Category:

iOS Tips and Tricks

Explore tips, tools, and strategies for using iOS devices in education. Discover resources to enhance teaching, learning, and productivity.

iOS Tips and Tricks

Enhance Productivity, Organization, and Engagement with Apple

by Peggy Reimers August 23, 2021

written by Peggy Reimers

Hot off the press just in time for back to school, here are three website resources that can be used by both parent and teacher Apple users, resulting in enhanced productivity, organization, and engagement.

30 Time-Saving Tips for Teachers

Discover 30 fun and simple tips highlighting various iPad apps and the built-in features of the iPad. Designed for teachers, you’ll find a wealth of ideas to help you stay organized, manage tasks, gather instructional resources, and more.

For example, you’ll learn how to:

Eliminate distractions on web pages and create PDFs of any web page to share with students using Safari.
Quickly digitize a printed handout you already have using Notes.
Create animated GIFs to use as engaging lesson starters and for visual demonstrations with Keynote.
Design interactive handouts to engage your students with Pages.

Quick Guides for Learning with iPad and Mac

From managing schedules and screen time to building a story, these five “quick guides” make the most of the built-in iPad and Mac features. Above all, they help with creating productive learning environments. With busy K–8 teachers and parents in mind, the “five tips to…” format of these guides makes device set up quick and easy.

I especially appreciated the quick guide about connecting with friends and family through shared storytelling. Engaging students in higher-level thinking skills such as creation and production while also using Apple features for collaboration is a big win-win.

Creative iPad Activities for Kids

Have fun finding shapes in nature, storyboarding a daily routine, and so much more. Here you will find two resources with 30 activities each that can be easily tailored to the whole family. They are also available in more than 20 languages.

Just a few of my favorites include:

See Color in Slow Motion
Make Skip Counting Fun
Leaning Tower of Pillow
Personalize a Portrait

Stay Up to Date

Stay up to date on using Apple products and services by following Apple on Twitter @AppleEDU. And if you want more Apple deliciousness, join the Apple Teacher Learning Center or enroll in TCEA’s iPad Educator online, self-paced course.

Here’s to making this school year as productive, organized, and engaging as possible.

Featured image created in Canva by author.

August 23, 2021 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

My First Time Using An iPhone and Favorite Apps

by Miguel Guhlin June 17, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

Have an iPhone, but not sure if you’re using it to its full capacity? Read this blog post to get a first time user’s insights. I’ll cover things you need to be aware of and share my list of favorite, must-have apps for productivity and work. Come along and learn with me as I use my new iPhone.

The Journey Begins

This spring, I joined 113 million iPhone users. There’s a total of 300 million smartphone users in the United States. That’s approximately 47 percent of smartphone-using population (source). The action was necessary for me, not only for fear of missing out (FOMO). After all, who can resist learning about new apps and how they can impact our lives?

My List of Amazing Apps

The best of the Apple operating system for iPhones (iOS) offers many great features. Everyone has their own list of favorite apps, so I’m going to focus on some of the ones that make a difference in my work.

Built-In Goodness

Apple’s iOS offers many incredible features that simplify daily operations, but they can also cause quite a bit of difficulty for newbies like me. For example, some of the great features available include:

Swiping: Swiping up from the bottom of the screen gets you one result, while swiping and holding get you another. Experiment with the two to see the differences.
Notifications: You can adjust, or turn off, notifications for your apps. This can be an important to know. (Path: Settings–>Notifications)
Accessibility options (two-tap vs three-tap on back): Want to take a screenshot? I tap twice on the back of the iPhone and it snaps the picture. No need to fumble with volume up and power button. You can set that up in your Settings->Accessibility options).

In fact, it’s worth spending the time to play around with your Settings. Take some time because you will be going back to it again and again. The most often used app on my iPhone is the Settings app.

Paid Apps

Unlike Android, you usually end up paying for apps, even the free, open source software. My favorite anti-spam, robo-calls blocking app is Should I Answer. It integrates with your iPhone. On Android, this app is free. On iPhone, you pay a subscription fee per month that is about the same cost as Google One storage ($1.99). I do keep a few paid apps handy.

OK, let’s jump into a quick list of my favorite apps.

Secure Connections

No matter what device you are using, you need to protect your data. Some of the tools I use include the following:

Each of these gives you a powerful set of tools you can take advantage of to safeguard sensitive data.

If I had to pick my top three favorites from the list above, they would include:

Readdle Documents
1.1.1.1:Faster Internet or a virtual private network (VPN) like Private Internet Access (PIA) Virtual Private Network
Should I Answer? ($1.99 monthly fee)

Readdle Documents is your one-stop shop for an ePub ebook reader. What’s more, it’s a great media center for all sorts of media content. You can also share content to your computer or other devices via its built-in sharing. The other two tools protect you from spam phone calls (Should I Answer?) and WiFi-based attacks. I use these three apps every single day.

Photo Tools

Many of us appreciate the wonderful camera built into the iPhone. My favorite photo apps include:

Some extra tools you may find worth having include digital scanners. Two of my favorites include Fast Scanner and Readdle’s Scanner Pro. Both make it easy to scan multi-page documents and then share them with others via Google Drive, as well as Dropbox (to name two).

Media Tools

Working with audio and video recordings? For many of us, knowing how to interact with audio and video on our iPhone is a time-saver. Instead of exporting, offloading video to our computer, you can make changes on the go. Here is my short list for audio and video:

Audio

My favorite audio editing app? Hokusai Audio Editor. Get this app for Audacity-like editing experience, but with so much more. You can enhance Hokusai Audio Editor with Tools and Pro packs. Combined with RingtoneMaker, you can make and/or record ringtones.

Don’t want to make your own ringtones? Get them off the web. You can make one for each person in your contacts. You can grab ringtones off the web that are 30 seconds in length, then put them on your iPhone using two tools: Readdle Documents or, if on Windows, EaseUSMobiMover (free limited edition).

Most of us work with video as well. Let’s take a quick look at video apps for on-the-go editing.

Video

Working with video is easy on an iOS device. Here are some apps to try:

Along with Hokusai Audio Editor, my other must-have is Pinnacle Pro video editor. You can also get some special effects for your videos with one of these amazing video clip makers:

Of course, no list is complete without inclusion of DoInk’s Green Screen app ($2.99). You may want to spend some time exploring these apps to get a feel for them. They cost a few extra dollars, but it’s worth it for making special effects easy.

More to Learn

If you’re looking for free or sale iOS apps, be sure to check out this blog. There are some great tips for learning how to search for apps that don’t cost much.

As a newbie to iPhone magic, there’s a lot more I want to learn. What are some of your favorite must-have apps? Please share them in the comments.

Feature Image Source

Photo by surasak_ch on Unsplash

June 17, 2021 0 comments

Nature Lover Apps: Rediscover Your World

by Miguel Guhlin June 15, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

As we emerge from our hidey holes, dark spaces, and places of safety, summer feels like spring after a long winter. With that emergence comes an embrace of the great outdoors. But if you’re like me, you have no idea what critters are making beautiful music or the name of the resplendent glories adorning your walk in the woods. Come along, and pull back the canopy of mystery surrounding flowers, trees, birds, and more as we rediscover the wonders of the natural world around us.

Rediscover the Great Outdoors with These Nature Lover Apps

Did you know that exposure to nature results in more community cohesion and lower crime? That’s right, as we embrace nature, it works to instill a sense of well-being. Observing nature helps reduce crime and aggression (source).

In this blog entry, you will get access to a few favorite apps for identifying nature around you and access to a Wakelet collection full of additional nature apps. Now, let’s take a look at some of them! You can find a complete list in the infographic at the end of this post.

Our first three apps focus on bird identification and information.

“The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off – and they are nearly always doing it.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

nature lover apps

#1 – Merlin Bird ID

“As an avid bird watcher in my rural back yard, I use the Merlin Bird Identifier app. It resolves disagreements my husband and I have about new avians that appear at our feeders. It’s been a marriage saver!” says Lori Gracey, Executive Director at TCEA.

Only the other day, my family was wondering, “Is that an owl hooting at mid-day?” My daughter and husband, Drs. Aida and Zac Guhlincozzi, whipped out their smartphones. They identified the hooting (it was a dove, not an owl). Listening to bird songs (more on that in a moment) can be so relaxing!

Get Merlin Bird ID

#2 – Audobon Bird Guide

Need to identify a bird? If Merlin Bird ID doesn’t work, try this one. It is a free guide to over 800 species of North American birds.

