Tag:

iPad

iPad Apps and Features That Support Emerging Bilingual Students

by Lindsay Cross December 28, 2023

written by Lindsay Cross

iPad offers numerous built-in features and native apps that can benefit all students throughout the school day. The accessibility features discussed in this article support content processing and language development, with a focus on emerging bilingual students. But they are also beneficial for all learners. Native Apple apps, Keynote, Clips, and GarageBand, facilitate the development of speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills. They enable students to express their understanding of content in an accessible manner. Teachers often seek new tools and apps, sometimes overlooking features readily available on iPad. Let’s explore these features and how to effectively utilize them in your classroom to support all learners.

iPad Accessibility Features

Spoken Content

Spoken content enables students to listen to text being read aloud to them. For instance, this feature can read highlighted text on a webpage, a PDF, or even text highlighted within a photo. Students have the flexibility to adjust the reading speed, apply text highlighting or underlining, select the voice, and even incorporate custom pronunciations. An effective method for students to enhance their listening skills is to have them select the text they have written, hear it read aloud, and then identify areas that may require revisions or edits in their writing. You can enable this feature from the accessibility settings on your iPad.

Dictation

Dictation on iPad translates students’ spoken content into text. Students may encounter difficulties when it comes to expressing their ideas or initiating the writing process. Dictation provides students with a low-pressure way to begin the writing process. It can be especially beneficial for students who face challenges with spelling. At times, we want students to focus solely on writing, rather than spelling. We can remove barriers so students can focus on the writing task, continuing their growth as writers. Additionally, dictation serves as an excellent tool for students to hone their speaking skills, as it encourages clear enunciation to ensure accurate recognition by the device. You can enable the dictation feature from your iPad’s keyboard settings.

Predictive Text

Predictive text is a feature that helps students with typing and composing text. When this feature is enabled, a list of suggested words appears above the keyboard every time a student types on their device. It can help students with spelling specific words or provide a bank of words that could be used in the next part of their sentence. Enabling this feature for our emerging bilingual students provides scaffolding and can reduce stress when they are tasked with writing.

Live Text

Live text is a newer iPad feature that enables students to capture text in images and have it read aloud or translated. This feature is valuable as it empowers students to scan various types of text in the classroom, such as books, anchor charts, printed material, and more. After scanning the text, students can choose which parts they want to access. After enabling the live text feature, students have the option to listen to the text, translate it, or even listen to the translated version. Live text is only available on certain generations of iPad.

iPad Apps to Support Speaking, Listening, Reading & Writing

Keynote

Keynote is a native Apple app available on macOS and iOS devices. It is often categorized as a presentation tool, but Keynote’s built-in multimodal features make it a more versatile creation tool. Keynote empowers students to create using shapes, text, drawings, animations, photos, live video, charts, tables, and audio recordings. These features allow students to animate vocabulary for visual representation and conveniently add audio within the app, enhancing their flexibility in sharing their learning. The array of multimodal features offered by Keynote provides essential support for our emerging bilingual students in expressing their understanding of content. For a detailed Keynote lesson idea, you can explore this resource available on the Apple Education Forum.

Explore a Keynote Lesson Idea

Clips

Clips is an app that enables students to create simple, engaging videos. Students use a combination of pictures, posters, emojis, stickers, live titles, and other features to make their videos engaging. One way Clips can support our emerging bilingual students is by allowing them to record audio directly into their video. This is a great method for students to practice their speaking skills. It is important for students to ensure they speak clearly, avoid mumbling, and speak loudly enough for the app to capture their audio. In Clips, students can activate Live Titles, which automatically adds captions to their video. Editing the captions provides an excellent opportunity for students to practice their reading and writing skills. Students can review their Live Titles, ensure they are written correctly, make necessary edits, and add punctuation.

Discover Ways to Use Clips

GarageBand

GarageBand is a native Apple app designed to create engaging audio content, including podcasts, songs, and public service announcements. With its voice effects feature, students can experiment with various voice effects and incorporate Live Loops to add sound effects and music. This process engages a range of essential skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. To begin, students focus on crafting a script, fostering their reading and writing abilities. Once ready to record, they shift their focus to enhancing their speaking skills during the audio recording phase. After completing their recordings, students review their work, making necessary edits, and adding sound effects or music to enhance their audio. This stage of creation sharpens their listening skills.

