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iPad

Transform Learning with Text to Speech

by Miguel Guhlin April 19, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

One of the biggest strengths of using technology to transform learning comes from its ability to help us solve common problems. A great example of this is the current crop of text to speech solutions that are available. Text to speech remains critical for teachers and the learners they serve, regardless of age. Consider that tools like ReadItLater’s Pocket make it easy to transform web pages into spoken-text audio that is easy to consume. And the research says that listening to audio while reading text improves reading skills.

Benefits of Text to Speech

Studies show that “…listening while reading helps people have several successful reading events in a row, where they are reading with accuracy and enjoyment…listening has been shown to help with decoding, a fundamental part of reading.” Colleague Kasey “Shake Up Learning” Bell points out the benefits of text to speech for students:

Relieves the burden of decoding
Focuses on comprehension
Improves fluency and endurance
Identifies and corrects more errors

If research shows this is effective, let’s clarify some ways to actualize this text to speech, speech to text connection in the classroom.

Speech to Text

OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote program with the Learning Tools add-in to dictate your speech (or student’s speech) and then have it appear magically on the screen as text.
Google Docs: Did you know Google Docs features speech to text? It’s called “voice typing.” Find out more. In a similar vein, consider the VoiceNote Chrome extension.

Text to Speech

Whatever your device, text to speech solutions abound. Most solutions require a dedicated internet connection since the bulk of the processing occurs via remote web servers. Let’s take a quick look at this round-up of apps, browser extensions, and computer programs.

OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote with the Learning Tools add-in to quickly capture images, grab text from the image (Optical Character Recognition, OCR for short), and then save that text into a OneNote page. Use the Learning Tools addition to read the “OCR’d text” to learners. Wow, that means you can grab any picture off the web, then grab text, and play it as audio.
Google Keep: Use Google Keep to quickly grab a picture, then grab text from the picture and save it as text. On Android devices, you can take advantage of Google’s Text to Speech engine. “From within any app that contains highlightable text,” shares John Dye at Android Authority, “you can now instantly conjure the voice of your preference to read the content aloud.”
Dragon Dictation (Free iOS app) – “Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages.”
Chrome Text to Speech extensions: Chromebook or Chrome browser user? Give these text to speech extensions a try. Each boasts various features you can use. These extensions include the following: Announcify, SpeakIt, Read&Write for Chrome, and JustRead. See other great tools online at Eric Curts’ Ctrl-Alt-Achieve blog.
Voice Texting Pro (Free iOS app) – “…Speak into the microphone and convert your speech into text. Then directly send your message to email, SMS, Twitter, or Facebook. You can also send it to your clipboard (copy) and paste the dictated text in any other application.”
Speech Notes (Free iOS app) – “Speech Notes is a note taking app that can convert speech with the help of an internet connection. Just tap on the mic button and, once done, hit again to start converting voice to text.”
Voice Assistant ($1.99 for iOS app) – This translates your voice in text and then enables you to share it with other iOS apps.

Now that you have access to multiple solutions for text to speech, speech to text, how could you transform learning in your classroom? The research is clear. What isn’t clear is how educators are adapting these technologies in the classroom. Please share your students’ success stories in the comments!

April 19, 2017 0 comments

ABC Magnetic Lite written with the letters in the app.

ESL/ELL iOS Tips and Tricks

ABC – Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids

by Peggy Reimers March 23, 2017

written by Peggy Reimers

Way back in the year 2010, I received my first iPad, and I still remember the first two educational apps I fell in love with because I still use them today. If you know me at all, you know my top #1 app is Doodle Buddy. But I have another app that is tried and true and just hasn’t received as much limelight yet. So here goes, a little love for ABC-Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids.

ABC-Magnetic App — Screenshot by author.

For this iPad app, think old school letters on the refrigerator. I don’t know if they were around in the sixties when I was growing up, but in the seventies, when I was of babysitting age, all my families had them. Old school, new school, these little letters in any shape or form are a great tool at home or in an educational setting.

