uLearning Blog

News and views on ubiquitous, mobile, connected 21st century learning (mLearning –> uLearning)

Tag Archives: apps

October 23, 2012
by jnxyz
0 comments

Will You Mini? 1st thoughts on the new iPad by a teacher

So the much awaited entry by Apple into the smaller tablet space has now been announced. You can as usual get all the details immediately at Apple.com. It does look, just like with the iPhone5, to be an amazing feat of engineering in regards to its fit and finish etc, areas that often set Apple products apart and for which people are prepared to choose time and again.

My feeling however for schools is that the US$329 price ($369 in Australia) is too high to really trigger a mass takeup. Perhaps it will come down in price over the next couple of years, but for now – although the cameras are better, in other respects its identical to the iPad2. For iPad buyers, that leaves the smaller size as the main differentiating factor – which may be great for being out and about, and maybe for P-3 students?

I’d be very Interested in the thoughts of P-3 teachers on if they’d prefer the smaller size or the full size iPad. Also – how many would choose the mini purely to save $50 or so over the iPad2 (which I’m very surprised they kept around)? Maybe if you were buying a lot?

There is one factor however that is highly in the mini’s favour – step outside of comparing the 16gb mini and 16gb iPad2 and it becomes a different comparison. Many schools I work with I know are finding 16gb too small nowadays – so with the mini you can get a 32gb mini model for $479 when the only other iPad with that option is the full iPad at $649 – that is a major difference beyond just the size.

(Also consider however that refurbished 32gb models of the larger 3rd gen retina iPad are also selling at only US$469 [or US$379 for 16gb] now as spotted by theverge.com).

 

March 16, 2012
by jnxyz
0 comments

Kids Apps: as selected by miss 4


As tested and selected by my Miss 4 1/2 – a 3 1/2 year iOS veteran.
Nearly all of these have iPad and iPod touch/iPhone versions, and are in the free->$5 range (some also have free ‘lite’ versions you can try out).

Special mention:


Clara

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/clara/id286367870?mt=8&ls=1

This was the first app our then 9 month old used. Very simple of course, just tap the image that links to the sound being made. Ask what the name of the old iPhone that she uses is tho, and even to this day she will reply ‘Clara’ .

Her top choices (based on which apps she independently goes back to and spends the most time on):


Puppet Pals

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/puppet-pals-hd/id342076546?mt=8&ls=1

- choose characters, move them with your finger and talk – and Puppet Pals turns it all into a movie. Great for imagination and developing oral language.


My PlayHome

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/my-playhome/id439628153?mt=8&ls=1

- interact with 5 spaces in a play house – amazing level of detail and interaction possibilities.


Art Maker by Playschool

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/play-school-art-maker/id473900831?mt=8&ls=1

- free and provides great picture making options and scenes


Ansel & Clair

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ansel-clairs-adventures-in/id433593765?mt=8&ls=1

- a little more advanced, but even at age three this was a hit with lots of sections and animations to explore on a journey around Africa


Park Math or Draw and Tell, or anything by Duck Duck Moose

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/draw-tell-hd-by-duck-duck/id504752087?mt=8&ls=1

- all apps by Duck Duck Moose have great graphics and animation as well as songs and hidden interactions.


Red Writing

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/red-writing-learn-to-write/id474392775?mt=8&ls=1

- aimed at Australian kids, it includes the right school font used by each state as kids practice letter formation


Montessori Crosswords

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/montessori-crosswords-learn/id384334005?mt=8&ls=1

- allows kids to explore letters and sounds as well as to see how to use them to build words


FindThemAll

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/find-them-all-looking-for/id426394333?mt=8&ls=1

- just a simple look around and find animals with some quiz questions, but this one has proved very popular on a recent week away.


Seuss Band

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/dr.-seuss-band/id474940131?mt=8&ls=1

- Great for co-ordination and getting a sense of the fun of playing music


Talking Carl

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/talking-carl!/id417373312?mt=8&ls=1

- the original talking creature app – repeats what you say in fun and interactive ways – very good for developing oral language skills


iWrite Words

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/iwritewords-handwriting-game/id307025309?mt=8&ls=1

- a letter tracing and word making app with fun activities like tipping the device to slide the letters around


Me Books – Lady Bird Classics

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ladybird-classic-me-books/id453238220?mt=8&ls=1

- animates old classic books and allows you to record as many animal sounds or readings of the story as you like yourself.


Monster at the end of the book

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/monster-at-end-this-book…starring/id409467802?mt=8&ls=1

- just pure fun as you drive Grover more and more crazy as the story unfolds

A little more advanced:


Pirate Treasure Hunt

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pirate-treasure-hunt-eight/id392208108?mt=8&ls=1

- younger kids may require help as there are some great problem solving puzzles


Bartelby’s Book of Buttons volume 1 & 2

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/bartlebys-book-buttons-vol./id384841276?mt=8&ls=1

- a step beyond Pirate Treasure hunt with an involved story and puzzles that prove a great challenge for kids when they are ready.

Also – Moms with apps is the best parent site for keeping up apps aimed at kids:
http://momswithapps.com

March 2, 2011
by jnxyz
4 Comments

iPad 2: whats in it for education?

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So, version 2 of the device that has spurred the tablet computing market into the mainstream over the last 12 months (15 million sold) has been announced. Despite being a consumer device, it has seen massive adoption by professionals in business, medicine, and education. In Australia, there are iPad trials occurring in nearly every state, with over 500 deployed officially in Victoria alone. So it only follows that there will be great interest in the next version (to be released in Australia March 25). Here are the top 3 things that iPad 2 has going for it as far as education is concerned:
1. Screen Mirroring – Almost from day one of the release of the original iPod touch, the number one question that educators have asked is “can I display the screen on a projector or tv?”, and the answer has been “no”, then “no, but yes if you use a document camera”, then “yes some apps can, but its still limited”. Now FINALLY, the iPad 2 (and presumably all iOS devices going forward) will support full screen mirroring of everything via the VGA cable or the new HDMI cable. For showing apps and using the iPad as a shared whiteboard etc, this is a huge leap forward.
2. Lighter – apparently the new iPad is 15% lighter – just enough of an improvement to make it more usable by students. I know my first generation iPad does get heavy even for my adult arms after 15mins or so – for primary school students especially, the weight drop might be just enough to allow for extended mobile use of iPads without as much hand/arm strain.
3. Price drop of the old model – for now at least, the iPad 1 has had its price dropped by large amounts – up to AU$200 on some models – so its a great time for schools with limited budgets (ie all that I know) to do a learning and management plan, then purchase iPads at the cheaper price point.
So what does the iPad not have yet for education? As mentioned above, the iPad is a consumer device – its not been designed with the needs of education in mind specifically. So we still need a good system for managing and syncing more than a few iPads. We also need clarity around education use off apps and iTunes content. The hope is that the app volume licensing program available in the US will be extended overseas and enhanced with provision for iBooks and music/movies as well as apps. For Mac users, the next version of the Mac OS (due in around 6 months) will reportedly include iOS device management built in. Until then, proceed with caution; join an online iPad in education community, and create a good learning/management plan as always!
Planning resources:
> www.slidetolearn.info – beginners guide for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone in Education (updated regularly)
> 21 Steps to 1-1 – planning guide for deploying technology in education (this one is laptop specific – adapt for your device) http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/scbyte-21steps.pdf
> 21 Steps to iPad success – Victorian Education department version of 21 Steps guide specifically for iPads http://asp-uk.secure-zone.net/v2/index.jsp?id=639/684/1625&lng=en
iPad in Education networks:
> Slide2Learn iPad/iPhone/iPod touch learning community and events.
> iPad4Edu iPad for Education Question and Answer site.

Posted via email from Jonathan Nalder’s posterous

February 3, 2011
by jnxyz
1 Comment

Notetaking app for Education: Review of Underscore Notify

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iTunes Link:

One of the most popular categories of iOS apps is that of notetaking, for obvious reasons. It is one of the areas where nearly all the benefits of working digitally come together to provide real enhancement of the teaching/learning process. There are several really good ones – Penultimate is beautiful for handwriting, Soundnote is great for recording audio notes that are mapped to typed notes, Smartnote lets you add all kinds of widgets and graphics to enhance your notes. But far and away the most useful, most comprehensive notetaking app I have ever used is Underscore Notify – I know I’m making this sound like I work for them – not the case. I’m just one grateful educator. Here’s a quick overview of its features:

- Type notes anywhere on screen; multiple font and text colour etc options
- draw, highlight etc again with multiple pen and colour options
- import PDF files or other documents to annotate and highlight
- import images as backgrounds or to illustrate notes
- use the built-in web browser to clip webpages straight into your notes
- use the built-in maps function to clip google maps straight into your notes
- add audio recordings to your notes
- built-in web server – you can share your screen live to anyone with a web browser
- VGA out- you can display your screen live as you create your notes or present pre-made pages
- hand-writing recognition (with PhatPad in-app purchase) – translates handwritten notes into typed text.
Of course just having all these features is no good if the app is too messy or complicated for them to be easily used, but Notify has a great inbuilt help function and tutorials (although these load from a website) meaning that it doesn’t take to long to puzzle out all of its extensive functions.
The obvious use of this app is for notetaking right? And certainly from the features above you can see how powerful it would be. But here is my usage scenario to illustrate how I think Notify can be by a teacher:
Because the VGA out / web-server allows you to share your screen, I have enjoyed success using Notify to present and facilitate a teaching session. I draft up a series of pages (slides) as an outline and fill them with some images, info etc, but as the session goes on, Notify allows me to add in web pages, maps, extra documents, whatever that enrich and extend the lesson – all right within the one app and immediately viewable by everyone who is participating. The dynamics that this allows fits in very well with my ideas of how the 21st century classroom should operate – flexible and adaptable.
Even better, its US$1.99 price AND the fact that its universal (pay once for the iPad and iPod touch version) makes it a no-brainer to download and try. It does experience crashes on my iPad (probably due to low memory), but seemed to always have saved my work when I restarted. The sheer number of features does give it a learning curve also, but as I’ve said, the help and tutorials sections are very good. Overall, 8/10

Posted via email from Jonathan Nalder’s posterous

January 30, 2011
by jnxyz
0 comments

#LWF11 Festival of Learning & Technology: My Best Of

I recently had the great opportunity to attend the Learning Without Frontiers ‘festival of learning and technology’ in the UK in January of this year. The conference itself had three streams of Handheld learning, Game based learning, and digital safety. I of course had been interested mostly in attending the handheld learning sessions, but it was in fact the lineup of amazing short talks (what we used to call ‘Keynote’s in a pre-TED talks world) that ended up having the most impact on my thinking.

(Collage created in Moxier Collage on iPad)
So, I’d like to share here which of these talks I found the most inspiring, and hope they may provide the great start to your year that they did to mine: (I’ll include direct viewing links as well as links to download the podcasts via iTunes).
Iris Lapinski – Apps for Good, a problem solving program for young people that leads to their apps being created using Android. Features students themselves talking about the project.
Theo Gray – Creator of the Elements App; Co-founder of Wolfram Alpha; spoke eBooks, creating media, and about the disruption caused by technology.
Bill Rankin – ACU mobile connected initiative. ACU in Texas, USA was the first university to deploy iPhones and iPod touches to all students and faculty, and they now have three years of data showing the initiative to be a success. Bill talked also about eBooks and the future of books and textbooks.
Abdul Chohan – ESSA Academy school UK – this schools was a failing school, until a re-boot saw iPod touches widely and smartly deployed.
Tony Vincent – Learning in Hand – Tony expertly goes through just what’s possible with mobile movie making.
Stephen Heppell ‘Education is the next cartel that people and technology will break’. Inspiring and disruptive as ever, Stephen was great at cutting through to inspire thoughts about what education should look like.
Jimmy Wales, co-founder, Wikipedia – A great opportunity to hear directly from the founder of such a central plank of the digital revolution share his thoughts on the power of information.
David McCandless – Infographics – informationisbeautiful.net
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks also to everyone who SMS’d and TXT’d in to support my shortlisting in the Primary Innovator Award category – the win was a  great surprise, and just goes to show the strength of the great networks I’m privileged to be a part of.

Posted via email from Jonathan Nalder’s posterous

August 15, 2010
by jnxyz
3 Comments

Actual real-life teachers reporting on how iPads fit (or not) into schools

Hi everyone – well the amount of schools looking at trialing the iPad has just exploded since the device came. There is of course a bit of ‘shiny objects syndrome’ going on – but here is a series of links to some trials that are happening right now that we can all learn from:

Epsom Primary – current Vic DET iPad trial school

http://epsipadtrial.globalstudent.org.au/


US iPad school pilot program wiki

http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/


iPad in schools Q&A site

http://ipad4edu.com/


UK detailed blog of unfolding ipad trial:

http://speirs.org/


June 8, 2010
by jnxyz
21 Comments

10 intriguing iPad apps for Educators

Amidst all the hype, here is a look at 10 intriguing iPad apps that may just be useful in your classroom.
This video was created 100% on an iPad alone.Apps:Time BOM, The Australian, SIB Romeo & Juliet, Popplet, AudioNote, Caster, ReelDirector, Mover+, TypeDrawing, 2Screens, and Paperdesk

Posted via email from Jonathan Nalder’s posterous

December 2, 2009
by jnxyz
1 Comment

iLearn personalised learning unit: Journal 4

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This will be the final journal of my current ‘how to learn’ unit before we hit the end of the educational year. Remember the intent of the unit was to shift the emphasis from me teaching to students learning, and especially to students taking responsibility for their learning. The unit has been aided by mobile, ubiquitous devices (in our case, the iPod touch) – chosen because of the power of such devices to put learning tools right into each learner’s hands.

First, I’ll report on how the last weeks of the unit have been going. As alluded to in the last journal, school events such as swimming and compulsory PD I had to attend have really impacted on how much time I’ve had with students, such that we will not complete the unit. Now, two things – first, this is still ok as I’d built the critical thinking/ making learning decisions throughout. Secondly, in reflecting on this I’ve realised that all units suffer from interuptions – I just need to plan less – or maybe not – perhaps I actually should keep planning ambitious units but just plan in agility for the sub-parts.

Agility really has shown itself to be the key to the success of the unit actually. Because even though I planned for reflective points every two weeks, some students only needed one week, some three to work through the ‘solution’ (app) they had found (duh!). To help manage this complexity, rather than go back to a one-size-fits-all unit, in this phase I introduced a data-base tracking where each student was up to. By displaying this at the start of each session via data projector, I could begin each lesson discussing with students exactly where they were up to. This database also includes a cell for student comments – I quiz students constantly about their app – what, how, why questions linking it back to their decision making and chosen focus area. These comments then form the basis of the review that students write once they either complete an app, or decide its not helping them.

So as we near the end of this ‘proof of concept’ run through of this unit, I must ask – did it work? I’ll answer for myself, and for the students. For me, what I’ve found is that this unit has been very hard work. Thrilling yes, exciting, but also – going uphill – ie. creating rather than just using an exisiting program, and stepping back rather than always stepping in. These are not always natural teacher behaviours, and despite knowing in my head lots about student-centred learning, the power of what is established (both for myself and my institution) has shown itself to be very strong. But I do believe in personalised learning, so I’m committed to this now.

For the students – I’ve had comments like – ‘why are we doing this?’, and ‘do I have to come?’ – exactly the kind of questions that students have always asked in regards to being part of learning support. Does this mean it wasn’t the revolutionary change the world unit I had thought? I hope I never did expect so much of it – what I did differently though when asked these was respond back with a question this time – putting the emphasis back on student decision making. I see that it will take more than one unit though to have students take full responsibility for their learning. But now they have successfully completed pro’s and con’s charts for example, they have begun to learn critical thinking. Some students have completed these independently to such a degree that I am sure they will be able to do this.

As for 2010, I’ve already started planning two additional units with the same approach but building on what I’ve learned. And I’d like to set up some ‘critical friends’ as part of this – email me jnxyz at mac dot com if you are interested!