want to grab their audience’s attention and use great voice in their writing!  “Ba-da-bing!” is a great way to encourage this type of writing.  Here is a short Ba-Da-Bing! and Ba-Da-Bing Sample Lesson that will help explain “Ba-da-bing”, if you’d like to learn more! Feel free to use and share. This lesson and powerpoint were created by the lovely and talented Lisa McNally from George JHS. (Thanks Lisa!)

Microphones

Our district is lucky enough to have sets of microphones that can be checked out from your CITS.  Microphones are a very inexpensive addition to your classroom toolbox.  If you’d like to have  your own – Logitech makes several inexpensive versions (I have a $9.99 model that works fine).   Simply plug the microphone in to the front of your computer where you see the small microphone symbol.

Recordmp3

Once your microphone is plugged in, navigate to http://www.recordmp3.org/ and click to allow the site access to your microphone, and then begin recording!

http://recordmp3.org

Once you’re satisfied with your recording, click “Save Recording.”  Finally, Right-Click and Copy the web address that your recording is given.  Hang on to it for a minute, because you’re going to need it for the next step!

QR Stuff

Finally, it’s time to create your QR code!  To get started, visit http://www.qrstuff.com/ and follow these steps:

  • Data Type – Website URL
  • Paste in the URL (address) that you copied from Recordmp3 into the “step 2” box
  • Change the QR code color, if you’d like
  • Click on the “Download QR Code” button on the right
  • Click “Open”
  • Right-Click and “Copy”
  • Paste the image into the Talking Museum QR Tracking Sheet

**If you have several students working on creating  QR codes:  You can have students download and Save their QR image into a folder you’ve created on a shared student drive, HOWEVER… you’ll want to have them name the file in a way that will make it easy for you to know who’s code is whose (tip…have them include their initials in the file name!).  You don’t want to have to sift through 35 QR codes trying to figure out which one belongs to each student!

Printing

Once your students have made their recordings and you’ve placed their QR codes into the Talking Museum QR Tracking Sheet, just print out the sheet (in color, if preferred) cut out each QR code, attach it to the front of the corresponding student’s project, and post them around campus.

Listening In

Once QR’s are attached to student work, apps such as Scan can be used on generation 4 iPod Touches (the ones with cameras) iPad2/3’s or most smartphones to play back student recordings.  Super fun!!

 

Scan

  • FREE
  • Designed for iPad, iPhone, or iTouch
  • Use a site like QR Stuff to create a digital scavenger hunt for your students.  Link your QR’s to book reviews, Discovery Education videos, and other online learning tools…then have students use the Scan app to follow your digital trail!
  • Click Here to find out more about the Scan app

Hungry for More?

The CITS team hase started a Google Doc listing ways to use QR codes in school.  Click here to visit the doc.  If you have other great ideas, please add them to the list!  Don’t forget to save this link to your favorites.  Happy scanning!

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