"Thing Fifteen"
For this thing I chose Infographics Hub. This app has condensed ideas of a particular idea. One of the inforgraphics I read was Google Apps for Education, it talked about where it started and where it is now.
This I thought was kind of cool instead of reading pages and pages of materials all you needed to read were the graphs, pictures and words that were written about the topic. I think this would be a good way for Secondary school children to do projects for some classes. English classes could chose an author and do an infographic using pictures, charts and words about the author and his work. A Current Events class could do the same thing with a specific topic. This could be used in the upper grades at the elementary but you would have to censor the infographics first some were not appropriate for the age level.
Friday, January 31, 2014
"Thing Fourteen"
For this thing I chose a different app, I chose Videolicious. This is one of the few apps I have used in my library, partly because the iPads in our building are all used in the classrooms. I have had the children do book talks, character interviews, and poem readings. After the children did their book talks I uploaded them to SchoolTube along with a QR Code (another handy app). Then during our schools Scholastic Book Fair I hung the QR Codes by the books the kids had talked about. The parents during the book fair used a scanner on their phone or iPad to open up the book talk and listen to their child's talk. Both the parents and children were really excited to listen to their talk and other kid's talks.
For this thing I chose a different app, I chose Videolicious. This is one of the few apps I have used in my library, partly because the iPads in our building are all used in the classrooms. I have had the children do book talks, character interviews, and poem readings. After the children did their book talks I uploaded them to SchoolTube along with a QR Code (another handy app). Then during our schools Scholastic Book Fair I hung the QR Codes by the books the kids had talked about. The parents during the book fair used a scanner on their phone or iPad to open up the book talk and listen to their child's talk. Both the parents and children were really excited to listen to their talk and other kid's talks.
"Thing Thirteen"
For this thing I chose educreation. I love this app! A few days ago I had a teacher ask me to show her how she could use it in her classroom. She wanted to use it for a 6th grade vocabulary lesson during an iobservation. She is one of my less tech savvy teachers but is always willing to learn something new. We decided to use the educreation app, the Merrian-Webster Dictionary and Airplay. She handed out vocab words to groups of students the students looked up the definition using the dictionary app. They then used the educreation app and uploaded a picture that represented the vocab word onto the whiteboard. The kids then typed the vocab word on the whiteboard they recorded the definition and used it in a sentence. After everyone was done they used Airplay to reflect it onto the classroom smart board. Every kids was really into the assignment the teacher didn't have to worry about trying to keep the children on task. The next day they came to the library where I had them get on Google Drive and create a test in Google forms for the vocabulary words they had learned the day before. I had them come up with two wrong, but close answers and of course a right answer. They had to do ten vocab words. I had them do the first five definition answers, the last five they could either do definition or how the word is used correctly in a sentence according to the definition. The children really enjoyed using Google Drive for this lesson. The principal was impressed because a classroom teacher was working with a specialist.
For this thing I chose educreation. I love this app! A few days ago I had a teacher ask me to show her how she could use it in her classroom. She wanted to use it for a 6th grade vocabulary lesson during an iobservation. She is one of my less tech savvy teachers but is always willing to learn something new. We decided to use the educreation app, the Merrian-Webster Dictionary and Airplay. She handed out vocab words to groups of students the students looked up the definition using the dictionary app. They then used the educreation app and uploaded a picture that represented the vocab word onto the whiteboard. The kids then typed the vocab word on the whiteboard they recorded the definition and used it in a sentence. After everyone was done they used Airplay to reflect it onto the classroom smart board. Every kids was really into the assignment the teacher didn't have to worry about trying to keep the children on task. The next day they came to the library where I had them get on Google Drive and create a test in Google forms for the vocabulary words they had learned the day before. I had them come up with two wrong, but close answers and of course a right answer. They had to do ten vocab words. I had them do the first five definition answers, the last five they could either do definition or how the word is used correctly in a sentence according to the definition. The children really enjoyed using Google Drive for this lesson. The principal was impressed because a classroom teacher was working with a specialist.