A is a little list about this app.
B is for the basic set of capital letters you receive with the free version.
C is colorful letters that come in blue, green, yellow, pink, and red.
D is the deal you receive if you buy all current and future expansions for $4.99.
E is for the expansion sets: lowercase, shapes, and themes (monsters, pirates, space, and so many more).

When I showcase this app, I have three activities I usually share. So give these a whirl, and I’m sure you will come up with many more. These would work well in the ELA or ELL class.

Six Person Sentence

Group of 6

Assign one student a verb, one student a noun, one student an adjective, one student an adverb, and two students to “write down” any word.
Group forms a sentence with their words.
I usually let them change one word, if necessary.

ABC-123

Large group (20+)

Count off by giving everybody a letter.
Everyone “writes” a word with that particular letter.
Count off by giving everyone a number.
Groups gather together by number.
Students within groups organize themselves alphabetically by their words.

Banish Boring Words for a Prewriting Activity

Group of 7

Count off by number to form groups.
Each group receives an overused word.
One group member “writes” the overused word.
Other group members “write” synonyms.

Example: Eat Better words: gobble, inhale, chomp, nibble, demolish, and snack.

You can certainly click here and get my list of “Banish Boring Words” to use with your students. Please let me know if you use this app in your classroom, as I would love to pass on other great classroom activity ideas.

Featured image created by the author.

March 23, 2017 0 comments

Android Good Teaching iOS Tips and Tricks

Celebrating World Poetry Day

by Dr. Bruce Ellis March 13, 2017

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

While I don’t consider myself a true poet, when I see that World Poetry Day is March 21, I feel the nostalgia of favorite poems from my past; to recite them, read them slowly and feel the emotions evoked, to enjoy the words on my tongue as a tasty morsel. Though my favorites are not ones that you study if you are an English major in college, they touched emotions in me. And isn’t that what we want to happen with our students in whatever content we teach – that they have an emotional connection to it? Poems on my list include Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout by Shel Silverstein, and The Rose Still Grows Beyond the Wall by L. Frink.

This year for World Poetry Day, regardless of what you teach, here are a few tools that you and your students can use to articulate your content in ways that tickle the ear and spark the imagination. You even have a choice of at least 55 styles of poems that you can write! And even if you don’t have a chance to have your students read or write poems on March 21, still consider how they can use poetry to communicate truths in mathematics, science, social studies, and English language arts.

iOS and Android Apps

Diamante Poem – This type of poem is in the shape of a diamond. Each line uses specific types of words (adjectives, -ing words, etc.). What makes it especially nice is that it doesn’t have to rhyme. This app has some examples to illustrate how to write a diamante poem, and it leads you through creating your poem step by step. When you’re finished, you can save the poem as an image to your photo gallery. iOS and Android

Acrostic Poem – Think of a word and then write a word or phrase for each letter in the word. This app will lead you through creating an acrostic poem and even helps you brainstorm words. Acrostic poems are often used when students write their name vertically and then write out adjectives going across that describe them, but the uses are endless. iOS and Android

haiku app icon Haiku Poem – This app makes writing this Japanese-style poetry super simple. Walking you through the steps of brainstorming words and phrases and making note of the syllables, you’ll find that constructing one is easy and can be very profound. iOS and Android

Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics – This well-crafted app introduces students to a wide variety of poetry. Even without the premium downloads, the free ones supplied each come with audio that highlights the lines as the poem is read with inflection. Students can record themselves reading the poem and even earn poetry points by memorizing them. iOS

poems icon POETRY from The Poetry Foundation – Let students encounter a wide variety of poetry in this app. They can discover titles by spinning the category wheels (emotions and events) or by searching for a specific author in the index. Poems that have audio are indicated with a small speaker icon, great for extra support for struggling readers/writers as well as students who may benefit from hearing it read aloud. iOS

Poetry Websites

28 Must-Share Poems for Elementary School – A nice list of poems that elementary students can relate to and enjoy.

24 Must-Share Poems for Middle School and High School – Use these poems to start deep, reflective discussions in your classroom.

