iPads

How To Use Voice Recording in Padlet

How important is it to give all the students in your class an opportunity to contribute their thinking? We know that the student needs to be at the center of the tasks we create, but we also know that within almost every class we have students who are reluctant writers. Using voice recording and having the students explain their thinking is one way of encouraging these students to contribute. Padlet has recently introduced an update that allows for this to happen easily within your learning programme.

Padlet has always allowed students to record their thinking with text or images. but recently the option has been added to enable voice recording or video recording. It works both on the web version and in the app.

Padlet lets your students record thinking with their voice. Click To Tweet

If you don’t already have a Padlet account set up, it’ll take you just a moment to get started. Head to padlet.com and sign up.

You can sign in with your Google account for even quicker access.

Customise your padlet in a way that suits the content you are wanting it to contain. We’re always telling our students that the images and backgrounds they use need to support what they’re saying – as teachers we need to ensure we’re modelling what we want our students to be doing. A cute image of a puppy may make us feel all cosy inside, but has absolutely nothing to do with what they may know about space.

Once you have everything set up the way you want and you’re happy with the layout you’ve chosen, share it with your students.

The students are then able to add their thinking and this is where the new update becomes awesome. If the students click wherever they want to add their idea, they’ll see this menu.

From here, students can upload a file from their computer, insert a URL link, search the web or use their camera – but clicking on the 3 dots in the right hand corner is where the treasures lie….

Allow all students in your class to contribute their thinking using this great new Padlet feature Click To Tweet

Now they have the option to record their voice and save it as a sound file. Or if they love seeing their beautiful faces, they can choose the video option instead. The first time they use it, they’ll need to allow their microphone to be used.

Padlet will display a set of guidelines so the students know how long they can record for. They are also able to preview their recordings before saving them – providing an opportunity to critically reflect and go back to make improvements if they need to.

Once the student is happy with what they’ve recorded, they can save it.

Having all the students’ thinking in one place allows you as the teacher easy access to evidence of their thinking and means the students have access to each other’s ideas.

Now how awesome is that!

How to use the Book Creator iPad App and Airdrop to create Collaborative Projects

Posted by: Mark Herring

I’m always telling teachers that my favourite educational app on the iPad (aside from the Apple apps such as Pages, Keynote, and Notes) is Book Creator, especially with the soon to be released updates such as browser editing and online publishing!

The number of creative apps for use in the classroom is staggering and the links we can make with literacy are easy. Book Creator is a great way to collate those creations and share a class collection with others as a combined project.

Here’s an example of how students can create their own poetry image and add their work to a combined class project to share with others.

You can use the Airdrop feature on iPads to create collaborative projects with your students. See how here! Click To Tweet

Create some content on another app and ‘App-smash!’

This app, called Wordfoto (you can download the app here, on iTunes) creates images overlayed with text. Students can add their own poetry to images that fit the subject. It’s a great way to share their writing.

To create their poetry image, students should open the WordFoto app and add their image from either their camera roll or take a new photo using the camera. They then enter the individual words to suit the image. In this example the students are asked to develop their vocabulary of similes, using the starting phrase, ‘Like a…’ They then add words that finish the simile.

To combine student’s pages, you can use the Airdrop feature to send Book Creator files from the student’s iPad to the teachers as an ePub file.

Follow these steps;

Open the student’s library of books in ‘My Books’. Click the share button underneath the book and select ‘Export as an ePub.’

Select Airdrop, then chooses the teacher’s iPad to send to. Make sure that both the student’s and teacher’s iPads have the ‘Everyone’ option selected for Airdrop before attempting to share.

Once the teacher’s iPad has received the ePub they should select ‘Book Creator’ to open the file. This will open the book in their Library within Book Creator.
Next, the teacher should start a book with a title page for the combined book. Then select the plus button underneath the book from ‘All Books’ and then ‘Combine Books.’

Now select the book you’d like to add to this title page book. The student’s book will be combined and added as additional pages.

Once all of the student’s books have been Airdropped and combined, the teacher should delete any additional blank pages (including the student’s title pages) that are not needed. Do this by selecting ‘Pages’ to open the pages view, then ‘Edit’ in the top right-hand corner. Next, select the pages you don’t need and press delete. Repeat these steps until all the unwanted pages are gone. Now you’ll have your combined book ready to share with others!

These combined books are a great way to create some stunning class projects when you have students working in groups to create different chapters of a book.

When students each create a chapter of a book in collaborative groups, classes can create some stunning eBooks using @bookcreatorapp ! Click To Tweet

Below is a short collaborative maths book that a small group of 6-year-olds have made in pairs. Each page was created as a template by the teacher and then Airdropped to the students who completed the page and Airdropped them back.

Are you interested in knowing more about how to use Book Creator and other apps to ‘power up the pedagogy’ in your classroom? Contact us here to talk about how we can help support you and your school.

The Notes App – the Hidden Gem on an iPad

Posted by: Mark Herring

If, like many teachers, you are using iPads with students in your classroom, you will be aware of the massive amount of educational apps that we can use to enhance learning. You’ll also be aware that any iPad owner has free access to Apple’s range of stock apps like Garage Band, Pages, Keynote and one of my favourite, Notes.

The Notes app is what I often call ‘the hidden gem’ of apps. Why? Since, like most of us, you have probably opened it up at some stage, typed a few sentences and then overlooked it for apps that can do more of what we need in the classroom. The Notes app is closed, never to be opened again. But the reality is that the simplicity of this app, combined with some great features, makes it a hidden GEM!

Here are some things that teachers are often looking for in a word processing app.
Note: Some of these features are only found in iOS 10, so be sure to upgrade to this version if you can.

Typing
Spell checking
The ability to work collaboratively online, inside the same document
Highlighting tools
Categorisation and folders
A set of formatting functions like bold, italics, indenting, bullet points etc

So what would you say if I said that the Notes app can do all of these…and MORE?!
Here are three features that make this app an absolute GEM.

1.Create folders and share with others

Students are able to create folders that can save to their iCloud accounts or onto their iPads. These folders can hold individual notes that can then be shared with other users using the share icon in the top right corner. This lets the other person see the recent changes in real time and collaborate with you, right inside the note.
Note: Collaborators can on-share the link with others to view the note, but only the owner can invite collaborators to edit.

Did you know you can create notes in folders and share them with others in the NOTES iPad app? Click To Tweet

2.Using drawing tools to sketch and brainstorm

Student LOVE drawing and writing by hand. There’s a great draw feature activated by touching the ‘scribble’ icon in the bottom right corner of the note, or the top right of the keyboard when you’re typing. This feature lets you change from the pen to a highlighter or pencil, choose from a range of colours and use the eraser and ruler.

You can see the kinds of brainstorms and note taking that the draw feature allows – it’s a very cool way to record your ideas or research information.

Here’s how you can use the sketch function in the iPad Notes app to brainstorm and research! Click To Tweet

3. Use the ‘tick’ feature to create to-do lists or action points

The ‘tick’ icon in the top left corner of the keyboard (when activated) creates a bubble-like tick circle that you can use to add sentences and ideas to your note. They even go orange with a tick once tapped to help you keep track of your progress.

These are three great features that many people have overlooked. It pays to look around inside the Apple apps; you never know what surprises you’ll find!

How to find Google images with reuse licenses on an iPad iOS

Posted by: Mark Herring

Not wanting to read the whole article? Here are the basic steps.

Search for the image you want.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, let it reload and keep scrolling. Do this around 3 or 4 times.
Click on ‘Advanced Settings’.
At the very bottom click on ‘usage rights.’
Select the usage rights level you need. Then click the blue ‘Advanced Search’ button at the bottom.
This will reload the page. Select ‘images.’ The usage rights choices will appear at the top.

Schools that are using digital tools for learning are developing their student’s understanding of what it means to be a good ‘Digital Citizen.’ One aspect of this is knowing how to use digital content from the web in responsible ways. For example, we shouldn’t just take someone’s photo from the web and use it without checking the usage rights on that image.

Checking that searched images are used with the correct usage rights is an important part of being a responsible digital citizen. Click To Tweet

But what about on an iPad? Many of us have found that this function is simply missing on iOS, whatever kind of browser you use. The iOS version has a ‘paired down’ interface and this function seems to be missing.

BUT – there is a bit of a ‘hack’ to get the advanced search tools back. It takes a little more time, but is well worth the effort to ensure you’re finding and using appropriately licenced content.

You can still search for images on an iPad with specific usage rights! Just use this simple work around. Click To Tweet

Firstly, search for the image you’re looking for. You’ll see that the ‘tools’ selection is missing.

The next step is to scroll to the bottom of the page and let the images continue to load, around 4 times. Once they have stopped loading you’ll see the Settings option at the very bottom in small print. Clicking this and then ‘Advanced search’ will bring up the option at the bottom for the Usage Rights.

Once you’ve then clicked the ‘Advanced Search’ button in blue again, the page will reload with the usage rights you’ve selected. You’ll notice that after loading the images that match your search, at the top of the search page usage rights choices are ready for you to select.

Now you can insert that chicken into your work, as a responsible digital citizen!

How to make a 3 Shot Movie on iPads and Chromebooks

Posted by: Mark Herring

Recently I worked with a class who wanted to enter a local competition to win Basketball tickets for a big game. The challenge was to create a 30 second video about a ‘Noisey Class’ so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use the ‘3 Shot Movie’ technique.

I have used variations of this method but reducing the shots down to this simple 3 step method is a great way to introduce students to the art of film making, visual story-telling, and the mechanics of iMovie. I saw this demo’d at a recent GAFE conference by Jim Sill (an ex-producer and now Edtech trainer).

The 3 shot movie is basically;

the wide shot (distance)
the medium shot
the close up

“Using the 3 shot movie method is an achievable way to teach students to be storytellers.” Click To Tweet

This is such an easy way to structure a short movie, a great way to tell a story, and it’s a good exercise to take the students through. You can easily see these forms of shots in other movies when you know to look for them.

You could also discuss the purpose of each shot in helping to tell the story

the wide shot – gives context
the medium – shows more about the characters
the close up – gives more detail.

Once you’ve taken the three shots it’s super simple to add those clips into your project in the native Apple app, iMovie. Just touch on the video icon, select the ‘recently added section and then the clip you want to add. Then you’ll be given the ‘include’ down arrow and it will drop into the part of your movie where the vertical white line is sitting.

On a Chromebook, an easy way to create your 3 Shot Movie is to upload your clips from your camera to the Youtube Editor via the Google Photos app. Once the clips have been uploaded to your account you can upload them with the Youtube Editor from your Google Photos.

Youtube has a great video editing tool, almost hidden inside the dashbaord. Your Chromebook is a movie maker, too! Click To Tweet

I often recommend putting your video clips into a Google Photos album from your device (iPad, tablet or camera) – this makes them easy to find and import into the Youtube Editor. From there you open the editor, create a new project and drag the clips from the video section down to your ‘timeline’ below.

Here’s the finished 3 shot movie clip about our lambs!

Why Book Creator is my favourite classroom iPad app

Posted by: Mark Herring

I often get asked, ‘What’s your favourite app for the iPad?” There are probably 10 or so iPad apps that I regularly use the most but if you were going to ask, which iPad app should a teacher start with and master first, it would be Book Creator…hands down!

Here are 5 reasons why #BookCreator is my #favouriteApp for the classroom! Click To Tweet

1. The versatility

Book Creator is so much more than a publishing tool. Yes, it creates multi-touch books with text, photos, videos, audio and hyperlinks but the ways that teachers are using this app are truly unlimited.

If you want to expand your use of this app, beyond encouraging students to create books, then try these ideas;

Create your own templates for students to complete with multimedia elements.
Create student journals as they document their learning through a project or area of study. These can be shared as eBooks for anyone with a touch screen device to engage with.
Use the ‘export to video’ share function to create movies that will automatically show the content on each page. This is a great way to have each page as an easy to use storyboard, especially for younger learners.

2. The simplicity

Book Creator has an extremely easy to master user interface (U.I.) that has three main symbols; the plus, the ‘I’ and the ‘share’ symbol. Once you’ve demonstrated how each of these buttons work, and the way the software activates the different options when an element is chosen, most users are away!

I’m always surprised by how quickly even 4 and 5 year olds can quickly navigate themselves around and create some sophisticated work.

3. The accessibility

One of the iPad’s strengths is the customisation that they offer for the user. Features like the keyboard, the text size, text to speech and speech to text functions that are ‘baked in’ to an iPad’s operating system make them a brilliant tool to move towards the dream of ‘Universal Design for Learning.’ And the beauty of Book Creator is that it utilises these functions so well. When you use these features, both within the app and from the settings of the OS, any learner can create and have a voice.

One of my favourite examples of this was a 7 year old boy who was very reluctant to write in class, despite his teacher’s best efforts with stimulus and experiences. Once we’d had a couple of sessions with the iPad and Book Creator, however, the teacher told me how he had been writing page after page, all with photos and his own narration as a touchable sound. It was quite transformational for that student.

4. The development

If you’ve been using Book Creator for more than a year you will have noticed the different elements that have been added and improved in some recent updates. This was my favourite app a year ago, and this year it got even better with the addition of a comic style set of templates and elements. Once you’ve updated you are given the option to create comic templates with stickers, improved font styles, backgrounds and more!

Another feature added recently is the option to import soundtracks that play once exported to iBooks. It’s a great backdrop for the reader and an author or creator can really influence the mood of the book they’ve written based on the song selection (or sound effects!) I’m looking forward to seeing what the developers come up with next.

5. The ‘Smashability’

App smashing has become a bit of buzz-word for teachers but it’s honestly one of the most important things to master when creating with an iPad. Simply put, it’s the process of creating by moving content from one app to another. When students become aware of how to do this, through the use of the ‘share’ button, it’s incredible what creative ‘smashes’ they come up with.

Book Creator is one of the easiest and best apps to smash content towards, using photography apps and video tools, for example. But it’s also a good conduit to move on from, as well. One of my most popular iPad workshops is one where we create a comic page and move that into Explain Everything to create an animated movie using the pinch and zoom gesture. It’s super effective and children love it!

So – those are my favourite features. I’m sure that Book Creator will keep developing and come up with even more ideas for making this app a versatile learning app for our learners!

How To Use Voice Recording in Padlet

iPads

How To Use Voice Recording in Padlet

How to use the Book Creator iPad App and Airdrop to create Collaborative Projects