Best blogs and resources on iPads in edu

Blog post (1/28/2012) that gives the best resources for teachers:

Getting started with iPads and App sites 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

- Apple iPad 2 Tips and Tricks Part 1  and Part 2

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.

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.

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

• 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

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.