I gave a talk about iPads in Education. Here are the slides. Unfortunately, I cannot find any way for the slides to play the animations automatically. So, if it looks like the slideshow stopped, click anywhere within the slideshow window.
Nov 12, 2012
Nov 8, 2012
Oct 29, 2012
60 in 60: Inspiring Apps (and site) for teachers by Hansen and Birks
Very good presentation by Aaron Hansen and Ray Birks of Wenatchee School District from 10/2012.
http://waetag.tk/
Their presentation includes websites and iPad apps, for K-12. Here are some free ones that I thought especially useful for high school and that people may not have heard about.
Sites
PollEverywhere -- polls taken via phone, web and Twitter -- use it as a clicker response system
FlockDraw -- draw collaboratively -- on the same page at the same time
Scale of the Universe
Speak Pipe -- record a voice message and email it (up to 10 minutes)
Sound Cloud -- record audio files and share
Soundation -- site for creating music (aka free Garageband)
iPad apps
History: Maps of the World
3D Cell Simulations
Coaster Physics
Science 360
Woices -- geolocalized audioguides done by users around the world - record one or explore others'
http://waetag.tk/
Their presentation includes websites and iPad apps, for K-12. Here are some free ones that I thought especially useful for high school and that people may not have heard about.
Sites
PollEverywhere -- polls taken via phone, web and Twitter -- use it as a clicker response system
FlockDraw -- draw collaboratively -- on the same page at the same time
Scale of the Universe
Speak Pipe -- record a voice message and email it (up to 10 minutes)
Sound Cloud -- record audio files and share
Soundation -- site for creating music (aka free Garageband)
iPad apps
History: Maps of the World
3D Cell Simulations
Coaster Physics
Science 360
Woices -- geolocalized audioguides done by users around the world - record one or explore others'
Oct 15, 2012
Talk about "iPads in Education" at NJAIS 2012
I gave a talk about iPads in Education. Here are the slides. Unfortunately, I cannot find any way for the slides to play the animations automatically. So, if it looks like the slideshow stopped, click anywhere within the slideshow window.
Oct 3, 2012
Googling more effectively
Google has always had various modifiers, or "operators", you could include in the search box to make your search more effective. This Google support page describes these operators in detail. If you like infographics, this giant one is geared at students doing online research (note that the timerange operator is incorrect). Here is my remix of this infographic to highlight the ones I think are the most useful:
Sep 5, 2012
Encrypting files, in Dropbox and elsewhere
Online/cloud storage -- i.e. keeping your files with an online storage company that allows you to access them from anywhere -- is here to stay. The best known example is Dropbox. The newer kid on the block is Google Drive, which has similar functionality. If you already have your entire world set up with Dropbox, there is no overwhelming reason to switch. However, if you are just starting with online/cloud storage and you have a Google or Gmail account anyway for your other needs, Google Drive is great because it is integrated with all Google apps.
If you are staying with Dropbox and you are worried about security breaches (honestly -- a security breach at this day and age is unforgivable), there are simple ways for you to keep sensitive files -- just encrypt them.
If you want the gold standard in file encryption and are not bothered by less-than-friendly user interface, use TrueCrypt (good how-to link).
If you want a simpler and friendlier program, there are two good choices:
1. Use encrypted zip file -- see link for details.
or
2. Use BoxCryptor -- see link for details.
If you are staying with Dropbox and you are worried about security breaches (honestly -- a security breach at this day and age is unforgivable), there are simple ways for you to keep sensitive files -- just encrypt them.
If you want the gold standard in file encryption and are not bothered by less-than-friendly user interface, use TrueCrypt (good how-to link).
If you want a simpler and friendlier program, there are two good choices:
1. Use encrypted zip file -- see link for details.
or
2. Use BoxCryptor -- see link for details.
Sep 1, 2012
Link directly to a specific time within a YouTube video, and other YouTube tricks
Start time
When providing a link to a YouTube video, there is a simple way to have the link open the video at a specific time within the video. Take the YouTube address (URL), e.g.
When providing a link to a YouTube video, there is a simple way to have the link open the video at a specific time within the video. Take the YouTube address (URL), e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxxHvWwQBw
and add the following to the end of this link, e.g.
&t=0m40s
Now, when you click on the link
&t=0m40s
Now, when you click on the link
the video starts at 0 minutes, 40 seconds, instead of at the beginning.
Next question -- how do you make it stop after playing a certain time? I do not know of a way to do that with a simple URL parameter such as &t.
Related videos
When a YouTube video finished, YouTube provides a number of videos it believes are related to yours. Unfortunately, you have no control over this list and it may very well include inappropriate content. To disable this screen, add &rel=0 to the end of the URL, e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxxHvWwQBw&rel=0
Fill entire browser window
If you want a YouTube video to fill the entire browser window, replace the /watch?v= part of the video's URL with /v/ e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/v/jJxxHvWwQBwNext question -- how do you make it stop after playing a certain time? I do not know of a way to do that with a simple URL parameter such as &t.
Related videos
When a YouTube video finished, YouTube provides a number of videos it believes are related to yours. Unfortunately, you have no control over this list and it may very well include inappropriate content. To disable this screen, add &rel=0 to the end of the URL, e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxxHvWwQBw&rel=0
Fill entire browser window
If you want a YouTube video to fill the entire browser window, replace the /watch?v= part of the video's URL with /v/ e.g.
Of course, you can combine all these tricks:
Aug 29, 2012
Where to store files?
Until this April, the answer was Dropbox, which provided 2GB of free storage, ways to share folders, and a good automatic sync between your various devices. If you want a short intro to Dropbox, you can find it here.
Google Drive, which came out this past April, can serve the same function as Dropbox in terms of online storage.
Should you switch? If you are using Google software for other things, e.g. Gmail, it is easiest to use Google Drive for storage. If you are not using Google for other stuff, staying with Dropbox or switching to Google Drive may be a tossup, depending on your needs. If you want to read more on the trade-offs between these two options, Lifehacker has a good article. If you want to read more on many more online storage options, Verge has a good article.
Google Drive, which came out this past April, can serve the same function as Dropbox in terms of online storage.
Should you switch? If you are using Google software for other things, e.g. Gmail, it is easiest to use Google Drive for storage. If you are not using Google for other stuff, staying with Dropbox or switching to Google Drive may be a tossup, depending on your needs. If you want to read more on the trade-offs between these two options, Lifehacker has a good article. If you want to read more on many more online storage options, Verge has a good article.
Aug 28, 2012
Grading with Voice on an iPad
Here is a good article by Doug Ward, a University of Kansas professor, who uses iAnnotate to provide verbal grading/feedback on student papers. iAnnotate is the Cadillac of PDF annotations and it syncs with Dropbox. The audio notes are saved with the file. iAnnotate is pricey ($10).
There is another app, PaperPort, that supports text dictation using Dragon speech-recognition software. PaperPort is not fast at importing a PDF document from Dropbox, and you need networking "on" in order to use the text dictation. The handwriting is pretty rough, but typing, dictation and support for PDF make it a good app. The free pricetag doesn't hurt either. Here's a good review.
There is another app, PaperPort, that supports text dictation using Dragon speech-recognition software. PaperPort is not fast at importing a PDF document from Dropbox, and you need networking "on" in order to use the text dictation. The handwriting is pretty rough, but typing, dictation and support for PDF make it a good app. The free pricetag doesn't hurt either. Here's a good review.
Aug 24, 2012
Nearpod for iPad
Nearpod is an interesting tool that, from the buzz the company has produced, seems to be the holy grail for education. On further testing, it proves to be useful but limited.
Here's how it works:
1. You, the teacher, create a lesson at nearpod.com ahead of time. Here is where you hit the first limitation -- the lesson cannot be created or edited on iPad. So, if you don't have a computer in your classroom, you cannot change anything mid-class. This also means that you and your students must all be connected to the Internet, since it is being run from nearpod.com and not from your iPad locally. Depending on your school's Internet speeds, this could be dicey.
A similar, but less restrictive and more feature-rich software is GoClass, but it is still in beta. It allows creation and editing of lesson elements on iPad, students can proceed at their own pace, and quizes/polls can be timed. Being in beta, the stability and buggyness of the app are unknown.
