Apple iPad for Education

Apple released the new iPad a few weeks ago and it is amazing! It is really easy to use and has a surprising amount of ways to use for teaching and learning. It has a big enough screen to actually read and compose on and it has a great battery life (up to 10 hrs). The whole screen is touch sensitive so anything you want to do is intuitive. The size is a great benefit. It is big enough to be useful, yet small enough to be easily portable and let students work collaboratively if needed.

There are a lot of great education applications that are completely free and others available to purchase. There are flash cards, vocabulary builders, maps, books and many more apps to choose from. For example, the Kindle app is a great way to read books and be used as a study tool. You can take notes right in the app for the page you want in the book and highlight passages. The Kindle app syncs with your Amazon account (once you create one) so you can log in and see everything in one place. So, instead of having to flip through pages to find notes or passages you want to reference they are all organized in your Amazon account. You have it all right in front of you electronically that you can sort and organize in any way you want. Plus, there is a built in dictionary that you can highlight any word and look it up right there on the spot from the book you are reading.

Another great way to use the iPad is to download free resources (documents, videos, podcasts, etc) from Ohio iTunes U. You can view them all into your iTunes account on your iPad and view them even with out internet access.

I am sure you will find plenty of other ways to utilize an iPad in your classroom and daily life once you take a look at one! I know I have!

Make your own video tutorials for free!

Have you ever seen a video tutorial of a computer screen with instructions and wonder, "How do they do that?" Now you can make your own tutorials with free software! There are several different software programs available to make this happen, however 'Jing' is free and easy to use. You can capture sill images of your computer screen, record a video of your screen and share your files online. The next time someone asks you how to do something 'techie' you can create a quick video with your instructions instead of typing them out and sending them over email. It will be faster then typing out all of the steps! Check out the link below for a free download and more information.
http://www.jingproject.com/

Once you create your video/webcast/vodcast (video webcast) there are many ways to share it. If you have a wiki or webpage you can upload it there. Or, if you are not that fancy yet you can use 'Screencast.com' to share your videos. It is basically saving your files in 'the cloud' (or, online). You can share the link to your internet storage space so others can view your videos. Screencast.com is also free. You just need to set up an account. From there, you can upload your videos and files. You can even control which files are public (anyone who has your link can get to the files) and which files are private. Private files are only accessible to you when you sign in so others can't see them. It is super easy to get started. Check out the Screencast link below to get started.
http://www.screencast.com/



Check out my tutorial below on how to add a file to a Wikispaces page.
Link to my Screencast shared page:
Add file to wiki

What's Up with RSS?

Have you ever wondered what people are talking about when they say 'RSS Feed'? Or, have you seen those little orange boxes on websites with the letters RSS and wondered who this RSS person was and why they keep leaving their initials everywhere? Well, here are some basics to help you get up to speed. The icon below is another common symbol for RSS feeds.

RSS feeds are a great way to for you and your students to stay up-to-date and informed with 21st Century skills. RSS typically stands for 'Real Simple Syndication'.
"RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News. 

What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed?

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use."(http://www.whatisrss.com/)

 

There are several options out there to choose from for feed readers and/or aggregators such as Page Flakes and Google Reader.

"Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available." (http://www.whatisrss.com/)

 

As mentioned above, Pageflakes is a great site to view your RSS feeds and to use in education. One reason I like Pageflakes is that you can make your page public and share it with others. So, the next time you teach a unit on habitats you could set up a page flake to bring in articles from sites that you choose all to one place. You can share the Pageflake link with your students so they have the most recent information and content to read and it will all be about the topic you are covering!

http://www.pageflakes.com/

2nd Grade: Saving Forests with Clickers

If you thought second graders were too young to use Turning Point clickers, think again! Second grade classes at Elda and Morgan are using the clickers for their district assessments. Turning Point slides were created for all of the multiple choice questions for the Science and Social Studies assessments. We started the project at Elda with Dave Williams and Mandy Brosier's classes. The students loved it and did a great job! It was so easy! They picked up with the paper/pencil versions for the fill in and short answer questions after they 'voted' in all of the multiple choice answers.

The project will pick back up again next week at Morgan. All second grade classes will be using Turning Point for assessments. The idea is to pilot the clickers for district assessments this year with a few classes to see how it works. If all goes well (so far it is) we can use clickers for more assessments and grade levels in the future. Just think about all the paper and money we could save by using the clickers for multiple choice questions. If we only have to print the short answer and fill in questions we will save whole forests! Well, it might take a few years to save a forest but why not dream big?