Fotobabble

This year I've begun to look at student voice in the classroom and how students can use voice tools in their learning to more effect.  Fotobabble is one app/website that can be used in such a variety of ways and students enjoy using it.  Fotobabble is one of our 'go to' apps and websites because of it's simplicity.

The idea of Fotobabble is simple.  Take a photo, drawing or image of any kind and upload it to Fotobabble   From here all you need to do is press 'record' to record your voice talking about the image.  Press 'stop' to stop recording then 'play' to listen to it. Simple? Indeed!  From here you are able to name it and save it ready to upload to websites, intranets or link to from tweets and more.

If you have an ipod touch, iphone or ipad this process is even simpler by taking a photo from right in the app. Pressing the 'record' button to record your voice and press it again to stop.  From here you can listen to it then get it ready to send to the Fotobabble site or embed into a blog or wiki etc

The simplicity of the website and the app is what makes it so beneficial to a range of learners - young to old.  Here are a few examples of Fotobabble in the classroom - we used it to share our learning and understanding about different aspects of ANZAC Day: https://sites.google.com/site/2012sps8/anzac-day/anzac-work

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.

Retelling a Fairy Tale

This afternoon our school (Summerland) ran some iPad workshops at The Learning Network in West Auckland.  There was a fantastic group that was a full house of 80 people, all ready to share and listen to what we have been doing this year.  Our principal, Luke Sumich, started the session off with some really thoughtful words... what are you doing with these iPads and why? Where are you going with making sure that learning and your learners are at the heart of what you are doing?  From there we broke off into 4 sessions.  We offered an Art session using Art Rage and Live sketch, Storytelling, Apps for Numeracy, Tools for Teachers and a retelling workshop, which I ran.

Retelling using Draw Free and Puppet Pals

This session was based around the reading strategy called 'Retelling'.  This is one of the CAFE strategies that we have worked on in our class.  The students spent time reading a fairy tale then using the 'Retell Rope' and chart to retell their story to their partner.  A 'Retell Rope' is a rope that has 8 knots down it - one for each area that they need to include in their retell.  It provides a kinesthetic hook for them to hang their retelling information on.

From here we moved into using the iPads to retell their fairy tale.  Over 2 sessions the students were in groups of 2-4 students, they decided on the fairy tale they wanted to retell.  From there the students decided the characters or items they needed to draw and they created these in Draw Free.  The important thing here is that each character is saved to the photo album, so that Puppet Pals is able to access the image.  Once the students completed their character drawings they would head into Puppet Pals and get ready to record.  It's rather easy to import the characters into Puppet Pals through the 'Add Actors' button on the Actors page.  The important thing to note here is that if you have the free version it will allow you to import it but then you won't be able to use it!  So if you want to be able to import your own photos or pictures you need to make sure you have the directors pass.  But it's definitely worth the $4.19 you will pay for the app!

The students select their actors and background and it brings you to the 'stage'.  Here you will have a white rectangle in the middle with your characters and background.  Everything that is inside the white rectangle is what will be recorded, so it's important to remember that if you have an actor outside the white box they won't be in your final video!  Once you are ready to go you can press the red circle to record - on the newer version it lets you pause your recording which is handy.  But the kids basically have 1 take to complete the recording - tough but handy from a teaching perspective as the kids tend to not keeping going back and touching up little things; it sets the bar high!

While recording the students can move their characters around inside the white box and speak.  The movement and audio will all be recorded!

Once the kids have recorded you can then save and export them.  Once you have tapped 'export' in Puppet Pals it will export it into your Photo Album.  If you don't do this, you will only be able to watch your movie inside the Puppet Pals app.  When it let's you know that it's exported you can easily plug it into your computer and download it to your computer through iPhoto.  Check out my students very first Puppet Pal retellings on our class blog here!

There are many different ways that you could use Puppet Pals.  

Some of the ways you could use it are:

• Students that didn't want to speak in front of the class - take a photo, add the student into Puppet Pals and get them to talk
• Sharing their learning - what did I learn, numeracy strategies, reading strategies etc
• End of topic to explain their learning and knowledge from the topic
• Photos from trips as backgrounds and students can recount events that happened on the trip

There are so many ways you could use it!

The following link (click here or on the photo) will take you to a how to sheet that you are welcome to download and use in your classroom to help you get on your way.  Link back to any work you complete or ideas you have and leave a comment to let us know how you get on! 

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_I4f6vGYHk5ODdhNzc5NTktNjA2NC00MjZjLTlhYTUtYWZmNTEwYjgyYjg1

iPads - Breakout 2 uLearn

iPad's in the Class

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Goodbye Delicious - Hello Symbaloo!

With the change over of delicious and all the problems that have gone alongside it, it has seen me seek out new ways to share and display learning links for my students.  With the change over the kids were quick to point out that tags were missing and it was hard to find links that they knew where to find previously.

So this sent me on hours (yes, hours) long search to find something that would allow me to create several pages but also allow the students to have visuals of the links they are wanting to use.  I really wanted to switch to a more visual form of bookmarking rather than word tags after myself enjoying Pinterest - a visual bookmarking tool due to the ease of use and visual way of organising links.

I had a play around with the delicious stacks - which at first seemed very promising.  Apart from when I kept getting 500 gateway errors from them.  When stacks did work it would only allow me to stack together my first page of links but not access the other pages.  Fiddly and unfun. So, I gave up.  I moved on to trialling websites like favoritus, portaportal, sitemarks and more - all visual bookmarking sites that looked extremely good.  All of them had the same problem for me.  The lack in ability to be able to create a standalone web page that had seperate pages for my links. Painful.

Then I remembered a site that I had previously played with and put into my 'could be helpful' pile of links. Symbaloo.  It's a simple idea - you create webmixes or pages of links.  Each link is a little coloured icon that you can arrange across your webmix.  The webmix can be shared via email, kept private, shared with the world or embedded into webpages.  So this is the angle I have taken.  I am creating seperate pages for each subject and colour coding links with visuals also.  The students used it in the last 2 days of term and the votes were pretty clear - all but 4 students loved the new Symbaloo system because of the colours, images and how easy it was to find links.  The 4 students who didn't like it said that it was because they were used to delicious.  Though 1 student did say he might like Symbaloo more once 'he got used to it' - awesome!

The image from above is from my Daily 5 wiki for the students.  This is one area I have created Symbaloo link pages and it has now become the portal that they will use for links.  They can either go straight to the page or jump to it via the class blog.  You can view the website here.

The colour coding system is quite handy also.  I have a student who is new to my class from overseas and has minimal english.  The links in orange are specifically set up for her - the students were great at showing her that they were for her and the second time on the computer she seemed to understand that this was a great area for her to start.

The other thing about Symbaloo that was a bonus is that the interface works on iPads and iPod touches.  One of my students became a fantastic tester and tried it out.  Unfortunately only 2 of the above links would run on an iPod - this has meant that I've created other Symbaloo's that will contain mobile device friendly links!

The biggest drawback is the time that this takes compared to setting up links in delicious - with the delicious bookmarking paglets it is extremely easy to link and tag websites.  While Symbaloo isn't as easy to tag websites at the moment the visual elements and arrangements for the students makes it far outweigh the time it takes me to add links in!

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.

Popplet For iPad

Over the last few weeks we've been utilising the iPad app Popplet Lite in a range of curriculum areas. Popplet is a straight forward and simple app that allows students to collate text, drawings, images and more onto a page.

It's based around a board (page) where you double tap to add 'popples' which are boxes where students can add text, videos and images or draw straight into. The popples can be left as stand alone popples or be connected up to other popples. They can also be re-ordered and moved around as you need to. It's so simple that most students pick up the app within the first session.

We've been experimenting with the free version but it has proven so popular with students/teachers that we will be upgrading to the paid version over the holidays. The great thing about Popplet is that it seems to be well designed for students and schools. The layout and design of the app and website are well suited to students young and old!

One of the area's I have been utilising Popplet Lite is within reading. Students use a drawing app such as Free Draw (a great simple app with no extras!) to create a visualisation of their character. The drawing could also be completed straight into a popple using the draw function too. The students have then created popples around the visualisation of their character with information, words and ideas about the character from the text. We are then using Dropbox to export them off the iPads. There are many ways which Popplet can be utilised in the classroom throughout a range of curriculum areas - check out my growing list here (as a Popplet of course!)




You can also use Popplet online and is able to be used on the iPads in a collaborative way with students participating on a single board with their own popples. Popplets can then be embedded into your blog or sent as a link for others to get to.

Check out the Popplet site and video to see for yourself:

Dropbox for iPad

In today's iPad session during Reading the students used a number of really simple & effective apps to create character webs (more on this in another post). It all went fantastically but when we came to the end of the lesson there was the small problem of 'what now?' with the students work. My original plan of using the 'whiteboard' app to bluetooth them across to the master iPad didn't pan out like I wanted it to (more work on that one needed). So it was back to the drawing board slightly!

There was an app that I had placed on the iPads but not tried, which was 'Dropbox for iPad'. If you haven't used Dropbox before it's a really simple but handy service that allows you to drop a file into a folder on your computer. Then it will sync up to your Dropbox account via the internet and enable you or a person you share it to, to have access to the file by downloading or viewing. This works for images, videos and documents.

Towards the end of the lesson as students started to finish I realised the next step was missing. Another thought was for the students to log in to the class blog and upload them via there - but we were running out of time.

So... I've set up a class Dropbox account - very easy to do and between set up and setting up individual folders I would say it took around 5-10 minutes to create them. The layout of the web Dropbox is incredibly plain and simple which makes it easy to navigate and learn to use.

Web based Dropbox layout:


The fantastic thing is that once images were uploaded from the iPad into the Dropbox account it was an instant refresh on my computer and there were my files.

Here is a snapshot from the Dropbox iPad app:
It shows all the students files and uploading into a file is as quick as clicking 1 button, finding the image and then it automatically uploads to your folder.


Once inside a folder you can view the image/file within the Dropbox app also:

So this will be the next step in our next session - being able to go back and save the content we created and upload it to our Dropbox account so that we can use it elsewhere. The only negative I've found so far is that it remembers your password - which is fantastic if you are a single user iPad. But each time the students will need to go through a couple of steps to log out of their Dropbox account - not too hard but not a simple click either!

More to come once I've trialled this in class further!

RSS Feed on iPads

Over the last week I've been trialling a number of RSS apps for the iPad. My main aim with these was to load all the school blogs into a RSS reader so the kids could easily navigate, read and comment on the blogs from the iPads.

During a search of many different RSS reader apps I came across Pulse. The first time I downloaded Pulse (back when we first got the ipads) I couldn't get it to do what I wanted and so off the iPad it came! In the search for a reader this week I came across it again and decided to give it another go. With a bit more playing and time I got to edit the parts I needed and it works perfectly!

The layout is simple to use and is easily edited with 5 headings that you can add your blogs to.
Each heading can be edited to allow you to customise your RSS feed pages. At the moment our Pulse reader is set up with Junior, Middle, Senior, Other and Cool Blogs as page headings.

The thing that I loved the most about this is that it didn't need a google account or any other login for it to work. Just choose your heading, type in the website - pulse would search for it and then you would select the feed you wanted and it was added to your page... simple!

Another bonus is that it's very kid friendly as it shows thumbnails of images in blog posts along with text which is a major advantage compared to some of the more text based rss readers I found.

So now on each iPad we will be able to have a simple and effective way of accessing our school blogs as well as some great blogs for the kids to read and comment on.

End of the iPad...

Well in our class anyway...
Our 3 week iPad trial ended on Friday, much to the dismay of the students.

They have loved (this could be an understatement) using the iPad in class. Consistently the first thing they chose on the iPad were games. It gave me a really quick understanding of how gaming in educational is a powerful tool for students. But also finding Apps with a balance of gaming to learning is an important factor!

I've discovered a lot about the iPad from having the chance to work with it myself and within a classroom context. It's incredibly simple and intuitive to navigate and use. A friend's 4 year old daughter had a play when she visited and the iPads ease of use was immediately apparent. She picked it up and understood very quickly that you press a picture to play an App and press the only button to quit a game. Simple and easy. The same applied for the students - many of them picked it up and were using it with little instruction.

Most of the Apps that we had on the iPad were free - which is amazing in an educational setting. It seemed that every few days you could go back to the App store and find new Apps up at the iTunes store. This will change further once the iPad is released in NZ and the iPad Apps can be accessed via a NZ account rather than having to have a US iTunes account. Another bonus is that a lot of the more expensive Apps tend to have trial Apps so that you can get the idea of what it can offer you before you buy the real deal. In an educational setting this is a massive possibility - opening up lots of new content weekly for free - free is always great to a teacher!

I think one thing that would be ideal in a classroom is the iWorks package as Google Docs and many of the other collaborative writing websites don't work, most of them because they are flash based sites. The Apple vs Adobe standoff won't change anytime soon, this is not a problem (definitely an annoyance at times) but means that there needs to be a shift in thinking in making the iPad work online in the way we are used to at times. It definitely wasn't like putting a laptop in the classroom as many of the sites we use daily in class can't be accessed on the iPad at the moment.

It's definitely something I can see myself buying but not in the first round at the moment. But I really do understand and see that the iPad is a work in process, not a final product. For it to be an ultimate class gadget I would really like to see a camera on the iPad - this would allow for students to take photos and videos easily and would make it an ideal gadget for ePortfolios creation and sharing (create all the content via the iPad, then collate and share using Keynote - simple!)

I also think the iPad really is a personal learning tool and will be highly successful when the students have a better understanding of the Apps available to them and are using it more than just 'when they have a turn'. I will be continuing to watch and read articles as the iPad gains momentum in schools and around the world. It will be really interesting to see where the 'next big technological advancement' for schools will head to in the future.

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.

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

iPad Links & Articles

Clicker - For finding video via the iPad. Searches for iPad friendly video across the web.

Mobile Flickr - How the m.flickr.com mobile site works for the iTouch range.

Teenage App Tycoons - Interesting article about teenages making Apps that are allowed & not into the Apple App store for differing reasons.

Apple Controlling Your News - How Apple is controlling the content you can select and use via it's range.

iPad - Looking at some of the flaws

Move Files Between your Comp & iPad - MacWord (Still makes it seem harder than it could be!)

This is how Apple Rolls - Looking at how the Apple works and how the iPad is a beginning to some big changes and big ideas. Looking at the long term picture of where the iPad is heading.

Adobe blows Apple a Kiss - Next stage in the apple/flash debate

Apple Creating a "Walled Garden" - Apple being selective about what it will and won't allow to be included in Design Kits and viewed via the web.

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!

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.

iPad - Student Reflections

Yesterday as groups and as a class we had conversations about the iPad. Students had a chance to reflect in small or large groups on what it was they they liked and disliked about the iPad. I was really interested to see if my initial thoughts and ideas about what the students might dislike about the iPad bothered them or if they were of no concern to them (such as the flat screen typing).

Over the course of the week it's been interesting to see what have been the Apps the students have most enjoyed and been using. So I also asked them about their favourite Apps from the week so far and why it is that they enjoyed them. We used inspiration to record our ideas so the images are just screen shots from our conversationg

The following are their ideas after 1 week using the iPad...

What did you like about the iPad?

The students were actually really thoughtful about some of the reasons that they enjoyed the iPad. The "shine" factor is starting to come off the iPad and they are starting to think about how it can be used in the classroom for more than something to play on.

The students are extremely keen on being able to use the iPad.




What do you dislike about the iPad?

The students once again had some very logical things to say about the iPad and the parts of it that they disliked.

The biggest concern that came up from the students was the sound. The majority of the students really enjoyed having the sound but found this difficult to have it at the volume they wanted in class. With more iPads in the classroom this wouldn't become such an issue. But the interesting thing about this is that the class quickly came up with some ideas of how this wouldn't be a problem anymore.

The distraction of the iPad in the class also seemed to be a concept that the students all agreed on. Even when they were on the computer etc they found that if the iPad was near them they would get distracted by what was happening on it. It will be interesting to see as the next 2 weeks happen if this starts to become less of a problem for the students.

The last thing that the students seemed to agree on was that they found the orientation of the iPad a bit tricky to get to grips with at first. By this they meant that sometimes they would hold it portrait way and the screen would flick to landscape and vice versa. They seem to think that this will get better the more they use it and understand how it works.

What Apps did you enjoy the most?


This is a list of the Apps that were the most popular on the iPad for the students. By far the 2 biggest App types that students enjoyed on the iPad were gaming and drawing Apps.

We began the conversation sharing all the Apps. As they started to list them I told them that I had made a guess as to why they enjoyed these games. It seemed I was pretty spot on with my ideas.

The students were really quick to share why they enjoyed these games and it kept coming back to the principles of gaming and SiSoMo - the Sight, Sound and Motion that happen within the App. The other interesting concept that they said hooked them into an App was the use of strategy and levels. They enjoyed being challenged and pushed to a new level, where the idea of gaming comes in.

It was a great conversation, I really think the students are working towards moving away from it being a 'fun' thing to do to looking at how they could use it in the classroom. I have some big ideas for what I want to do next!

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.

iPad - Further Thoughts

One thing that I had mentioned previously that I found quite hard with the iPad was the lack of flash on it. Today Sumich posted a letter from Steve Jobs about the whole Flash vs Apple debate that has been a thing that has often let people down about Apple products such as the iPad and ITouch. It's an interesting letter that sheds light from another perspective on the conversation. It's always good to know both sides, I guess!

It also got me thinking as to how and what video/multimedia we are uploading to our class blog. With so many people accessing the web via smartphones, iPods and iPhones etc it's a good forward move to start thinking about other video sites that allow for all our media to be shown no matter what platform our audience are viewing from. I have begun looking at alternative sites to upload material to that allows for viewing across a range of platforms.

Another really interesting piece of reading that I came across was from the iPad in the Classroom blog which talks about the idea of multiple iPads being able to be synced from 1 computer. Obviously the logistics of this would be a nightmare but not so bad when you're talking a class set synced through 1 computer. This also means that 1 App could be brought to cover multiple iPads. Once again whether this is entirely legitimate seems a bit unclear in terms of user agreements and schools.

I've been really impressed with the battery life of the iPad. From 1 charge it's withstood continual use for the whole day in a range of Apps like Rock Band, PopMath and drawing programmes. Meaning that charging could occur overnight and the iPads would be good to go during the day in the class with no need for chargers around the class. A nice thought!

The kids are putting it through it's paces. We are still yet to work out a work around for the writing at the moment as google docs is unable to be edited via the iPad - which is a shame as this would have been a great way for students to collaborate during writing. I am ideally looking for a free writing/text edit programme that the students can use - but Pages may be the only way ahead on this?! Am going to trial DraftPad tomorrow - it allows writing to be emailed when completed, not sure how it will go with saving writing but we'll give it a try.

iPad - Day 2

Today it seemed like the iPad was shinier than the day before. The kids were all keen to gather around it and watch people play on Apps or point out things that they had learnt the day before.

We are still getting through the last of the students to have their play on the iPad.

My initial hopes of getting the kids to create written collaborative work using google docs has been dashed after a suggestion from Allanah K that google docs couldn't be edited on the iPad. I log in to google docs and find.. no students can't edit work. This is a real shame, as it would have been an awesome tool to have on the iPad. Will have to go back to the plan of downloading Pages etc for the iPad for the students to create written work and presentations on.

So far, from what the students say I can tell that the interactive nature of the iPad is a real hit. The touch screen technology is what sets it apart from the laptops. The Apps seem to have the right blend of SISOMO that capture the kids also. The kids also quickly learnt that if they want video - they go to the Youtube App.

Tomorrow is cross country so we'll see how we go with getting on the iPad. I am hoping to record some more of the kids reflections but Thursday we are going to kick in with our challenge and see how the kids go.

Day 1 - iPad in the Class

Well, the buzz about iPad isn't contained to adults. At first mention of the iPad to my students a good 75% of them raised their hands to share something they knew. Astonishing, but not suprising I guess.

The first day with the iPad was actually a great day - the students were keen to get started and have a go. To start with the students had just 20 minutes each to play around with the iPad to see what Apps were there and what they could do or find. The kids were all excited to get their hands on it, but interestingly enough when a student had the iPad other students were happy to let them play by themselves. Only a few occasions saw several students huddled around the iPad (generally when an App let out a random noise or sound).

I have started recording some of the students initial thoughts after their first experience with the iPad to share what they liked about it in the class or didn't. So far the kids have really liked the touch aspect of the screen as well as the interactiveness of the Apps.

One student has already commented on the fact that she really likes to have the sound going when she plays on the iPad (especially the book she read). But that you couldn't really have the sound loud on the iPad in class. This was a great reflection from her first go with it and the first reflection from any student. I think it's a fair call that earplugs would be a great accessory to go with the iPad in the class.

I'm glad that at the moment I have left the protective plastic screen on as already it's managed to gather a few scratches from being passed around the class. This would also need to be a consideration.

One concern I had was the way that students would be able to work on the touch screen. As to type you need to be in a good position to type on the flat screen. Or have it propped up on something such as the Apple stands. The students didn't seem bothered by this at all and simply went on their way using and typing without a fuss.

The students favourite Apps from the day seemed to be the Toy Story book, PopMath and the drawing Apps we have loaded.

My next step once everyone has had a quick play is to put the iPad and the students to the test. I am going to give it to students in certain blocks and see if they can complete the tasks we are doing in class via the iPad. At the moment we don't have Keynote on the iPad so students are going to use Google Docs for typing projects. After that I am keen to see if the kids can find a good App from what we have to complete the task we are completing in class.

iPad - First Free Apps

Best Free Apps so far...

StoryKit
Students are able to read books that are already available within the App. The best part of this App lies in it's ability to be able to change or add to these stories. But also for the students to create their own stories that story on the shelf in the App for later reading. Inside the App the students are able to type, select images from their photo library and draw their own illustrations using the paint utility. Lots of great opportunities with this.

PopMath
A cool wee App where students match up basic fact sums by popping matching balloons as they move around the screen. Had me hooked after the first play - you need to pay for the full App to get more than addition problems.

NoteTakerLite & Use Your Handwriting (UYH)
Both of these Apps are easy to navigate and allow you to take notes and store them so that you can order them and bring them up when necessary.

Bump
A great wee tool shown to me by Belinda Johnston. Two iTouches/iPad's "bump" together to exchange files easily. A simple way to pass files around from student to student.

GS Lite - Green screening
A simple tool for green screening photos.

Other notable Apps..

FreddyFraction - Fraction game for kids
FilterStorm - Amazing image editing suite
iStudiez Lite
"2009 Best App Ever Award Winner in Education category!"
A way for students to timetable in their days
Whiteboard
A collaborative whiteboard that shows on each of the iPads.
Toy Story
A read along for kids with a range of other activities as well as a record story feature.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the kids think of these Apps also. I can see some good potential from a range of them. If you have any other great Apps that you are using across iTouch/iPad's feel free to leave a comment to share your great finds!