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Tag: iPad apps

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Managing Mobile Devices in Your Classroom

nancy 2 Comments

Last month, I was lucky enough to attend a seminar put on by the Bureau of Education and Research on using iPads in the classroom. The speaker, Zachary Walker, shared many valuable ideas and resources to help the attendees make the most of their classroom iPads. He also shared some easy to implement classroom management techniques to make sure that the mobile devices in your room have a positive impact on learning.

One of the reasons we like to use iPads and tablets with our students is because these devices are so engaging, but the engagement factor is a double-edged sword. When we want the kids to stay on task, it’s usually our friend, but when we are ready to have students pay attention to something else, the siren call of a colorful iPad screen can be a problem. Here are some suggestions from Zachary Walker that you can use to manage your classroom and help your students stay on task while they are using mobile devices:

  • Dock Your Device: Have students put their device face down on the far right corner of the desk. This ensures that they are not distracted by whatever is on the screen or playing with them under the desk while you would like them focused elsewhere.
  • Screens Up (or Apples Up): When you say “Screens up,” students should immediately hold up their iPads/tablets with the screen facing you. This allows you to do a quick scan of all the devices to make sure students are on an appropriate app or website.
  • Hands Up: Students should leave their devices face up on the desk and put both hands in the air when you say, “Hands up.” You can continue talking while you walk around the room and scan the devices to make sure everybody is on task.
  • Time the activity: Let the students know before they begin how much time they will have to work on the devices. Use a timer so they can keep track of how long they have. Any timer you can project for them will do. Try typing “2 minute timer” into Google or, for a more entertaining interface, install the free application Howler Timer on your computer.
  • Noise meter: Finally, if you have your own iPad, install the Too Noisy app. Put the iPad where students can see it or project using your Elmo or Apple TV. Let the students know that if the noise level gets too high, the mobile devices will have to be put away, and let peer pressure help keep the volume at the level you have set as acceptable.

Zachary Walker’s website, lastbackpack.com, is an excellent resource for mobile learning ideas and lesson plans. I highly recommend checking it out. If you are on Twitter, you can follow him @lastbackpack.

This entry was cross-posted on the LVUSD Ed Tech Blog.

Include an EdShelf webmix in a Google site

nancy 2 Comments

I have been playing with EdShelf, an online tool that helps teachers organize lists of apps and other resources they use into webmixes. It is free and so far has been easy to use. Basically, you create a collection (or more than one) and add the tools to it. Each tool is in the database with a brief video, reviews, and pricing info. One feature that is especially nice is that if you choose to print the list, it automatically adds QR codes to link to the website for each tool. You can embed your collections on websites to share with students, parents, and other educators.

Unfortunately, the embed code they provide doesn’t work well with Google sites. Google is pretty particular about what kind of embed codes they allow. There is a workaround, though. What you need to do is to insert the entire webpage into a frame on your Google site. Just follow these steps.

  1. Log into EdShelf.com.
  2. Find your name on the right side, click it, and select the webmix you want to include.
  3. When the webmix page opens, select and copy the url.
  4. Log into your Google site and click where you want to embed the webmix.
  5. Choose Insert from the menu at the upper left.
  6. Choose More Gadgets, then Include gadget (iFrame). Click Select.
  7. Paste the url to your webmix in the box marked URL to content, adjust your other settings, and click OK.

Tech Tuesday: Guided Access

nancy 1 Comment

Guided Access is a feature of iOS 6 that allows users to prevent app switching and/or disable parts of the screen. It does not affect the way the app works unless you specifically set it to do so.

There are many reasons teachers might want to enable this feature on iPads in their classrooms. It may be a simple matter of keeping the students on task. Teachers may want to prevent students taking online tests from having access to Google or other search engines. Teachers using iPads in small groups may find that the minute or two spent enabling Guided Access is time well-spent when the iPads are ready for the next group without need for further teacher intervention. Guided Access can also be helpful if you want to disable areas of the screen, whether it is because you want to prevent students attempting to make in-app purchases, pressing the pause button, saving to the camera roll, or for any other reason.

First, enable Guided Access on your iPad. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access. You will need to set a passcode so you can turn Guided Access on and off and control the settings for each Guided Access session.

To start a Guided Access session, open the app you want to use and triple-click the Home button. If there are any areas of the screen you want to disable, circle them. You can use the handles to adjust the area. You can also set the iPad to ignore all screen touches by turning off Touch and keep it from changing orientation by turning off Motion. When you have set everything the way you want it, click Start.

To end a Guided Access session, triple-click the Home button and enter the Guided Access passcode.

The video below will give you a quick overview of what Guided Access looks like and how it works.

Originally published on Technology at Chaparral.

Tech Tuesday: Using Weather Apps

nancy

lightning

“…after all it is more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be” (Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth).

Perhaps. However, weather is an important area of study for our students. They examine different aspects of weather as early as kindergarten. The weather apps on the iPad can help with this, but they also allow students to do much more. All require an internet connection to download current weather.

InstaWeather Pro (regularly $1.99; free for a limited time) adds a weather overlay to your images. You can take your own pictures or use images from your camera roll, apply the skin, and then share.

Educational applications: Class weather book, compare predicted weather with actual weather, add weather to 365 project photos, tweet your weather, take a picture of the same plants at regular intervals and see how weather affects their growth, etc. Matt Gomez is using it to document the weather in his Texas kindergarten classroom.

Apple‘s default weather app and other similar apps* can be used not only to check the weather, but may be incorporated into the curriculum in a variety of ways. The possibilities are endless. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

  • Mathematics ideas: Use a weather app and Easy Chart (basic version is free for iPhone, also compatible with iPad; $0.99 for iPad HD version or iPhone advanced pack to add more functionality) to compare temperatures or wind speeds over time, in different places, or at different times of day. Compute mean, median, and mode of high or low temperatures over the course of a week. Give students a temperature and have them try to find a city with that mean temperature this week. Graph the difference between expected highs and lows.
  • Language arts ideas: Use the information from the weather app to list facts or write an informational paragraph. Write about how the weather influences your activities. Use the InstaWeather image as the background for a haiku or weather-related senses poem. Create a PuppetPals video to explain a weather phenomenon.
  • Social studies/science ideas: Compare local weather to weather in other parts of the world. Use one of the video capable apps to observe the ways weather moves across the continents.

*For example, there are apps by the Weather Channel, Weather Underground, AccuWeather, Weather +, WeatherBug, and others.

Please share the ways you might use weather apps in your classroom in the comments.
Image courtesy of PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay.com.

Originally published on Technology at Chaparral.

Tech Tuesday: Bluster!

nancy

App: Bluster! (Free)
Subject: Language Arts
Grade level: The stated grade level in the app is 2-4, but it could be used by 1st graders who are already good readers and would be a good review for many 5th graders.
What it is: A word matching game from McGraw-Hill where players can work on rhyming words, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, and other skills. The app comes with over 800 words. More words are available via in-app purchase ($0.99).

This game uses weather sound effects and backgrounds to engage players. Each game consists of three rounds in which players need to sort 30 words into the three spaces in the center. Players swipe through the word list to find words that match according to the selected type. When all three words in the center spaces match, they are cleared from the list. The object of the game is to make all ten matches and clear the word list as quickly as possible. The game keeps track of the fastest times. The game times a player game in which you are timed as you place the matching terms in the given boxes from the list until all words are used. 10 matches wins one round. In addition, students are able to play the game in a team mode in which students are able to collaborate to complete the task together. The object of the game is to make all matches from the word list provided as fast as possible to get the best time.

Two things that would greatly improve this game would be to have the game pronounce the words in the list and to display the type of match players need to make during game play, but even with these shortcomings, it is still an excellent game and one that students will enjoy.

Note: When setting up the game, it may be best to refer to the “grades” as “levels,” since students may need to play either above or below their actual grade level to be challenged.

Variations:

  • Single-player mode: Students play at their own pace and can tap the sun to pause
  • Team mode: Students share an iPad and work together to find matching words
  • Versus mode: Students compete head-to-head to see who can clear the word list first

Extension idea:

  • Have students who are playing alone or in Team mode note unfamiliar vocabulary words while playing, then use the Dictionary app to look them up. They could even illustrate them with a drawing app and add to a class vocabulary book on the iPad or in the class library.

Key for success:
Make sure students know how the game works ahead of time. In Team mode, there are weather elements that can freeze the opponent’s move if properly timed, allowing the player to get ahead.

Additional links:
Using Bluster! during RtI

Originally published on Technology at Chaparral.

Tech Tuesday: Puppet Pals HD

nancy

Puppet Pals icon

App: Puppet Pals HD (Free)
Subject: All
Grade level: All

What it is: An animation and story-telling app for the iPad that comes with several characters and backgrounds. Students select characters and backdrops, then create a movie by moving the characters with their fingers while recording narration or dialog.

Upgrading to the Director’s Pass version ($2.99) provides access to many more characters and backdrops from the developer and also allows users to create their own puppets and scenes.

Educational applications:

  • Demonstrate understanding of a lesson
  • Create a news story about a current or historical event
  • Provide opportunity for ELL students to use language in an engaging way
  • Create presentations for classroom projects
  • Reader’s theater or poetry reading for fluency
  • Persuasive writing
  • Many, many more; please share in the comments if you have a wonderful idea

How to share with the outside world:

  • Save your project
  • Export it to the Camera Roll
  • Open it in the Camera Roll and email it or upload it to YouTube

Key for success:
Planning! Students can re-record while working on their project, but there is no option for editing saved work. Students working on more sophisticated projects should decide beforehand which characters they will use and what will happen. If they are working in groups, having a script, or at least discussing who will say what and when is important. Having a storyboard would be very helpful.

Download printable directions for using Puppet Pals HD.

Additional links:
Introduction to Puppet Pals HD
Practical Lesson Plans Using Puppet Pals HD
Persuasive Writing and Puppet Pals HD

Originally published on Technology at Chaparral.