Check Out a GarageBand Lesson Idea

In conclusion, the iPad has a wide variety of accessibility features and native tools that provide students with a wide variety of support without ever needing another tool, app, or subscription. The iPad is a powerful all-in-one device that empowers all learners, especially our emerging bilingual learners, to practice their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Educators can use these native iPad features and tools to support emerging bilingual learners to interact with and create content in a way that fits their needs. If you have not explored the resources provided by Apple Education I highly encourage you to. Especially explore the wide variety of free resources in the Learning Center and Forum.

Want to learn more about iPad features that support learning? Don’t miss Lindsay Cross at TCEA’s 2024 Convention & Exposition in Austin, Texas! She’ll be leading a session on iPad Features That Support Literacy. Hurry and register before January 13 to get an advanced pricing discount. See you in Austin!

December 28, 2023 1 comment

Android Chromebooks iOS Tips and Tricks Uncategorized

Mobile File Management Made Easy, Part Two

by Miguel Guhlin July 11, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

Wish you had a file viewer for that video or digital document on your smartphone? Or do you have to work on different devices but hate having to remember a dozen passwords? Let’s take a look at some answers to these and more questions.

In part one of this series on Mobile File Management Made Easy, I shared some quick solutions you can use. In part two, you will learn the following:

My Best Picks for File Viewers on iOS and Android
Tracking Your Usernames and Passwords across devices

Collection #1: File Viewers

Let’s take a moment to provide some context for each of these tools. We’ll dive into some short, real-life scenarios with my recommended solutions.

Tool #1: Cross-Platform PDF Viewer and Editor

Standing at the luggage pickup carousel at the airport, I received a critical email. The email itself wasn’t so important, but the attached file was. It was a PDF that required my signature. I needed to send the signed PDF back to the insurance company. I was on vacation here, and I had to sign a document with only my smartphone.

To solve that problem, I reached for the Xodo app. I’ve featured Xodo in other blog entries. Whether you are an iOS or Android user, Xodo works great. Xodo’s website now boasts even more features due to a recent acquisition. On a Chromebook or laptop, try their website. It offers thirty different distinct functions or tools.

Get it: Xodo for Android or iOS

Tool #2: Video/Audio Viewer and Player

Work with video much, and you will find yourself working with the MP4 format. There are many video file formats. Wouldn’t it be neat to have a tool that could view them all when you are on the go? Let’s look at a few tools based on device.

Android

While you can find a host of video players on Android, many have ads and/or in-app purchases. These can be a bit of a let-down because who wants to wade through advertisements or pay for more features? The question is, “What offers the most features at no cost?” There are several great recommendations for your consideration.

The first is mpv-android. This minimalist video player, which has a desktop counterpart, provides comprehensive support. That is, it plays everything, including MKV video formats. Keep it in your device for those weird, unfamiliar or regular formats.

The second is an old-time favorite, VLC for Android (you must be logged out of Google for Education or logged in to your personal gmail account to access this link). You can’t go wrong with Videolabs video and audio player. Although they have a cone for their icon, it should really be a multi-tool. It lets you play videos, audio files, and stream content (such as from radio stations). It also has a desktop option for your Mac or Windows device.

Get it: mpv-android | VLC for Android

iOS – iPhone, iPad, and M1

While iOS users have great support built into their device, consider getting Readdle’s Documents. It offers a wealth of support for various file formats, including videos. What’s more, you can watch videos with subtitles. That can be a game-changer for some folks. Also, Documents works on Macbooks with the M1 chip.

Video formats: .avi, .mkv, .flv, .ogg, .mpg, .mpeg, .ts.
Subtitle formats: .srt, .sub, .ssa, .ass, .pjs, .rt, .smi, .stl subtitle formats.
Audio formats: mp3, .aac, .m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4r, .amr, .ac3 formats.

Learn more online here about the support Documents offers and get step-by-step instructions.

