Posts Tagged ‘apps’

Summer Technology Challenge

TVS teachers – this is just for you!

This is a summer where you can’t go up to school so, here is a challenge for you should you decide to work from home. Have some fun exploring new technologies or spend time learning even more about ones you already know. Below are ideas to help you get started.

kidblogKidblog (free app although we have the upgraded subscription) – Use our TVS Lower School blog to start posting and/or commenting on others’ posts. You are able to use Kidblog from a computer as well as an iPad. On an iPad, you’ll need to set up the class. Open the app and tap on settings. Choose Add a Class then Login to Kidblog. The Class URL is TVSLowerSchool. Once you’ve typed that, your username will show up at the bottom of the screen. Click Kidblog setup on app for directions.

This would be a great place to post what you are learning about this summer, vacations, favorite books, or anything else you would like to share! If you create anything with apps, post that to your blog! Remember, if you can save to photos, you can post it on a blog! Click What can be posted? for samples.

book creatorBook Creator ($4.99) – In addition to saving as ePub books (to read in iBooks), did you know that Book Creator now allows exporting content as videos? This is great for sharing with families who don’t have iOS devices.

Create a book about you to share with your new students. Export as a video and upload to Vimeo. (Email me if you need the log in information.) Or, create an ePub book about a topic you want your students to learn. Make the book interactive by adding hyperlinks (Hint: This is accomplished in the Add Text section. Tap and select word then choose link.)

To learn more about Book Creator’s features, click here. Follow Book Creator on Pinterest for lots of ideas!

coding appsCoding Apps – I grouped these together because they are all excellent for computational thinking. Programming teaches children to problem-solve and think creatively. For more background on the reasons to learn to program, read this article, It’s Time for Every Students to Learn to code.

  • Kodable (app and web-based; free; paid school version allows deeper exploration) – coding curriculum for elementary ages
  • Lightbot and Lightbot Jr  (average cost per app $2.99; Jr for ages 4-8; Lightbot for ages 9+) Teaches programming logic through puzzles.
  • Scratch Jr (free) ages 5-7 – drag and drop coding blocks where students can program interactive stories and games

draw and tellDraw and Tell HD ($1.99) – So much more than a drawing app, Draw & Tell allows children to illustrate something, record their voice telling about it (orally share their thinking), and then share with others. Our students typically share to their blog. The app was created for ages 5 and younger but first and second graders would enjoy the app and find it very easy to use.

How would you incorporate the Draw & Tell app? What topics could students share? Would this be something you could use for students to show their understanding of a concept?

EEExplain Everything ($2.99) – This my favorite screen casting app for ages 8+! Yes, it has a learning curve but it is extremely powerful and there is SO much you can do with it. The app developer’s web site has excellent video tutorials for you to view.

Play around with the various tools in the app. Practice recording and drawing at the same time. Since Explain Everything isn’t as intuitive as other screen casting apps, students will need some practice but I’ll be glad to help with that.

Click here to see how Mrs. Wideen uses EE in her class. How could you use this with your children?

Adobe VoiceAdobe Voice (free) – “Show Your Story” is how this app is described. The user adds photos and narration and produces a short video that can be shared. To use with children under age 13, the teacher must create either a class account or individual accounts (By law, students under age 13 can not create their own account).

This is a quick and easy way for students to “tell” their story, save to photos, and share to their blog. Create your own story and post it this summer!

Adobe slateAdobe Slate (free) – Create a story with a magazine-type layout. Add images and text. You’ll need a class account (see Adobe Voice). This app doesn’t have recording but it can be a great writing activity.

mycreate appMy Create ($4.99) – Students capture a series of photos then create a stop-motion video. Audio can also be recorded.

Think about all that you can do with this! I’ve used it for Lego building but what about keeping track of a plant’s growth? Or, chick eggs waiting to hatch? Or, take photos of trees as they go from bare to covered with full-sized leaves.poppletPopplet (lite is free; full version $4.99) – A visual mindmap for students, Popplet is easy to use. Students can add images and facts to help organize information. Work in groups and have each member add their own facts. Export as JPEG and upload to the blog. Try the free version and let me know if you would use this in your classroom.

App Smashing – combining two or more apps to create a product. Read Unleashing Creativity: Greg Kulowiec App Smashing for a wealth of information. Since he coined the phrase, he truly is the guru of this!

Try your hand at app smashing.

  • Make videos using Adobe Voice and My Create. Save to photos. Join these together in iMovie and upload to the blog. If it’s too large, upload to Vimeo (refer to my email for log in info) and either provide the link on your blog or embed the video. (Note: When embedding a video on the blog, I always find it easier to work on a desktop to that I can choose the HTML option from the New Post window. Then I just paste the embed code.)
  • Make a book in Book Creator. Export as a video. Create a screen cast using either Draw & Tell or Explain Everything related to the book. Pull all together in iMovie. You can even make an introduction in one of the screen casting apps. In iMovie, just split the Book Creator clip, delete the cover that you had previously made in that app, and insert the new introduction.
  • Create a written story in Adobe Slate. Bring that into Adobe Voice to provide narration.
  • Make a collage with the Pic Collage app (Did you know that there is a new Pic Collage Kids?) and import that into Adobe Voice for adding narration.

More Resources:

Something to Think About:

At some point you’ll need to upload student work to a cloud storage space. Check out Google Drive – 15 GB free storage. Create folders for work that is uploaded. Make the file free, get a link, share with parents.

Web-Based Programs to Explore:

  • Unite For Literacy – free storybooks for primary grades
  • Wonderopolis – view a “Wonder of the Day” each day; students can research within the web site

I gave you lots of information with enough details to make your head spin! The best way to learn is just jump in and explore. Use your experiences over the summer to create anything you want. It doesn’t have to relate to school! I’m eager to see your creations!

Enjoy!

Have fun!!

Apps in a Flash: Using Book Creator

photo(2)Today’s Apps in a Flash workshop focused on the Book Creator app. Book Creator is available for iOS (free and paid versions) and, as of a few days ago, for Android ($2.00 at the moment)!

Because our Apps in a Flash workshops are only 15 to 20 minutes long, I created a “Book Creator: Tips and Examples” book for our teachers. Just click on the above link, download, and open in iBooks.

We had a small group for our workshop but still brainstormed several ideas for using the app. Instead of using an index card for the exit ticket, we worked on a Padlet wall. Feel free to add your ideas to the list!

Created with Padlet

Write About This App and QR Codes

Write about thisOur second graders explored the Write About This app last week in the computer lab. The app offers visual writing prompts; students can write a story and record their narration (which saves as a QuickTime movie). There is a free version with limited prompts or, for $3.99, several prompts appear per category. For each visual there are 3 levels which allow for differentiation. Images can also be uploaded to create your own prompts.

I asked the students to go to the categories and look through them.

photo(1)Since I only have the students for 40 minutes, they had to choose a picture quickly. Once that was accomplished, the students started their writing.

photo(6)

Mrs. Cooper’s students writing their stories

In the classroom, I would expect students to spend more time with the writing process but this was a “quick write” due to time constraints. We did go over our allotted time, but the children were able to write, record, and email their Write About to me.

One of the second grade teachers, Mrs. Cooper, mentioned that she liked to have work on the bulletin board outside her classroom that parents could view on parent/teacher conference day. That started me thinking – could we upload the student’s narration somewhere and create a QR code so that parents could scan and listen to their child reading?

For me, the easiest way was to upload all Write Abouts to our FTP server. Once that was done, I used a QR code generator to create the code. The one I used this time was QR Stuff because I could also choose to shorten the URL at the same time the code was being generated. The codes were saved to a Word Document and labeled by child’s name. I printed them on a full-page label so all I had to do was cut them out and stick them onto the Write Abouts that had previously been printed.

photo(5)Since the Write About narrations are saved as a QuickTime movie, they could be uploaded to Vimeo or YouTube. QR codes could be created as above.

The students loved the Write About This app. We don’t recall hearing anyone say, “I can’t think of anything to write!”

By the way, the same people who created Write About This have just released the Tell About This app. Visual prompts are provided that encourage children to focus on their oral language skills as they tell stories. I can’t wait to work with the younger grades!

Socrative Student Response Systems

What can be better than the ability to turn any device connected to the internet into a student response system? Maybe the fact that it’s free, easy to use, and it grades for you?? Socrative does that.

Teacher and Student apps

Teacher and Student apps

Yes, Socrative has been around awhile but I didn’t take the time to delve into it until EdTechTeacher’s “The iPad Classroom” workshop in Atlanta. Our instructor, Shawn McCusker, used this quite a bit with us to demonstrate its benefits in the classroom setting.

So, on returning home I decided to test it out on family members. (Where else do I find students on a Friday night during the summer??) I chose the Space Race and it worked like a charm – despite the fact that my husband and 27 year old son were a bit competitive and we had to get past the complaining that “he started before me and that’s why I lost” (from my husband). But they did agree that this would be a fun way to practice what they had learned.

For those of you who haven’t used Socrative before, the interface is extremely intuitive and it doesn’t take long at all to set up a quiz. If fact, it will take longer to figure out what you want to test! Below is an excellent video from the Socrative website that explains how the system works.

You are able to create the quizzes on a computer or on a tablet (through a browser at the Socrative website or with the iPhone/iPad app or the Google Play Android app).

1 teacher

To participate, students can log in via the app (iTunes store or Google Play) or can visit the student site using their browser. Then they just enter the room number and follow the directions from there.

5 student view

I had my family play the Space Race. This could be projected so that students can see their progress compared to the other groups.

6 teacher view
For more resources, visit:

I’m looking forward to using this with students in the fall!

 

“iPadding” with Teachers

Last November, one of our second grade teachers and I were able to attend EdTechTeacher‘s excellent iPad Summit conference in Boston. All of the teachers at our school were given iPads at the beginning of the school year and we were eager to learn ways to use them that would move students from being a consumer to becoming a creator.

We were asked to facilitate a 2 1/2 hour workshop on the day we returned from the holidays. Having been a classroom teacher, I know the last place educators want to be the day before students return is listening to someone else talk! So, we had to do our best to make this an active workshop!

Jane, our 2nd grade teacher, had attended Beth Holland’s “iPads in the Elementary Classroom” pre-conference workshop and I chose Greg Kulowiec’sCreating Digital and Multimedia Content” presentation (click here to see their resources). We learned SO much in these sessions and were excited to share what these two innovative instructors shared with us.

We decided to focus on the power of a few apps:

Knowing we wouldn’t be able to get to every app, we chose to have the teachers participate in a QR Code Scavenger Hunt. We had found examples of student-made projects using these apps so we linked to them using QR Codes. The codes were placed along the hall. The teachers were told to get into groups of no more than 4 and their job was to scan a code and match it to a description on their “hunt” sheet.

It is amazing how fast a group of teachers can move when there is the mention of a prize! We had one group back in less than 5 minutes! Of course, there was no way they could have listened to every link but they received the prize anyway. It was my fault! What I neglected to say before hand was that they should LISTEN at each station (my assumption was that they would do just that; should have known better – this is a very competitive group!!).

 

We were able to share pedagogy (objectives first then choose technology IF it’s appropriate) as well as explore some of the apps and brainstorm how they could be used in the classroom.

We have a phenomenal group of teachers and they were an awesome audience! As presenters, we had a fun morning. I’m looking forward to working with our educators as they implement iPad technology into their classrooms.

Our presentation:

 

Create Digital Postcards

Last November, at the iPad Summit in Boston, a couple of people mentioned using postcard apps with their students. With the semester ending and holidays coming, I forgot to look into it. A few days ago, I came across an excellent post called, Creating Postcard Summaries, from the blog, Teach Thru Technology (well worth reading). That was a great reminder to check it out! I like the app mentioned in the post, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard.

The app allows the user to either take a photo, choose from album (camera roll), or choose from the built-in nature photos (beautiful images as seen in the screenshot below).

 The app is well-designed and intuitive. There are “stickers” that can be added to the back of the card. The writing section is large enough for students to write a couple of paragraphs – excellent for summarizing.

 Of course you can mail your cards – this costs as little as $1.50 for delivery in the U.S. But what I like is that the photocards can be emailed or saved to the camera roll. We would have students email to the teacher so she could collect them for assessment.

 Here’s a finished card.

 Think about all the writing that could be done using this app!

  • character studies
  • information about a place (take a screenshot of a place in Google Earth!)
  • biographies
  • historical events
  • describe a science experiment
  • document field trips

Paul Wagner, author of the Teach Thru Technology blog, includes another app in his Creating Postcard Summaries post:

 This would be a great app to make a collage of several photos, save to the camera roll, then pull into the Photocard app. I practiced with it by pulling in a screenshot of Washington, DC in Google Earth that had been labeled using Skitch. I then added photos taken in DC. Next step was to write a bit about the city.

Both apps are very easy to use and would be a fun way to encourage writing.

Apps to Think About

I wanted to share a couple of apps that I think would be a worthy addition to a classroom.

Daisy the Dinosaur is a free app designed to teach simple computer programming skills to students. The app takes the user through guided steps that increase in difficulty. Students learn how to make Daisy move, jump, turn, etc though an easy drag and drop interface. This is an excellent way to help students with problem-solving skills.

 

Here is a video produced by Lambeth City Learning Center for an overview of Daisy the Dinosaur.

iPad Apps: Daisy the Dino from Lambeth CLC on Vimeo.

Trading Cards is a free app from ReadWriteThink (and everything I’ve used from their site has been excellent!). This app allows students to create trading cards in seven different categories: fictional person, real person, fictional place, real place, object, event, vocabulary. Students are guided through the process of what information to include. When finished, the cards can be printed, emailed, or saved to the iPad’s camera roll. Think of all the educational uses! Story character cards, biographical information, country/state studies, vocabulary study cards are just a few that come to mind.

I practiced a bit with a real place, adding a photo of Connecticut’s Capitol. Didn’t add more information but you can see the capabilities of this app.

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) has written a great post about the Trading Cards app. Click here to read his review. Another excellent review with screenshots comes from the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District.

Fun Apps to Have

Sometimes you just need some “fun” apps – as teachers, we are always on the lookout for those educational apps that would be beneficial in the classroom. Of course, there are thousands of fun apps out there but here are a couple that I’m enjoying at the moment.

Cuptakes is a $ .99 app for iPad and iPhone and is promoted as “treats for the girly-girls.” The app offers a wide variety of really cute wallpaper backgrounds so that you can personalize your device. New wallpaper is added monthly so you can change as often as you like.

Just a few of the many available wallpaper choices!


If you like jigsaw puzzles, Jigsaw Box is the app for you! This is a free app that offers over 100 jigsaw puzzles. But the best part is that you can use your own photos to create personalized puzzles!

Nice variety of puzzles or upload your own photos!

Once a puzzle is chosen, there is a choice of jigsaw size – from 8 to 252 pieces.

Just like the real thing!

But, unlike a jigsaw puzzle from a box, you can even share this one with others!

Fun stuff! And this one can have educational value – it’s certainly good for spatial reasoning and just think how excited children would be when presented with a puzzle of something that’s meaningful to them!

Free Math Apps!

McGraw-Hill is again offering 5 of their math apps for free from April 25-28, 2012! The apps are:

  • Addition Top-It
  • Equivalent Fractions
  • Beat the Computer Multiplication
  • Monster Squeeze
  • Divisibility Dash

We’ve been using these and they are well-worth getting!