Digital Modelling Books - Part 1

I have been trialling digital modelling books for mathematics with my students and they seem to be working really well for both my students and my self.  There are a number of key elements that make up this system and in this blog post I will outline the system I am using.  If you are new to using Evernote you may want to have a look at a previous presentation I shared at a mobile learning conference.  It gives you a bit of background as to what it is, however, if in doubt please leave a comment and I will help you out!

Evernote is the equivalent of a digital notebook - you can create notebooks and create individual notes that go inside your notebook, just like pages of a book.

4 main components I use to create digital modelling books:

1. Apple TV with an iPad

2. Penultimate app

3. Evernote app and online/desktop version

4. Google Sites

Setting up Shared Evernote Notebooks:

Notebooks in Evernote are private by default - this allows for your notes to only be seen by you.  However there are options to share these notebooks and to allow others to work on notebooks as well.  The last option is a paid feature of Evernote.  All the steps I talk about below are able to be completed with a free Evernote account and free Penultimate app.

Firstly, in our class Evernote account, I set up a notebook for each of my groups, for example; maths groups.  Notebooks are able to be created on both the app and online, however, I prefer to do this part through Evernote on a browser or the desktop version.  These notebooks are set up in our class Evernote account - we have 1 shared account for my entire class that we all use.

Once a notebook has been set up for each group, I set up a shared link for each of the notebooks that I want to have public access to.  To do this hover over the notebook and choose the share icon (there are a number of ways to do this):

It gives you several options to choose from - choose the last option: Publish. 

This allows people to access your Evernote notebook if they have the link.

It will take you to a new pop up window and the final step is to copy the Public URL - this is what I use so students are able to access the notebooks from our class website.  

These notebooks are accessed by my students through our class google site - so from here I copy the link and paste it on our maths area on our google site.  This makes our maths content accessible from one place for my students from home and school.  It allows them to easily find the information and support that they need.  Also parents can access them to support students with their learning.

If you are going to send students directly to this URL you may want to use a web link shortening service like bit.ly to make the link more accessible for students as the link Evernote provides is very long.

Your final step here is to open up Penultimate and link the app to your Evernote account.  To do this click on the 'Settings' button in the top left hand corner and add your Evernote account details.  Once they are linked you will not have to do this again, unless you sign out.

You don't need to worry too much about your Evernote notebooks again until right at the end.  When you share your Penultimate notes to Evernote it will give you an option to choose the Evernote notebook you want to place the note into.

The next post will detail how to use Penultimate as your modelling books and then share these notes across to your Evernote notebooks to make them immediately accessible for your students.

Digital Modelling Books - Part 2

This is Part 2 of the previous blog post detailing how I create digital modelling books.

My class setup is an apple TV and TV.  When I am working with a group I link my iPad to the TV via the apple TV through airplay.  This allows whatever is on the iPad to be shown on screen.  My go to app for modelling books has been the handwriting app Penultimate, because it is part of the Evernote family and easily links back to Evernote for keeping.  Penultimate allows you to keep handwritten notebooks of information, which can then be kept in the app or shared to a number of other apps/websites e.g. Google Drive etc.

Penultimate is basic and it's one of the things that I love about it.  It does it's job and does it well without trying to be overly complicated.  It has different coloured pens, eraser, cut, paste and different options for paper types.  Everything I need with no pointless extras.  Everything has a purpose and it serves it well!  It is one of my go to apps in a lot of areas.

Throughout the teaching workshop students and myself record key ideas, information, working out etc into our notebook and at the end of the session it is shared across from Penultimate to Evernote.  Because of the way I have it set up as being a shared notebook, it means that as soon as the Penultimate notebook is synced to Evernote the students can access it via our class website straight away.  This is a huge bonus for me, as the teacher, as I don't need to go back and post content, change it etc - it's available with minimum time.

Adding Content to Shared Evernote Notebooks

Open up Penultimate and it will ask you to sign in - this is to your Evernote account.  So you can enter the same details from your Evernote account above.  If it doesn't ask for this straight away click on the cog in the top left hand corner to link Penultimate to your Evernote account.

Now you are free to start a new notebook by clicking on the plus symbol in the bottom left hand corner.  It will open a new notebook for you to work in.  You will see the main tools, such as pens, eraser, cut, undo etc, down the right hand side.  Extra tools such as adding pictures, changing the paper type, sharing options and more down the left hand side of the screen.

Once you have completed working in the Penultimate notebook click on the home button which is on the top left hand side (it looks like a house).  This will return you to the home screen.  The next step is to share this notebook to Evernote and place it in the correct Evernote maths groups notebook.

The home screen in Penultimate is where you can access all of your Penultimate notebooks. To view them all scroll across to view the different notebooks you have. 

On the home screen you will see three options directly underneath the notebook you are working on or wanting to share.  Click on the first option for 'share' which then gives you the option to 'open in...'

Scroll across to the right and you will see an option for 'Open in Evernote' - click on this.

It will process your notebook into a PDF format and then open up Evernote with the following image.  This is your new note inside Evernote.  The PDF option you see inside the note area is your Penultimate notebook that you have just created.  On this screen you need to rename your note (the first line) and then also choose the notebook you would like it placed inside (the second line).  From here you can save your note and it will be accessible once you have synced your account.

While there are several steps to get these digital notebooks up and running, once you have them set up they are quick and easy to use.  I find that we are able to have a workshop and then have modelling books available straight after a workshop.  There has been a lot of trial and error of finding a way that digital modelling books work for my students.  We have trialled Google presentations and other formats but I am finding this is the easiest option that doesn't require a huge load of work and time to make it useable for the students and myself.  Once the initial setup was complete it has been easy to continue using the modelling books.

Remember, Evernote is the equivalent of a digital book - you can create notebooks and create individual notes that go inside your notebook, just like pages of a book.  This works the same when creating a digital modelling book.  In the case of these digital modelling books Penultimate creates the pages that go inside the Evernote modelling book.

Every time I open Penultimate for a new workshop I simply start a brand new Penultimate notebook by clicking on the plus symbol on the bottom left hand corner.  We add in the notes from our session and then when the workshop is complete I repeat the steps I have outlined above in 'Adding Content to Shared Notebook'.  Always check the second line to ensure that your note is going into your correct shared Evernote notebook, as it will always default to the last Evernote notebook you added content to.  This sounds confusing - but makes sense when you are adding content to your Evernote as you will see which of your groups notebooks it is going to be placed into.

When the students click on the link from our class google site it shows up the whole notebook with all of the workshop notes inside (like in the image below).  Students can easily locate the workshop and click to see all the notes we took as part of that session - exactly as it would be for a paper modelling book.  The accessibility from a range of devices and places and for a number of people at the same time means that it far outweighs the 1 in class paper modelling book I had previously been using.

Evernote on the iPad

Evernote is a great website that comes with it's own App for iPhone/iTouch and iPad. So far it's been the most efficient and simple way of creating documents, editing them and syncing them to the web to easily use.

To use Evernote you need to create a free account with them. Evernote promotes itself as a way of collating bits and pieces, notes and things you love in one place, easily. Easily is definitely the keyword for Evernote. I've been really impressed with the simplicity of the App. Most students who have used it have been able to intuitively find their way around the App with little fuss. The one area students needed the most support with was with syncing - as this is a new concept for them.

The only disappointing factor so far with Evernote has been the inability to re-edit rich text notes after they have been created. So, if you create a note with audio attached to it you are unable to edit it without removing the audio first. (Though I did just try this again and it seems to be working now - fingerscrossed!)

The students seem to be impressed with Evernote and are slowly getting used to typing on it. One student noted though, as he was writing his story on the iPad, that it was much easier to do the 'peck and type' on the iPad than the traditional keyboard style typing they have been learning in class.

In a whole class lesson on Inferring, small groups of students used it to collate their ideas on Evernote and then sync it to the Web. This then allowed the students to view their ideas up on the whiteboard via the projector once they had synced to the web. The students loved this even though they had had experience with online whiteboards like wallwisher before via laptops. There continues to be a certain draw to the iPad, with students a bit worried that this is their last week with it in class!

iRead Using Evernote

In the past I've blogged about Evernote and it's great ability to collate notes and make them available to you online and on your mobile device. Today I had a great experience using Evernote in a different way - to collate and hold iRead recordings.

iRead is a simple but very effective reading tool that I use as part of the Reading timetable. The students use a voice tool e.g. Garageband on laptops, voice recording on a tape etc to record themselves reading. Simple rules - once they start reading they don't stop the recording until they have completed reading the text. Once they complete reading they then go back and listen to the text and they follow the text with their finger. It allows students to listen to their own reading and set personal goals based on what they hear and observe about their reading and the kind of reader they want to be. I've found it's a powerful tool for kids to set goals about their reading. You can tell kids - but they also need to see/hear them for themselves to fully understand their next learning steps.

Today with one of my students we logged into Evernote and set up a new note. We labelled the note with the students name and the book that he read. Each new note automatically timestamps itself so there is no need for dates. When the student was ready to record all they needed to do was click the 'microphone' then the 'stop' button when he was completed. Once he had gone back and listened to his story he was able to record his goal down within the note to be saved. Once Evernote was synced it meant that I could access his recording and goal quite easily from my iPad or laptop. The great thing with this is that we can also easily tag the note as the students name which will create a mini portfolio of his reading throughout the year. Much quicker than getting students to save it to the server and it also meant that it was easily found by me, the teacher, to listen to. Evernote also includes the voice recording as a sound file that can easily be downloaded from the note.

This is the 'note' as you would see it online:


It's a very clear layout which makes it easy for students to create and navigate notes and within the app. I'm looking forward to seeing how this supports some of my lower readers with their reading fluency.

Reflection - iPad

In a previous post I explained my next steps with the iPad:

Next steps:
* Organise the Apps on the screens so they are easy for the students to access the right App for the right task e.g. Sound recording Apps, Writing Apps etc.
* Investigate more Apps and to source Apps that are the best for the learning area.
* Investigate more Apps that allow the gaming aspect to be integrated into quality learning.
* Continue having the students use it in each of the curriculum areas.
* Develop more areas for the collaboration to occur e.g. utilising collaborative tools like scribblar etc where the students can write/brainstorm/share ideas.

The first step that I wanted to undertake was the most logical next step in the students being able to easily navigate through the pages to find Apps. So I spent some time collating the Apps into certain pages - Maths, Reading, Writing/Utilities, Music/Art, Website, Games etc etc This has been really effective in the students being able to find and identify the Apps that they most enjoy and use during the day.

We've used the iPad in a range of areas but the main areas so far are Maths, Reading, Writing and Visual Arts. The students love the maths Apps and will happily play on them in their spare time also. The Visual Arts tools are not for everybody - but have found their way into a few students favourite Apps lists. The iPad is a great tool for recording Reading and Reflections as it's so quick and easy to take it somewhere quiet to record and then sync to the web (using Evernote or iFiles).

One key area that I really wanted to develop was the collaborative aspect. The students are quite happy to have 2+ students around the iPad talking and discussing what is happening and what they should do. Unfortunately it has been hard going finding a range of different websites that allow this. Google Docs cannot be edited on the iPad - apart from spreadsheets (which is do-able but not ideal). Many of the collaborative sites like Pirate Pad, Etherpad etc do not work either. Evernote is the site we have had the most luck with but not quite what we wanted to use it for.

We had the same problem with our class delicious links. 99 percent of the websites that we have set up to use as part of our learning rotations will not work on the iPad as they are Flash based games. I've spent a fair while starting to sort through websites to find iPad compatible sites before I realised that it would be a good idea to let that one rest for a bit! This isn't a moan - but merely a reflection of how Flash based a lot of our educational sites are. As more and more people move towards smartphones such is iPhones or iTouches to view their web content it takes me back to a previous questions of how are we making our content compatible to this HUGE audience that we are missing?!

I have a great idea for Basic Facts testing utilising Google Docs that I am going to trial tomorrow - fingerscrossed for this brainwave! In small steps we are figuring out things that work for us. It's been a great journey with the kids and I've loved watching them move away from being star struck by the iPad to it being another tool in their classroom.

My next step is in another post as it's quite a big step or wondering about the set up of the iPad and how to make it work in the classroom so they are more tailored to individual students needs over those 'that the teacher decides'.

Image Courtesy of CC: PicturePurrfect685

Learning Applications: Teachers vs Students Choice

Celia from the iPad Learning LAB wrote the following post about the different learning applications of the iTouch/iPad's. These cover the 3 main types of Apps that you will use across this tech.

Productivity Applications - Those that we use to get tasks completed such as Evernote.

Utility Applications - The simple Apps that bring knowledge to our fingertips such as weather Apps or complete a simple task.

Immersive Applications - These are the Apps the include games or Apps where the learner is fully immersed in the task.

It's been interesting to see the kids use a range of these Apps over the last few weeks with a definite lean towards the Immersive Apps.

I think the big question for me here would be if the iPad belonged to a student...

What kind of Apps would a student select to have on their iPad?

The iPad at the moment is set up with a large range of mainly free Apps that I think would be of benefit to the students in the class. This definitely is a selection of Apps from across these three sectors. But the problem with that is that I am the one with the idea of what exactly is sitting on the iPad and what they would be good for (from a teachers persepective). Meaning that the students aren't actively seeking to engage in using Apps for certain tasks as their own knowledge of the Apps and what each one can do isn't there as it could be if they were the ones selecting the Apps.

Many schools seem to select Apps for their iTouches so that the students can't change the Apps. I see benefits for this but also negatives to this. I am beginning to think that if the students select Apps from the beginning they have a better understanding of what each App is and how they would utilise it in the classroom.

I can see that if you had a set number of Apps you could work with this as a group and set students up working on tasks across these also - with teaching. But my main aim would be to see that students fully understand what Apps they can use to be of benefit or support their learning in the classroom without much or any prompting from the teacher. For example knowing that they can use Evernote to record notes or web clippings but then head into the Animoto App to create a photo slideshow through to using Draw to complete visual art tasks. Not un-similar from how we would expect students to know to choose Pages if they need to type a piece of writing rather than using Kid Pix.

Of course there may need to be a range of teaching and 'suggesting' for Apps that would be a good place to start or more ideal for certain tasks/curriculum areas, but what would the students choose for themselves and their learning style?

Maybe a next step is to sit down with some kids and show them the App store and look at how and why they would select certain Apps for their iPad.

Fotobabble on the iPad

Two of the best Websites that have an iPod/iPad App are Fotobabble and Evernote (more on Evernote later). I first heard about Fotobabble through Fiona Grant. Fotobabble is a quick and easy way for students to share the work that they create on the iPad with audio and upload it to the net to embed anywhere.

Students can create work on the iPad using a range of Apps such as the Martians App or any other drawing/photo App available. Once the image is stored in the iPad's photos it is accessible to the Fotobabble App.

Students simply select their image and then press the record button. Recording is allowed for short bursts of 30 seconds - which is the only drawback for somethings. Once they have recorded they can play back and listen to their work before deciding to publish it or re-record.

Once they have completed their recording a simple button push to save the work uploads it to the Fotobabble site. The interesting thing is that the students can view their Fotobabble via the list in the Fotobabble App but as soon as it is posted to the blog it cannot be viewed via the iPad because of the lack of Flash. See an example of a completed Fotobabble here.

BYOD 2014 - Making it Mobile

Thursday 1st May sees the second BYOD conference happening in Auckland; BYOD 2104 - Making it Mobile.  The conference is run by Learning Network and is a great opportunity to take part in a range of PD around bring your own devices (BYOD).

I have the opportunity to present at the very first conference last year at Albany Senior High, where I ran 2 sessions.  A session on Evernote and another on Self Management and BYOD.  The day was packed with loads of people attending and a great selection of presenters.

BYOD 2014 is no different from last year, with a huge assortment of amazing presenters sharing their knowledge with you.  A hugely inspirational line up that includes some of my favourite twitterers and bloggers: Helen King, Allanah King, Dorothy Burt, Fiona Grant, Barbara Reid, JJ Purton Jones, Stephen Lethbridge,  Luke Sumich, and more.  There is a huge selection of strands that suit everyone from the classroom teacher through to principals.  Summerland Primary also has 3 other presenters which are worth a looksie - Innes Nisbet is our music specialist, Janet Shepherd is our art specialist and Luke Sumich our principal are all presenting as well.

This year I am presenting with my colleague Jessicca Vidal, who I presented with at uLearn 2013.  An amazing year 3/4 classroom teacher who has a lot of amazing teaching and learning happening with her students.  We will be presenting about how we utilise BYOD in our classrooms and some of the tools we are using to help students understand the tools that they have available to them and to become more self-managing with their devices.

Click here to find out more about BYOD 2014 - Making it Mobile

Evernote - #byod2013

Three Ring

There are a number of blogs that I subscribe to that have a focus on iPad use in the classroom.  I'm really interested at looking at in depth ways that iPads/iPods can be used to support the classroom curriculum in developing, supporting and sharing learning processes.  I just have to look at myself and how quickly I will google, translate, photograph or record classroom processes each day since I've gotten an iPhone.

Today when looking through my RSS feed I came across a really interesting and timely post (for me) from Apps in Education around Student ePortfolio options for the iPad.  Several of these e.g. Evernote and Coolibah I already have for a range of uses, but one that struck me for its simple but powerful set up was 'Three Rings' - a free app.

Basically, all you need to do is to set up an account with Three Rings.  From here you can add your students' names quickly via typing them or by adding them through an xls spreadsheet.  I went through this process on the laptop via the Three Ring website, as it was much easier to copy and paste my students across!  Next, you can set up separate classes and subject tags to make it more specific and accessible to Primary and Secondary teachers.  Once you have completed the easy 3 steps of setting these up you are ready to go!

Once you download the app and login you are presented with a simple screen that allows you to choose tags, students and classes before you add a piece of work to your stream.  Once you have selected these options you can choose to take a picture, video, voice recording or select something from your photo roll.  If you are operating from the website you are able to also upload files such as PDFs into your stream.  I'm also hoping that this will include movies etc that students have created in other apps e.g. Sock Puppets or music from Garageband etc.  Once you've finished photographing or recording you click the 'use!' button and it uploads to your account. 

In App - easily tag a student then choose the content to add

The app/website allows you to record a piece of learning, tag it to an individual student, class or subject then be able to view the process via the three ring website once you have logged in.  You are able to click on a student's name or subject and it will give you an individual page just for that student's work.  It works similar to a blog where the latest post is positioned at the top of the page.

The Three Ring website stream

Students can also add a note next to the item they are uploading to talk about why they have selected it, the process they went through etc

The biggest thing that challenges me at the moment about it is that it seems to be very teacher driven as the teacher owns and operates the account.  I'm going to give it a trial with my students and see what they think of it.  I can see potential in the app/website.  

What I think I will do is leave our class iPod set up with the account details and teach a few tomorrow how they can share their best work and the work that they want to share.  I'm sure from that few they will quickly teach each other how to add their work and view it.  It also seems like it would be quite easy to have a class wide password that would allow the students to access and add work via the class laptops/website.

On further reading it seems like there is a good group of educators behind the app looking at making strong improvements to the app.  They seem to be listening to feedback that has been presented to them so far - which is always great from developers.  They liken their app to a digital filing cabinet which will allow for conversation between students, teachers and parents.  Can definitely see the potential for this through it's ease of use.