Get it: Readdle Documents for iOS/M1

Tool #3: Office Documents

Work in the Google cloud? You may want to rely on Google Drive’s built-in ability to interact and view documents. Or, if you have Microsoft 365, you can use that instead. Each comes with an army of helper apps you have to install. I have problems with both ecosystems, helper apps aside.

They can intrude on your privacy, track your information, and report it to the cloud. Or course, they can also work in the background to slow your device down. This might happen as they phone in to their respective motherships. That said, they can also be quite useful.

Get one of these apps if you are on a personal device and want to open a document and then throw it away. They are low-impact, and you don’t have to worry that you’re committing to joining an ecosystem.

OnlyOffice Documents, like Readdle’s Documents, offers many features. While Readdle’s Documents works on iOS devices, OnlyOffice Documents offers a slimmer alternative. Only Office Documents works on Android and iOS and offers a free “pocket” office suite. You can open all MS Office formats and export them to various formats (e.g., PDF, POTX, OTP).

Here are formats it’s compatible with:

DOCX, XLSX, PPTX
DOC, XLS, PPT
ODT, ODS, ODP, DOTX

You can also view PDF files, TXT, CSV, and HTML and save documents to the cloud. You can open documents there, too. It works well with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and other cloud storage. This makes this tool a swiss army knife for various ecosystems, but it’s only one app, not an army of helper apps.

Get it: OnlyOffice Documents for Android or iOS

Collection #2: Track Passwords Across Devices

Work on many devices? Have lots of usernames and passwords to remember? A second-grade teacher colleague aspires to keep track of fewer usernames and passwords. It is impossible to keep track of everything with a paper notebook, much less one’s memory.

I asked her to inventory her logins to help her appreciate the need for a password manager. She came up with a formidable list. here it is in no particular order:

Gmail Personal and Work
Microsoft 365 Email
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Words with Friends
Teacher Retirement System
Bank
Cable television
Mobile Service Provider
Uber
Fandango
Amazon
Hulu
Netflix
Paramount Plus
Amazon Prime
HBO Max
Social Security Administration
TxT
CashApp
LabCorp Patient
Car Insurance

And there are still many more. Trying to keep track of this many logins and passwords is frightening. You need a single sign-on (SSO) solution. When I switched my smartphone from Android to iPhone (I switch every few years), I was in for a surprise. The iPhone has a built-in password manager. Google announced their browser would also come with a password manager. Don’t trust these password managers. Replace them with something else. You can do that in your Settings->Passwords->Autofill Passwords.

You need something secure. I recommend Keepass for the most paranoid, or if you prefer, use Bitwarden. It’s a free password manager, and it allows you to add notes to each entry. It tracks websites, usernames, and passwords. Moreover, it works on all devices like Android, iOS, Chromebook, and anything with a web browser.

Bitwarden fully encrypts all of your data before it ever leaves your device, and only you have access to it. Even the Bitwarden team cannot unlock your protected data. Bitwarden seals your sensitive information with end-to-end AES-256 bit encryption. Also, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256. (source)

This makes it a powerful memory aid that guards your back. And while it’s free, you can pay a whopping $10 if you want more security. Free, you get unlimited passwords and all its core features on unlimited devices. It works on any device, including computers.

Get it: Bitwarden for your Android or iOS device

Want to try Keepass? T y KyPass ($6.99) on iOS or MacOS. For Android, use theKeePassDroid app.

July 11, 2022 0 comment

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 comment

Coding/Computer Science Content Areas STEM/STEAM

How App Development Empowers Students

by Enyi Rosa Gomez, Guest Author June 28, 2021

written by Enyi Rosa Gomez, Guest Author

Math is not everyone’s favorite subject. My group of fifth graders, who are the creators, designers, and builders of a math app prototype, will say that math used to be one of their least-liked subjects. With concepts of design thinking in mind, they were presented with a community education problem: help other fifth-grade students review and recall math concepts. My students decided that the best way to support their fellow students was through app development that provided student-created resources such as examples, steps, and videos.

Ideate and Prototype

The students brainstormed and ideated the best ways to reach the needs of their audience by conducting surveys and organizing data. Their findings and personal experience led them to focus on four key topics: multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals. They started by organizing the layout of their app on notecards; each card represented a page on their app, essentially mapping out the architecture.

