Archive for category Mobile Learning

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!

Best of the Week – December 21, 2012

Dec 21

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Best of the Week, Favorite iOS Apps, Google, Web 2.0 | No Comments

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!

Best of the Week – December 14, 2012

Dec 14

Posted by Holly Dornak in Audience: All, Audience: LCISD, Best of the Week, Digital Footprint/Web Literacy, Favorite iOS Apps, Video Conferencing | No Comments

Digital Footprints

This week there was lots of great discussion about the need for parent and students to become more familiar with the importance of creating a digital footprint to be proud of.

Two Resources that were mentioned as tools that may be used as our district develops a plan for a Digital Parent Education Night are Eanes ISD Digital Parent Night Panel Discussion and LOL…OMG by Matt Ivester

In terms of assisting students to become more web-literate, Alan November has some great resources for teachers as they begin to plan lessons. In Addition, a-Google-A-Day is a fun way to challenge students to validate what they find on the internet.

Algebra I Quiz Bowl – Video Conference

This week our Math Curriculum Specialist, Pam Palmer collaborated with our Technology Development Team in order to begin planning the first annual Algebra Bowl which will invite Algebra I students to participate via video conference in the (hopefully) annual event. Interested in challenging our kiddos? Let us know!

#TXed Twitter Chat

Click to View

Mark Wednesday evening as “booked” on your calendar – and spend some time discovering all the great things educators throughout Texas are up to via the #TXed Twitter chat. Brilliant minds and brilliant questions. Don’t miss out!

	LEGO Creationary Click to View It builds, you guess! Play collaboratively!

	Groupboard Click to View Turn your iOS device into a collaborative whiteboard.

	Red Stamp Click to View Challenge your class to create, write and send cards to one another via email! Authentic writing, anyone?

	NearPod Click to View Use a Teacher iPad to control the content viewed on student iPads. COOL!

	Animation Desk Click to View Intuitive drawing environment that can be used to build animated movies.

ScreenLeap

Click to View

Share your computer display with up to 5 devices with web browsers for FREE!

Learnzillion

Click to View

Collection of high quality, common-core aligned lessons. And the best part? Learnzillion is a FREE APP within Edmodo – so teachers can assign tasks and post resources to students from directly within edmodo.

YouTube EDU

Click to View

YouTube is FULL of great content to share with your students. On the downside, it’s full of a bunch of…well, you know, as well. Enter the EDU portal of YouTube. Search by grade level, category, and keyword to find exactly what you need…without having to worry about all the inappropriate junk that might pop up on the side!

Mapping Media to the Curriculum

Click to View

Choose from the menu board what you want students to create and you’re instantly given lesson ideas, an over view of the project’s work-flow and links to additional resources. A “MUST FAVORITE” site for any educator.

Free Music Archive

Click to View

Great resource for educators who need to collect royalty free music to use for video/audio projects. Caution: Some songs include lyrics that are not “student friendly” and for this reason, we would like to caution you to limit the use of this site to “educator use only.”

Debut Video Capture

Click to View

Capture video from your PC and output to a variety of formats.

Note: Be sure to uncheck the “Ask” tool bar ad-ins during installation.

Can Texas Secede?

Click to View

Spoiler Alert: No – But it sure is interesting to discuss why not!

	Roominate Click to View What kid wouldn’t want to create a dollhouse they wired themselves?

	Goldie Blox Click to View Engineering toy designed to inspire invention and problem solving.

	WiPad Click to View Wirelessly connect your iPad to any TV or Projector – Great for those of us on networks that aren’t able to use Apple TV!

	Saw Stop http://www.sawstop.com/ Innovative new braking system stops table saw when it touches flesh, minimizing and even eliminating injury. Check out the hot dog video!

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

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

Archive for category Mobile Learning

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

Book Creator: New Update Opens New Doors

Adding Hyperlinks

Import Books

Combine Books

Best of the Week – December 21, 2012

Tiny Tap App

Funny Movie Maker

Word Mover

NearPod

Grammaropolis

iPad Apps 4 School

Skitch – for Windows

35 Digital Tools that Will Work with Bloom’s Taxonomy

Learni.st

One Word

Holiday Fun from It’s A Message

Chart Editor, by Google

Google Story Builder

Become a Power Searcher

Pixlr

Hello Sign

Best of the Week – December 14, 2012

Digital Footprints

Algebra I Quiz Bowl – Video Conference

#TXed Twitter Chat

LEGO Creationary

Groupboard

Red Stamp

NearPod

Animation Desk

ScreenLeap

Learnzillion

YouTube EDU

Mapping Media to the Curriculum

Free Music Archive

Debut Video Capture

Can Texas Secede?

Roominate

Goldie Blox

WiPad

Saw Stop

Trading Cards for the Classroom

Build a QR Talking Museum

Your Kiddos

Microphones

Recordmp3

QR Stuff

Printing

Listening In

Scan

Hungry for More?