A Poem A Day: 30 Poems for Secondary Students During National Poetry Month – This list has a wide variety of authors, styles, and themes to enjoy.

Five Favorite Poems to Teach in Middle School – Mary Beth shares five poems, each including a connection to a story to read or additional resources to support analysis and writing.

12 Best Poetry Websites for Kids – Interactives and Collections – Check out this great list of resources and pass on to your peers.

Teaching Slam Poetry – If you don’t feel like you are a poet or even a poet-wannabe, then take a look at this lesson plan. You’ll appreciate the pre-instruction resources and other scaffolded help that Scholastic provides.

What Will You Do?

Will you take advantage of March 21 and offer a change of routine by teaching your content coupled with poetry? If that’s a little too soon, or you would like more than just a day, then spread it out and enjoy the whole month of April; you can even request a free poster to help advertise National Poetry Month!

We’d love to hear from you! Share with us your favorite poem and the connection. Or write a short poem in the comments section…limerick, haiku, whatever! Just drop it in the comments below.

closing poem

March 13, 2017 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

Must-Have iPad Apps for Content Creation

by Lori Gracey February 25, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

With more than 1.3 million iPad apps now available in the App Store, it can be difficult for a busy educator to find the best ones for a particular lesson or purpose. But don’t worry; with TCEA, you’ve got this! Below is our list of absolutely must-have iPad apps for when students (or educators) need to showcase their learning with content creation. The apps take a variety of inputs, from audio to stories to digital images, which is great for differentiation. And they’re all free!

Adobe Spark Video – Pick from over 25,000 beautiful, iconic images to show your ideas and Spark will automatically add cinematic motion and a soundtrack.

Doodle Buddy for iPad – A longtime TCEA favorite, this app lets you finger paint with thousands of colors and drop in playful stamps. It has lots of cool drawing tools: paintbrush, glitter, chalk, text, stencils, smudge, and more. You can also draw on photos and drawings of your own. The free version includes ads.

Popplet Lite – With Popplet, you can capture your ideas and sort them visually in real time. This app is great for mind mapping and brainstorming, along with creating galleries and class notes. The lite version limits you to just one popplet at a time saved.

Puppet Pals HD – Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time! Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later. The free version includes one background/theme. There is also a newer version of the app called Puppet Pals 2.

Quipio – Create amazing messages in a poster format by adding your own photos or drawings and text. Very simple to use.

Shadow Puppets EDU – Easily create videos in the classroom. Students as young as five can make videos to tell stories, explain ideas, or document their learning.

Sock Puppets – Sock Puppets lets you create your own lip-synched videos and share them on Facebook and YouTube. Limited backgrounds are included; additional may be purchased.

TeleStory – This fun app lets you create your own TV show with a theme, script, digital costumes, animation, voice recording, and more.

Toontastic 3D – Toontastic is a creative learning tool that empowers kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons through imaginative play. Making cartoons with Toontastic is as easy as putting on a puppet show – simply press the record button, move your characters onscreen, and tell your stories through play! Once you’re done, Toontastic will play back your animation and voice as a cartoon for you to share with friends and family around the world. The free version contains one background/theme.

Trading Cards – Using the on-screen questions as prompts, students can create trading cards of real or fictional people, places, objects, historical events, vocabulary words, and more.

VoiceThread – Create and share dynamic conversations around documents, snapshots, diagrams, and videos — basically anything there is to talk about. You can talk, type, and draw right on the screen. The app is free with additional in-app purchases available. Five VoiceThreads may be made with this app.

And one more that’s not strictly educational, but certainly is fun and engaging and gets your creativity going. Let’s Create! Pottery HD Lite – I love this app! Making ceramics has never been more simple and fun. Become a true artist and create “one of a kind” pottery items and share them with your friends. The lite version contains fewer add-ons and decorations.