They considered things such as accessibility, user-friendliness, appearance, and style. Students’ primary resource for the content included in their app prototype was their math journal. Next, they reviewed their notes, examples, and practice problems to create the content that would help other fifth grade students through their app.

Most students decided to include videos, examples, pictures, and written steps, and some even included quizzes to ensure that their message was received. Students used the Develop in Swift app design workbook as a guide to building their prototype.

App Development with an iPad

The primary tool for creating their app prototype was an iPad. The Keynote app has all the necessary features to bring their ideas to life and make a presentation work precisely as an app would.

The best part about it is that they can collaborate on the same Keynote document in real time. They can insert videos, pictures, and other documents into their presentation. They use the mark-up tool and screen-record feature within the iPad to share examples and step-by-step explanations to solve sample math problems.

Additionally, iMovie is a very user-friendly app that students can use to edit their videos and make them more engaging by adding titles, images, and sound effects. Simon Pile’s book, Why Use Keynote in the Classroom (2019), supports these ideas by providing many valuable ways that the Keynote app can be used to augment and redefine learning.

The Learning Experience

Currently, students are still in the development process of their fifth-grade math app prototype. It has been a long process that they are fully invested in. We knew this would not be an easy task from the start, but the more time they spend building out each feature of their app, the more excited they are about the entire project.

Students are working in groups of three to four members; the level of collaboration that has progressed throughout each session has been tremendous. In the beginning, no one wanted to take the lead, no one wanted to voice their ideas, and no one wanted to oppose anyone’s decisions. As time progressed, that has changed entirely; the groups are in sync, they share thoughts and build on each others’ ideas. There is a sense of belonging that has become evident as time progresses. It is incredible to see.

The interactions with me as the facilitator have also progressed. In the beginning, they wanted approval for every decision they made. Now, they are confident in their choices as a team, they have a clear vision for what their audience needs from their app, and they are not afraid to go for it.

Lastly, each student’s confidence in practicing math concepts has grown immensely. By reviewing concepts to create videos, examples, and quizzes about the topics they struggled with, students have become masters in these areas. They have gained so much confidence and are now sharing new ways to solve problems. It has also enhanced their critical thinking skills.

App Showcase

The last step in their app prototype development will be their app showcase. Students will present their app prototype pitches to an audience of all fifth-grade students and teachers on our campus. This will be a way to engage students’ communication skills and provide them an opportunity to test out their app with the community for which it was intended.

Have you developed apps with your students? Share your ideas in the comments!

June 28, 2021 0 comment

Chromebooks LMS

Three Fantastic Solutions to Schoology Problems

by Miguel Guhlin December 2, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Have a Schoology question that needs answering? Struggling through the use of a learning management system (LMS) on your own can be tough. Thank goodness for other educators out there who are figuring it out. In this blog entry, I’ll share three questions that generated discussion in the Schoology Educator Community.

1 – Mirror My Second Screen, an iPad

“I am having to teach from home for the next 2 weeks. I thought I could connect my iPad to my laptop and use it as a second screen. Would this work? What should I do? I have to be able to show how to work out math,” asks Jess. This is a tough one that isn’t particular to Schoology. Some of the responses educators shared include the following:

“Join the zoom call on both devices. Present your screen on your iPad. See app list below.”
“You can use a locker shelf or something similar and run Zoom on both the iPad and your laptop. (Have the sound off on one of them to avoid feedback).”
“Get the $20 phone holder gooseneck mount. It works with a variety of smartphones.”

Those first two solutions are great because they mean you don’t nee to go out and buy something else. You will need an iPad app that allows you to have a whiteboard. Here are some apps that you can use, but may need you to spend money on an in-app buy:

The problem with most of those apps is the recurring cost. You will have to decide if it is worthwhile. Tools like Whiteboard.chat, Google Jamboard, and AWWApp work great on your computer.

Source: Matthew Patty, Northside ISD

A second grade teacher I know well decided to invest in a document camera. She’d rather draw on paper or traditional whiteboard she has. The camera, the HUE USB Camera, connects via a USB port. This makes it easy to get Zoom to use it as an alternate source for video/images. Get the HUE document camera from Amazon for about $90. Prices are going up, I notice so you may want to shop around.

Schoology

Another possibility? Try Sidecar. It allows you to mirror your Mac screen to your iPad. For Chromebook users, the Dualless extension simulate a dual monitor. Looking for more solutions like this? Explore the Teach Without Wires: Mirror Your Device blog entry. It features one of the solutions I’ve invested in, Mirroring360.

2 – Requiring Video Viewing Before Assignment Access

“Is there a way to make sure a student views a video lesson before they have access to the assignment?” If you have students that skip the video on their way to complete an assignment, you can try to stop that in Schoology.

Two approaches that work some of the time include completion rules and magic words. Be aware that you can use completion rules to stop them. After a few seconds, they are able to continue to the assignment. Another way is to put a password or “magic word” in the video. This word becomes the first question in the assignment.

Two solutions that you can try that work well include:

It’s a shame Schoology lacks a more foolproof solution, but do try EdPuzzle or PlayPosit. Either solution will cost you money.

3 – Disabling Assignments at Grading Period’s End

“It is the end of our first nine weeks! Is there a way to do a MASS disable of assignments? Our cut-off day is today, and I don’t want them working over the weekend and messing up my grades! HELP!!!!” That can be a bit of a bummer. You have all your grades set, and then students turn in more of their work.

Schoology

Source: Use the Lock Option in Assignment view, Schoology

Here are a few responses to this question:

Put all your assignments into a “First Grading Period” folder and then unpublish it. If an assignment is not published, students are unable to see it. You, as the teacher, will still be able to see the assignments in the unpublished folder. Your Schoology administrator does need to have enabled this option that ensures that unpublishing assignments doesn’t result in a removal of grades.
Another option is to lock assignments, but that may be time-consuming if done after. When you set up the assignment, add the lock with a future date to ensure the assignment can only be completed during the acceptable time.

It appears that the best solution is, “Lock assignments after a specified time (e.g. one week after due date). No late submissions allowed.”

Sharing Schoology Solutions

Need any more ideas for getting things done with Schoology? Be sure to check out the TCEA’s Schoology Educator online, self-paced course. You may also want to explore the TCEA Community.

Schoology

December 2, 2020 0 comment

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 comment

iOS Tips and Tricks Technology Applications

Open-Ended Apps that Make the Cut

by Dr. Bruce Ellis August 5, 2019

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

We’ve curated a few apps that you can use with your students in a variety of ways. These apps are open-ended so you can use them with many different grade levels and subject areas. You are already doing assignments that could be easily transitioned over to integrate one of these apps so that students’ learning could be easily shared with other students.

Screencast on iPad

To record a screencast on your iPad, you’ll need at least iOS 11 or higher. With that version installed, you can record a screencast of whatever is happening on your iPad. The drawback (at least at the moment) is that audio is not recorded. While students can demonstrate understanding, they won’t be able to think aloud and have you listen as they record. Still, the silent screencast may be adequate for what your students are doing. Do the following to allow screencasting on your iPad:

Go to Settings
Go to Control Center
Tap the green circle next to Screen Recording to make it available.
To confirm that it is available, it should be in the “INCLUDE” section at the top.

Voice Memos

If you are only interested in audio or you are thinking about having your students record podcasts to share their learning, then Voice Memos might be the best app for you to start with. Besides recording audio, you can record over the audio if needed, trim the ends, or select a portion to delete. When done, you can share it out as you would with any other file on your iPad.

Animate It

This easy animation app allows you to create stop motion animation with ease. The LITE version (free) allows you to record up to 100 frames. When done, you can export your movie to the camera roll. The FULL version ($2.99) allows you to record up to 240 frames and adjust the frame rate playback speed. For each version, you will benefit from the onion skill viewing which greatly helps as you “plan your next move” before taking the picture. If you choose not to take the pictures manually, then you can set the auto-timer to take photos on a set schedule (1 per second to up to 24 frames per day…or anywhere in between).

Next time you consider how your students can demonstrate their learning, consider having them create an animation using Animate It.

Photo Grid

This tool is great when your students have a variety of photos they need to put together as a collage! Photo Grid is for iOS as well as for Android. Think of this as an easy go-to tool when your students need to record a process, a sequence, stages, or steps. Or it could be that students are creating a starter pack for a particular topic that will include several photos. Import photos from the photo gallery or use the camera to add student work or illustrations. Students will also enjoy tweaking the borders, applying filters, and adding backgrounds to take their work to the next level.

Adobe Spark Video

Adobe Spark makes creating a video presentation easy AND fun. You don’t have to be a designer to end up with a slick video that communicates your message well. You can find Adobe Spark Video for iOS or you can use it on your laptop or Chromebook by going to https://spark.adobe.com/make/video-maker/. You will need to log in with a Google, Facebook, or Adobe account. Students will find that their quick tutorial will give them all the information they need to start creating and sharing great work.

What Apps Do You Recommend?

What open-ended apps do you recommend for students that could be used in a variety of content areas and/or grade levels? Share with us in the comments below. We would love to hear about them.

How Would You Use These?

Because these apps are open-ended, they can be used by many different content areas and grade levels. How might you make use of one of these apps with your students? Share with us your integration idea (be sure to share the grade level and content area).

August 5, 2019 0 comment

handprints made of blue and red paint on a white canvas

iOS Tips and Tricks STEM/STEAM

Bring Digital Media into Your Classroom with Kid Pix

by Miguel Guhlin July 24, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

In the old days (circa 1990s), there was only one creation tool that mattered. Sure, word processors were plentiful. For classrooms, though, Kid Pix ruled supreme. Today, a new version offers current content creators an even more powerful toolkit for creativity. Let’s take a quick look at the new Kid Pix 5, which makes digital media in the classroom easy.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Before we do that, let’s recall some of the main features of Kid Pix. These videos provide some awesome memories for those of you who had the chance to use it with students. I was one of those classroom teachers who loved to see what kids could come up with.

Kid Pix Goes Mobile

The new version of Kid Pix, version 5, includes an iPad version ($9.99). The desktop version costs $39.99 and a 15-day trial version is available.

digital media

Connect with Shirley Boyd to learn more about Kid Pix

The new version, focused on STEAM learning, seeks to combine art and science. Students are able to create digital stories while designing interactive quizzes. Students can create learning games, as well as be the narrator in their own documentaries. Animated characters can share the small stage as well.

Some notable, new features include the following five:

Collaborative video narration. Students using the iPad’s built-in dual camera can create a video narration. This makes it possible for them to appear in animated costume frames and appear as characters in digital stories.
Interactive tappable objects. Students can create interactive characters that react when tapped. This means the interactive characters can tell a story, sing a song, or make a funny noise.
Full-length voiceovers. Students can record full-length narration for their slideshow. They can also assign voices to all the characters in an animated tale they create.
Triple soundtracks for projects. Three soundtracks make it easy to combine voice and other audio. This makes it easy to create digital documentaries, stories, and presentations. Exporting it as video even results in an enhanced podcast published via YouTube!
Publish and share to many locations. With this version of Kid Pix, you can publish direct to YouTube, but also share to Google Drive (unlimited storage for G Suite EDU), Dropbox, or elsewhere.

Those are some of my favorite new enhancements to Kid Pix 5 for iPad. One additional feature I would like to see is green screen support. This would make combining content with the over 163 video backgrounds even better.

digital media

Visit the Projects Gallery

Curious about what your students can create with Kid Pix 5? Check out the Kid Pix Gallery. Amazing children’s voices find expression via Kid Pix. Ask yourself, how are you amplifying students’ voices with the technology you have now? If you’re stuck for answers, why not give Kid Pix a try?

Research on Kid Pix Use

Surprising as it may be for such a longstanding tool, Kid Pix is often dismissed as a drawing tool for children. Yet it offers many of the features we look for in drawing, animation, and story creation.

More importantly, there is a wealth of research supporting programs like Kid Pix for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Checkpoint 2.5. That checkpoint includes the following:

In formal schooling, there is a marked tendency to present the majority of information in language. That is, in printed text. Many students for whom language is not a particular strength thus face persistent barriers not experienced by others. The experimental studies on the option of illustrating key concepts non-linguistically listed here span a range of media.

There is extensive research to support the representation of information through a variety of formats: video, diagram, image, music, animation, and more. The scholarly reviews and opinion pieces provide more classroom-based perspectives on the importance of using a range of media to convey content to students.

Digital Media in the Classroom

You can see the research on illustrating through multiple media online at the UDL Guidelines website. What’s more, in their book Digital Media in Today’s Classrooms, the authors point out:

When students create original products with multimedia, gains in achievement result (Goodlin, 2012).
Student-created digital media has demonstrated a positive effect on student achievement. Performance on high-stakes testing improves.
When students have the opportunity engage in active processing, academic achievement increases. Active processing includes five different levels: selecting words, selecting images, organizing words, organizing images, and integrating words and images.
Learners make sense of visuals sixty-thousand times faster than text.

Digital Media in the Classroom

Ready to get your students processing visual information sixty thousand times faster? Get them to start making things in tools like Kid Pix 5.

July 24, 2019 0 comment

iOS Tips and Tricks Writing

Seven Best Writing Tools for iOS Devices

by Guest Blogger February 5, 2019

written by Guest Blogger

Recently, Apple decided to renew its focus on the educational market. The company may have lost some ground to Google and other companies when it comes to owning the educational space, but there’s no denying it’s still a major player. One of the reasons that iOS devices remain popular in educational settings is because there’s no shortage of apps and tools that can be used in the classroom.

Writing is one particular niche where iOS developers have really done an exceptional job. There are a host of apps that students can use to become better, more prolific, creative writers. Here are some of the best.

Simplenote

As its name suggests, Simplenote is a very simple tool for taking notes. These are automatically saved to the cloud and synced to other devices. This is a plus for students who tend to have papers disappear into the ether between school and home or who don’t have access to a stick drive. The tool works for iOS, and there’s also a browser version.

Simplenote is a text-only tool. Some people may see this as a drawback. However, its simplicity gives students a distraction-free utility for taking notes quickly and easily.

Canva For Education

Canva is largely marketed as a simple, graphic design tool for business. However, thanks to Canva’s education initiative, teachers and students can use this tool to create posters, presentations, reports, and more. There are over a million icons, photographs, layouts, and other images that students can access via Canva. This app is available for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Notability

Notability is a wildly popular tool among students and teachers for note taking and annotations. Students can create and share documents from Notability. They can also use the drag and drop feature to move images, text, and other files into the app.

One really neat feature is the ability to search for handwritten notes and convert them to text. When combined with Apple Pencil, students can use Notability to hand write annotations and draw directly onto their device.

This tool even works for students who are auditory learners. The app features allow you to record and play back audio. Even better, notes are synced with the audio recordings. This means that students who are reviewing their notes can also listen to a playback of the lecture

Microsoft Word

It may seem counter-intuitive to use a Microsoft App on an iOS device, but in reality, it makes a lot of sense. Many schools already subscribe to Office 365. It’s a word processing tool that many people already know how to use, and it’s easy enough for others to master. Whether your classroom uses iOS devices exclusively or you simply have a few students bringing their own, the Word App for iOS ensures that every student can access this powerful writing tool.

OmniOutliner

By creating outlines, students are empowered to organize their thoughts and create well-structured documents. This leads to better writing outcomes. It’s also a great way for them to organize large amounts of information for their own understanding. OmniOutliner is an iOS tool that allows them to create great outlines with ease.

Yes, students can use any word processor for outlining, but this tool is created specifically for this purpose. It functions especially well for students who need to create and organize lengthy outlines.

Terminology

Terminology for iOS isn’t a writing tool in the strictest sense. It’s a dictionary and thesaurus reference. Still, it has features that can most certainly help students to become better writers. The tool allows students to look up words, mark words as “favorites,” attach notes to words, and more. Students can also use the tool to look up definitions and other information on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, and Wolfram Alpha. As a result, this tool not only improves writing, it can improve overall literacy.

Grammarly Keyboard

Grammarly Keyboard for iOS is a portable editor that students can use directly from their devices. It checks writing for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Even better, it integrates with all other phone apps. As long as students have the Grammarly keyboard selected as their default, they have access to Grammarly insights. Even better, the tool provides easy-to-understand explanations for the suggestions that it makes.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve chosen iOS devices for your classroom, you’re in luck. There are a variety of tools available to help students take better notes, organize their thoughts, and otherwise produce quality written works. Check out a few of the tools here to help your students improve their writing abilities.

This is a guest blog by Daniela McVicker. Daniela is a passionate digital marketer who is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with Topwritersreview and other websites where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their name in the online world.

February 5, 2019 1 comment

iOS Tips and Tricks STEM/STEAM

Appify Learning with iOS Science Apps

by Miguel Guhlin September 11, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

If you are teaching with an iPad and need to “appify” science instruction, consider these apps for your classroom. This collection includes reference guides and games. Each intends to engage students with visuals, videos, and interactive elements. The cost appears after each app. If no cost appears, the app is free.

Reference Guides

Bloom ($4.99): See how plants spread their seeds.
Field Guide for Lepidoptera: “Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths” (Source). This is a field guide.
Journeys of Invention ($9.99): “With Journeys of Invention you can study, rotate and even operate some of the most revolutionary scientific inventions of all time. Step inside the Apollo 10 Command Module, examine a flea with Robert Hooke’s 17th-century microscope, explore the Large Hadron Collider, or even encode a secret message with a World War II Enigma Machine and share it with your friends to decipher. The app features original and insightful history specially written by Science Museum curators with a rich collection of historic photographs, rarely seen contemporary artworks, archive film footage and video.”
Mammals ($2.99): Explore this interactive guide that shows how mammals play, grow, see, eat, move, and feel.
Nature Guides: Find out more about birds, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and damselflies with these informative color guides.
Science 360: A reference guide for current science news featuring images, videos, and text.
Science Glossary: A glossary of scientific terms and short biographies that support a science education website. All definitions link to related terms and to free, detailed science learning modules. It is geared for secondary students to use via the web. The various components are fine for anyone interested in science.
Weather Line ($1.99): See this infographic maker for your local weather.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Together: See endangered animals via images and read about them. The app features interactive elements.
Ultimate Dinopedia-Complete Dinosaur Guide ($4.99): See 700 dinosaurs with National Geographic’s interactive Dinopedia.
Video Science Guides ($0.99): “Short videos (80 lessons) demonstrate inexpensive and easy to recreate experiments that are designed to inspire and excite kids of all ages.”

Science Games

BioBlox2D: “BioBlox2D is a free mobile game for iOS and Android where you have to dock molecules together! Matching different shapes and charges. Switch, Rotate, Swipe and match the Ligands to create the perfect match for the Receptor. Learn about the fascinating world of bio-molecules and their interactions!”
DragonBox Algebra 5+ ($4.99): “DragonBox Algebra 5+ Is perfect for giving young children a head start in mathematics and algebra. Children as young as five can easily begin to grasp the basic processes involved in solving linear equations without even realising that they are learning. The game is intuitive, engaging and fun, allowing anyone to learn the basics of algebra at his or her own pace.” There is also a DragonBox Algebra 12+ ($7.99). Find a wealth of other apps online.
Galactic Genius with Astro Cat: “Galactic Genius with Astro Cat is a puzzle game app for ages 6-11 and beyond, based on mini games of logic, speed, memory, and concentration.”
Play and Learn Science: “Encourage early science learning with Play and Learn Science, a suite of educational kids games from PBS KIDS! Let your kids play a wide range of games.”

Using These Apps

It may sometimes appear difficult to incorporate non-game apps into your regular lessons. The standard use for these apps involves students exploring a specific topic. These work well as research apps. This approach does work. Students may tire of only using apps for research. Ask students to determine what has been left out of the app. Create situations where they can research that information themselves. Students can share their findings via a new Google Site or OneNote Notebook. Suggest students think about a different way to group the content in the app. Prompt them to think about what new topics might be included in the future. Take the app-based information to the next level of Bloom’s for greater engagement.

Looking for More?

There are many online resources featuring iOS apps. What are some of your favorites?

September 11, 2018 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts