Group items tagged

"Pearson, the world's leading learning company, and the Eminata Group, Canada's largest provider of independent, post-secondary education, today announced that students at institutions under the Eminata umbrella will receive all of their course content via the Apple iPad. The agreement is the largest postsecondary institutional initiative for iPad-based eTextbooks in North America."

"One of the justifiable criticisms of the iPad was that it was difficult to impossible to transfer files between many apps or networks. With the addition of some apps like PocketCloud and FileBrowser, and the improvement of the Open in… function in later systems , especially iOS 6, this has become even less of an issue. Still, I'm terms of downloading files on web based apps, you were often limited to photos from the camera roll. This was the case with the Edmodo app. An Edmodo app update earlier in the year allowed access to the Camera Roll and Google Docs. This however, was still too limiting to use the Library/Backpack feature of Edmodo to upload, store and download most files. Today that changed. The latest Edmodo iPad app now adds File Sharing functionality, both uploading and downloading to Edmodo' s Library (for teachers) and Backpack (students)."

"Here is a handy visual for librarians featuring 12 of what we think are very good iPad apps they can use in their daily work. The visual is based on a post we shared here a few months ago. For more app suggestions for librarians, we recommend  Nicole Hennig's book : Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage which covers in more details over 100 Android and iPad apps. You can also check this infographic featuring 30 good web tools for librarians."

"Social media storytelling tool Storify finally untethered itself from the desktop on Wednesday with the launch of a free iPad app. Like the web-based version of Storify, which has been used by news organizations such as the New York Times and Al Jazeera, the app makes it easy to scroll through and assemble Tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook photos and Instagram photos in a social media timeline. Its drag-and-drop interface translates perfectly to the iPad."

"This blog post is going to examine how the iPad was used to improve the pedagogy of a Design & Technology project and allow child initiated learning by motivating the children to discover new skills and knowledge through project based learning. "

"This week's pick is Storehouse, an app that claims to be 'the easiest way to create and discover beautiful stories' and does a great job of living up to that promise. I've seen a large number of iPad apps with similar purposes, but Storehouse stands out right away due to the spectacular photography in the stories and the app's wonderful, gesture-based interface. "

"This week I worked with the Kindergarten classes to help the teachers integrate technology and math with their students. In Kindergarten, the students are typically using the iPads with content based apps to practice letter recognition, writing, and basic math, but I wanted the students to use the iPad as a creation tool just like the older students do in my schools."

"Following the post on iPad Apps for Music Education I received a couple of requests to feature a post on  iPad apps for  teaching and learning piano. And because I don't know any that I would recommend I crowdsourced the topic on my personal learning network and got a lot of feedback from music teachers. Based on these responses I compiled the list below for other piano teachers to consider. I hope you will find the list helpful. Enjoy."

"The first day that the students receive their iPads is very exciting. While distributing iPads to students it is good practice to let them have about 20 minutes of exploration time to check out apps and share with each other things they discover. A lot of the learning that happens in the classroom is based on sharing amongst the students. This exploration time should happen daily for the first few days so students can have time to acclimate to using the device."

"Sticky notes are a good way to keep yourself organized and boost the pace of your workflow. I used to have paper sticky notes everywhere in my study room and I still have some dangling here but I shifted to digital sticky notes because I can access them anywhere I go. However, with the widespread of iPad, there emerged a need for apps to do the job the paper and web based stiky notes used to do and hence the development of some wonderful iPad sticky notes apps. "

"As many people with dyslexia already know, the iPad has developed into an indispensable tool for various language-based activities. During the last five years, Apple has put a great deal of effort into steadily improving the accessibility features of its mobile operating system, iOS. Currently, users can take advantage of built-in dictation, word prediction, and multiple text-to-speech options. In addition, the newest version of the operating system, iOS 8, allows for the installation of third-party keyboards. These mark an increase in the amount of assistive technology (AT) that can be used universally with iPad apps involving reading and writing."

"This afternoon, our Parker senior administration and IT teams gathered to approve a 1:1 iPad program that will start next year in grades 3-5. Our number one priority is to deliver adequate training to the teachers about how addition of these devices into the classroom environment can dramatically change our learning experience to become more student-centered, collaborative, project-based, exploratory, fluid, and open to the world knowledge base."

"Matchmatics is an iPad app that presents mathematics puzzles in the form of matchsticks laid out on a canvas. The challenge of Matchmatics is to move one matchstick to make an incorrect equation correct. Points are awarded based on how quickly you can correct the equation. The puzzles get progressively more difficult as you work through the app. "

"Screencasting is the process of capturing the screen interactions on your computer - usually along with an audio narrative. It's been a very effective method for creating screen based tutorials on computer for a number of years. With the advent of screencasting apps on the iPad, screencasting has now become a great option for the creation of multimedia student presentations."

"Nunook Interactive Inc has released the BrainNook Grade 2 Arithmetic 1.0 app for iPad. BrainNook is the next generation of learning games for schools and homes. It is a social educational game that allows students to strengthen critical math and language skills in real time with their classmates. The web-based version of BrainNook is used by 100,000 students in thousands of classrooms across the country."

"A group of children took part in a series of literacy lessons centred around the popular game Bike Baron by Qwibooand Mountain Sheep as outlined in detail athttp://mrandrewsonline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/part-1-raising-standards-in-boys.html. The aim was to raise standards in writing. The work is based on the success of the Controllable Vehicle project which demonstrated that the iPad can significantly enhance pupil understanding and interest in a topic leading to accelerated progress in speaking, listening and writing."

"Fizzy's Lunch Lab Fresh Pick is a free iPad app from PBS Kids. The app is based on the popular PBS web series Fizzy's Lunch Lab. The purpose of the app is to challenge students' math and problem solving skills. The app contains eight challenges for students to try. Students can go through the challenges in any order that they like. The eight challenges for students are Buying Groceries, Grocery Mapping, Neighborhood Mapping, Pantry Hunt, Fizzy's Invention, Customer Change, Find Freddy, and Food Matcher."

"The Managing Complex Change model puts language to that which makes some schools successful while others struggle. The model looks at five components necessary to create a desired environment. These include vision, skills, incentives, resources, action plan. If any one piece is missing the model indicates results schools will experience including change, confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, and a false start. When thinking of successful schools such as Science Leadership Academy, The MET, The Island School, The iSchool, you will find they have all those components in place. On the other hand, when I hear teachers lamenting about their school failures, the model brings clarity to the fact that one or more of these components are missing. Below is the chart that lays this out. Following the chart, I'll take a look at what each missing component might look like in a school environment. As you read, consider which, if any are components, are missing at your school. save image Lack of Vision = Confusion When I hear exasperated teachers spinning their wheels, working so hard to get ready for all the various mandates and requirements, but never feeling a sense of accomplishment, it is clear there is not a tangible school vision that has been communicated. In some cases this is because what is being imposed does or can not reconcile with what the school wanted for their vision. Skill Deficit = Anxiety My heart goes out to those with a skill deficit. They are required to implement a curriculum they are not trained in using or being evaluated via measures with which they are not familiar. Or…they are put into a position they were not trained for or prepared to embrace. Social media provides a great medium for helping these teachers get up to speed, but when the outreach occurs, the anxiety is abundantly clear. Lack of Incentives = Gradual Change It is not unusual for innovative educators to feel like and be perceived as misfits. Islands onto their own

"One of the biggest stumbling blocks on our road to successful iPad implementation was WiFi coverage and bandwidth. The Information Services department had to install new access points and optimize the access points we already had. We also found that we did not have enough bandwidth. Every time I launched a new App to the 200+ iPads on campus we exceeded our bandwidth and took every other Internet based function off line. Eventually though we did get our bandwidth more than doubled and that was very helpful."

"An iPad is a toolbox that gets filled with tools such as apps, is a portal to communication and collaboration with others, and when guided by teachers who have been appropriately trained, students become truly engaged and motivated critical thinkers. Working with Tony Vincent and our Technology Team, our teachers will receive the professional development and support to successfully carry out our goals."