February 25, 2017 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks Microsoft

Using OneDrive to Back Up Your iOS Camera

by Miguel Guhlin January 31, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

“I’ve taken so many pictures and videos, but I can’t get them off my iOS device!” Many fall into this trap. Caught up in the excitement of capturing and creating content, they fill the limited storage of their iPhone or iPad. Data is lost as teachers reset the device to clear content. Let’s take a look at an option you may not have considered, Microsoft OneDrive.

To the Rescue

Teachers attending a TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) event asked,”How do we use Office 365 accounts to backup photos and videos?” Another question that follows is “How do we share photos taken at school events with a wider audience?” The answer is Microsoft OneDrive, available for personal (5 gigs of storage) and work (1 terabyte up to 15 terabytes for school accounts).

The hub of Microsoft’s mobile apps, OneDrive makes interacting with various Microsoft apps possible. The iOS version offers an elegant interface (sans complex options) that you can use in the following ways:

Access and open OneNote Notebooks
Automatically upload camera photos, which feature camera information like camera used, shutter speed, aperture.
Create photo albums to facilitate sharing
Scan and digitize paper documents, whiteboards, and business cards

OneDrive now features Scan, a way to digitize paper documents and save them direct to OneDrive!

Miscellaneous features such as monitoring your storage space, the ability to modify settings, accessing offline files, and setting up multiple Microsoft Office 365 accounts are also included.

Once activated, OneDrive will upload pictures and videos from your device to your account. On your mobile, as well as online, you also can organize items into albums for sharing, allowing viewing and/or editing. The Album image thumbnail rotates to give you a preview of the contents.

Save Photo or Record Video to the Cloud

OneDrive makes it easy to take a photo or create a video that can be saved directly to cloud storage. This eliminates the hassle of creating a video, then figuring out how to back it up. Instead, your photo or video is saved directly to your OneDrive account. See how you can do this with this guide.

onedrive

As you can see in the screenshot above, the video recorded straight to OneDrive (bypassing the iOS Camera Roll) and appears with a time/date stamp. Sharing options for this Microsoft product (view/edit with a link or not) for Business/Education reflect your school district administrator’s preferences. OneDrive personal accounts provide individuals with more flexibility.

Interact with Photos Online

If you back up your camera roll to a personal OneDrive account, the photos will be available to you at OneDrive.live.com. You will see the “Camera Roll” folder appear inside your Pictures folder. To see Albums of Photos, and to access a specific Photos menu, be sure to click on the left sidebar, as shown below.

Share Albums and Photos

You can access photo albums and, as shown below, modify the sharing options:

onedrive

One neat feature that OneDrive-based photos have is the auto-tagging option. OneDrive automatically tags photos, as seen below, with one-word tags:

onedrive

Conclusion

Offering a multi-function feature set, OneDrive provides you with backup and creation options. You can backup photos or videos you have saved to the Camera Roll and use OneDrive to capture photos/videos direct to the cloud. Finally, you can use the iOS Send To menu to save to OneDrive. Give it a try and avoid the hassle of other, less effective methods.

January 31, 2017 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

Quote Makers, Engage!

by Miguel Guhlin January 23, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Leaders, looking for an easy app to use to spice up important quotes that you include in your staff missives, parent newsletters, or student projects? How about a simple way to highlight key ideas in assigned student text? Typorama may fit the bill for iOS device users!

Quote Makers, Create!

I love collecting quotes, often snapping a photo of my favorite quotes at Buc-ee’s while I’m traveling or jotting them down in my handy notepad. The best part of being out on the road is encountering truisms, as well as listening to K-12 and adult learners share their stories.

Just last month, I spent some time in Edinburg facilitating Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) professional learning. We kicked off the session reflecting on a powerful quote from Microsoft. Using Typorama, I recreated the quote below.

quote

Don’t you think this is more engaging than words on a slide? Typorama is a VERY COOL iOS quote app! Once you start using it, you won’t be able to stop.

Scan this image with Aurasma to listen to the audio introduction from Dr. Katie Alaniz, author of “Digital Tools for Today’s Classrooms,” the book from which this quote was taken.

Quote Makers, Adhere to Copyright!

Typorama combines a wide range of copyright-friendly backgrounds and text styles and allows watermarks to be inserted as well to advertise your campus, district, organization, or event. What’s more, you can use pictures from your camera roll and then add powerful quotes from students, staff, or even your own creations.

Note: Don’t have an iOS device? You can make your own image quotes with Google Draw or Powerpoint, but you might also give one of these a try: Recite.com, Quozio.com, BeHappyMe, and/or VizzBuzz

Not satisfied with the pictures that come with Typorama? Save pictures from any of the popular free image sites, several shown at the bottom of this blog entry, to your iOS device and then add your quote. The New York Public Library just released their digital collection for use, so be sure to include that in your list of image sources.

Learning Connections

As written in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), “Students must develop the ability to comprehend and process material from a wide range of texts.” Using a quote generator like Typorama, you can help students identify topic sentences or key ideas represented in text.

Tap into the excitement students experience when creating quote a work of art. This work can be displayed via social media or made into a “mini-poster” for bulletin board placement. And you can also help students “summarize the main idea and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning.” Whether for professional development (e.g. book study, article jigsaw) with adults or ask ing students to work in small teams with a buddy to analyze text, this type of activity is powerful for engaged learning.

Quote Makers, Share!

Learners can, as encouraged in Digital Media in Today’s Classrooms, “Collaborate to create an online clearinghouse of student-created media.” This clearinghouse can serve as a resource for students to use as they support one another in preparing for exams. The clearinghouse can be any one of the following:

OneDrive-based Image Clearinghouse

Hallway bulletin board
Google Photos – Easy to create a shared album, enable multiple staff/students to add content.
OneDrive Photos – Easy to add images to a folder, as well as share edit rights or view only link.
OneNote Online Notebook
School or classroom Instagram account

Steps to Make and Take

quote Here are the steps you can take to create your Typorama quote project. Remember, these techniques can be used whether you have the app or not. If you and your students are on a computer, try one of the aforementioned, browser-based, free quote generators.

Read a selection of text, online or from paper.
Choose your favorite quote or come up with your own based on what you have read (better activity).
Start up Typorama, select a background from their image search results or use a picture you have taken with your camera. Remember, you can always find a picture online. The image should reflect a key word in the quote text.
Modify the text and image features and then share it online.

Enhance with Augmented Reality

Using the iOS app Aurasma, you can convert these student-created image quotable quotes into “hyperlinked” images. That is, you turn each image into a “trigger” that when students point their iOS device to it, it has students reading the quote aloud, sharing a short anecdote.

Reminder: TCEA members, don’t forget about the upcoming January 25, 2017 Augment Your Reality Lunch-and-Learn webinar where we will share more ideas for using AR in the classroom.

Use the Aurasma app on your Android/iOS device and scan the quote picture above to listen to audio via Voxer!

More Than Quotes

This is a perfect app for both adult and K-12 learners to use. You can use it for creating memorable vocabulary words, summarizing fictional texts, and posing problems in social studies or history class. Please comment below and share how you would use Typorama in your classroom.

List of Copyright-Friendly Image Resources

January 23, 2017 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

Pick This App

by Peggy Reimers January 20, 2017

written by Peggy Reimers

I love working in the brick and mortar building of TCEA HQ, but it is also invigorating to get out on the road. The best part of workshops is connecting with teachers. I love hearing what their students are learning and what technology they are using to get the learning accomplished.

This past week I was in Amarillo, Texas delivering the Google for Education Educator Level 1. We kicked off the three days with a sharing activity of favorite tools. I overheard Jodi Stary and Krissy Clark from Canyon ISD talking about a VERY COOL iPad activity with their second graders. When you hear a great idea, it just needs to be shared with the world.

PicPlayPost is a free app to create collages with photos, videos, GIFs, and music.Here are the steps Jodi and Krissy wrote on the board for their Shapes Project.

Choose your favorite app to write your shape name and take a screenshot. (Suggestions: a Chalkboard app, Doodle Buddy, Notes or ABC Magnetic Lite or use your favorite drawing or painting app.)
Use the camera to take a photo of the shape found in the real world.
Use the camera to shoot a video of the child explaining how many vertices and faces are on the shape.
Open up the PicPlayPost app.
Choose the #3 frame. (You can add up to nine videos or images per project.)
Insert the pictures and videos.

A collage of three pictures of student's work with this partular app. — Pictures provided by Canyon ISD

I also asked Jodi and Krissy to share one of their student’s shape. Take a look at this wonderful example by second grader Tayden.

This is a perfect app for kindergarten, first, and second grade students. It could also be used for vocabulary words, life cycles, or math story problems for third and fourth graders. Please comment below and share how you would use PicPlayPost in your classroom.

Featured Image: Screenshot by author

January 20, 2017 0 comments

Content Areas Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks

Take Storytelling to New Heights with This Free App

by Lori Gracey January 15, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Toontastic 3D from Google is the latest storytelling app available, and it’s absolutely amazing. Students can draw their own characters, easily animate them, record their own narration, and create unbelievable stories. And did I mention that the powerful and open-ended app is free???

Available for both Android and iOS platforms, Toontastic 3D is perfect for storytelling with cartoons. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no registration, email address, or logins required. Google recommends the app for students ages 6-12, but I believe high school students would enjoy creating with it as well. And it would work with students working in pairs or alone. In addition, the app works just fine without Internet access. Finished animations are saved on the device in the app, but can also be exported to the photos app or library. Check out this 30-second video about Toontastic 3D.

Toontastic 3D As with any tool, the strength of the learning that results comes from how much thought students have to put into it in the first place. So they should definitely be asked to storyboard their cartoon first and have it peer edited for clarity, flow, and understanding. The app encourages students to use “Story Arcs” in planning their masterpiece. According to the website, “A Story Arc is a scaffolding tool that helps you map out a story’s plot. Whether they’re learning Language Arts or Science, kids can practice communication skills using story arcs as formulas for convincing arguments.”

Recommended Story Arcs

Short Story (3 parts)

BEGINNING Where you introduce the characters and the setting of your story
MIDDLE Where something happens, like a problem
END Where your story wraps up

Classic Story (5 parts)

SETUP Where you introduce the story setting and characters
CONFLICT Where you create a problem for your characters
CHALLENGE Where you make the problem even more difficult
CLIMAX Where you help the characters solve the problem
RESOLUTION Where you show the problem has been solved

Science Report (5 parts)

QUESTION Start by asking a research question. What do you want to know?
HYPOTHESIS State your hypothesis. What do you think will happen?
EXPERIMENT Explain your experiment. What data are you collecting, and what’s your control?
RESULTS Analyze your results. What observations did you make?
CONCLUSION Make a conclusion. What did you learn, and do you have any more questions?

Ways to Use Toontastic 3D in the Classroom

There are absolutely a TON of ways to use this resource:

At the beginning of the year, the teacher can share a cartoon she has created previewing the upcoming learning for students. Students can interview each other and then create a story about their friend using a photo they take of them. They can create a “welcome to our school” animation for parents and visitors.
In social studies, have students create cartoons about a state, historical figure, or time period they are studying. Or take primary documents and create a story about what they reveal.
Students can retell a particular incident from a book they are reading, create a book talk promoting their favorite book, or retell a story from a different character’s viewpoint or with a different ending.
If you really want to test your students’ creativity, ask them to create a short cartoon explaining a new math or science concept.
Design public service announcements after students have researched a particular problem in their school or city.
ESL/ELL students can use the app to illustrate vocabulary words.
Campuses can do their morning announcements using Toontastic 3D, whether created by staff, volunteers, or students.
If a concept is particularly difficult, the teacher can create an animation tutorial explaining it for students to watch whenever they need to.

