Archive for category Lesson/Project Idea

Simple Transfer: Transfer Photos and Videos Between iPad and Computer!

Mar 20

Posted by Paul Wagner in Apple, Audience: All, Digital Storytelling, Favorite iOS Apps, Lesson/Project Idea, Mobile Learning, Tech Tools | 4 Comments

A BIG obstacle and headache that often occurs when working with iOS devices is being able to easily transfer your photos and videos between the iPad and computer. Emailing is not always the answer. File sizes can become too large. Having to attach image after image is a hassle. An even bigger hassle is having to plug the device into the computer. Simple Transfer is a free app that will allow you to transfer your data wirelessly to or from any computer.

Simple Transfer is VERY easy to use. Once it is downloaded, open the app. It will show you a screen with a web IP address on it. Leave the app open and then enter the address it provides into the web browser (Chrome, IE, Safari, etc.) on your computer.

A window will pop open on the computer showing your iPad and the different folders you have created on it to store your photos and videos. If you are looking to upload media from your computer to the iPad it can be done from the first window you see. Choose the location you want the file to save on the iPad and then browse to the file you wish to upload. Note that the free version of the app only allows you to transfer 1 file at a time to the iPad.

If you are looking to transfer files from your iPad to your computer, select the folder where the files you are transferring are located.

The screen will refresh, opening the folder you have chosen. You can now select the photos or videos you want to transfer. You also have a “select all” option. Note that the free version of this app allows you to transfer up to 50 files at a time to your computer. If you select more than one file to upload, a zip file will be created and sent to the computer. Open the folder on your computer to view all the files you have transferred.

There is a paid version of this app that will allow you to transfer more than 50 files at a time from device to computer and also allow you to upload multiple files at once from computer to device. The paid version is $1.99. Try the free version first to be sure your network is not blocking the use of this app. If it works and you find you need more freedom with the app, purchase the paid version. Then sit back and enjoy Simple Transfer!

Book Creator: New Update Opens New Doors

Jan 23

Posted by Paul Wagner in Audience: All, Audience: Texas Educators, Digital Storytelling, Favorite iOS Apps, Lesson/Project Idea, Mobile Learning | No Comments

The Book Creator app has been one of my favorites for some time…that is no secret. This last week, Dan Amos (@bookcreatorapp), released an update that gives everyone even more reasons to love it! Here is a brief summary of what is new with this update.

Adding Hyperlinks

You can now link both text and images within your book to resources on the web. Connect to audio files, a YouTube video, or a document or article that houses more information…just to name a few. They made it very easy to use, just like the rest of the app. As an added bonus, you are now also able to format individual words within your text to make it stand out. Two great additions.

Import Books

Another amazing option. This allows you to bring a book back into the app to add to, or edit, a book you have previously sent to iBooks…even if you don’t have the original file anymore. This also allows you to import a book from another iPad and work on it. A great classroom addition.

Combine Books

I saved my favorite for last! This update allows you to combine 2 or more books into one. Have students work individually on a section of a book, even on different iPads, and then combine them all into one final class project. Have students write chapters and then combine for a “novel”. Share a Science Experiment with different members of a group addressing each part of the scientific process. What a fabulous option.

Those are the big 3 (actually 4) upgrades that I think make this app one of the best on the market. To learn even more about these upgrades, as well as instructions on how to use all these new options, check out What’s New in Version 2.4 at redjumper.net.

If you have the app but have not yet upgraded, what are you waiting for?!? If you have not purchased the app yet, I can tell you it is the best $4.99 I have ever spent. Teachers and students alike love this app. You will too!

Holiday Greetings 2.0

Dec 20

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 | No Comments

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

Dec 13

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Audience: Texas Educators, Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 | No Comments

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!

Texas Public Schools Rock! Video Contest

Dec 11

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: LCISD, Audience: Texas Educators, Digital Storytelling, Grant or Contest, Lesson/Project Idea | No Comments

You know it, and I know it…there are some AMAZING things happening on your campuses! Now it’s time to invite students to tell the world about what makes their Texas Public School so special. The Texas Association of School Boards is now accepting entries for its first ever Student Video Contest.

Original, student-created videos must be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long and should focus on one of the four themes below:

What makes your school exceptional?
Why your school deserves the support of your community
How the funding cuts of the last Legislative session have affected your school
Why Texans should be proud of their public schools

This is a great opportunity for students to write, produce, and star in a movie that could have real impact on your community as well as their classroom. First prize in each of 3 divisions is $5,000 – for classroom equipment and materials!

Click here for contest rules & details.

Need help getting your video project started? Check out our Digital Storytelling Resources to get your video project off on the right foot. January 31, 2013 is the contest deadline – so you’ll want to get this project underway soon. Have fun & be sure to share your entries with us!

Tags: Digital Storytelling

Trading Cards for the Classroom

Dec 5

Posted by Paul Wagner in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Favorite iOS Apps, iOS Projects, Lesson/Project Idea, Mobile Learning | No Comments

I saw a post from @rmbyrne recently about a FREE app from Read Write Think called Trading Cards. It sounded like something I would be interested in, so I downloaded it and began to play. This app has a lot of potential! I can see it being used across grade levels and across the curriculum.

To get started you need to choose your topic and the category under which it belongs. You can choose from Fictional character, real person, fictional or real place, object, event, or vocabulary. I would put some thought into this to make sure you are choosing the proper category. The app will pose guided questions for you to answer as you move through creation.

Once you have selected your category you are able to start into the project creation. Insert an image of your topic by either taking a picture or importing from your camera roll. Then choose a card design. Once that is completed, start entering your data in the assigned fields the app has for you. When you click in a field guided questions pop up to help you understand what kind of information they are looking for. Your information is limited to 120 characters for each field. Use the buttons below the card to flip from the front of your card to the back, share your creation, or save it in the app itself.

If you choose to share your creation, you have the option to save to your photos, send as an email, or send to a printer. It gives you a preview of how your card will look. The intention would be to print them out. You can then cut and fold the card so that it becomes two-sided.

I think these would be great for reviewing characters from a book the students are reading, reviewing vocabulary words, researching different locations, use as a study guide, and much much more! In need of a new project? Give Trading Cards a try!

Tags: app, character, creation, creative writing, cross curriculum, iOS, iPad, mobile, project, Read Write Think, Trading Cards, Trading Cards for the Classroom

Access Audio Files via QR Codes

Nov 5

Posted by Paul Wagner in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Lesson/Project Idea, QR, Tech Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments

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:

Choose the type of data you are creating a code for. In this case it will be a Website URL.
Paste the URL you created for your audio file from Recordmp3.org.
Choose the color of your QR Code. Keep in mind that darker colors make it easier to scan.
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.

Tags: app, audio, code, mobile learning, project, QR, QR code, qr stuff, QRstuff, record audio, recordmp3

Build a QR Talking Museum

Apr 12

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Favorite iOS Apps, Lesson/Project Idea, Mobile Learning, QR, Tech Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments

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!

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!

Tags: apps, code, codes, microphone, Museum, PBL, Project Based Learning, QR, QR code, QRstuff, record audio, record audio online, Scan, Talking Museum

A fusion of curriculum and technology