"Thing Twelve"
For this thing I chose Audiobook. Several of our teachers use several different ones but the one that seems to be the "go to" one is Audiobook. When you first open up the app you see a list down the left hand side of the screen. The list has numerous options to chose from; if you chose popular, free, or plus books you will be taken to a list of books to chose from. The titles in green give you a choice of upgrading for $0.99 or getting 263 plus titles for $7.99. You can chose titles by author and genres. You can also chose the language. Our Spanish teacher really liked that part of the app. There is also an authors tab where there are many, many, many author who will read selected books. Once you chose a book it will be downloaded into My Library where you can access it at a later time if needed. Most of the Secondary Language Arts teachers in our district have used this app and also our Foreign Language teachers.
For this thing I chose Audiobook. Several of our teachers use several different ones but the one that seems to be the "go to" one is Audiobook. When you first open up the app you see a list down the left hand side of the screen. The list has numerous options to chose from; if you chose popular, free, or plus books you will be taken to a list of books to chose from. The titles in green give you a choice of upgrading for $0.99 or getting 263 plus titles for $7.99. You can chose titles by author and genres. You can also chose the language. Our Spanish teacher really liked that part of the app. There is also an authors tab where there are many, many, many author who will read selected books. Once you chose a book it will be downloaded into My Library where you can access it at a later time if needed. Most of the Secondary Language Arts teachers in our district have used this app and also our Foreign Language teachers.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
"Thing Eleven"
Our school district doesn't have a district app for our library, so I chose Follets Destiny Quest app. The user can look-up the Top 10 books which have been checked out from the library recently. If they tap on the title, author, where the book can be found on the shelf and how many copies are available for check out. Under those details are three bars 1. a description of the book 2. additional info like accelerated reader information 3. reviews on the book. On the side are three additional bars 1. You can add or remove the book from your favorite list. 2. Add a book to the bookshelf 3. Hold the book when it is returned by an other patron. Underneath that are some suggestions of books you might also like to read. The site also shows new arrivals to the library. A public list where people have added what their favorite or recommended books are. There is also a my list tab where you can keep track of books you have read or book you want to read. There is also an account tab. This tab shows what books you have on hold, titles you have checked out, and what fines you may have.
We put this app on all the cart iPads at school so if the student wanted to look up a book, see where in the library the book is located, or what the AR test number is, they can easily look it up using this app. The kids tell me they like the app because they don't have to come to the library get on a computer and look it up, they can look it up from the comfort of their classroom.
Our school district doesn't have a district app for our library, so I chose Follets Destiny Quest app. The user can look-up the Top 10 books which have been checked out from the library recently. If they tap on the title, author, where the book can be found on the shelf and how many copies are available for check out. Under those details are three bars 1. a description of the book 2. additional info like accelerated reader information 3. reviews on the book. On the side are three additional bars 1. You can add or remove the book from your favorite list. 2. Add a book to the bookshelf 3. Hold the book when it is returned by an other patron. Underneath that are some suggestions of books you might also like to read. The site also shows new arrivals to the library. A public list where people have added what their favorite or recommended books are. There is also a my list tab where you can keep track of books you have read or book you want to read. There is also an account tab. This tab shows what books you have on hold, titles you have checked out, and what fines you may have.
We put this app on all the cart iPads at school so if the student wanted to look up a book, see where in the library the book is located, or what the AR test number is, they can easily look it up using this app. The kids tell me they like the app because they don't have to come to the library get on a computer and look it up, they can look it up from the comfort of their classroom.
"Thing Ten"
For this thing I picked Snapchat then right before I downloaded it the warning came out about a possible hacking into peoples Snapchat accounts. Then I got to thinking some of the apps we are asked to research and try out for this project I'm not sure if I will ever us them in the library so this one I have decided to ask a friend who uses Instagram ALL the time to tell me about it.
One thing I found intriguing with Snapchat was the fact a sent picture can only be seen 1-10 seconds then it disappears. I'm sure there are many positives to this, but I can think of a really big negative....it would be a good tool for bullying. Someone could send an inappropriate picture and it would be the sendies word against the senders of what the picture was.