Other reviews of Nearpod:
Here's how it works:
1. You, the teacher, create a lesson at nearpod.com ahead of time. Here is where you hit the first limitation -- the lesson cannot be created or edited on iPad. So, if you don't have a computer in your classroom, you cannot change anything mid-class. This also means that you and your students must all be connected to the Internet, since it is being run from nearpod.com and not from your iPad locally. Depending on your school's Internet speeds, this could be dicey.
- A lesson is made up of slides
- A slide can be either a content slide or an interactive slide.
- A content slide can be a page from a PDF document or an image or a movie.
- An interactive slide can be a poll, a quiz, a Q&A or a drawing the students produce on a blank page or on an image (e.g. graph paper).
- You give students a pin and they each enter it into the student version of the nearpod app on their own iPads. As they join the lesson, you see their names pop
- You control exactly what is displayed on everyone's screen. Results of interactive slides (e.g. poll) show up in real time to you and you can choose to display them to everyone. Same with anything the students produce on their own drawing slides.
A similar, but less restrictive and more feature-rich software is GoClass, but it is still in beta. It allows creation and editing of lesson elements on iPad, students can proceed at their own pace, and quizes/polls can be timed. Being in beta, the stability and buggyness of the app are unknown.
Other reviews of Nearpod:
Aug 15, 2012
iPad and Flash
Although iPad does not fully support Adobe's Flash technology, a number of Web Browsers available for the iPad handle at least some Flash sites. The best of these is a free one called Puffin.
Here are pointers to further information about Flash and iPad:
… articles about different solutions for playing Flash: How to Get Flash on the iPad and Can I Play Flash on iPad? Yes!
… sample sites that “flash” browser should be able to handle: syfy.com/tinman, arome.fr, Monoface, Get The Glass
… sample sites that “flash” browser handle somewhat: friv
Other browsers with some Flash support are Skyfire ($5), Photon ($5), iSwifter ($5). I have tried all of these and prefer Puffin.
Here are pointers to further information about Flash and iPad:
… articles about different solutions for playing Flash: How to Get Flash on the iPad and Can I Play Flash on iPad? Yes!
… sample sites that “flash” browser should be able to handle: syfy.com/tinman, arome.fr, Monoface, Get The Glass
… sample sites that “flash” browser handle somewhat: friv
Other browsers with some Flash support are Skyfire ($5), Photon ($5), iSwifter ($5). I have tried all of these and prefer Puffin.
May 21, 2012
My reflections from Learning and the Brain conference May 4-6, 2012
Overall quality and content
The talks varied tremendously in quality and content: a few were excellent, some were ok, and some were content-free and/or erroneous. I'm not sure how they vet, but clearly it is not a rigorous process.
The best talks
- Cathy Davidson, "How the Brain Science of Attention will transform Schools and How Students Learn and Live"
- David Daniel, "The Dark Side of Teaching with Technology"
- Jay Giedd, "Developing Teen Brains and Multitasking"
- Paul Howard-Jones, "What is the Internet Doing to Our Brains?: The Impact of Digital Technologies on Student Learning and Well-Being"
Apr 16, 2012
A free screencast and whiteboard app for iPad
Came across this reasonably new iPad app: PageSend. It is free and does two important jobs very well.
1. It's a very nice screencast app. It supports writing/typing/drawing, provides choice of colors and line thickness and allows multi-page boards. The only downside is that it is not integrated with Dropbox -- the finished product can be emailed or viewed at pagesend.com
2. It's a great whiteboard app. You need to create pagesend.com account(s) then you and any other users you invite can use your iPads as a common whiteboard in real-time. Multiple users can write simultaneously.
1. It's a very nice screencast app. It supports writing/typing/drawing, provides choice of colors and line thickness and allows multi-page boards. The only downside is that it is not integrated with Dropbox -- the finished product can be emailed or viewed at pagesend.com
2. It's a great whiteboard app. You need to create pagesend.com account(s) then you and any other users you invite can use your iPads as a common whiteboard in real-time. Multiple users can write simultaneously.