Toontastic 3D empowers your students to be the actor, narrator, cartoonist, animator, director, artist, writer, or creative genius that they want to be. Download it today and get them started!

January 15, 2017 1 comment

Chromebooks Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Microsoft Special Needs

Dystopian Learning No Matter the Device

by Miguel Guhlin December 28, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

“You’re just a shill for Google,” a district colleague joked when I shared I had been selected to participate in the Google Certified Innovator program in 2010. I laughed for a moment. If that moment was funny, the fact that I became a Microsoft Innovative Education (MIE) Expert in 2016 must generate a few more chuckles. And some wondered at my efforts with a 1:1 Apple iPad classroom. Work in education, you soon find yourself avoiding a dystopian, technology singularity.

The Big Three, which includes Apple, Google, and Microsoft (let’s refer to them as AGM going forward), are competing for space in today’s classrooms. Each boasts new, powerful software, hardware, and online spaces that bridge the learning gap for educators around the world. From Apple’s Distinguished Educator (ADE) to Google Certified Trainer to Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Trainer, each program connects you to a vibrant community of educators.

AGM’s respective efforts involve getting educators to adopt education versions of their consumer technologies. While claims of classroom transformations must be taken with a grain of salt, there are real benefits. Let’s explore some of the benefits below.

Drink the Kool-Aid!

“Have you drank the kool-aid?” When you drink the kool-aid, you suspend your cynicism of AGM’s intentions. Instead, you embrace problem-solving with the technologies at your disposal. The more active the AGM-affiliated educator community, the better off you are. These communities connect via various social media, email lists, and face-to-face gatherings. All are focused on helping you bring the power of their technologies to bear on overcoming learning challenges.

Solving Learning Challenges

How would you approach the problem below?

Students need to adapt propaganda techniques seen in presidential candidate advertising. After analyzing those techniques in several video segments, students must create their own version. The version will connect to their reading of TIM, Defender of Earth, a dystopian novel featuring a dinosaur in a world-saving battle with nanobots.

How would you approach this from your particular AGM perspective? For fun, let’s jump right in and see (in alphabetical order):

Apple

Students could collect video clips, recording relevant clips using the iPad’s built-in camera. They must provide a brief analysis of the propaganda techniques in the video, then transition to their application of the techniques to a TIM, Defender of Earth main character. They could use one of these free apps (Shadow Puppet EDU or Touchcast) to create narrated video clips and then stitch the production together in iMovie ($4.99), Videocraft ($3) or Pinnacle Studio Pro ($13). Videos would be turned into the class Seesaw account (free), appearing on the Class Seesaw Blog after the teacher approved them. Students in other groups could offer feedback via the Seesaw app on their iPads.

That’s one approach to solving this challenge using Apple. Let’s take a look at another way.

Google Suite

After reviewing YouTube versions of commercials and advertisements, students decide to use video annotation tools built into YouTube. They annotate parts of the video, highlighting the parts that exemplify a certain technique. Upon completion, students organize a Google Slide featuring still images, incorporating a comic strip storyboarded in Google Draw, and a video they recorded to YouTube using either their mobile phone with the YouTube Capture or their Chromebook’s webcam with ClipChamp extension($49 per classroom per year). Other students incorporate audio into their Google Slides presentation by recording voice-overs using Nimbus Screenrecording extension (free). And others might use Adobe Spark (free) or WeVideo ($250 per classroom per year) online.

