RSS

Tag Archives: iPad

A plan for applying the SAMR model to a Middle School ICT task

28 Nov

Page from my current Dreamweaver handoutI teach Middle School (Years 7-10) ICT and Senior School (Years 11-13) Computer Science at a New Zealand secondary school. On the back of some PD I’ve been doing with colleagues regarding eBooks, I’ve been reflecting on what I can do in my subject area if all students had an iPad in class.

I sat down yesterday and starting looking at my Year 9 Website Design unit. My initial reflections considered what seems to be working well and what still causes issues (I’ve been teaching the unit in some form or another for several years). Currently, the basic task centres around students developing a 4 page website on a topic that they have studied during the year (any subject). Software used is Dreamweaver CS5.5 and Fireworks / Photoshop CS5.5

Oh yes, and all this in one 40min lesson a week! :)

What currently works well

  • A lot of students respond well to my Dreamweaver handout (see image), which provides a step-by-step guide, including lots of images, regarding how to use Dreamweaver.
  • Video tutorials aligned with the handout are available for students in Blackboard as well.
  • It’s a great task to differentiate learning needs for students at the upper end of the spectrum. For example, I get extension students to write their code by hand, use HTML5 and Javascript, get them using external stylesheets etc.

What currently doesn’t work well

  • A lot of students still don’t get the importance of a website’s root folder, no matter how many times (and in different ways) I’ve tried to get this through to them. Spatial awareness or just plain poor file management??
  • A surprising ignorance regarding file types and file management by students.
  • Still a fair amount of misunderstanding by students regarding what actually goes into the creation of a website.
  • Still too much copying and pasting from Wikipedia etc, especially from less able students.

With these thoughts in mind, I placed the unit alongside the SAMR model of technology integration and came up with several conclusions:

  1. Creating an eBook in iBooks Author will allow students to have both text/images AND videos in one place – an improvement (for some students) on my current setup.
  2. I can get students working on an iPad up to the modification level. At the redefinition level, the iPad is replaced with other technology (see below).
  3. This may take me longer than I thought…

So, here’s what I’m thinking – updating my current website design unit by placing it within the context of the SAMR model.

REDEFINITION
  • Use a free online host and get students to upload their web pages and images here
  • The website is therefore ‘live’ and students submit their URL rather than (or in addition to??) a zipped root folder
  • Yes – need to test multiple logins at once onto one host from the school network though
MODIFICATION
  • Students use a wireframe iPad app to plan their page design. A way of increasing the emphasis on the planning process involved in web design, not just technical skills in Dreamweaver etc
  • Yes – could be a starter
AUGMENTATION
  • Convert the current Dreamweaver handout into an eBook
  • ePub – can incorporate video tutorials with text / images
  • iBook – can include video tutorials AND reviews AND create an HTML5 widget of a project checklist
  • Yes – thinking iBooks Author at this stage
SUBSTITUTION
  • Current Dreamweaver handout (printed) is provided to students in PDF form
  • No, I can do better than this. May as well stick to the status quo of a hardcopy workbook if this is all I can come up with!

I still want the focus on students creating web pages from scratch rather than using a content management system. I want them to gain an understanding of what goes into creating websites, both from a technical standpoint and in terms of content (we also go over how to write content for the web – use of shorter sentences / paragraphs, sub-headings, lists etc to chunk content). I want to encourage creation over consumption and extend all students in the process.

If I take my current unit / resources I can try and create a more effective learning experience for students by:

  • Packaging how-to guides AND video tutorials in one place (i.e. an eBook) instead of having them as separate entities as they are now
  • Using the iPad as a consumption device – eBook
  • Using the iPad also as a creation device – wireframe app
  • Providing a real-world context for students in more than just content (i.e. they currently base the website on a topic they’ve studied in another class) by getting them to upload live sites. This will hopefully get more students understanding that images exist independently from web pages and the online host will likely have limits to file size – another important consideration I’d like students to recognise.

So there it is. My plan to improve an existing unit by incorporating two elements on the iPad (augmentation and modification – eBook notes and wireframe exercise) and use desktops in the computer lab to also tap into the redefinition level of the SAMR model.

I’ll let you know how it goes later on!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 28, 2012 in BYOD, eBooks, iBooks Author, iPad

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Interactive eBooks and websites share common traits

20 Nov

Apple's iBooks Author for interactive ebooksWhat I’ve been up to…

Well, a long time has past since my last post, but over the past few weeks I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on iBooks Author, both in learning the nuances of the software and with an aim to help support colleagues create their own eBooks for Middle School.

Up until this week the only examples of interactive textbooks of which I’m thinking were the ‘Life on Earth’ and ‘The Beatles Yellow Submarine’ samples, both of which came out when iBooks Authors was first released in January this year. However, the newly supported iBookstore in New Zealand has a ‘Made with iBooks Author’ section, found in the non-fiction category, which I’ve found really useful. It’s a great thing to be able to view what others have done with this technology and internalise what we could do with it in our own contexts. Especially since the textbook category is still not supported by the NZ iBookstore.