Apr 12, 2012
[Advanced] Fixing up a sluggish Win7 machine
Excellent instructions for a savvy techie on what to do to fix a sluggish Win7 machine:
2012: Fixing a sluggish PC link
Apr 11, 2012
Worthwhile additions to your Web browser
They go by many names: plugins, extensions, add-ons, bookmarklets. Whatever you want to call them, they are extra functions that you can add to your Web browser. The best browsers for adding stuff is Firefox and Chrome; the worst is Internet Explorer. But, even with Internet Explorer, there are ways. While you can certainly go crazy with these add-ons, be warned that they do take up extra resources. So, if you have an old machine and you like having a gazillion tabs open at the same time within your browser, you may want to severely limit your add-ons. Here are the ones I use on a daily basis:
All the ones mentioned here have Firefox and Chrome versions. If you are using Internet Explorer and are looking for an excuse to switch, this post might be your ticket.
- to make reading Web content easier: Evernote Clearly and Readability
- to capture screenshots (including automatically scrolling a long webpage): Pixlr Grabber
- to create a short URL for a webpage: bitly (if you are wondering why anyone needs this, leave a comment and I'll explain)
- to manage my passwords: LastPass
All the ones mentioned here have Firefox and Chrome versions. If you are using Internet Explorer and are looking for an excuse to switch, this post might be your ticket.
Apr 6, 2012
Distraction-free reading on the Web
This is a long-ish post because I have included examples to motivate and illustrate these tools. If you just want just the punchline, skip to the end.
Here's what a first page of a typical online news article looks like nowdays:
Here is each page with the story's content marked with a red rectangle:
What you do not see in these snapshots is that each webpage has at least one advertisement with motion in it, making each page even busier and more distracting when looking at it "live". If you would like a less distracting experience when you read content online, here is what you could have
Here's what a first page of a typical online news article looks like nowdays:
 |  |  |
Here is each page with the story's content marked with a red rectangle:
 |  |  |
What you do not see in these snapshots is that each webpage has at least one advertisement with motion in it, making each page even busier and more distracting when looking at it "live". If you would like a less distracting experience when you read content online, here is what you could have
Mar 1, 2012
OnLive -- a better Office on the iPad?
Onlive Desktop is a new app for handling Microsoft Office documents. It is fast, it is sleek, but there are two reasons to wait: getting any document into or out of Onlive Desktop is a pain in the neck, and it is not at all clear if Onlive will survive Microsoft's licensing challenge. For more info, check out OnLive's train wreck: Office on the iPad and First look: OnLive Desktop Plus.
Feb 27, 2012
OneNote on iPad?
There is no good news for OneNote devotees. Your choices are the newly-released OneNote app by Microsoft, Outline app by Aqrate Software, or Mobile Noter for iPad. Outline allows viewing of any OneNote files in Dropbox, but does not allow editing. Microsoft's app syncs to cloud storage via your LiveID, but you can only edit the typed text part of the note; any handwritten notes are not only not-editable, they are not even displayed -- they show up as "[ink]". MobileNoter is free only for 30 days; after that you need to pay $15/yr if you want sync functionality. MobileNoter does not allow you to edit existing OneNote notebooks, just view them. [3/11/2012 Correction, thanks to oblacksmith: MobileNoter does allow viewing and editing existing OneNote notebooks. I still don't think this app is worth using since there are a lot of complaints in the reviews.]
So, what do you do if you have copious handwritten notes and like OneNote? To be honest, I do not know. There are good iPad apps for handwritten notetaking, but they do not have versions for Windows or Mac. Evernote exists on all the devices, but its support for handwritten notes via Skitch is kludgy, at best.
So, what do you do if you have copious handwritten notes and like OneNote? To be honest, I do not know. There are good iPad apps for handwritten notetaking, but they do not have versions for Windows or Mac. Evernote exists on all the devices, but its support for handwritten notes via Skitch is kludgy, at best.
Feb 20, 2012
Up to 5GB of additional free space on Dropbox
You can get up to 5GB of additional free space on Dropbox for trying their current beta version. I installed it on 2 machines with no troubles. The details are in their forum post forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=54396&replies=243. It is "beta" software, so be sure to make a copy of your current Dropbox content before installing the new version. Once you install it, just attach a camera or a flash drive with photos and choose "Dropbox" in Autoplay dialog. For every 500MB of photo/video content you let Dropbox upload this way, you get 500MB free space (up to 5GB total). After Dropbox is done uploading, you can delete any of this extra content.
Feb 19, 2012
Running a survey
If you want to create a survey, there are a number of good options. Google Forms works well if you are already using Google. If you want an alternative, I just found an excellent online tool that definitely beats polldaddy.com (which has previously been my favorite) by miles. It is kwiksurveys.com.
Feb 15, 2012
How my tablet and Dragon Dictation helped me stop procrastinating and write those interims already...
After sharing my experience with Dragon Dictation and interims with Dina recently, she invited me to blog about it. I found the app to be very helpful but recognize that everyone works differently. If your biggest stumbling block with writing interims or comments is facing the dreaded BLANK PAGE, or you find yourself procrastinating up until the last few days, this may help:
I found that on the friday evening before interims were due, I had a pile of student work in front of me and lots of things to say about my students' progress, but kept struggling to sit down and just write. So I decided to give a dictation app a try. I had seen Jim Jordan use Dragon Dictation with some success, so I downloaded it and tried recording my thoughts. I figured out pretty quickly that I'd need to speak pretty slowly, and that felt awkward at first. But after a few paragraphs I had relatively few typos or misspellings. All you do is open the app, start recording, and once you're done you can copy and paste the text into a word processing program (I used Pages on my iPad).
The big bonus was that after a couple of hours of relatively stress-free work (just having a chat with your iPad really doesn't feel like hard work), I had a (VERY ROUGH) rough draft for most of my students. There was a lot of editing that needed to be done, but I'd gotten past my own worst hurdle, that first draft. Even substantial editing seemed easy to do, since mentally I was over that anxiety-inducing first step.
Drawbacks:
1. If you do this in public you may feel some concerned stares. You'll be talking to your tablet, and talking to it as though it's a non-native English speaker... Oh and you're a robot.
2. as far as I can tell dragon dictation has no understanding of punctuation pauses make no difference there's no capitalization at the beginning of a sentence you'll want to skim through the text soon after recording to make sure you can make sense of it
3. The software has some trouble with proper nouns, "Kate" and "Steve" were recognized. But it tried to translate "Aurelio" into "I really own". Easy enough to fix unless you have lots of students with similar and unusual names... and don't check your text as mentioned in drawback #2
4. Typos do occur, most will show up as such in pages so you can find them and fix them quickly. Some make it through not as a misspelling but just as the wrong word. For example, I commented on some of my students' reflections about the process of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, or "fracking" for short. I let you imagine what came up instead of "excellent job on your fracking paper...."
I found that on the friday evening before interims were due, I had a pile of student work in front of me and lots of things to say about my students' progress, but kept struggling to sit down and just write. So I decided to give a dictation app a try. I had seen Jim Jordan use Dragon Dictation with some success, so I downloaded it and tried recording my thoughts. I figured out pretty quickly that I'd need to speak pretty slowly, and that felt awkward at first. But after a few paragraphs I had relatively few typos or misspellings. All you do is open the app, start recording, and once you're done you can copy and paste the text into a word processing program (I used Pages on my iPad).
The big bonus was that after a couple of hours of relatively stress-free work (just having a chat with your iPad really doesn't feel like hard work), I had a (VERY ROUGH) rough draft for most of my students. There was a lot of editing that needed to be done, but I'd gotten past my own worst hurdle, that first draft. Even substantial editing seemed easy to do, since mentally I was over that anxiety-inducing first step.
Drawbacks:
1. If you do this in public you may feel some concerned stares. You'll be talking to your tablet, and talking to it as though it's a non-native English speaker... Oh and you're a robot.
2. as far as I can tell dragon dictation has no understanding of punctuation pauses make no difference there's no capitalization at the beginning of a sentence you'll want to skim through the text soon after recording to make sure you can make sense of it
3. The software has some trouble with proper nouns, "Kate" and "Steve" were recognized. But it tried to translate "Aurelio" into "I really own". Easy enough to fix unless you have lots of students with similar and unusual names... and don't check your text as mentioned in drawback #2
4. Typos do occur, most will show up as such in pages so you can find them and fix them quickly. Some make it through not as a misspelling but just as the wrong word. For example, I commented on some of my students' reflections about the process of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, or "fracking" for short. I let you imagine what came up instead of "excellent job on your fracking paper...."
Feb 13, 2012
Turnitin's effectiveness
Interesting post on efficacy of Turnitin as a plagiarism detector: Plagiarize From Behind The Paywall.
A longer and more thought-provoking piece on this subject: (Moral) Hazards of Scanning for Plagiarists: Evidence from Shoplifting.
Bottom line: putting all your faith in Turnitin's effectiveness as a plagiarism detector is fool-hearty.
A longer and more thought-provoking piece on this subject: (Moral) Hazards of Scanning for Plagiarists: Evidence from Shoplifting.
Bottom line: putting all your faith in Turnitin's effectiveness as a plagiarism detector is fool-hearty.
Review of "20 Free iPad Apps Educators Can't Live Without!"
Some of you have asked me about this list, which is a free ebook from the people at simplek12.com. Below is my take on the apps.
Incidentally, the site (simplek12.com) contains good info and the associated blog is worth reading.
| Good tools I would recommend from this list: |
| 3. Educreations -- allows you to record a lesson. It's good, except that it does not import/export from/to dropbox. See my post on this type of tool: recording-lesson-on-your-ipad. 4. Google Search -- yes. If fact, this app gives you access to all Google Apps (mail, calendar, docs, etc), in addition to search 6. Quick Graph -- graphic calculator. 18. Kindle -- book reader from Amazon. 22. Dragon Dictation -- current best speech recognition technology; works well for some. |
These tools I do not know, but I prefer having ideas and task list in the same place as my other information. For me, that place is either Google Docs or Evernote. |
| 8. Lino -- brainstorming 21. Wunderlist -- task list |
| These apps are content, rather than tools: |
| 2. TED talks -- awesome, on iPad, on your computer, anywhere. 9. NASA app -- looks neat; I have not played with it. 11. History pin -- awesome. 13. Science360 -- looks neat; I have not played with it. 17. Free Books -- good collection of free books. There are many others. |
| These seem to be geared at earlier grades: |
| 5. Math Quizzer 7. Today in History Lite 10. Puppet Pals 12. Project Noah 14. Toontastic 15. Red Stamp 19. Era of Dino Lite |
| No knowledge or opinion: |
| 16. Virtuoso Piano 19. Flashcardlet 23. How Stuff Works |
Incidentally, the site (simplek12.com) contains good info and the associated blog is worth reading.
Feb 8, 2012
Some lesser-known Google tools
Google Correlate -- "finds search patterns which correspond with real-world trends." -- correlations of search terms of Google search users.
Public Data Explorer -- a searchable repository of public data, together with visualization tools (Google's post on this, Slate article on this). Starting in 2011, you can also upload and visualize your own datasets.
Fusion Tables -- awesome visualization tool that Google uses with Public Data, and that you can use in Google Spreadsheets.
If you are into Bloom's Taxonomy and various infographics on it...
Short thoughtful post on why these inforgraphics are bogus:
Heidi Beezley's "Bloom’s Doom – The misapplication of an important taxonomy"
Heidi Beezley's "Bloom’s Doom – The misapplication of an important taxonomy"
Feb 2, 2012
iPad apps for Windows users
Apps of particular use to people who live in Windows/Microsoft Office world:
Tablet trends
Good article on the trends (of tablets and laptops, Windows vs Mac) and strengths and shortcomings of various tablet platforms.
Your next computer could well be a tablet
Feb 1, 2012
The State of eTextbooks
The best of the recent (2012) articles reflecting on the state of etextbooks and Apple's announcement:
Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-Revolution
Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-Revolution
Required reading for everyone who's high on Apple's iBooks KoolAid from an excellent blog HackEducation. Here's just one quote:
"See, you can't really say that you're going to "change everything" when it comes to textbooks and announce that your partners are the 3 companies who already control 90% of the textbook market."
"See, you can't really say that you're going to "change everything" when it comes to textbooks and announce that your partners are the 3 companies who already control 90% of the textbook market."
Best blogs and resources on iPads in edu
Blog post (1/28/2012) that gives the best resources for teachers:
More good iPad tips and tricks sites
These are great if you are new to iPad and do not know which tricks you are interested in:
- 50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks
- 50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks
Jan 27, 2012
Screencast software for your laptop
While the screen session recording using online apps is great for quick one-offs, if you plan to produce many sessions, it may be easier to have the software installed on your laptop. Here's the best software for screencasting.
Windows 7
The best free one seems to be CamStudio (open source). It's got tons of features, which is either a plus if you are a tweaker, or a minus if you want something super simple.
Jing gets good reviews. Free version limits recordings to 5 minutes. Paid version is $15/year.
Wink is another well-liked app with no "catch".
Mac: Ok, gloat away. If you have MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later, your can record using QuickTime X (quick tutorial on this)
Linux: Istanbul is the top choice here.
Jan 20, 2012
Updates to "Guide to apps for sketching, notes and annotating PDFs"
There have been some important updates and corrections to my Dec 2011 post on note taking apps. I've made the updates to the post, but the long and short of the updates is that Notes Plus now covers all the bases: typing, handwriting and handwriting recognition, PDF annotations and folder organization. The only missing feature is integration (import and export) with Dropbox. If you need Dropbox, this app is not for you. The cost is $5, plus $2 if you want handwriting recognition.
Jan 13, 2012
Great tips and tricks for common iPad tasks
Two excellent sources of tips and tricks for common iPad tasks -- worth a quick read even if you have used iPad for a while: techsupportalert.com and ipadinsight.com.
Here's a snapshot of the current listing at techsupportalert.com:
At ipadinsight.com, the many tips include
Here's a snapshot of the current listing at techsupportalert.com:
At ipadinsight.com, the many tips include
- uses for Home button
- taking a screenshot of what's on your iPad screen
- how to force an app to close
- how to quickly mute the iPad's volume
- sync and backup with your computer and/or iCloud
- multi-touch and multi-tasking gestures
- iPad dock
- how to remove an app
- rapid app switching
- using folders to organize your iPad apps
- how to lock the iPad screen orientation
- how to save an image from a Web page
- how to enable the Caps Lock function
- and many more
Jan 11, 2012
Simple graph app for iPad
If you need to enter some (x,y)-pairs data, plot them, do some curve-fitting, and save the graph as a PDF or image, there is a nice free app that this: DataAnalysis.
Jan 10, 2012
Your experience with your tablet...
I would love to hear from faculty about their experiences with the tablets. Which tablet do you have? What apps do you use and how do you like them? What do you like best about your tablet? What limitations frustrate you? Are there tasks you'd like to do on your tablet but you don't know what app to use?
3comments:
R Olivier Jan 16, 2012 10:39 AMI concur with Ramon on many points:
LN runs our life here, and its incompatibility with iPad makes me still rely more on my laptop, so investing time in organizing my iPad for frequent work use seems unproductive.
Reading is really a delight, especially using a machine that has a larger screen (compared to a phone) but that is lighter and quicker (compared to my laptop, including boot-up times, etc.).
I downloaded Flipbook right away, but my most elusive commodity is still time. I need to spend some worktime fiddling/learning so that I can implement the apps for the sake of efficiency and convenience. I have not yet found myself able to allocate time for that during the workweek. Perhaps if I wrote a little less frequently, I could frame out time to read/learn.
An alternative might be to spend 'non-work' time (aka vacation) fiddling...
jim jordan Jan 16, 2012 03:47 PMI read both of the above comments and agree as to the Lotus Notes issue. I do use my iPad preferentially for email and for other reading.... also I have been using the iPad iPhone combination successfully for enterine swimming data such as swim times for the newspaper reporting. Therre are some useful biology and science apps which I have donloaded and they are typically very useful but only for specific lessons.
I have spoken with some students. Theuir reaction has been that the iPad is both fascinating and can be a big distraction to them. The students I spoke to are using their iPad in science classes and they are using the Al Gore "Our Choice" app.
I have played with the potential of Dragon Speak for facilitating comment writing (a voice recogniton software program) but ultimately you have to speak so slowly and do so much editing that it is not that much of a time saver. I suspect that in general the iPad makes consumption of info easy, but production of information is much harder
iAnnotate bug resolved
The iAnnotate bug for downloading PDFs off the Web has been resolved. Please be sure to update the app.
