Photo and Text apps #1

There are many different types of photo apps available.
This is a first of a series of posts I will make on photo apps.
In this post I will be looking at apps that allow students to quickly present their photos with writing.

Halftone: (iPad and iPod Touch)
Add Effects: Yes
Text:  Speech bubbles, narrative boxes
Share: as a photo to library, send in an email

1. Take a photo or use a photo from the Library
2. Choose a paper style and layout
3. Add balloons and stamps
4. Select a font

 How could you use this in the classroom?

• Great for students who only write a few sentences

 Comic Life (iPad only)
Add Effects: No but great variety of templates to choose from
Text: Speech bubbles, narrative boxes
Share: Dropbox, WebDAV, email, Photo Library

1. Create drawings in apps such as...
2. Choose a template in Comic Life
3. Insert graphics or photos
4. Add text to speech bubbles and text boxes
5. Add more pages, add templates that are different in the number of slides that they display

How could you use this in the classroom?

• break up narratives and tell the story in different shapes and parts of the page
• use a mixture of photos and drawings
• choose templates that complement the telling of the story
• use one photo templates for students who cannot write a great amount
• create timelines
• character or plot analysis
• Procedural writing
• posters
• digital story writing

 Comic Touch: Free version has a watermark, has all other features of the Full version (iPhone version, no full iPad version)
Add Effects: Limited effects of Smudge, Bulge, Dent,  Stretch or light
Text: Speech, Thought, Whisper, Exclaim and Caption bubbles

Share: Photo Library, email

1. Choose a photo from the photo library or take a photo with the camera
2. Add Speech, Thought, Whisper, Exclaim and Caption bubbles
3. Tap on the Share button and save to Photo Library or email

How could you use this in the classroom?

• Use the photos as motivation for the writing, what are the students saying to each other
• record what people could be thinking
• great publishing tool for limited writing

Photo apps and effects #1

Some photo apps can be purely gimmicky, but they can also have their uses in education. This is the first post in a series of Photo apps and effects.

My Sketch (iPad and iPod Touch)
Add Effects: Smudge, Contrast, Photocopy, Colour, Sepia, Smooth, Canvas, Classic, Fine Pencil, Sketchbook, Pastel and many others
Share: Saves to Photo Library, or share to email

1. Take a photo or use one from the library
2. Choose an effect from below, if you don't like it, tap the back button
3. Play with the brightness and contrast and any other editing tools that might appear
4. Tap Save, choose image size
5. Tap on Save to photo library or send in an email

How could you use this in education?

This app will provide you with lots of different ways to sketch. Children can take photos of the subject and apply the sketching filters to it. Then they can look closely it at and observe the form, shape, shadows and how the strokes have been applied. This will help them for when they attempt their own sketching on paper.

Music and Devices in the Classroom

In one of my first classroom teaching experiences using iPods with students, I found a way to use them that I did not expect. I was not prepared for students overwhelming interest in the music side of the iPod.

By the second day students were asking me if they could play music before school using the battery operated (or power) speaker system. So every morning they would set up the iPod touch on the speaker system and play music until the bell went, and then they would switch off the music and start their day's work.

On the third day I noticed one of the students had a particularly great singing voice, so I showed her the iKaraoke (US$19.95). We hooked it up to the speaker system and iPod, and she was away, so every morning as well as the music we were being serenaded with other students making 'requests' for songs that she would sing.

But one particular use I noticed that sneaked in was students listening to music while they worked. In this photo, the student has just removed the head set to talk to me but he had been working away quietly listening to music.

What was interesting was that I noticed that the children who voluntarily used the iPods for music were the mostly 'rambunctious' lot who had the loudest voices, and were the 'ones' that you noticed the most in the class. But when they were listening to the iPods, there was a noticeable silence.
These students were on task, doing their work and not bothering anybody else. I had no problem with them listening to music as they worked as that is something I like to do.
So think about using your iPods playing music when students are working in their books, particularly for those students who are easily distracted.

Notes

The Notes app comes pre-installed on your iPad or iPod Touch.
The first line of your note becomes the title.

It has very basic capabilities but still very useful.

So how can it be used in an educational context?

If you don't have a Word Processor on your iPad or iPod Touch then you can use 'Notes' for drafting a story. I have had students use the iPod touch very successfully for drafting their writing.
It can then be sent as an email for printing out to be edited or opened in the Word Processing programme on your computer. (Tip: before printing out, set the Line Spacing to at least 2.0 in your WordProcessor so there is space for editing.)
It can also be used as a basic publishing tool. If students have drafted, edited and conferenced their writing in their book, then they can type it up onto the Notes app and then email it for printing out. It can then be decorated or illustrated by hand.

This app is great on field trips as well. Use it for writing notes.

I have had students practise their spelling words on it, much more fun then writing them out in their spelling books.

The notes app has a great search function on it. Type in a word and it will show all notes with that word in it. Great for finding notes on a common theme.

 No Distractions
What is great about using Notes in these different ways is that students can't get distracted with other tools like changing fonts and styles and adding graphics and backgrounds.

All they can do is 'write'!

ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard (Maths)

The free 'ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard' app would have to be one of the most useful apps in the classroom for both teachers and students.

When I am demonstrating it to teachers I get them to show me a maths strategy they are teaching their students at the moment.






They record their voices talking through the strategy and draw it on ShowMe's Whiteboard.
The final 'ShowMe' can be uploaded to http://www.showme.com where you can then get the 'embed' code to embed into your wiki, blog or site for students to revisit.







Once the strategy is taught to the students they can then be set similar problems to solve.
They can record their voices explaining how they solved the problems as they write the solution. These can then be shown to the rest of the group or to the teacher. These could be assessment examples that students can add to e-Portfolios.

Have a look at this example from Russell Street School in Palmerston North

Demo Lesson with Inspiration (Reading)

Yesterday I demonstrated an iPad opportunity with a group of children at Hingaia Peninsula School. They had read the book 'Squid Monster ' by Jill Eggleton
One of the key features of the story was all the emotions the characters were feeling in the book.
The follow up activity was to find other synonyms for the emotions which we did by using the following apps
iPad Apps

• Inspiration Maps (Free or half price at the moment NZ $9.99) for iPads only
• Dictionary (Free for iPod Touch and Free for iPad)

Laptop Apps (wireless mirroring to a laptop connected to a projector)

• Reflection (Mac only NZ$14.99 single user or $49.99 for 5 licenses) this was the one I used but PC users could use the one below
• Airserver (Mac & PC $14.99 for 5 licenses)

We talked about the different emotions that the characters felt in the story and looked at the highlighted words in the book. Using the mirroring  software I was able to introduce the 'Inspiration' app

• Find the Inspiration app on the Writing page or Press the Home button once and once again to get to the Search Window, start typing Inspiration tap on the app to open it

1. Tap on the Templates window
2. Tap on New Diagram
3. Type the name of the first character we are looking at

 

Find the Dictionary app by going to the Page it is on or by pressing the Home button to get to the Search Screen as seen below. Start typing Dictionary and then tap on the app when it appears

Type in the word to be found in this example it is 'anxious'.

At this point there was a lot of discussion about the word 'anxious' and what it meant in the context of the story. The students looked carefully at the Synonyms and talked about which of the words there would be correct to use in the context of the story.

Once they had chosen a word I showed them how to get back quickly to Inspiration to add the new synonym.

Double tap the Home button and tap on Inspiration.

Add the word to the new symbol.

Then click on the arrow to get a new symbol.

Add more symbols, remembering to tap on the first symbol (Tomas) to start the new word synonym find.

All of the students caught onto the moving between apps very quickly. 

When I saw one particular student had become very proficient quickly then I showed her how she could organise her information by colour and shape. She is now the 'Inspiration Expert' in the class. She will be able to share her knowledge by teaching other students.

 In 15 minutes these students were able to

• find apps using a search function
• flip between two apps
• find Dictionary meanings and synonyms in the time it took them to type the word
• add information to an Inspiration mindmap and organise it
• how to save their diagram
• discuss the words and the meanings they were finding and through that discourse make informed choices

Other ideas that came from the teachers observing were that the students could use the note feature for further activities.

They were using an iPad each, and their book Squid Monster. They could have used a paper Thesaurus or Dictionary, but the speed it took them to the information they needed I think they would rather use the iPad.
To begin with this has been about the apps, but students and teachers alike need to know how the apps work before they can make good use of them. Already teachers are thinking about how they can use Inspiration in their reading in a variety of ways.

 At this stage Inspiration is not compatible with the desktop version. These diagrams are saved as pictures and can be emailed or sent to Dropbox.

Management of Apps

Students and teachers can waste a lot of time looking for Apps. They need to be categorised and organised into folders.

Set up 'curriculum' pages.

Maths

These could be set up into strand, stages and/or Number Knowledge and Number Strategies.

Students should be directed to the folders that are related to the teaching and learning intention of that day.

Writing
Literacy needs to split up into at least Reading and Writing. Depending on how many apps you have you  may split it even further to have a Spelling and Grammar page. In this example I like to have a separate folder that offers many different ways to publish.

Reading
In this example the books have been divided up into Junior and Senior Books. You may want to consider reading ages as folder names.
I have separated the 'interactive' books such as Mushroom Age or The Mystery of the Crystal Porter as they have less reading and more interactive tasks in them.

Music

I have divided up the music apps into the different categories of

• Wind
• Percussion
• Strings
• Singing
• Piano

Art

There are so many wonderful art apps available. I have separated the drawing ones from the apps that do special effects.







The other curriculum apps like Social Sciences and Science can be divided up between pages as well.

iPads, iPods & Devices in the classroom

Schools have bought iPads or iPods and given them to teachers.
Schools have bought iPads for their administration teams.
Parents are buying them for their children.
We are hearing that iPads are great to use and...

'there is an app for that!'

I believe that these devices are the way of the future in education BUT they are not a quick fix. Teachers need to understand them and how to use them.