If you haven’t checked it out yet, there are some great new features in the recently updated iMovie app. To take advantage of the update you must also have updated your iPad to iOS 7. The article below from Greg Kuloweic at EdTechTeacher does a great job of illustrating some of the new options. Click through to read more…
iMovie + iOS7 + AirDrop + App Smashing = Great Ideas from Greg Kulowiec!
Like many others, you may be experiencing the squeeze of the 16GB storage capacity of your iPad. Here’s an article from TeachThought.com with some good tips about how to manage the limited resource that is your iPad’s memory.
“5 Tips for Better Managing iPad Memory” – from TeachThought.com
Collaboration is a buzzword in our school these days. With the introduction of iPads to our classes, the challenge is to find ways for students to collaborate using the iPads. Greg Kulowiec from EdTechTeacher has posted an excellent video that highlights six different ways you can have students work together on the iPad. He highlights several apps, including some paid apps that we do not have on our iPads, but take a few minutes to check out what he does with the ones we do use – particularly Notability, Google Drive, and iMovie!
You can also read the full blog post at the EdTechTeacher site.
With the most recent update to iOS, users now have the ability to lock any iOS to use only one app. This feature is called Guided Access, and the video below explains how it works.
There was a big update for the Google Drive app for iOS today. The last update gave us the ability to create and edit word processing documents in the app, manage sharing, and upload pictures and video. This time we got:
These are all great improvements, but the biggest change in my opinion is the “Open in…” feature. I tried it out and found that I could create a document in Pages and then upload that document in .pages format to my Google Drive. Once there, I can share that document with another user, who can then download and view the work in Pages on his iPad or Mac! I was also able to upload a large Keynote file in the .key format.
The upshot of all this is that now we have a way to share all sorts of filetypes without resorting to email (and the limitations that brings). For example, I can have a student create a great Keynote presentation and then turn it in via Google Drive without worrying that the file is too big to attach to an email.
Google has really improved their Drive app in the last few months to make it an excellent option for use on the iOS platform. What features would you like to see them add next? Let us know in the comments!
I discovered that I don’t like it when it snows sideways!
I was fortunate enough to spend three days this week in Boston attending the first EdTechTeacher iPad Summit, held on the campus of Harvard Medical School. This was a fantastic time of learning and discussion with great presenters and thought-provoking questions. It was also an opportunity for me to experience my first “Nor’easter” – an experience I could have done without! I had never experienced snow that was parallel to the ground. I also did not know what it felt like to be a human snowdrift. I can now check both of those items off my bucket list.
I will be sharing quite a bit of what I heard with you through this blog over the next several days, but I wanted to start with a thought that was shared by Justin Reich (Co-founder of EdTechTeacher) on his blog before the conference ever began:
If you meet an iPad on the way, smash it.
This, of course, is a statement designed to grab your attention. It is also an important point about how we use iPads. In his post (to which you can find a link below) Justin discusses how we must guard against turning our attention to the “what” — iPads and apps and systems and tricks — at the expense of the more important question: “Why.” As we move forward in this new paradigm of school in a 1-to-1 program, we must remember that the idea is for every student to have an iPad, not for every iPad to have a student. The main thing is still the teaching and learning. The iPad is a tool that we are using at this particular point in time and space. It is a fantastic tool, to be sure, but it won’t last forever. Our attention must be squarely focused on the things that will.
So, take a moment to read Justin’s post yourself and then come back here and leave a comment. How are things going in your classroom? Do you struggle with losing sight of the students for all the iPads? Do you forget that there are iPads in the room? Could your class function exactly the same if we took away all the iPads today? I look forward to your thoughts!
If You Meet an iPad on the Way, Smash It — Justin Reich, EdTech Researcher
When Apple releases a new version of their operating systems, they never come with a user’s manual. We (the users) are expected to figure this stuff out as we go. In the case of iOS 6, they boast of over 200 new features, most of which are not specifically spelled out.
One exciting new feature for teachers is something called “Guided Access.” This feature allows you to lock an iPad so that it is “stuck” in one app only. You can do this on-the-fly, and can lock the iPad into any app of your choosing. Once the feature is turned on, it is a simple thing to engage and then turn off when you’re done. For a complete explanation of this feature and how to employ it, check out this post from the OS X Daily blog.
In this article from the Edudemic blog, Beth Holland & Shawn McCusker compare the iPad movement and Ed Tech in general to the rise and fall of the Betamax format for VCR’s in the 80’s. Its a great read with excellent reminders about remembering the Big Picture as we dive into this iPad adventure.
One of the more challenging tasks for teachers and students using iPads has been the issue of how students can turn in video assignments to a teacher. The initial solution that we offered was to have the student upload his finished work to YouTube so that the teacher could view it there. However, this solution is not without problems – most notably privacy concerns and the requirement that students be at least 13 years old to create a YouTube account.
With the publishing of the Google Drive app for iOS, we now have a very simple and powerful way for students to turn in video assignments that eliminates the age and privacy concerns mentioned above. The basic workflow with this method is:
The first step in this process is to create the video. This can be done in iMovie or any other video tool on the iPad. Once the project is complete, send it to the Cameral Roll. In iMovie this is done by tapping the share icon and then selecting Camera Roll. The exact location of the share button may vary in other apps, but the basic process should be the same. Next select the export size – be careful that you don’t make your video so large that you run out of storage!
Once the video has been added to the Camera Roll, the next step is to open the Google Drive app. I am assuming here that you’ve already installed the app and have entered your account credentials. Once the app is open, tap the “+” button at the top of the screen. You will see several options to add items to your drive, with the third being “Upload Photo or Video.”
When you tap this option, you will be prompted to select a photo or video. Tap on the video that you just created and you will see it begin to upload. This may take a while depending on the size of the file, but it will continue even after the device goes to sleep.
After the upload is completed you will see your video in the list of files. Tap the arrow icon to the right of the file name to open the Details panel, which includes options for sharing. Tap the plus icon in the “Who has access” pane and type the full email address of the person you want to share with. If needed, you can even share with several people. Tap the “Add” button and the process is complete!
As you can see, this is a great method for sharing video without running into some of the headaches associated with using YouTube. It keeps your video private and allows you specific control over who can view your file. It also avoids problems due to file size limits in email and age limits on YouTube accounts.
So what do you think? Any suggestions to improve the process? Is there a problem we’re missing here? Let us know in the comments section!
Here’s a little video I put together last week to show our board some of the things our students and teachers are doing with iPads this year. Take a look… you might see yourself!