Jan 7, 2012
Online apps for screencasts: screenr vs screencast-o-matic
This is a quick comparison between the free versions of screenr and screencast-o-matic.
screenr.com, 5-min limit, must register using one of Google/Facebook/Twitter/Yahoo/LinkedIn/WindowsLiveID accounts, must save first to screenr.com and then can download mp4 file or post to YouTube.
15-min limit, do not have to save to screencast-o-matic site, export to YouTube or download file (choice of mp4, flv, avi, or animated gif formats).
Winner: screencast-o-matic.com
Winner: screencast-o-matic.com
Jan 6, 2012
In-class poll/survey on iPad/iPhone/laptop
If you want to take a quick pulse/poll/survey/quiz in class, there is a nice app for that: Socrative. For iPad/iPhone, there is a student version (iTunes link) and a teacher version (iTunes link). Both are free. You can also use Socrative on your laptop via a browser. A teacher creates an "activity" consisting of question(s) for which students provide responses. The teacher can choose between free-form responses or multiple choice. The teacher needs to register (email and password), but the students do not.
Jan 5, 2012
Collaborate via blog? wiki? forum? real-time? - Part 2
This is Part 2 of my October post on collaboration. In this part I discuss the tools available for different collaboration modes and their pluses and minuses.
Recording a lesson on your iPad
The task at hand is as follows: use the iPad as you would a whiteboard in a classroom and record your writing and your voice while you are doing it. Here's a 20-second example of this task accomplished with Explain Everything app:
In the PC/Mac/Online world, screencasting is a recording of anything you do on your computer screen. I have not seen a true screencasting app for the iPad. The existing apps restrict the recording to user actions within the screencasting app itself. In contrast, on a computer, a screencasting app can record a user interacting with any computer program, such as a PowerPoint presentation, a movie on the Web, a Microsoft Word document, etc. A post on creating screencasts online appears here.
The best of the available "screencasting" apps for the iPad is Explain Everything ($3). Here's the app's description on iTunes:
You can start with a blank whiteboard, a photo, a Powerpoint presentation, a PDF file, etc. You can then talk while doing any of the following: draw freehand, draw shapes, type, zoom in/out, edit/erase/rearrange objects, insert photos. At the end, you can export the screencast as a movie to upload to YouTube, your blog, your website, etc. It is well-integrated with Dropbox, both for import and for export, as well as many other popular services.
If you need a free app, Screenchomp, Showme, and Educreations are very similar to each other and very good. The limitation with all three is that you can only write freehand but not type.
In the PC/Mac/Online world, screencasting is a recording of anything you do on your computer screen. I have not seen a true screencasting app for the iPad. The existing apps restrict the recording to user actions within the screencasting app itself. In contrast, on a computer, a screencasting app can record a user interacting with any computer program, such as a PowerPoint presentation, a movie on the Web, a Microsoft Word document, etc. A post on creating screencasts online appears here.
The best of the available "screencasting" apps for the iPad is Explain Everything ($3). Here's the app's description on iTunes:
"Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. You can create dynamic interactive lessons, activities, assessments, and tutorials using Explain Everything's flexible and integrated design. Use Explain Everything as an interactive whiteboard using the iPad2 video display.
Explain Everything records on-screen drawing, annotation, object movement and captures audio via the iPad microphone. Import Photos, PDF, PPT, XLS, RTF from Dropbox, Evernote, Email, iPad photo roll and iPad 2 camera. Export MP4 movie files, PNG image files, PDFs and share the .XPL project file with others for collaboration."
Explain Everything records on-screen drawing, annotation, object movement and captures audio via the iPad microphone. Import Photos, PDF, PPT, XLS, RTF from Dropbox, Evernote, Email, iPad photo roll and iPad 2 camera. Export MP4 movie files, PNG image files, PDFs and share the .XPL project file with others for collaboration."
You can start with a blank whiteboard, a photo, a Powerpoint presentation, a PDF file, etc. You can then talk while doing any of the following: draw freehand, draw shapes, type, zoom in/out, edit/erase/rearrange objects, insert photos. At the end, you can export the screencast as a movie to upload to YouTube, your blog, your website, etc. It is well-integrated with Dropbox, both for import and for export, as well as many other popular services.
If you need a free app, Screenchomp, Showme, and Educreations are very similar to each other and very good. The limitation with all three is that you can only write freehand but not type.
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