Microsoft

Students might create a OneNote notebook, providing a written analysis of several videos from YouTube and Vimeo. They can copy and paste the video link (a.k.a. embedding) into a OneNote page, the video appearing for viewing. Then they use their MS Surface Pro 4 tablets to record a video rendition of their advertising. They could blend propaganda tips into the video and then add their explanation of what they did. As a final step, they create a view link for their OneNote Notebook. This makes it possible for anyone with an Internet browser to view the OneNote Online. Their teacher can make a class Sway highlighting the published products and share it online via Docs.com. Students with special needs are able to interact with the OneNote Notebooks their classmates create using the Learning Tools add-in.

Conclusion

You may have seen several possible ways to overcome the learning challenges in the scenario presented. In fact, like most educators, you imagined ways for all technologies to co-exist and empower students. Settling on only one technology may lead to an unwanted dystopian learning situation. Consider blending technologies instead. With that in mind, what would your technology classroom utopia look like? Please share in the comments!

December 28, 2016 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks

Saving Time with Your iPad

by Lori Gracey December 23, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

If there’s one thing that all teachers ask for more of, it’s time. There simply is never enough time in the day, week, or year to get all of the things done that absolutely MUST be done. The good news is that technology was invented for that very reason — to save us minutes and hours. But are you taking advantage of your iPad’s time-saving features? Here are two tips guaranteed to give you back at least a little of your life.

Repetitive Writing

Educators spend a lot of their day (and night!) writing the same things over and over. Maybe it’s your email address or the name of your campus or even the title of a particular unit of study. Gain a few minutes back and create a shortcut for the words and phrases you use most often.

Open the Settings app.
Open General.
Open Keyboard.
Tap on “Text Replacement.”
Tap the “+” icon in the top right-hand corner.
Next to “Phrase,” type your email address (for example, lgracey@tcea.org).
Next to the word “Shortcut,” type the three letters that will be the shortcut for your email address (lgr for my email address).
Tap “Save.”

Now, when you go into ANY app, if you type your shortcut, your email address will appear and you can simply tap the Space key to drop it into place. There’s no limit to how many shortcuts you can have, so be sure to take full advantage of this time-saving feature.

Favorite Websites

We all spend a lot of time surfing the web these days. Having your most-used websites available for fast access is important. While Safari doesn’t offer a bookmarks bar by default, you can turn one on so that your favorite websites are always there for you.

Open the Settings app.
Open Safari.
Tap on “Show Favorites Bar” toward the bottom to turn it on (the button should be green for on and white for off).
Open Safari. You’ll now see the Favorites Bar right below the address bar.

Apple tries to help you out by automatically putting a few suggested websites into the Favorites for you. But you can edit them easily.

In Safari, tap on the Bookmarks button (to the right of the address bar).
Tap on Favorites.
Tap the Edit button at the bottom.
Tap on the red “-” symbol to the left of any website name to remove that site from the Favorites list.
You can tap, hold, and drag on the slider control to the right of any website name to move it up or down in the list.
You can create a folder to be on your Favorites Bar by tapping “New Folder.”

You can add sites to your Favorites Bar by first going to the website you want to add.

Tap the Share button (to the left of the address bar).
Tap on the Bookmark button in the popup. You’ll see the Add Bookmark dialog. On the popup, you can edit the same of the website (it’s usually too long) and choose where you want the bookmark saved.
Tap on “Location” at the bottom left of the popup and then “Favorites” to add the website to your Favorites Bar.

Of course, if it’s a website that you go to every single day, you can save even more time by simply making a shortcut to the site.

In Safari, type in the address of the website and press Go.
Tap the Share button (to the left of the address bar) to access the popup.
Tap “Add to Home Screen.” You can then edit the name of the website (again, it’s usually too long) and then tap “Add.” What looks like an app will now be added to your iPad screen.

Every time you open this “app,” it will quickly and automatically take you to the website. Since it’s just a shortcut, it takes up almost no space at all on your device, so you can have as many of these as you need and even organize them into folders, if you want.

While these tricks may not seem like much, it’s surprising how much time they can actually save you. Give them a try today and then sit back and relax with the time you’ve gained!

December 23, 2016 0 comments

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