Now on to Instagram I'm not sure what age level this app would be good for. I read a few articles about Instagram the same common thread that seemed to be in every review was 1. make sure your children don't take pictures of themselves or take provocative pictures. 2. Don't share with others you don't know. 3. Don't share personal information. Yea we are talking about CHILDREN what child isn't going to take pictures of themselves, talk about themselves, or friend people they may not know. Because bad things NEVER happen to them. When parents say my child will never do that....do they really believe that? I think any adult whose brain is fully developed can safely use this app. I won't be using either app in ANY of my classes.
For this thing I picked Snapchat then right before I downloaded it the warning came out about a possible hacking into peoples Snapchat accounts. Then I got to thinking some of the apps we are asked to research and try out for this project I'm not sure if I will ever us them in the library so this one I have decided to ask a friend who uses Instagram ALL the time to tell me about it.
One thing I found intriguing with Snapchat was the fact a sent picture can only be seen 1-10 seconds then it disappears. I'm sure there are many positives to this, but I can think of a really big negative....it would be a good tool for bullying. Someone could send an inappropriate picture and it would be the sendies word against the senders of what the picture was.
Now on to Instagram I'm not sure what age level this app would be good for. I read a few articles about Instagram the same common thread that seemed to be in every review was 1. make sure your children don't take pictures of themselves or take provocative pictures. 2. Don't share with others you don't know. 3. Don't share personal information. Yea we are talking about CHILDREN what child isn't going to take pictures of themselves, talk about themselves, or friend people they may not know. Because bad things NEVER happen to them. When parents say my child will never do that....do they really believe that? I think any adult whose brain is fully developed can safely use this app. I won't be using either app in ANY of my classes.
"Thing Nine"
For my thing Nine I picked CamMe. This is an app that lets the owner take self pictures hands free. There is a built in 3 second timer so you don't need to set the timer function. Instead of having to hold your camera at arms length or talking a mirror picture of yourself you prop your iPad up against something walk 2-10 feet away. The you hold your hand up towards the camera it will recognizes your hand gesture when it does a chime will ding you then pinch your fingers and the pictures is taken after the 3 second countdown.
I put this app on some of the iPads at school. I let the kids try it out. I got mixed reviews some of the kids liked you could take a picture all by your self and didn't need to hold on the the device to do so. A few had problems finding someplace to prop the iPad up against. They also liked the idea of having all their friends in the picture and no one is left out because they have to take the picture. The children who didn't like the app seem to be the children who want to act "funny" in front of the camera while someone else was taking the picture. Everyone needed some practice using the hand gestures in order to get the app to work correctly.
My kids have used CamMe when they have made a power point presentation using Google Drive. Instead of typing in their name as the author they use their "selfie" instead. We did a class power point presentation with every kids selfie in one of my class so everyone could learn something about others in the class. Bottom line works great and the kids love it.
For my thing Nine I picked CamMe. This is an app that lets the owner take self pictures hands free. There is a built in 3 second timer so you don't need to set the timer function. Instead of having to hold your camera at arms length or talking a mirror picture of yourself you prop your iPad up against something walk 2-10 feet away. The you hold your hand up towards the camera it will recognizes your hand gesture when it does a chime will ding you then pinch your fingers and the pictures is taken after the 3 second countdown.
I put this app on some of the iPads at school. I let the kids try it out. I got mixed reviews some of the kids liked you could take a picture all by your self and didn't need to hold on the the device to do so. A few had problems finding someplace to prop the iPad up against. They also liked the idea of having all their friends in the picture and no one is left out because they have to take the picture. The children who didn't like the app seem to be the children who want to act "funny" in front of the camera while someone else was taking the picture. Everyone needed some practice using the hand gestures in order to get the app to work correctly.
My kids have used CamMe when they have made a power point presentation using Google Drive. Instead of typing in their name as the author they use their "selfie" instead. We did a class power point presentation with every kids selfie in one of my class so everyone could learn something about others in the class. Bottom line works great and the kids love it.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
"Thing Eight"
For thing eight I chose Twitter. I have never Twittered but I follow several people or things who are very good, like Richard Byrne, Mary Beth Hertz, edutopia, and several "google" sites. These all have something to do with education and or iPads. I also follow my schools athletics teams on twitter this I have found is an excellent way for the coach to communicate with their players and family members about upcoming games. It is also a good way to get those last minute messages posted. One of our teachers has his students twitter answers to questions during class time. This has proven effective, but only for students who have a devise they can twitter from. One downside we found out quickly was after a district technology meeting one of the members, a teacher twittered about something that had been discussed during the tech meeting within a few hours someone called and email our district technology person saying they had talked to the teacher about getting new technology for the district. The teacher had NEVER talk directly to this person, just through his twitter feed. Like most posts whether on twitter or Facebook or another social site once it's out there you can't take it back.
For thing eight I chose Twitter. I have never Twittered but I follow several people or things who are very good, like Richard Byrne, Mary Beth Hertz, edutopia, and several "google" sites. These all have something to do with education and or iPads. I also follow my schools athletics teams on twitter this I have found is an excellent way for the coach to communicate with their players and family members about upcoming games. It is also a good way to get those last minute messages posted. One of our teachers has his students twitter answers to questions during class time. This has proven effective, but only for students who have a devise they can twitter from. One downside we found out quickly was after a district technology meeting one of the members, a teacher twittered about something that had been discussed during the tech meeting within a few hours someone called and email our district technology person saying they had talked to the teacher about getting new technology for the district. The teacher had NEVER talk directly to this person, just through his twitter feed. Like most posts whether on twitter or Facebook or another social site once it's out there you can't take it back.
"Thing Seven"
For this "Things" I chose Pinterest. I have used this site a lot for about a month. I have pinned decorations for my library and ideas for book fairs. I like how you can save things in one spot and I can easily go back to my post and access what I need at anytime. I think this would be a good app for kids who would are doing research. The student could put ideas all in one place and easily go back and retrieve it for a later time.
For this "Things" I chose Pinterest. I have used this site a lot for about a month. I have pinned decorations for my library and ideas for book fairs. I like how you can save things in one spot and I can easily go back to my post and access what I need at anytime. I think this would be a good app for kids who would are doing research. The student could put ideas all in one place and easily go back and retrieve it for a later time.
"Thing Six"
For this thing I chose SignNow and QuickOffice. The district that I work for purchased QuickOffice Pro for all the teachers to use on their iPad. QuickOffice is a condensed version of Google Drive. In QuickOffice Pro you can create text documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Anything that is or was created in Google Drive can be accessed in QuickOffice Pro and visa versa. In QuickOffice Pro you can share your document to numerous places from twitter, Scribd, email and Slideshare plus many more. The one major drawback I found with QuickOffice Pro is you can't bring up a document someone has shared with you.
SignNow is a really interesting app you can import a document from numerous places, PDF, Adobe, Gmail and from apps like Dropbox. After you import the document you can sign it by inserting a signature, or insert text, insert a check mark or insert today's date. The person can then send it back to the owner. The free version only lets you use 5 a month you can get a paid version $24.99 a month or $179.99 a year. This would be great if you need many people to sign documents or people need you to sign many documents.
For this thing I chose SignNow and QuickOffice. The district that I work for purchased QuickOffice Pro for all the teachers to use on their iPad. QuickOffice is a condensed version of Google Drive. In QuickOffice Pro you can create text documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Anything that is or was created in Google Drive can be accessed in QuickOffice Pro and visa versa. In QuickOffice Pro you can share your document to numerous places from twitter, Scribd, email and Slideshare plus many more. The one major drawback I found with QuickOffice Pro is you can't bring up a document someone has shared with you.
SignNow is a really interesting app you can import a document from numerous places, PDF, Adobe, Gmail and from apps like Dropbox. After you import the document you can sign it by inserting a signature, or insert text, insert a check mark or insert today's date. The person can then send it back to the owner. The free version only lets you use 5 a month you can get a paid version $24.99 a month or $179.99 a year. This would be great if you need many people to sign documents or people need you to sign many documents.
"Thing Five"
For thing five I chose Dragon. I have used this app several times in the classroom. The children had a difficult time getting used to using it. I used it with kindergarten first and then tried it with first grade, second grade and so on. The kindergarten classes had the most difficult time trying using it. I found this interesting since sometimes you can't get the little ones to stop talking, but when there is an iPad in front of you recording your words and thoughts they had a hard time talking. All the children found they needed to speak clearly and loudly into the iPad for the words to be heard correctly. Dragon may get the word right the first time but that doesn't mean Dragon will get the words right every time. To use Dragon you really need to be able to read so you can proofread what was dictated.The words are not always written as they were spoken. Dragon has a keyboard to use in case the person needs to add, correct or delete something that was previously dictated onto the iPad. When you have completed what you dictated you can publish it in many ways, email, Facebook or twitter.You also have the choice of what language you would like Dragon to type. Overall if you can get the hang of using Dragon it is a very useful tool.
For thing five I chose Dragon. I have used this app several times in the classroom. The children had a difficult time getting used to using it. I used it with kindergarten first and then tried it with first grade, second grade and so on. The kindergarten classes had the most difficult time trying using it. I found this interesting since sometimes you can't get the little ones to stop talking, but when there is an iPad in front of you recording your words and thoughts they had a hard time talking. All the children found they needed to speak clearly and loudly into the iPad for the words to be heard correctly. Dragon may get the word right the first time but that doesn't mean Dragon will get the words right every time. To use Dragon you really need to be able to read so you can proofread what was dictated.The words are not always written as they were spoken. Dragon has a keyboard to use in case the person needs to add, correct or delete something that was previously dictated onto the iPad. When you have completed what you dictated you can publish it in many ways, email, Facebook or twitter.You also have the choice of what language you would like Dragon to type. Overall if you can get the hang of using Dragon it is a very useful tool.
"Thing Four"
For this thing I reluctantly chose the Flipboard app. When I first read the previews for this app I thought yea just another newsie app. Why would I want to read more about the worlds problems? My life is busy enough with everything going on with things that I HAVE to do why would I want an app that would remind me of other things I could or should be doing or the bad things going on in the world.
After I downloaded the app and signed up I started exploring. I was amazed on how easy it was to chose topics of my interest. I quickly read interesting articles that were up to date, and better yet I didn't have to buy the whole magazines or spend time paging through a thick magazine only to find the "teaser" on the front cover was something I really wasn't interested in.(not to mention saving a few trees in the process) After about two hours of surfing I came up for breath and decided I would definitely recommend this app for others to use. I have also emailed the teachers in my district to let them know about this cool app. Sorry but I need to get back to Flipboard.......
For this thing I reluctantly chose the Flipboard app. When I first read the previews for this app I thought yea just another newsie app. Why would I want to read more about the worlds problems? My life is busy enough with everything going on with things that I HAVE to do why would I want an app that would remind me of other things I could or should be doing or the bad things going on in the world.
After I downloaded the app and signed up I started exploring. I was amazed on how easy it was to chose topics of my interest. I quickly read interesting articles that were up to date, and better yet I didn't have to buy the whole magazines or spend time paging through a thick magazine only to find the "teaser" on the front cover was something I really wasn't interested in.(not to mention saving a few trees in the process) After about two hours of surfing I came up for breath and decided I would definitely recommend this app for others to use. I have also emailed the teachers in my district to let them know about this cool app. Sorry but I need to get back to Flipboard.......
Saturday, January 18, 2014
"Thing Three"
I used the QR Code app this fall when I held our yearly Scholastic Book Fair. I had the children pick a book that was going to be on the book fair to read. They wrote a short book talk about the book. I had one child use an iPad with the Videolicious app to video tape the book talk. I then uploaded it to the QR Code website. The QR code was created then I uploaded the video to School Tube. I used School Tube because it seemed to be more user friendly than a couple of other sites and Scholastic recommended it. During the book fair I posted the QR Codes next to the books the children talked about. The parents could then use their phones or iPads and scan the QR Code to watch the videos. The children were really excited to have their parents and friends use technology and listen to their book talks and the parents were excited to see their kids on video.
I have also used QR Codes for a scavenger hunt in the library, I give them a QR code clue like what is the seventh word in the book The Hunger Games on page 172. The student finds the book in the library catalog. They then locate the book on the shelf they find the word and get a the new QR Code that explains where to find the next clue. Not only do the kids learn how to use the QR scanner, but they learn where things are in the library.
I used the QR Code app this fall when I held our yearly Scholastic Book Fair. I had the children pick a book that was going to be on the book fair to read. They wrote a short book talk about the book. I had one child use an iPad with the Videolicious app to video tape the book talk. I then uploaded it to the QR Code website. The QR code was created then I uploaded the video to School Tube. I used School Tube because it seemed to be more user friendly than a couple of other sites and Scholastic recommended it. During the book fair I posted the QR Codes next to the books the children talked about. The parents could then use their phones or iPads and scan the QR Code to watch the videos. The children were really excited to have their parents and friends use technology and listen to their book talks and the parents were excited to see their kids on video.
I have also used QR Codes for a scavenger hunt in the library, I give them a QR code clue like what is the seventh word in the book The Hunger Games on page 172. The student finds the book in the library catalog. They then locate the book on the shelf they find the word and get a the new QR Code that explains where to find the next clue. Not only do the kids learn how to use the QR scanner, but they learn where things are in the library.
" Thing Two"
At the beginning of the school year I had to do a teacher workshop training on general use of their iPad. I was surprised how excited the teachers were to learn tricks they could use and show the children in their classrooms.
I have found with the iPad iOS 7 is the ability to reply, forward, mark as unread, move to junk, move message or trash an email before even opening it up. Swipe the message before opening it from right to left and the options will appear.
Instead of typing a period at the end of each sentence followed by a space, double-tap the space bar, or tap once with two fingers, to get the same result.
At the beginning of the school year I had to do a teacher workshop training on general use of their iPad. I was surprised how excited the teachers were to learn tricks they could use and show the children in their classrooms.
I have found with the iPad iOS 7 is the ability to reply, forward, mark as unread, move to junk, move message or trash an email before even opening it up. Swipe the message before opening it from right to left and the options will appear.
Instead of typing a period at the end of each sentence followed by a space, double-tap the space bar, or tap once with two fingers, to get the same result.
The iPad doesn't have a Tab key, if you tap the space bar with three fingers at the same time you will get three
spaces, or four fingers to get four spaces.
If you are updating more than one app at a time and find it is taking a large amount of time you can pause them to only update one at a time, tap the app you want paused, tap it again to resume downloading.
If you want to take consecutive pictures go into camera mode press and hold the volume up or down button.
If you hold your finger on something you have typed a magnifying glass appears you can then move your finger and move the curers to where you want it to be on the screen.
If you are updating more than one app at a time and find it is taking a large amount of time you can pause them to only update one at a time, tap the app you want paused, tap it again to resume downloading.
If you want to take consecutive pictures go into camera mode press and hold the volume up or down button.
If you hold your finger on something you have typed a magnifying glass appears you can then move your finger and move the curers to where you want it to be on the screen.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
"Thing One"
I'm not sure what I would like to get out of these classes. I have had an iPad for over a year and the "newness" has somewhat worn off. I have learned how to do somethings in a different way because of the limitations and the freedom the iPad gives me. I don't use iPads in my classroom because I have 70 desktop computers that I can use at anytime during the day. One of my other responsible within the district is to train the classroom teachers on how to best implement and utilize the iPad in their classroom. This means I need to keep up on new ways on how to best use the iPad with children.
I'm not sure what I would like to get out of these classes. I have had an iPad for over a year and the "newness" has somewhat worn off. I have learned how to do somethings in a different way because of the limitations and the freedom the iPad gives me. I don't use iPads in my classroom because I have 70 desktop computers that I can use at anytime during the day. One of my other responsible within the district is to train the classroom teachers on how to best implement and utilize the iPad in their classroom. This means I need to keep up on new ways on how to best use the iPad with children.
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