Get Audobon Bird Guide

“It (is) a precious gift, and rare, to hear birds warbling all year long. ~Desiree Clary Bernadottev(Queen Desideria)”
― Allison Pataki, The Queen’s Fortune

Access the Nature Lover Apps, a Wakelet Collection

#3 – Song Sleuth

Need to name that tune, er, bird? Use Song Sleuth! It listens to bird songs and then identifies them for you. And it’s available for iOS and Android at no cost.

Get Song Sleuth

Don’t want to listen to bird outside? For shame! Not every ornithologist can go long without air conditioning and a cool lemonade. Listen to these bird song collections. You may also appreciate the Bird Song Hero, a song learning game from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

View Wakelet collection of Bird Songs

Ok, if you’re not a bird fan, or find it annoys you in the morning hours, you might be a tree hugger or plant whisperer. Let’s take a look at two plant apps.

#4 – LeafSnap

Need a quick way to identify trees? Take a close look at their leaves, snap a picture, then let LeafSnap do the rest. LeafSnap offers a handy interface to identifying plant life around you.

“Living on the edge of town with lots of fields around us, the Leafsnap app has been helpful. It has helped us avoid poison ivy as well as discover new, native plants to replant in our back yard,” says Lori Gracey.

Get LeafSnap.

#5 – Pl@ntNET

“What is that?” I asked peering at the plant near the side of the road. At the time, I didn’t have Pl@ntNet loaded on my phone. If you need an easy-to-use plant identifier, give this free app a try. You can use their app, or access the website.

Get Pl@ntNET.

But Wait, There’s More!

Get this handy infographic with some of the popular nature lover apps and a link to Wakelet collections mentioned in this blog entry.

Get the PDF version of this infographic.

Feature Image Source

Photo by Josefin on Unsplash

June 15, 2021 2 comments

Android iOS Tips and Tricks Professional Learning

Planning Your Summer Travel Getaway

by Dr. Bruce Ellis March 29, 2021

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

You have worked hard this year. And with all of the challenges and chaos you have experienced, you may already be dreaming of a simple getaway to reset and recharge you without breaking the bank. Here are some resources to help. Whether you are looking for a vacation destination that isn’t too far away for complete R&R or you are considering a staycation with a some great learning to energize you, check out these resources and start planning for a summer to remember!

Travel Planning Sites

Road Trippers is a great site if you aren’t really into all the details of planning. Enter your starting location and your destination and let Road Trippers highlight places to stay and lots of interesting activities that are on the way or near your route. Even the look of this site is user friendly, so much so that it looks like it should be in an elementary social studies text book. While investigating along your path, Road Trippers will overlay a pink “route shade” that identifies specific mileage on either side of your route so you can easily plan to jump off the path and explore without completely interrupting the schedule. As you zoom in, you’ll find interesting attractions that include categories such as Outdoors and Recreation, Attractions and Culture, Food and Drink, Camping and RV, Points of Interest, and more. Besides calculating the mileage and hours driving, Road Trippers will also share the estimated gas cost of the trip. It will even generate a trip guide that you can add details to in order to document your memories and fun; you can even share the final document with friends. And if you find that you want someone else to do the planning, then check out their pre-made trip guides for a vacation that is even simpler.

MeetWays is the perfect tool if you are wanting to get together with family or friends, but neither party wants to drive all the way to the other’s place. Just enter the two addresses (or zip codes) and MeetWays will identify the midway point, as well as suggest places to meet. If you are interested, you can specify particular points of interest such as restaurant, hotel, campground, etc.

Games to Play Along the Way

If you need a break from the great learning from TCEA that you can access while on the road, consider checking out a few of these sites that have lots of fun ideas to make the drive go faster.

Helpful Apps for a Smooth Travel Trip

Now that you have your trip planned and know what attractions and cultural sites you are going to see, you definitely want to download this list of apps to make time in the car more enjoyable.

Texas Historical Marker Guide – If you’ll be traveling in Texas, be sure to download the great app (available on Google Play and iOS). It is $2.99, but is well worth the price. It works even when there is not internet and shows you information about the more than 16,000 markers in Texas and allows you track which ones you’ve seen.
Gas Buddy – Always be in the know of the nearest gas station and the best prices for gas with Gas Buddy. Check out some of their tools to help you budget for gas, improve gas mileage, and even log your gas mileage.
AAA – If you are in your vehicle a lot, then you probably already know about the benefits of being a AAA member. While roadside assistance may the be main benefit for most of their customers, you can also get discounts on repairs (parts and labor), hotels, and rental cars.
Audible or Scribd – Audible and Scribd are both known for having tons of books for you to read and listen to while traveling or just relaxing at home. Both are monthly subscription services. With Audible, you can purchase one (or more) books a month (based on your plan); you get to keep access to these books even after you end the subscription. For those who aren’t necessarily interested in keeping their digital book, Scribd may be a better option; while a member, you have access to all their books, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, sheet music, and other documents.
WiFi Finder – With real-time updates that are crowdsourced, you’ll find that this app is a great tool to have on hand, especially when you are away from home. A Pro account gives you additional features that you might want to explore before starting off on your extended journey.

Learning Along the Way

TCEA members and enthusiasts have great learning opportunities ahead. Consider checking these resources out for engaging and exciting learning to fit your schedule. You can find more events and activities on our Events Calendar.

Where Will You Go?

Share with us in the comments below where you and/or your family are heading to get away and have fun and recharge. And if you have a favorite app to use while in the car, let us know that, too.

March 29, 2021 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks Leadership Libraries STEM/STEAM

How to Stream Morning Announcements

by Miguel Guhlin March 24, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

I need help. Our elementary school wants to live stream the morning announcements. Is a private YouTube channel the best option? They do not want to use Zoom. I remember purchasing software at a TCEA conference years ago. It allowed you to create a broadcast type newscast with a green screen using your PC webcam. It had teleprompter software you could use. I want something that the kids can grow into but that starts out easy. Thanks for any help in advance.

Thanks,

Susan

Dear Susan:

Thanks for writing. I bet there are a lot of educators doing something similar. I hope they will take a moment to leave a comment so we can glean some insight from their efforts. In the meantime, please allow me to share my thoughts. Several solutions come to mind. Let’s go over them.

Solution #1: OBS Studio

This solution is pretty powerful and is especially great if you are combining lots of camera inputs. For example, one of them could be a camera pointing at a green screen. Another input source could be a video feed from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet.

OBS is my go-to screencasting and recording, live streaming tool. You can watch my short video and see my resources on it online. I used it to live stream my daughter’s dissertation proposal defense. The setup was straightforward, and my resources walk you through some of it.

This solution is 100% free and open source, no cost. And it works with Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux, but not with tablets or Chromebooks.

Solution #2: StreamYard

This solution is easy to use. I was streaming in minutes. As you might guess though, it costs money, about $240 a year. StreamYard works well on all devices. This video will walk you through its main features and is well worth the time.

Solution #3: TouchCast Studio

This solution works on iPads only. You will want to visit their website to see their K-12 set of case studies. They even have a free Education Guide. Here’s one example:

You will want to watch this tutorial for TouchCast Studio for morning announcements. It can do green screen effects, but I prefer DoInk’s GreenScreen app (iPad only) over that. Learn more about green screen solutions online. Also, be sure to read TCEA TechNotes blog entries.

Wrap-Up

In summary, use OBS Studio if you want a free solution and aren’t afraid of getting your hands dirty. Use TouchCast Studio if you only have iPads. If you have money, check out StreamYard. It works like OBS Studio, but is browser based and drop-dead simple.

Stream and Teleprompter Solutions

Susan had two other questions. The first was, is YouTube Live the way to go? I found it to be well-supported in the streaming software. You can stream to Facebook, Twitch, and other video outlets as well.

If you are looking for teleprompter tools, try one of these and be sure to watch the video shown above. Here’s a list of free website teleprompter tools:

CuePrompter
TelePrompter
TelePrompt.me (this is the one mentioned in the video above)
TelePrompt Online
ZaCUE

A few iOS apps that meet this need include:

You can find quite a few teleprompter (a.k.a. autocue) solutions out there. These iOS apps are free, albeit with in-app purchases.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share these ideas with you.

March 24, 2021 0 comments

Chromebooks Content Areas Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Online Tools and Apps

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Elementary Resources

by Lori Gracey March 9, 2021

written by Lori Gracey

I’m back sharing more great resources and ideas I’ve found around the web. And today, I’ll be sharing tips specifically for elementary educators and their students. Let’s get started!

Elementary Google/PowerPoint Templates

Eric Curts offers this great Google Slides template for short and long vowel sounds. What makes it wonderful is that it includes audio.

SlidesMania is back with another great template for PowerPoint or Google Slides. This one is an elementary weekly agenda, and I love it because it is so colorful and pretty. They also have a very nice True or False template that you can use with any content area.

elementary

These elementary worksheets for math and vocabulary are from the Noun Project, a great and free site to also find lots of graphics to use with younger learners.

For older elementary students (and on into middle school), this is a Google Slides template for becoming a vocabulary expert. I think the activities included here are excellent for authentic vocabulary growth and development.

And finally, Jessica Twomey has several great templates for working with words for primary students. She has 42 different Playing with Words slides for centers and they are fantastic!

Ask Me Two Questions

Sometimes, the questions we ask our students may actually keep them from thinking and responding. As educator Andre Sasser shares in the graphic below, it may be time to rethink what we are asking. (For more on this topic, check out Who’s Doing the Talking in Our Classrooms?)

elementary

For Elementary Reading

One of the best resources I have found to help students improve their reading comprehension is ReadWorks. This site leverages “cognitive-science research to create high-impact instructional materials and tools that are designed for immediate use within the practical realities of current U.S. classrooms.” What makes it even more astonishing is that it is completely FREE. Students can access their reading online to highlight, annotate, and complete assignments or they can be printed out. Teachers can access progress reports and automatic grading. And again, it is all FREE with a simple teacher registration! ReadWorks has content and resources for grades K-12, so it is a must-have tool in your arsenal.

Making Music Together

Keep your students’ creativity flowing by having your elementary folks create music together with Shared Piano from the Chrome Music Lab. Accessed from any web browser, players can play together regardless of where they are simply by sharing a link. They can select from seven different instruments and have the notes appear on the keys. They can also record and playback their creations. Challenge them to create music that goes along with a story they are reading or a song for a favorite character. This would make a great brain break!

Turn Your iPhone into a Document Camera during Remote Teaching

The free Overviewer app will “turn your iOS device into a document camera for sharing on video conference apps. Perfect for teachers and educators doing virtual learning that need to show what’s on their desk during a video call.”

Organizing Your Gmail

If you’re like me, the number of emails you are receiving daily is ridiculous. The good news is that Gmail can help by sorting the emails coming in for you. John R. Sowash created this great graphic below to explain how. Try it out and take back at least a little of your time!

elementary

Jamboard Templates

If you are a fan of Jamboard, you will definitely want to access this Ultimate Collection of Jamboard Templates from Holly Clark. The Wakelet has TONS of resources and will take you a while just to look through. But it’s well worth your time.

The Best Elementary Resource of All

You can learn even more tips, tricks, and tech tidbits for elementary educators at TCEA’s annual Elementary Technology Conference.

March 9, 2021 1 comment

Android iOS Tips and Tricks Online Tools and Apps

Zigazoo: Classroom Safe Video Learning and Creation

by Miguel Guhlin March 2, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

zigazoo When I first started working with video, I remember the joy of the old Flip camera. It was so easy to record a video and then save it to a computer. Prior to that, video recording was so difficult as to be impractical. But that didn’t stop enterprising educators from making student-created videos available. Now, video creation tools abound, but the question has become one of, “Now that we can record videos and share them, should we?” Student safety has become a critical consideration. A new tool promises to close the gap between student-created videos and student safety.

Did You Know?

TikTok has one billion monthly active users, has been downloaded over 2.6 billion times worldwide, and enjoys 100 million active users in the United States where 32.5% of users are 10 to 19 years old. See the chart below for other age groups (source: Wallroom Media).

Zigazoo

Introducing Zigazoo

Zigazoo, available at no-cost for both Android and iOS devices, encourages “short-form video” creations from children. Billed as the “Tik Tok for kids,” Zigazoo offers a variety of creative options and enables children to create video responses to educational content in a safe environment.

Zigazoo

Hailed as “a smarter screen-time activity” by TechCrunch and lauded by children’s media advocacy organizations for its safety, Zigazoo enables kids to share video responses to challenges built by leading museums, zoos, educators, and media stars. (source: Zigazoo).

According to Protect Young Eyes, the Zigazoo creation process is straightforward and includes three types of activities:

You can select learning prompts and then respond with videos up to thirty seconds in length
Share videos with friends (and only with friends you have approved)
Watch videos your friends and favorite characters have created

Since child safety is a priority for Zigazoo, the video response platform includes several protocols.

Ensuring Student Safety

One of the ways that Zigazoo safeguards student video creations is through a verified and secure sign-up process. They rely on single sign-on through verified Facebook, Google, or Apple accounts.

To create an account, you must be over 18 years of age. Furthermore, Zigazoo has eliminated private messaging, commenting, and negative emojis. This means that creators and viewers only see videos that survive a “stringent human moderation process.” All videos must undergo content review and be aligned to Zigazoo’s video review policy:

On topic: users must respond to the prompt and not be off-topic
No personal information: no last names, addresses, birth dates, or personal identifiers
Positive, school-friendly behavior: no shoving, throwing, anger, yelling, sarcasm, or sulking
Classroom-safe language: no swears or “potty” talk
Classroom-safe clothing: every person in the video needs school-appropriate clothes on, including shirts
Clear sound and visuals: we want to make sure we can hear and see you clearly

That moderation process makes sure all videos are relevant to the prompt (from museums, zoos, educators, etc.) and that language and visual media is kid friendly. Personally identifiable information (PII) is also locked out. Some of the restrictions Zigazoo has in place include:

Only your friends on Zigazoo can see your videos, and friends have to be approved prior.
You create videos in response to a question you select.
Children must make videos with an “adult presence,” so you avoid the issues (that pop up in YouTube and Tik Tok) that you have with unauthorized individuals viewing child-created videos.

Some of the videos you will see come from Bings & Potts, which will leave you laughing and learning like this one on Gobble Like a Turkey:

There are many other content providers you can assign content from in Zigazoo, as you can see from the photo slideshow below:

Zigazoo

Zigazoo also offers a classroom component known as Zigazoo Classrooms. Let’s take a closer look at that.

In the Classroom

With Zigazoo Classrooms, teachers can create their own private classroom communities that gives them content moderation authority. You can watch a video about Zigazoo Classroom.

Zigazoo

Once you get the app, you can choose to create a classroom or pod, registering as a teacher. This process will give you a code you can share with students.

You’ll be prompted to create a welcome video or explore existing projects that you can assign to students. Of course, you have the option to create on your own.

Zigazoo

Here is a seven-minute walkthrough of Zigazoo and projects available from LaShundra Wigfall:

Creating with the App

You can start your students creating with Zigazoo easily as a teacher. Simply find and assign a challenge that is relevant. The interface is straightforward and you can use the HOME or DISCOVER buttons in the app to find challenges. You can see what that looks like below:

Zigazoo

Give it a try. Here’s another example, this one from Laura Steinbrink, “Can you say hello and goodbye in Spanish?”

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author.

March 2, 2021 0 comments

Android Chromebooks Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks

Converting PDFs/Images to Digital Worksheets

by Miguel Guhlin October 13, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

“I need help! PDFs! Parents are frustrated with how we have kids submit assignments,” says Sammie. She left her PDF lament in a popular Facebook group for Schoology. If there’s a question that reoccurs often in any forum, it’s how do I edit PDFs? How should I be converting PDFs into easy-to-edit documents that students can use? This includes exit tickets, assignments, digital homework, printables, quizzes, and more.

That’s the million-dollar question for educators. They are struggling to convert paper worksheets into digital learning opportunities. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a few ways educators are getting the job done.

Step #1: Digitizing Content with an App

Need to digitize that worksheet? In previous blog entries, we’ve covered some quick tools you can use to digitize content. How do you digitize that paper worksheet in your manila folder? One easy solution is to convert documents to PDF. Use Microsoft’s Office Lens app on iOS and/or Android. You can snap a picture and convert it into a PDF you can put anywhere.

edit easy

Photo Credit: Windows Community

Need another choice? Give my favorite app, Fast Scanner, a try for free,or get the pro version ($4.99). This app makes saving black and white, color, and greyscale images/PDFs to Google Drive easy.

edit easy

Now, remember that there are many websites online that share worksheets in PDF. For example, GreatSchools offers worksheets for all ages. Other sources of worksheets include:

And let’s not forget Seesaw’s Activity Library. With a free Seesaw account, you’ll be able to take advantage of the Activity Library they offer. What’s more, with a SeeSaw Plus or for Schools account, students can edit and annotate those PDFs and turn them in.

Did You Know?

Get up to speed with all that SeeSaw offers via the TCEA SeeSaw Educator self-paced, online course. Learn more online.

Step #2: Converting PDFs to an Easy-to-Edit Document

Making PDFs into an online form boggles the mind. How do you take images and PDFs and then turn them into something students can type on or draw on? And, is it possible to track assignment completion on a PDF or image? The answer is, “Yes, but it depends on the tools you decide to use.” Each of these tools has its own advantages and disadvantages.

You can use a popular PDF to JPG/PNG website (e.g. PDFCandy, PDF2PNG, ILovePDF, SmallPDF.com). Each of these websites makes conversion a breeze. If you need to install a PDF tool on your Windows computer to split PDFs, get PDFsam Basic. It makes splitting, joining, adding, and deleting pages in a PDF easy.

edit easy

But what do you do afterwards? It all depends on what you need students to do and where. Let’s explore what’s available.

Step #3: Convert PDF/Image into Learning Activity

Let’s take a quick look at the tools available, from free to more expensive:

Google Slides (read blogs and view videos)
Microsoft PowerPoint/OneNote
Teacher Made
KAMI (listen to this Ed Tech Club podcast featuring KAMI)
Wizer.me (watch this video, “Making Worksheets Interactive”)
Canvas LMS (read related blog entries)

My favorite tool is the one that does the most and costs the least. For web-based users, free Google Slides/Microsoft PowerPoint, or OneNote work great. Need scoring? You will need a tool like TeacherMade.

How To: Google Slides/PowerPoint/OneNote

Import a PDF into Google Slides and/or PowerPoint. Set it as the background, then add text boxes on top. Assign it to students to complete. OneNote users also have it easy.

Other tools, although they offer a trial or lite version, like Wizer.me ($35.99 a year) and KAMI ($99 year), cost money. My least favorite tool is the PDF tool built into Canvas because it is quite limited. Erin Hartman does a great job exploring it in this blog entry, “Edit PDFs in Canvas Assignments.”

edit easy

Note: Only a portion of the chart is shown.

The above comparison chart may assist you in deciding which is the right tool for you. I’ve made the chart easy to edit if it needs correction or additions. What do you think will be your go-to tools?

New Tool Spotlight: TeacherMade

Since I hadn’t seen Teacher Made before, I thought I’d do a quick walkthrough. I was able to create my free account with my G Suite EDU login credentials. Two seconds later, I was working on creating my single page worksheet. (Of course, TeacherMade supports PDFs up to 12 pages long). Since I didn’t have one handy, I saved one from the Great Schools website mentioned earlier.

edit easy

For fun, I decided to turn this into a matching activity rather than a circle one. I inserted color blocks to cover the words and turned the line border to transparent. Then I set up matching pairs, drawing boxes and then linking the two matching items. It was easy. Finally, I revised the instructions.

edit easy

You can see a worksheet preview here:

Once you have customized the worksheet for students, you can assign it to them, as you can see below:

edit easy

Start your journey of TeacherMade.com discovery with Kimberly Jacquay’s video series:

Lean into TeacherMade with these two follow-up videos:

And don’t forget that TeacherMade is free.

Now You Know

Get started soon transforming paper worksheets into digital learning opportunities. Use tools like PDFCandy to convert anything into a PDF or JPG/PNG. Or, get a PDF worksheet from a free online source. Then, make it interactive and scorable with an available tool.

October 13, 2020 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

Finding Educational and/or Free iOS Apps

by Lori Gracey September 10, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

Searching among the myriad of iOS apps that are released every single day can be a nightmare. And, if you’re a teacher on a tight budget, finding those gems that have also gone free for the day or week is even more difficult. Here are some tips to help, along with a few good resources.

If you want to improve your iPad skills and gain even more educational resources to use with the device, check out the TCEA iPad Educator online, self-paced course. Priced at only $29, the course provides lots of how-to videos and content, including a module on teaching remotely with the iPad, as well as a digital badge, certificate, and 12 CPE hours.

Finding Good Educational Apps to Meet Specific Needs

Let’s be honest. Finding a good app to use for teaching something like exponents (or any other topic students study in schools) in the App Store is almost impossible. Its search engine is weak and skewed toward paid apps. Luckily, there are two others we can use to get better results. First, check out The App Store.

Although it looks simple at first glance (below), you’ll soon notice all of the different ways you can filter and search. On the left, you can search for iPhone, iPad, and MacOS devices. If you click on the pink box with the funnel on the right, you can filter by a variety of needs, including last updated, ratings (yes!), price (any, free, or paid), categories, and ages. This makes it extremely powerful and useful. You can also browse the top apps to see if there are any that you’ve missed; after all, if everyone else likes them, they might be good for you and your students, too.

iOS apps

In my example search for the broad topic of “exponents,” it returns just 49 results. That may not seem like enough. But as you can see below, it brought back some jewels for me to pick from. (Of course, no search engine is perfect. You’ll notice it also returned “AutoFax Vehicle History Report.”) As you type in the search word or phrase, it also makes recommendations for you.

One other good search tool for iOS apps is Fnd. Again, it starts off simply, as you can see below. I used the same “exponents” search as before. What’s nice about Fnd is that it searches not just apps, but also music, movies, TV, books, Mac, and podcasts (who knew there were so many podcasts about exponents?).

iOS apps

Finding Free or Sale iOS Apps

What’s even better than finding a great app to use with your students is to find that great app on sale or even free. Here are three websites that can help (listed in order of my personal preference for the value they provide).

iOSnoops provides lists of apps that have gone on sale, are free, or are new each day and once on the weekend. They don’t list all of the apps that meet those three criteria, but do list most of the ones that people might be interested in. Scroll down toward the bottom of each list to find the education and books categories.

Today’s Apps Gone Free shares just free apps each day and once on the weekends. Their list is very short, usually only three or four, but they are usually great apps. Unfortunately, they are often not educational. Still, I am usually able to pick up a bargain there at least once a week.

Finally, there’s the AppShopper, the most comprehensive list of changes in app pricing. You can specify for iPad or all iOS, updated apps, new apps, and price drops. You can also search just for free apps. I found I got the best search returns when I left it on Price down, All, All, and then changed the All Categories to Books and then, when I was done searching there, to Education. Clicking on the Buy button will allow you to see more information about each app (without actually buying it yet).

iOS apps

AppShopper also allows you to create a free account on its site and then mark what apps you are interested in. If the price drops on those apps, the site will notify you by email, which is a very nice feature.

Last Thoughts on iOS Apps

If you’re going to be purchasing 20 or more of the same app, remember to use the Apple Volume Purchase Program which can provide a significant discount on the purchase price of the app, even when it’s on sale. More information about the program can be found here.

September 10, 2020 0 comments

Android Content Areas Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks

Google’s AI to the Rescue: Ask Socratic

by Miguel Guhlin May 19, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to step into the future? You may find this new iteration of an app worth exploring. It will be even more useful if you are a high school or college student and need help studying. Google for Education announced February 12, 2020 that they have a new tool to assist you. What’s amazing is that it uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to work. The updated app that Google acquired and revamped is Socratic.

Let’s take a moment to explore the new app.

Image Credit: Google Play Store

What Socratic Offers

Socratic makes over one thousand high school and college-level subject guides available, relying on artificial intelligence to find and simplify answers to questions. The questions answered come from subjects like Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, History, and Literature. Believe it or not, it can also answer questions about Physics and Trigonometry.

Socratic’s main features include the following:

Get problems into Socratic via camera, voice, or typed search
View online resources, including diagrams and videos, to solve the problem
Self-paced instructions and videos with explanations
A growing library of content

Getting started is as easy as getting the app and using it. Android users can get the app via the Google Play store. Need the iOS version? Get it here. (If you are clicking on this link to the app via your Chromebook or computer browser, log in with a personal account. The Google Play store doesn’t play well with G Suite EDU accounts and will give you an error.)

How Socratic Works

Wondering how Google’s AI works in Socratic? Google designed the app to assist students who may be studying on their own. You can use the voice search to ask a question. Another way involves students snapping a photo of a problem. Then Socratic will do its best to find an answer.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

When you first load Socratic on your device, you’ll have to sign in. You can try to sign in with a G Suite EDU account. If that does not work, try a personal Gmail account.

Sign-In Screen

G Suite EDU Account Not Found,

Use Personal Account Instead

Snap a Picture of a Problem

Once you have logged in, you will grant Socratic camera access. After that, you can snap a picture of a worksheet with a word problem or type it in, as shown above. Here’s what a solution response will look like:

Some teachers may express concern about an app that can assist students for self-paced learning. Those few detractors aside, this is a boon to independent learners. Take a few steps into the future of artificial intelligence with Socratic.

May 19, 2020 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts