iPad Apps Art eBook - Van Gogh

An Art eBook on Van Gogh was one of the first ebooks I did with a group of students. I wanted to give them the opportunity to contribute to their own learning so we threw out the old unit of work and sat down together to write a new one. We had been doing a lot of our work on Web 2 tools and so the book was based on browser based tools. I have posted about our collaborative textbooks on one of my other blogs Edtechtoolbox. People have commented on the design aspects of these books but all were made in Pages and then uploaded as a pdf. The students were very proud of their publication.

A couple of months ago I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see if I could replicate the eBook with iPad Apps as opposed to Web 2.0 tools. This is the result. I know already that there would be a few apps that I would update or change but this will always happen.

If it doesn't open on your iPad follow this link Van Gogh Apps Textbook

ArtSet - Great for building confidence in young artists

ArtSet was an impressive app that I was introduced to last week. I was presenting at a conference and one of the organisers asked if a number of the presenters could go through a workflow to illustrate how a series of apps might be able to be used to deepen student learning. The idea was the the product of one app would become the input for the next. The story of The Lion and the Mouse was suggested as an idea. Each presenter was given three minutes only. There was a cross section of both primary and secondary teachers in the group.

 I was lucky to be the first person and simply did a demonstration of drawing a lion using Artset. The next person then took the image and put it into WordFoto using words students might use to describe a lion. This could be easily developed further into a language lesson. Then they used Comic Touch to illustrate the Lion's thoughts and feelings.

The third presenter used VoiceThread to collect images and then re-order them to tell the story of the Lion and the Mouse. He even recorded a voiceover for his version of the story. This was great for students to illustrate their understanding of the concepts of the story.

The next presenter used Doodle Buddy and the My Story to have the students tell the story with their own images and then insert them into a digital book and add the text to the story. The second last presenter used Popplet to brainstorm all the areas they would need to research if they were going to investigate lions. This included habitat, environment, what they ate, how they lived and what their social structure was.  Finally, we had Puppet Pals with the presenter's image and one of the student's drawings as puppets re enacting the story of his encounter with a lion. 

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/art-set/id469918702?mt=8

IWB, Mirroring Apps or Apple TV? Big iPad Decisions

There has been a great discussion forum within our school system about iPads, Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and sharing student's work. It started with a question from a teacher just wanting to connect their iPad to the IWB. What followed has been a great discussion about classroom practice and workflows.

We have all spent time and energy creating resources for our IWB but is it time we move to new technology. We can in fact connect our iPads to an IWB via the VGA Adaptor but would you choose to if you had other options.

What we need to do is have a wider conversation around the way we want to interact with our students and how we have them share with others what they are doing on their devices.

There are many tools out there that give us this functionality. Tools like AirServer and Reflector are good for this because they create a link to a laptop that you have connected to your projector and therefore the iPad is shared with a group of people. For many people this is a great solution. For appropriately $15.00 you have a good way to share your iPad and maintain all its interactivity.

I originally preferred AirServer. It was difficult to get it working within our closed network but once it was, it was a great way to present, giving you the option to walk around the room just as you would normally in a class. I have had a few connectivity problems with AirServer lately and so have switched over to Reflector.

I have been using Reflector almost exclusively this year and it has been very stable. I am still not convinced by the skin in which it presents but it is definitely a reliable and robust app. As long as both your iPad and your Laptop are on the same wifi, then whenever you wish to present you lift up your screen with four fingers, swipe all the way to the left and a fourth bottom appears. This is the AirPlay button. Slect this then select the device your wish to mirror to and away you go. Every time I present with it I have people come up afterwards to talk to me about it.

BUT....

Is Apple TV the better way to go. As IWBs are getting to the end of their lifecycle and school executives are starting to look at replacement costs the IWB struggles to compete with a 55 inch HD TV and Apple TV. Schools can buy a 55 inch TV for under a $1000  and Apple TV for $99. If you were buying 8 or 10 I guarantee you would get the Televisions even cheaper. Compare this to a IWB and a new data projector and you are looking at closer to $3000. Three for the price of one is hard to ignore in this current economic climate.

The IWB can not compete with the performance, the ease of use or the ability for one students to pop their work up on the TV before another one does and another, all without getting out of their seats. So how do the options for Projecting on a TV compare?  Tony Vincent developed a great poster and published it on his blog Learning in Hand. It was reimxed by Seth Hansen last month and republished at Edudemic. It is well worth a look. The link is here

I know people have limited resources and are often looking for immediate and simple workaround but we do need to start the conversation with our school community about how we see the proliferation of iPads being taken to the next level. The ease by which people can mirror their iPads is one of those seamless examples of best practice and invisible technology - getting out of the way of good educational outcomes and student centred workflows.

Skitch Primary Poster

This is the second in a series of posters for supporting Primary students in an iPad environment. I love Skitch as a tool for my students to show me what they have learnt. I know a lot of the students navigate freely within the touch and swipe environment but this is for those little ones who might forget what some of the buttons do.

Skitch Poster pdf

iPad Poster for Primary School

It has become increasing clear that many primary or elementary schools are moving into the touch and swipe environment in a big way. This is sometimes part of a system wide decision but many times this decision has been made at the local level in consultation with the parents. In order for this move to be successful we need to ensure that the students have their learning scaffolded in much the same way that we have always done. Introducing iPads into the classroom is not an alternative to good teaching but rather it is another tool that good teachers use. This poster is one that might be used at the very beginning of a iPad program to help the students in their first few days with their devices.

iPad Poster for Primary School