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.
Showing posts with label iPad pilot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad pilot. Show all posts
Nov 12, 2012
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.
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...."
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 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
iAnnotate bug resolved
The iAnnotate bug for downloading PDFs off the Web has been resolved. Please be sure to update the app.
Jan 5, 2012
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.
Dec 28, 2011
Guide to apps for sketching, notes and annotating PDFs
This is a long post. If you are short on time, skip to "Instant decision" section.
I've evaluated over 50 notetaking/PDF viewer/PDF annotations apps. There is no one app "to rule them all", no app that's perfect and can do everything. I have created some general subcategories and list the top apps in each. For many of them, I also list their features and limitations. On the bottom, I list all the apps that I've evaluated.
What I have found is that each app is strongest in one particular usage scenario, likely reflecting its original audience. The best have expanded or can be adapted to cover additional uses, but even these clearly belong in one the following categories:
There are many features that exist across these categories, including
The cost of the apps is anywhere from free to $10, with most paid apps falling in the $3-$5 range. Many free apps reserve a strip at the edge of the screen for advertisements; others limit the number of documents you can have.
The apps I evaluated, in no particular order are:
epiNote HD, Side by Side, Sketch Pad 3,Handwritten notes lite,My notebook! lite, Clefit,7notes HD, 7notes premium,Evernote,Catch Notes,MyScript Memo,Penultimate,MagicalPad,Notes Plus,PhatPad,NoteMaster Lite,Awesome Note HD,inkiness,Noteshelf,Touch notes for ipad,Notesy for Dropbox,Nebulous Notes (for Dropbox),Notebook+ Free,Easy Note,Meteor Lite,Outline,Trunk Notes,Sling Note,SmartNote Free,SmartNote,Note Taker HD,uPad,uPad Lite,PaperPort Notes (formerly Noterize),Notability,Ghostwriter Notes,goodNotes,DocAS Lite,DocAS,PaperDesk LITE,GoodReader,Stanza,neu.Annotate PDF,Papers,PerfectReader,iAnnotate,Readdle PDF Expert,pdf-notes free for iPad,Meteor Notes Lite,Sundry Notes, Sundry Notes Pro, SketchBook Pro
The best ones for sketching, notetaking and PDF annotating
Instant decisions
What I would use and why
I'm a big fan of free apps, the fact that heavily influences my choices below.
Currently, I do not do much editing/entering of information on my iPad, and Google Docs meets my needs when not on the iPad, so I mostly use the Google Search app.
If more of my data editing and entry was done on the iPad, I would carry an iPad keyboard with me and use Evernote for typing and Skitch for quick sketches.
For heavy-duty PDF annotations, I would use iAnnotate or Notes Plus. If I had to pick a free PDF-annotating app and did not need Dropbox integration, I would go with DocAS Lite; if I needed Dropbox, then Notability.
For handwriting, I would go with 7Notes: 7Notes HD if I did not need to convert my scribbles to typed notes later, and 7Notes Premium otherwise.
[update 1/20/2012 ... For a free handwriting app, I would go with 7Notes HD, but for a lot of handwriting, I would splurge and get Notes Plus with the new handwriting recognition support.]
My sketching needs are so rudimentary, I could use anything. For those with more artistic needs, SketchBook Pro, Noteshelf and Clefit are great.
I've evaluated over 50 notetaking/PDF viewer/PDF annotations apps. There is no one app "to rule them all", no app that's perfect and can do everything. I have created some general subcategories and list the top apps in each. For many of them, I also list their features and limitations. On the bottom, I list all the apps that I've evaluated.
What I have found is that each app is strongest in one particular usage scenario, likely reflecting its original audience. The best have expanded or can be adapted to cover additional uses, but even these clearly belong in one the following categories:
- a sketchbook for drawing
- a notebook for handwritten and typed notes
- a PDF viewer with annotation capabilities
- a journal or scrapbook of pages with multimedia mixed with text
There are many features that exist across these categories, including
- support for a large set of documents, including search and document organization via folders or tags or categories
- import, export, backup, synchronization or some other integration with apps such as Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, iTunes, iCloud, email; support for different formats for import and export, such as image, PDF, video, text, html
- rich editing capabilities, including colors, pen/font sizes and varieties, undo and redo, selecting, erasing, zooming, layers, backgrounds (e.g. lined, graph paper, music paper)
- special features for handwriting such as zoomed area, automatic advance down the line and to the next line, conversion of handwriting into typed text (handwriting recognition)
- miscellaneous: autosaving, spell checking, support for co-editing (simultaneously editing by multiple users), split-screen views, voice notes, alarms
The cost of the apps is anywhere from free to $10, with most paid apps falling in the $3-$5 range. Many free apps reserve a strip at the edge of the screen for advertisements; others limit the number of documents you can have.
The apps I evaluated, in no particular order are:
epiNote HD, Side by Side, Sketch Pad 3,Handwritten notes lite,My notebook! lite, Clefit,7notes HD, 7notes premium,Evernote,Catch Notes,MyScript Memo,Penultimate,MagicalPad,Notes Plus,PhatPad,NoteMaster Lite,Awesome Note HD,inkiness,Noteshelf,Touch notes for ipad,Notesy for Dropbox,Nebulous Notes (for Dropbox),Notebook+ Free,Easy Note,Meteor Lite,Outline,Trunk Notes,Sling Note,SmartNote Free,SmartNote,Note Taker HD,uPad,uPad Lite,PaperPort Notes (formerly Noterize),Notability,Ghostwriter Notes,goodNotes,DocAS Lite,DocAS,PaperDesk LITE,GoodReader,Stanza,neu.Annotate PDF,Papers,PerfectReader,iAnnotate,Readdle PDF Expert,pdf-notes free for iPad,Meteor Notes Lite,Sundry Notes, Sundry Notes Pro, SketchBook Pro
The best ones for sketching, notetaking and PDF annotating
| App | Good at ... | Lacks ... |
Notes Plus [$5]  | + notebook with sketches + great folders + autosync with Dropbox + export to Gdocs, iTunes + some shape recognition + notepaper for music | [update 1/20/2012 ... my bad: you can annotate PDFs, although it's clunky to get the file in to Notes Plus] [update 1/20/2012 ... with the new $2 handwriting recognition add-on, they are now my top choice in handwriting] |
Notability [$1] | + notebook with PDF annotations and sketches + folders + autosync with Dropbox | - little handwriting support - PDF features could work better - GUI could be better |
Evernote [free] | + notebook + folders + autosync + available on all platforms | - no handwriting [update 12/28/11 ... a new app Skitch [free]  |
Penultimate [$1] | + sketchbook + clean and simple interface | - no typing - no handwriting support - no pdf annotation - no folders - no landscape mode support - import/export only to iTunes - notepaper for music is $3 add-on |
Sketch Pad 3 [free, with ads]  | + sketchbook with typed notes + folders + sync with Dropbox + export to GDocs, Evernote | - no PDF annotation - no handwriting support - jagged "pen-ink" |
SketchBook Pro[$2] | + sketchbook with typed notes + very fluid "pen-ink" + Photoshop-like + import/export to Dropbox, iTunes | - no folders - no PDF annotation - no handwriting support |
Noteshelf [$5] | + sketchbook + very fluid "pen-ink" + good handwriting support + folders + export to Dropbox, Evernote, iTunes + notepaper for music, sports | - no typing - no PDF annotation - no import |
DocAS [$4] | + sketchbook with PDF annotations and typed notes + folders + import/export to Dropbox, GDocs, iTunes, and others + notepaper for music | - no sync with Dropbox - no handwriting support DocAS Lite [free] has no Dropbox/GDocs export and watermarks annotated PDFs |
 | 7notes HD [free] has no handwriting recognition [update 1/20/2012 ... Notes Plus now beats 7notes for handwriting] | |
Side by Side [free] | + split-screen with Web browser on one side and notebook on the other side | - very rudimentary notebook features |
iAnnotate [$10] | + extensive PDF annotation features + folders + Dropbox sync | - notebooks functionality only by inserting blank PDF pages |
Google Search [free] | + Google documents and spreadsheet viewer and editor (app name is a misnomer) | - very rudimentary editing |
Outline [free] | + Microsoft OneNote viewer and editor |
Instant decisions
| Best cross-platform; typing, folders | Evernote [free] |
| Evernote-integrated sketching | Skitch [free] |
| Best folders; typing, Dropbox, handwriting (with recognition), PDF | Notes Plus [$5] |
| Typing, Dropbox, PDF | Notability [$1] |
| Rough sketching, folders, Dropbox | Sketch Pad 3 [free] |
| Best sketching | SketchBook Pro [$2] |
| Great sketching; folders | Noteshelf [$5] |
| Handwriting; typing | 7notes HD [free] |
| Typing, sketching, PDF | DocAS [$4] |
| Best PDF; Dropbox, folders | iAnnotate [$10] |
| Split-screen Web and notes | Side by Side [free] |
| Simplest sketchbook | Penultimate [$1] |
| Feature-rich multimedia sketchbook | Clefit [$8] |
What I would use and why
I'm a big fan of free apps, the fact that heavily influences my choices below.
Currently, I do not do much editing/entering of information on my iPad, and Google Docs meets my needs when not on the iPad, so I mostly use the Google Search app.
If more of my data editing and entry was done on the iPad, I would carry an iPad keyboard with me and use Evernote for typing and Skitch for quick sketches.
For heavy-duty PDF annotations, I would use iAnnotate or Notes Plus. If I had to pick a free PDF-annotating app and did not need Dropbox integration, I would go with DocAS Lite; if I needed Dropbox, then Notability.
[update 1/20/2012 ... For a free handwriting app, I would go with 7Notes HD, but for a lot of handwriting, I would splurge and get Notes Plus with the new handwriting recognition support.]
My sketching needs are so rudimentary, I could use anything. For those with more artistic needs, SketchBook Pro, Noteshelf and Clefit are great.
Dec 6, 2011
Tips on using iAnnotate
Dropbox setup: when you add your Dropbox account within iAnnotate on the panel labeled Fetch, clicking the Dropbox logo displays the content of your Dropbox account and clicking the down arrow downloads the entire content of your Dropbox.
iAnnotate bug: executing "Save to PDF" when visiting certain webpages within iAnnotate browser causes iAnnotate to crash. They are trying to resolve this issue. I'll update as I hear from them.
Nov 30, 2011
Troubleshooting iPad software update to version 5.0.1
So far a dozen or so of you have updated the software with no difficulties.
Incidentally, you CAN open an iTunes account without a credit card -- follow instructions at
support.apple.com/kb/ht2534
[update 12/1] Out of 29 students with iPads, 28 have already updated to iOS5 with minimal difficulties.
Incidentally, you CAN open an iTunes account without a credit card -- follow instructions at
support.apple.com/kb/ht2534
[update 12/1] Out of 29 students with iPads, 28 have already updated to iOS5 with minimal difficulties.
Settings on your iPad
During your iPad setup, there are a number of settings you can choose. Many of these choices are up to you, some we require, and some we recommend:
- enable Location services (required)
- enable "Find my iPad" (required)
- enable iCloud (recommended)
- choose iCloud backup (recommended)
Nov 29, 2011
Initial setup of the iPads
The iPad initial setup will, in all honesty, be clunky. This is how we will proceed. After signing the Student Acceptable Use Agreement and receiving your iPad, you need to do the following when you get to your room:
- Download and install iTunes on your laptop, if you don’t already have it. If you are not sure how to do this, watch the tutorial at http://bit.ly/vJVikQ
- Connect the iPad to your laptop using the included cord and wait until your laptop installs all the necessary drivers. At this point, iTunes will start up. Note that if you have an outdated version of iTunes, it may ask you to upgrade the iTunes before it allows the iPad setup.
- You need to go through a few iTunes screens to register your iPad.There are good tutorials that walk you through the registration steps: http://bit.ly/ubG4E9. Once you reach an empty iTunes screen, it is time to continue the configuration on your iPad.
- There are a number of iPad settings you choose along the way. Please read the separate post about the settings we require and the settings we recommend. [Hint: to move to the next setting, touch "Next" button in the top right corner of the screen] The critical step at this point is the networking:
- Network: choose LVwlan and enter your Lawrenceville network id and password; than choose “Accept” on the Certificate.
- On the “Set Up iPad”, choose “Set Up as New iPad”
- Skip entering your Apple id on the “Apple ID” screen and finish the other settings.
- At this point, you should see the iPad desktop. Open Safari and enter any URL. Choose ‘Continue’ when you see “Cannot verify Server Identity” popup. You now have to go through connecting your iPad to our network. This process is similar to how you registered your computer when you first got to campus. At the end, the webpage should display a message that your device is registered.
- Disconnect your iPad cable from your laptop, wait 10 seconds, and reconnect it.
- Follow iTunes screens on your laptop to associate the iPad with your iTunes/Apple ID. Choose ‘Setup as a New iPad’ and continue following the instructions, some of which may be repeats of what you had already configured on the iPad.
- Now comes the crucial part -- you need to choose "Update" to get your iPad software to version 5.0.1 on this screen:
Depending on the connection, this update may take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. During the update, your iPad will reboot a few times. At the end, iTunes should indicate that the update is complete.When the update is done, please check Settings → About → Version on your iPad.
It should say "5.0.1". If it does not, try repeating from Step 5 above.
- Visit this blog to see if a solution to your problem is posted under the "Troubleshooting" post here. If it is not, leave a comment under Troubleshooting describing where you are stuck. I will be checking and replying here frequently.
- Google the problem you are having
iPad Pilot kick off
Welcome to the iPad Pilot. Since this is the first pilot of its kind for all of us, expect a few bumps along the way. This blog is a central clearing house for thoughts, discussions, help and instructions related to this pilot, so you may want to check it regularly.
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