Similarities between interactive eBooks and websites

Coming from experience in web design, I’ve noticed that a lot of the workflow and methodologies used when working with iBooks Author is very similar to that used when designing and building websites. A summary is below:

Templates

Websites use stylesheets and interactive ebooks use the layout panel.

Whatever it’s called, the result’s the same. Different page layouts, background designs and house style (for want of a better term) can be customised AND deployed from a central point. This greatly saves time in the construction of your document and any modifications to the design can be updated everywhere instantaneously. If your staff are familiar with the slide master in PowerPoint, it’s the same thing here too.

Asset Optimisation

File size is an issue for web page download times and eBooks. If a school went down the route of having all digital textbooks, consideration needs to be given to the management of these documents. If students have 6 classes, each of which has it’s own ebooks distributed, and only a 16GB iPad we could have a problem.

I’ve had it said to me that we’d just teach students to manage their documents; essentially get them to transfer files to and from iTunes when needed in order to save space on their iPad. I see two immediate problems with this:

  1. That’s just too much for some students (you know the ones I mean…11 years old and totally disorganised whether analogue or digital…)
  2. It’s actually a barrier when it comes to study. Students want need access to all available resources when studying for a term test or exam. Why should huge file sizes of eBooks prevent them from doing this effectively?

So where am I going with this? With the inclusion of video, audio and large images in interactive ebooks, it’s no wonder that the full version of ‘Life on Earth’ is over 1GB! Imagine if the majority of texts available to your students were that huge.

What can we do about it?

A lot, actually, especially if you’re compiling interactive ebooks in-house.

  • VIDEO – embed clips from external sources instead of including within the book itself. Sure, this means that students need to be online to view the material, but you may not require all students to do this separately whilst in class anyway. Use the YouTube widget from www.bookry.com or head over to http://ibooksgenerator.com for YouTube and Vimeo options (I’ve also asked them for something similar with Educreations videos I’ve created – here’s hoping!)
  • IMAGES – regardless of your source, make sure you’ve optimised them before placing in the book. Resize the image in a program like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks first. Also, like web design, you don’t need to use the best quality images for books produced in iBooks Author. Viewing images on a screen means you can remove pixels and decrease the image’s file size (without becoming pixelated) and still produce a very good result. Remember, images for print need to be the best possible, but there’s a lot more leeway for the screen…

Chunking of Content

Content is king, but the way we present that content is equally important. I’ve noticed that some of my student handouts are not as suitable for an eBook as I had originally thought they would be.

Why?

They were written for print, not the screen. Like websites therefore, the use of sub-headings, bulleted lists and short sentences are often more effective in imparting content via a screen. You can still have your explanation, but in an interactive eBook this can come in the form of an audio or video file. Same content, just different modalities of learning being used – and that can only be a good thing, right?

What I’ve found is that I’ve rewritten some sections and culled others in favour of video. I’m still largely using resources I’ve built up over the years, but I’ve realised that a straight import from Word to iBooks Author is not necessarily the best thing to do at times.

Fonts

Serif style fonts, such as Times New Roman, have been around since the earliest days of printing. The little feet (‘serifs’) that flick out at the ends of letters help to create an illusion of a line. This is useful when printing on paper, but it’s not really needed when reading from the screen; hence the proliferation of sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Verdana.

Think about that when working in iBooks Author. You can always change the template in the Layouts panel…

  • Use serif fonts for headings or sub-headings, if you really can’t do without them
  • Use a sans-serif font for your body text
  • Limit the range of fonts used to no more than three as using too many fonts can just add clutter to a page

Use Columns

In a number of free books made in iBooks Author that I’ve downloaded from the NZ iBookstore, I’m frustrated at times by the large number of ‘authors’ who have not made use of columns in the landscape template. In some cases I’ve switched to portrait mode, but that’s not always available.

What’s my problem you may ask?

A common trait with dyslexics is that they lose their place by the time they get to the end of a long line of text. Speaking as someone who experiences this, it does a world of difference on the iPad screen if you just allow even two columns on a landscape page. It’s enough of an issue to prevent me from continuing to read the text…

A parting word

An interactive eBook constructed in Apple’s iBooks Author is a document that is first and foremost designed for reading from a screen. It would be a shame if we didn’t consider the implications of this (exciting as these are) and simply produce a substitute for what every teacher’s already got in a Word or Pages document sitting on their hard drive right now.

Harness the potential of mixing different modalities of learning very easily in iBooks Author and remember that existing documents may need to be viewed in a more critical light and/or modified before taking the plunge into the exciting realm generated through interactive eBooks and iBooks Author.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 20, 2012 in BYOD, eBooks, iBooks Author, iPad

 

Tags: , , , ,

Why Blackboard’s MobileLearn app is missing the point

10 Jun

Blackboard LMS MobileLearn appDear Blackboard,

Can you please design an app that actually utilises the platform of mobile devices? Don’t just get on the bandwagon by rushing out a piece of junk simply to say you have an iOS app.

The problem…do you remember the children’s tale of the emperor’s new clothes…??

Yes, the app’s user interface looks ‘pretty’, but that’s about it.

Sure, aesthetics are important, but not everything. An app (like any piece of hardware or software) has to be functional too otherwise it’s missing the point! ‘Digital floss’ is a phrase that springs to mind. Or how about marquee text on web pages from the 1990′s?

If I can organise my Blackboard courses to adhere to principles of good web design – e.g. a student should be able to find what they need in no more than 3 clicks – then it’s NOT acceptable to locate this same content in the MobileLearn app with 7 touches? And where does this student see the content in the end? In a browser!! So why don’t they just go straight to Safari…??

To be fair, Blackboard have made a few enhancements since the launch of their first app last year. They’ve made changes to how instructors see content, but you still have to look hard to distinguish hidden folders from available ones. In some lighting conditions or when people are in a hurry, it’d still be really easy to miss and think that students can access content when in actual fact they can’t!

The one thing I do really support is the push notification. When an announcement is made in a course, your phone or iPad that has the app gets a pop-up on screen alerting the user / student to the fact. This occurs even when the device is in sleep mode.

So Blackboard, could you perhaps have a rethink about the purpose of your app? Don’t make students jump through ridiculous hoops only to end up in the browser view of a course anyway!! Make an actual mobile app. Redesign things from scratch and tailor it to iPads. Websites can do it (my own blog has a mobile-friendly view and a standard desktop/laptop view), so it is possible…!!

I don’t mean to be rude – I am, in my own way, actually trying to be constructive. It’s just that I think that there’s so much more that Blackboard could achieve with the MobileLearn app (and iOS compatibility in general!) that it’s frustrating when I’m left feeling let down – again – with Blackboard Learn. Has potential – will travel? Not at the moment, but here’s hoping!! :)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 10, 2012 in Blackboard LMS, BYOD, iDevices, iPad, mLearning

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

BYOD can enhance student writing

08 Feb

Writer's block

A common misconception from people in my generation or older is that BYOD is a threat to student learning; that student access to a digital device in the classroom somehow undermines the learning process. What a load of codswallop!!

If approached with common sense, creativity, patience and a willingness to learn from (technological) failures, BYOD could be the vehicle for transforming underachieving students. There’s no reason why high performing students and all those in between wouldn’t reap the benefits either.

I’m encouraged that I’m not the only teacher out there that thinks like this. I came across Bill Ferriter’s blog today – The Tempered Radical. His post, My Beef with Paper, is brilliant! It made me think about a conversation I’ve had recently regarding the use of iPads in classrooms. Whilst some people think iPads are only useful in terms of Internet access and subject-specific apps, I think they offer so much more to students. Think note-taking, for example. Why force students to take notes by hand for them only to lose individual pieces of paper 5 minutes after they’ve left the classroom? (Yes, I was one of ‘those’ students…) Taking notes in class has no correlation to a student’s ability to write essays in exams. They’re different skills. If your lesson is focused on developing an exam-specific skill, get students to use pen and paper. But if not, digital options provided by BYOD could actually benefit many students. Since when did BYOD mean the absence of any other tool? You wouldn’t use a chisel to hammer a nail because it’s the wrong tool for the job, so why do people expect an iPad for example to do everything? It’s. a. tool.

BTW, when I think ‘note-taking’ I’m not talking about ‘word processing’ or ‘desktop publishing’ as these are quite different skills. If you’re interested in some excellent note-taking apps for the iPad (and some have Android options too), try Evernote, inClass or Microsoft OneNote (PC or app (iOS or Android)). They’ll help ‘those’ students, trust me…

:)

 
1 Comment

Posted by on February 8, 2012 in BYOD, iDevices, iPad, mLearning

 

Tags: , , ,

How Apple changed the face of education

21 Jan

iBooks Author - changing the face of textbooks!January 19, 2012, will go down in the history books as one of the greatest days for education. Big call, I know, but Apple’s launch of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author heralds a new era in not only textbook production, but, more importantly, in how students embrace learning. In November last year I wrote a post about why publishers of eTextbooks were getting it all wrong. This paragraph summarises the crux of my disappointment:

Where were the embedded videos? Audio narration? Progress check quizzes with immediate feedback to a student? Animations? Animations students can modify to see different results? (obviously it does depend on what the subject matter is). Click and drag exercises? A dictionary? Or at least a glossary of the chapter’s key terminology? I could go on for a while…

In iBooks Author there is now a user-friendly yet sophisticated tool to create interactive and rich content; exactly what I envisaged above! Some of this content includes:

  • interactive images / diagrams
  • embedded movies
  • entire Keynote presentations
  • quizzes (called ‘reviews’)
  • 3D objects
  • glossary tool
  • image gallery
In addition, iBooks 2 adds a slicker way to highlight text (compared with regular ePub files) and automatically creates ‘study cards’ from this highlighted text and any notes a user (e.g. student) writes.
I’ve been playing around with iBooks Author for the past few hours and I’m absolutely amazed by how easy this software is to use. Apple have created a very slick program that can be used by people of all ages. Teachers, students and school management could all make use of this free software.

Choose a template for you iBooks Author project

The simplicity of the program is created via templates. The template chooser (shown above) opens when you first create a project. Each template is very similar in terms of offering different types of page layouts, including chapter overviews, one-two-three column spreads, dedication, forward, copyright pages and so on, but you can still change features like the font, fill color and overall layout. Placeholders are automatically included and inserting images is simply a drag and drop affair. The location of these placeholders can be changed in an instant. Likewise, special widgets are included and these also employ the drag and drop functionality. It’s the widgets that create the interactivity – additional notes on images, embedded movies and quizzes, image galleries, 3D objects that can be rotated and even whole Keynote presentations. It’s the widgets that no other ePub creation tool has managed to integrate successfully into the development environment (Creative Book Builder has come close, but is, unfortunately, left in the wake of iBooks Author). For techie people there’s even a feature whereby developers can create their own widgets using HTML 5 and Javascript. And you’re not going to believe how good the result is when importing text documents from Pages or Word (.docx included, not just .doc). Tables, bulleted and numbered lists, and paragraph styles are, for once, actually retained!

In fact, constructing an interactive book in iBooks Author is a walk stroll in the park! The only ‘hard’ aspect to the process is in planning and developing your content – this includes preparing your images, Keynote files and movies etc. The majority of this would be done outside of iBooks Author. It’s very similar to creating a website; 80% of your time is spent in developing content and resources and only 20% of the time is needed to combine said resources to construct the final product. Although I haven’t tried this yet, I’m fairly sure that iBooks Author doesn’t turn a 2D image into a 3D object – you’d have to have some other means of doing this and it’s an area in which I’m a bit vague at present. That is likely to be the topic of a future post…

This video demonstrates how to use iBooks Author. In fact, this was all I needed to get started with the program!

Now despite my excitement (I have the same feeling I experienced when I first got my iPad 18 months ago) some readers may think I’m being paid by Apple and/or hate Windows (or other platforms). I can assure you that I’m not (on all counts) and I do think that despite my enthusiasm for these new tools, especially iBooks Author, there are a number of concerns and limitations.

  1. You must have a Mac to run iBooks Author. Schools running Windows have no access to this software.
  2. Apple restrict your distribution of your iBook. Everything goes through an iTunes Connect account and for books where you charge (up to $14.99) Apple take their 30% cut. Even if you’re not worried about this, I’m not sure if it’s possible to create an in-house book in iBooks Author and then upload this to your school’s LMS for students and staff to download to their iPads. More investigation is needed to see if this is possible or not with interactive ePub files that you want to distribute for free.
  3. The new Textbooks category is not supported by the New Zealand iBookstore. In fact, we can’t purchase any books through iBookstore. We only have the option to download Gutenberg books from a very small selection. The interactive books created in iBooks Author are published to the Textbooks category (which also distinguishes them from plain ePub books). There’s a real worry here that students outside the USA won’t benefit from these tools!

My childhood fantasy of living on the Starship Enterprise can actually be a reality albeit with a slightly different look. In my case, the ship is ‘Titoki Street’, the technology is an iPad and the fascination, inspiration and love of learning is encapsulated in a interactive, rich-media book.

Bring it on, yet fingers crossed New Zealand students don’t miss out!!

I only have one question – why oh why didn’t this software come out at the start of the summer holidays?! ;)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 21, 2012 in BYOD, Digital Learning Objects, iPad, mLearning, Software

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why eTextbooks get it all wrong

09 Nov

eTextbooks

I was hugely disappointed yesterday when I had the opportunity to have an eTextbook solution demonstrated from a well known publishing company. Foolishly, I thought beforehand that finally we were seeing a publisher lead the way not only in terms of developing eTextbooks, but also in being relevant to high school classes as well. How wrong was I?!

It turns out that the demonstration reinforced why eTextbooks and dare I say it, often eLearning courses, fail when people think it’s just about providing a resource and miss the point regarding what support students of different abilities and interests require.

So what went wrong?

The eTextbook demonstrated was just a series of (static) PDF files, as well as PowerPoint slideshows, a few standalone JPGs and GIFs, and SWF animations. Repaginating the (print) textbook to optimise an iPad screen size is simply not enough on its own! And yes, you did read it correctly just before – Flash files were included…

Presenting an ‘eTextbook’ as being iPad compatible is jumping on the bandwagon when some of the files included aren’t recognised by the aforementioned device! The publisher’s response to this? You can use the same eTextbook on a laptop as well. So….we’re left with a series of files that can mostly be accessed by different types of technology, but to what extent do they genuinely support learning?

Not far enough! Here we have an opportunity to not only release a digital version of what has traditionally been printed, but to make improvements on what has gone before. Regardless of the technology, the concept driving the effectiveness of eTextbooks, for me, is the same - technology naturally supports multiple modalities of learning!

So why do publishers just not get it? In the demonstration yesterday, the only interactivity (if you can call it that) was the end-user clicking hyperlinks in PDF documents. I’m sure I’m not the only one who yawns at the prospect of reading text and clicking links from one static page to another. That’s not interactivity to support learning! That’s just the quickest way to disengage anyone – teenager or adult!

Where were the embedded videos? Audio narration? Progress check quizzes with immediate feedback to a student? Animations? Animations students can modify to see different results? (obviously it does depend on what the subject matter is). Click and drag exercises? A dictionary? Or at least a glossary of the chapter’s key terminology? I could go on for a while…

So how can we harness these learning opportunities to benefit our students?

As more and more students in secondary and tertiary courses gain access to technology such as iPads, we face a bit of a Catch-22 situation. One of the reasons eTextbooks are not as prevalent as they should be yet is that the technology and concepts related to eTextbook development is so new – for everyone – students, teachers, parents and publishers alike. It also explains why a lot of eTextbooks currently available are no more than digital replicas of hard copy. However, we can take some lessons from what some eMags are trying to do and if you haven’t already done so, download Al Gore’s Our Choice app for the iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch. I think it’s one of the first real examples of where eTextbooks should be heading, if only the tools needed to achieve this were more readily available.

If you have an iDevice, why not try the Creative Book Builder (CBB) app? It’s a DIY ePub creator, which supports audio and video files with an iPad 2. It’s fairly basic and more suited to simple documents, but it’s a start.

Adobe’s InDesign CS5 and CS5.5 support more sophisticated ePub development. It’s the tool of choice for magazine publishers.

Whether an ePub document harnesses the future of eTextbooks or some other technology, it’s only a matter of time before BYOD means more than just Internet access…

 
4 Comments

Posted by on November 9, 2011 in BYOD, Digital Learning Objects, iPad

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

How BYOD is impacting learning – initial thoughts

05 Nov

The iPad is to learning what the calculator was to mathematics

Are iPads the new calculator?

Bring your own device (BYOD) is the latest catchphrase to be bandied around schools and education conferences the world over. Coupled with the rise of portable devices like the iPad, we find ourselves in exciting times.

When thinking about BYOD for my own school, I constantly come back to the iPad over any other mobile device – smartphone, iPod touch, laptop, tablet pc, netbook, eReader.

Why?

  • Relatively speaking, the cost of an iPad is cheap, or at least on a par, with devices of similar performance (yes, netbooks are usually cheaper, but they don’t perform on the same level)
  • The variety of software (apps) available is astonishing (compare the number and range of apps available on the App Store with Android’s Market Place)
  • The minimal cost of apps is not going to be a barrier or induce a ‘have vs. have nots’ situation
  • The iPad’s battery life versus that of a laptop, for example
  • The screen size versus that of a phone or mp3 player
  • The fact that the iPad is incredibly easy to use and has yet to have a serious contender for the slate crown

Sure, the iPad does have it flaws (such as weaknesses in file management, limitations on printing, the availability of extension ports, and a sometimes less than adequate browsing experience especially with Flash and AJAX etc), but given that it takes up very little space in a students bag or desk yet can store a large amount of data, it’s hard not to consider the iPad for BYOD in secondary classrooms.

I’m sure the education sector would have had discussions about the introduction (and later mandatory student ownership) of scientific calculators in the 1970′s and 1980′s that had similar sentiments to the discussions in schools today about the benefits, or not, of implementing a BYOD programme. You can see the two camps can’t you; those teachers and senior management who are willing to sacrifice a large amount of their own time researching, thinking and experimenting with different learning opportunities that new technology may bring versus another group who simply want to do things the same way they have done for years. I remember not being able to use a calculator in Maths in Form 3 (Year 9) – mine was confiscated – yet in Form 4 (Year 10) we were expected to have one (an FX-82 I think).

When considering different approaches towards BYOD in schools, I always have that analogy of the scientific calculator tapping me on the shoulder. It’s not solely about the hardware or whether your slate or calculator is branded Apple, Casio, Samsung or Sony. It’s not solely about what software a device runs (regular calculator or graphing calculator anyone?). It’s about how the combination of hardware and software, mixed with infrastructure such as a wireless network, enhances learning.

A number of secondary schools in New Zealand are seriously considering mandatory BYOD implementation. Others are still in the early stages, but have an eye open to the possibilities, and hitches, that can and will surface. Schools in NZ that are at the forefront of this include:

Imagine what a typical high school classroom will look like 5 years from now. Will we see printed exercise books and text books, or will they be digital? Will we see any paper at all? Will students be engaged or disengaged? What kind of technology will teachers use on a daily basis? What technology will students have in their pockets and/or in their bags/on the desk – will it be a pocket calculator or will that just be one of many functions fulfilled by a device like the iPad? Will students be using technology all of the time and in every class, or will BYOD be a natural tool that is expected of and by students and teachers rather than being at the forefront of educational debate?

So much to process!

BYOD - so much to process!

 

 

 

 

Jenny

 
15 Comments

Posted by on November 5, 2011 in BYOD, iPad

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Essential back-to-school iPad kit

14 Jan

Are you a middle or high school student? Do you want to use your iPad at school instead of carrying a heavy laptop? If you answered YES to either of these questions, read on to discover 11 must-have apps for 2011 – it’ll be worth it, guaranteed! :)

11 essential back-to-school apps for students

11 essential back-to-school apps for students

I don’t have any affiliations to the developers of these apps, so I can give an objective point of view.  I have however, played around with each app listed and have tried to view them from a student’s perspective in particular. Each app listed here is intended for students ranging in ages from about 10 to 18. Many can in fact be used by other ages as well, but that’s the age range I deal with, so it’s natural to start there.  All the apps can be considered worthy for general education support.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re into the sciences, humanities, languages or technology – I’ve chosen to present these apps in particular because I think they would really help ALL students rather than a specific subject area.

Well, that’s enough preamble…let’s get to it. I’ve grouped the apps into 5 categories based on how students might use them:

  1. Organisation
  2. Reference
  3. Note-taking
  4. File management
  5. Revision

1. Organisation

iStudiez Pro ($4.19)

This app is great for organising your timetable, homework and when assignments are due.

You won’t need one of those A5, clunky diaries any more and you’ll never be late for class!

2. Reference

Dictionary.com (FREE)

Of all the dictionary apps available, this has to be one of the best – it combines more features than other apps, and it uses a clean and intuitive interface.

You’re given word family, different meanings clearly defined, and etymology (word origins) of the words you look up.  The thesaurus combines both synonyms AND antonyms, many of which are also hyperlinked to additional pages.

iTranslate (FREE)

This app would be particularly useful if English is not your first language.  In fact, it allows you to choose which language you want to translate from and which language you would like to translate to, so it’s a worthy app for all students.

It’s another example of an app that utilises a clean user interface and is therefore straightforward to use.  As the adage suggests, sometimes less is more…

Word Study & Grammar ($2.59)

So you’ve got your English essay back and the teacher’s comment mentions that you use split infinitives, double negatives and keep ending sentences with prepositions.  Think of this app as a grammar reference book that will help you fix problems with your written syntax.  Even if you’re unsure of the basics such as the purpose of nouns, verbs and adjectives, this guide will help you to become informed of all things ‘grammar’.

3. Note taking

inClass (FREE)

This app is the perfect tool for taking notes in class AND organising your schedule.

Better still, you can organise your notes into separate notebooks (say, a notebook for each subject) and even add sub topics within each notebook. It’s also possible to record your homework, prioritise tasks and list your teacher’s contact details/office hours.  It’s a delight to use and isn’t bogged down with gimicky features that are found in many productivity apps,

I have to say that this is one of my favourite apps.  You have to try it out for yourself!

MyScratchWork (FREE)

Use this app when you’re taking notes from online sources.

When your iPad is in landscape, half the screen is a notepad and the other half is a browser window.  It’s the app you’d use when you’re taking notes while researching a topic, yet you don’t have to have a separate pen and paper, or keep switching back and forth between two apps.  You can read online material AND take notes at the same time in the one app!

Pages ($13.99)

You’ve probably heard of Apple’s word processing app even if you haven’t downloaded it yet. The reason it’s in this list is because at the end of the day, all students (regardless of subjects taken) have to write essays, book reports and so on.

Pages is a word processing tool that is incredibly simple to use and is not ‘fiddly’ like other apps of a similar nature.  Use Pages when you’re writing your final English essay or History report and then email it to your teacher, all from the app.

4. File management

Downloads HD ($4.19)

A lot of apps allow you to view documents online, but few allow you to quickly and easily download files AND organise them in folders. If your school uses an online system such as Blackboard or Moodle to post resources, Downloads HD is a fail-safe app to use.

I found that many other apps either took far too long to download even fairly small documents and/or stopped working when I tried it in Blackboard. I’ve had no problems with this app at all though. You can also transfer downloaded files to your computer at home if you want as well.

The free version of Downloads HD has all the features of the paid version, but you can only store up to 7 files at a time.  This could become annoying, especially if you’re used to teachers posting PDF and PPT files etc online, so the paid version is well worth it.

5. Revision

FlashCards Plus Pro ($6.49)

This app’s user interface has a high visual appeal and it’s very intuitive.  The Pro version allows you to create your own flash cards within the app, including images on the cards, so it’s worth the small investment. You can also download card sets from Quizlet.com.

It’s what I’d call one of the more advanced flash cards apps available because it uses the Leitner system of spaced repetition – huh? What this means is that the app keeps track of the cards you get right and the ones you get wrong.  The cards you get incorrect will be shown to you on a more regular basis than the cards you already know.  The advantage here is that the app really helps you to commit key terms and concepts to memory rather than repeatedly showing you things you already know.

iStudyAlarm ($1.29)

Most people have trouble studying for long periods of time and iStudyAlarm is designed to help you. Using research that suggests that the optimum study time is 20 minutes, you can set the alarm for intervals of this length.  When the alarm sounds you’ll know it’s time to have a 5 minute break before hitting the books again.

The app also includes some really useful information about how to get the most out of your study time and also lots of tips for sitting exams.

Popplet Lite (FREE)

This is one of the easiest mind mapping tools I’ve come across.

It fits well with using the iPad’s touch screen to enter data and it’s user interface is very intuitive.  Other mind mapping apps I’ve tried are just too fiddly in comparison. When you’ve created your mind map you have the option to send it in an email as a JPG.  This can then be saved to the iPad’s camera roll.  If you want to keep the mind map yourself rather than share it with others, the easiest way would be to take an image of it by pressing the on/off button and the Home button at the same time.  This way the mind map goes straight into the Photos app (i.e. camera roll) and bypasses the email step.

The Lite version is fairly basic and only appears to let you work on one mind map at a time, but I figured that you can get an image of your map to use elsewhere anyway.  Upgrade to the paid version ($12.99) if you regularly use mind maps as part of your revision process though.

Finally, one more tip to enhance your research, note taking and learning…

Diigo is an online tool for highlighting text and creating sticky notes, among other things.  You can download a plugin for iPad’s Safari browser which allows you to highlight text from documents and web pages that you’re viewing online rather than downloading.  It syncs to your free Diigo.com account, which records the article/web page on which you’ve highlighted text (and the text you’ve highlighted, of course!)

Imagine critiquing an author’s work, researching the origins of WW1, or commentaries on the latest economic crisis.  Using your iPad, you can collect important quotes, identify recurring themes and write your own thoughts on the fly using Safari and Diigo’s web highlighter tool.

Now you (and your iPad) are armed with a software kit ready for the start of a new academic year – and all for less than $35!

 
1 Comment

Posted by on January 14, 2011 in iDevices, iPad, mLearning, Software

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why the iPad doesn't need a USB port…

04 Jan

There’s been much speculation in the media over the last couple of weeks about the iPad 2, reportedly due for release early in 2011.  Two of the many rumours I agree with – 2 cameras and retina display – because they are already present in the iPhone 4 and latest iPod Touch.  HD video recording is also a real possibility in the next generation of iPads because again, this ability already exists in the aforementioned iDevices.  Talk of the iPad 2 having a USB port however is leading people down the wrong path, IMHO.

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port.  The camera connection kit that already exists as an accessory provides a USB connection with your camera, but only that – your camera.  You can’t plugin a memory stick as the iPad’s operating system (OS) only recognises signals from a camera; the ‘universal’ part of USB doesn’t apply to the iPad like it does to your laptop.  Instead, if you try and access data on a pen drive, you’re presented with the following error message:

Camera connection kit USB error message

Camera connection kit USB error message

So unless you’re transferring photos from a camera, the kit’s USB connector is a no-go zone.

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port.  The other connector in the current camera connection kit supports SD cards.  Great you say, but again, like the USB connector, this is inextricably linked to the iPad’s camera roll, so it’s another example of only being able to transfer photos. I like the SD connector though as it means no cables are needed (I don’t even use cables when transferring photos to a laptop – haven’t done so in several years! – always use the SD slot instead).  When the iPad’s OS registers the SD card, the camera roll opens and you can download any or all of the photos that you wish.

Transferring photos with the camera connection kit's SD connector

Transferring photos with the camera connection kit's SD connector

Too bad if your camera uses compact flash though…

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port.  There are already heaps of apps, paid and free, that allow you to transfer photos between iPhone, iPod, iPad and computer.  Some of these focus on transfer between iDevices only, some are just Mac and others support PC as well.  Some use WiFi whilst others use Bluetooth.  The point is, it’s already possible to transfer photos between different devices using apps AND wirelessly.  What then, does a USB port offer users, really?

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port – and this is the clincher!  The iPad uses the iPhone OS.  Given the nature of the OS it’s easy to identify that the iPad is NOT a full replacement for a laptop or desktop – not yet, anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my iPad (and will likely be first in line for iPad 2), but I’ve found that the iPad’s biggest area of weakness is related to file management. I lot of people seem to assume that the iPad can be a replacement for a laptop, but don’t understand the implications of the menu-based OS that controls how users interact with the hardware and application software.

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port because the OS dictates that all file management is app-based only.  Sure, you can import and export Word documents etc to and from apps, although I’ve found this to have a high failure rate.  Developers have made some improvements, but there’s still much work to be done in this respect.  The ‘open in…’ feature seen in Safari even doesn’t respond particularly well to Apple’s own Pages app.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve tried to view a document from the Internet in Pages, Goodreader, ReaddleDocs and many other (generally good) productivity tools only to have it fail.  It works about 10% of the time, which quite frankly is unacceptable.  The iPad’s OS doesn’t have a My Documents/Library (PC) or Finder (Mac) component built into it, unlike the operating systems we’re familiar with on our computers.

Seeing a quick view of a document in Safari works, but trying to download this document into another app is a different ball game and one in which is the most frustrating thing about the iPad.  I’ve had students wanting to download documents from their Blackboard courses onto their iPad, only to discover that they can only ‘view’ the file, not ‘download’ it. Even Pages doesn’t allow you to organise documents into folders.  If you’ve only got a limited number of files then fine, but imagine being a student trying to organise potentially hundreds of files across all of your courses in even one academic year.  How many files do you have on your laptop or desktop right now?  How do you organise these files? Could you replicate that file/folder structure in the iPad?  If you’re a student or teacher, my answer to that would be probably not.

The iPad doesn’t need a USB port because the OS precludes it’s use.  Wireless technologies mean users can transfer photos and files (sometimes!) from one iPad to another (or iDevice), or from computer to iPad. I have so many productivity apps on my iPad that it’s a bit embarrassing to count them all!  Yet I haven’t found the one killer app, mainly because whilst each have advantages, they all seem to fall down in how they manage files (documents such as PDF, Word, PPT or equivalents etc, not photos) and/or in what type of files they allow users to transfer (especially without having to use iTunes, which is bloated and horrid on a PC!)   There’s no coincidence that it’s photos that seem to be the easiest to transfer rather than documents.  That’s because at the end of the day the iPad, being a consumer device, was designed for media rather than file management.  There’s much potential in this hardware, but there’s still some way to go before we all ditch laptops and desktops in favour of a slate – teachers, students and businesses alike. And until we get to that point, there’s really no clear reason why the iPad needs a USB port at all.

Jenny

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 4, 2011 in iDevices, iPad, mLearning

 

Tags: , ,

Designing the user interface for iPhone and iPad apps

28 Dec

Underlying my current research interests is the concept of instructional design.  I’m worried that my PowerPoint presentations and current iterations of Blackboard courses (especially for senior students) are ineffective on one hand and a digital filing cabinet on the other.  How far do these resources and environments impact positively on my students’ learning?  I’m not sure, but I feel I’ve gone backward to a certain extent, so it’s as good a time as any for a review.  Whilst focusing on apps for handheld devices, this article gave me much food for thought in regard to LMS course structure too.

This post is my summary from an article by Carmen Taran entitled ‘From e-Learning to the iPad: Don’t Just Move Bones from One Graveyard to Another’ (Learning Solutions magazine, eLearning Guild, 20 December 2010).  It’s the first, of what I hope to be many, responses to reading.  I hope I can formulate a clearer plan in my own mind as to how I can improve my digital options for students.

I’m struck by how many of these sentiments apply to traditional website design as well.    The underlying idea that Taran is trying to express however is that designing digital content needs to reflect the unique qualities of its media, not just the regular considerations of purpose and target audience.  She sums this up aptly in one of her final sentences – “Refrain from merely dumping electronic content into an app shell.”

An iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (iDevice) affects the development of the resulting digital learning object (DLO).  It’s not just the obvious issues related to screen design, but how the iOS impacts what instructional designers can do also plays a huge part in the software solution.  It’s not just Apple handheld devices that need to be considered either.  The term ‘iDevices’ can be applied to any brand of smart device as they can all potentially be used by students in the learning process and in the case of Android devices, the OS is similar to the iOS regarding user interaction.

This article focused on the importance of designing the user interface when developing digital learning apps.  Five key questions are asked when reviewing any DLO:

  1. Where am I?
  2. How did I get here?
  3. How can I return to where I once was?
  4. How far have I gone?
  5. Where else can I go.

Uses need to know where they’re going, where they’ve come from, and where they’re going to – and not necessarily in a linear fashion!  Two concepts spring to mind when I consider these questions: transparency and consistency.  How the user navigates a DLO needs to be intuitive and unimposing.  Content is still king, even when chunked, after all!  Like all good web design, the placement of navigation buttons and menus, along with the colour scheme, also needs to be the same throughout the DLO.

Taran critiqued five very different apps according to these questions and my summary of the findings are below.  Again, so many of these features are common to traditional web design as well.

  • Less is more.  Don’t bombard learners with too many options all at once.  Once example of this is with menus.  If you have many menu items, each of which have sub items as well, just show the main menu items first.  Then using a concertina-style or pull-out menu design, display the sub menu options when the learner selects one of the main choices.
  • Show how far the learner has progressed (and how far he/she needs to complete).  Keep this is the same location on each screen as well (and the same size).  See the next point about terminology as well…
  • Terminology – ‘screen’ versus ‘page’.  We view DLO’s on a screen, so use the word ‘screen’ when indicating learner progression throughout the app (i.e. Screen 5 of 12).  Leave ‘pages’ in books…
  • Title each screen.   Tell learners what the main focus of a screen of content.
  • Be consistent.  Ensure that your screen titles and menu options use the same terminology.  There’s no need to confuse the learner…
  • Book templates in DLO’s need chapters.  And I guess having a contents page (whoops, ‘screen’) wouldn’t go astray either. I love it when ebooks on iBooks or Kindle for iPad have this as it’s really handy, especially for non-fiction books.
  • When is a button not a button? Make sure that the state of buttons is really clear to the learner.  Don’t blur the lines (in the name of some fluffy ‘artistic design’) between when a button is enabled or disabled, or if a button has been clicked (i.e. depressed) or not.
  • Back to the beginning. Each screen should allow learners to return to somewhere where they’ve already been (e.g. a ‘Back’ button) and/or skip to anywhere in the DLO (e.g. ‘Main Menu’ option).
  • 80/20 split in screen real estate.  80% of the screen should be for content, 20% max for navigation options.
  • Proofread carefully.  Avoid spelling errors or unwanted repetition, in content or navigation.

Designing user interfaces for DLO’s (whether on an iPod Nano, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, Galaxy tab, Playbook, PSP, etc – or even an online course in a more traditional LMS) is not about trying to find the ‘one right way’ of optimizing layout, because there isn’t any.  It’s about looking at how the qualities of different media and platforms can be utilised to support learner’s needs.  This, combined with evaluating your app or course against the questions raised here will do much for your understanding of the importance instructional design principles play when developing learning resources for your students.
]]>

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on December 28, 2010 in Digital Learning Objects, iDevices, Instructional Design, mLearning

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts
 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,165 other followers

%d bloggers like this: