Group items tagged

"Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (of the TeachThought favorite langwitches blog) put together this exploratory presentation that takes a look at exactly how the iPad is functioning in classrooms, while also managing to work in ideas from leaders in education to help "frame" the conversation."

"Even though it's October it still feels very much like the beginning of the year. One of the first thoughts that many teachers have about their students is "they look so little!" It's true. Those tall confident students that left us have gone on to be "little" to next year's teacher and we have our own new crop of "little" people to educate. This becomes even more pronounced in a technology classroom. Everything takes longer, typing, starting, opening, finding, searching. Whatever it is they need time to figure it out. Patience is key. So what can we do?"

"Will Kelly reviews Projectbook, a new iPad productivity app that combines note taking and to-do lists."

"You've read of those that say, "Yeah man, I don't carry a keyboard with my iPad. That's not what a tablet is for man. Go use a laptop or something if you want retro keyboard input!" Perhaps that's a bit of a exaggeration. As much as I love my keyboard, being able to switch from handwriting to text on an iPad would be pretty neat. I hadn't given it much thought until a friend called me up and asked if it was do-able. "

"productions and readings of classic and contemporary plays. Unfortunately, funds are often limited and not only can you not take them to see high-end shows, you also often struggle to find a suitable performance space and quality works for them to perform. The 7 best apps for high school theatre teachers provide you a way to bring new dramatic experiences into the classroom for your students. Through the apps students will learn to express their creativity and also learn from some of the best in the world of theater."

"This week, Grade 5 began a unit on Volume, Capacity and Surface Area. On a weekly basis, I take combined groups from the 4 grades consisting of the higher achievers, while the classroom teachers concentrate on the mainstream group and students needing more individual instruction to achieve success. I made a conscious decision this week to focus on using iPads with my group to explore both volume/capacity as well as surface area."

"We have long been fans of the free Zite Personalized News on the iPad. The Universal app lets you choose groups of news types, then watches what you tend to read to find more of similar type content. Every now and then throwing in a bit of 'other' news to keep you well informed of your options. This week, the Zite developers released a version 2.0 with a new app icon and a new user interface throughout."

Yes, this is the article. But you know what - if you use the ipad as a doorstop - does it make the classroom better? iPads IN the classroom don't make it better, I would argue that technology, used properly, can improve achievement. But technology used improperly is like the human voice used improperly -it can harm. Anyway, since this is making the rounds, you might want to take a look.

"One question I seem to get a lot about the iPad is what apps do I recommend that are free. I am hearing from a lot of teachers that they have no way to add paid apps and thus are stuck trying to find free apps. My experience is that many free apps stink. They have many adds, require in app purchases to be useful, or are just junk. I tend to stay away from most free apps. So what are you to do if the district controls adding paid apps? My suggestion is to build relationships with the decision makers. Don't just ask for a bunch of apps, instead provide documentation and purpose for a few apps you would like to have. I know this process takes time and effort but if you can show the purpose and learning you have a much better chance. If you need lesson ideas I suggest checking out my Pinterest page, and three of my favorite Pinterest pages: iPadsammy, TechChef4u, and Sue Gorman. Look for apps and lesson ideas there and modify them to fit your standards and kids. If I was starting from scratch this is the $10 iPad app setup I would push for in my kindergarten classroom. (I will be posting a $20 setup later)"

"There is no end to the uses of the iPad in education. I've discussed that ad nauseum on this blog. As a learning tool, it has the potential to make a great positive change to learning. The only problem is Apple designed it for individual use. Schools are designed for ( or budgeted for) shared use. Conventional wisdom is for iPad use to occur in a 1:1 or BYOD Environment. In the best case scenario, I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, financial realities will often dictate that sharing is the only viable option if we want our students to enjoy the benefits of the iPad. It can be done effectively - I've shared my thoughts early in the year about the pros and cons of shared iPads - but doesn't happen without some time consuming workarounds. What follows is my take on the pains (and remedies) of sharing iPads in a rather large Primary (elementary) school."

Apps for creating presentations; story telling; books; print docs from ipad; videos; improve reading skills; take notes; create written content and more.

"The list below has been carefully assembled and we did not include those popular apps such as Evernote and Dropbox because they are taken for granted and also because we have reviewed them several times here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ."

"In any application round-up - mobile or otherwise - about work, education or GTD, you'll see the most advanced conglomeration of note-taking applications. Often, the applications already present on the operating system are ignored. Likely, this is because these applications generally don't amount to much. However, on Apple products, they do. The Notes application that was already available on iOS systems like the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, can these days also be found as an integral part of the Mac OS X operating system."

"The iPad is not going to replace teachers or 'fix' education. There is a cost implication that must be taken into account and only an educator will know if it is right for their students. Indeed the cost-benefit analysis for an establishment must take into account a host of factors when considering iPad use in the classroom. However, if there are iPads in the classroom, there are a number of applications that can enhance learning and assist the educator in developing student skills. In fact, the iPad allows educators to build on existing styles and increase flexibility in their classroom whilst personalising learning."

"Last Sunday, I received a note via the contact form on my blog that was a first for me in many ways. It was the first time I had ever been contacted by a parent via my blog, the first time I could not put a comment out of my mind until I had addressed it, and the first time I ever thought about the impact a school's 1:1 take-home technology initiative could have on a family."

"Today's app review is about Keeper - an app for securely storing and accessing your private information and passwords. Keeper takes the frustration out of having to remember tons of passwords for different websites, and as I've found out, makes quickly accessing different educational and administrative websites a breeze."

"From the day New iPad take his first foot everyone of us is looking for some best apps for new iPad or iPad 3 or iPad HD at least I do that .But there are a wide variety of New iPad apps available for you on iTunes .How do you know the which one is best for your New iPad. So to make that easier I complied a list of best apps for new iPad for 2012 under the same hood which are also compatible with Retina Display of iPad 3."

"Tired of the tedious conversion process it takes to get your iOS device to play back videos? Want to watch your videos in more than just the handfull of proprietary file formats? Fortunately, there's an app for that. You can play almost any video format under the sun on your iPad with the PlayerXtreme app. Read on to learn how"

"Apple has granted Rob Schmitz of Marketplace direct access to the Foxconn supply chain following his debunking of Mike Daisy's inaccurate claims regarding Chinese working conditions. This makes Schmitz the second reporter to ever take a video crew behind the scenes at Foxconn. ABC News and Bill Weir previously visited China for a Nightline segment."