Ereading Strategies

Two articles pertaining to teaching careful reading on electronic devices from the May issue of Education Week:

1. Research Around Digital Reading Points to Potential Learning Gaps: Screen Reading Poses Learning ChallengesStrategies and helpful apps for aiding student comprehension and interaction with the printed text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=95943884&site=ehost-live
   
2. Pa. District Trains Staff on E-Reading Strategies
   How do we help students transfer print-based reading strategies when reading digitally?  Teacher training at a school district in PA emphasizes that student eReading instruction needs to be explicit - that we shouldn't assume that students (or teachers) transfer print skills to electronic devices.  Read the article here: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=95943913&site=ehost-live

The New Google Drive, Docs and Sheets Apps!

If any of you were, like me, utterly disappointed and incredulous at the absurdly expensive offering by Microsoft of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the iPad, Google this week announced some interesting upgrades:

1. New Google Docs and Sheets apps!  From the Release Notes:

"With Google Docs you can:

-Create new documents or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device. 

-Share documents and work together with others in the same document at the same time

-Get stuff done anytime–even without an internet connection

-Add and respond to comments

-Never worry about losing your work–everything is automatically saved as you type

With Google Sheets you can:

- Create new spreadsheets or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device. 

- Share spreadsheets and work together with others in the same spreadsheet at the same time

- Get stuff done anytime–even without an internet connection

- Format cells, enter/sort data, perform various sheet operations, and more

- Never worry about losing your work–everything is automatically saved as you type"

So, for our students, they now have two FREE options next year for document and spreadsheet creation: Google and Apple's suite of Pages and Numbers (if they purchased a new iPad - but a one time $9.99 is better than at best the $45/year we'd pay for Microsoft Office).

For presentations, Keynote, Prezi, Haiku Deck, and SlideShark are the free options students have. However, Google now has the expectation and opportunity for a new Google Sheets app - which has been promised.

2. Updated GoogleDrive app.  This latest update allows you to password protect your files with a simple 4 digit security code.  The update itself also brings the GoogleDrive app more in line with how you may use DropBox or OneDrive. 

Battery Life, ctd.

This post is actually even better than my last link for tips on conserving your iPad or iPhone's battery life. Here's an example of the kind of useful tip given:

Step 3: Stop Quitting Your Apps in Multitasking
iOS 7 made it super fun to close your apps: all you have to do is double-click the home button and swipe up on the app preview to blast it into a digital black hole.
What most people tell you is that closing your apps will save your battery life because it keeps the apps from running in the background.
Wrong.
Yes, it does shut down the app, but what you don't know is that you are actually making your battery life worse if you do this on a regular basis.

There are a lot of great tips here, so check it out.

Battery life

All devices with a rechargeable battery (which is just about anything these days) eventually lose their ability to hold a charge. I'm often asked for tips on how to best maintain a battery to keep them healthy. This story gives a brief overview of the most common things to do, and links to read more detailed information.

Best iPad app for managing PDFs

One of the more common requests for an app suggestion that I get around school is for a PDF-editing app: annotating, editing, filling out forms, etc. There are a couple of good options, and I've tried a few of them.

The Sweet Setup goes through the pros and cons of the most common apps, and makes a recommendation. It's a thorough review, and one they have done for several categories, if you're interested.

Apps and the Ways RJ Teachers are Using Them, Pt. 1

Sharing the way others at Jesuit schools throughout North America have incorporated Apps into their instruction leaves an impression that they (these other professionals at other schools) have it all figured out. Maybe you feel, "I don't," or "Regis Jesuit doesn't." As mentioned in the Technology Vision post, as well as the "Where are you on the Education Continuum?" post, our colleagues at RJ are doing amazing things ALREADY with their iPads in instruction.  And, if we are to succeed, we have to help one another in a spirit of risk and humor tied to a professional drive to increase learning.  To foster this, I will occasionally, as I hear about them, post ways our teachers are using their iPads in the classroom.  Here are a few:

Candace Busselmeier

"I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) for my video lessons.  I track all classroom participation with Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore).  When kids are working in class, I use Talkboard (click here to open in the AppStore) to demonstrate problems.  I have also used Nearpod (click here to open in the AppStore) for assessments.  I love that one because I can have kids actually write on it on the ipad and submit it to me, then I can review it and grade it."

Dustin Dvorak

"For my classes I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) quite a bit to create either mini lesson or review lessons for before the test that use to study.  I use NameSelector (will open in the AppStore) to do short reviews before we start class (I ask questions to the student whose name is chosen at random.  If they get it wrong I immediately ask the same question to the next student whose name is chosen). I use Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore) to keep track of a participation grade when they are working individually and in groups.  I've also used Ubersense (click here to open in the AppStore) and Video Physics (click here to open in the AppStore) to do some slow motion analysis of things in motion but that is more science specific stuff."

Andrew Carroll

"I have been using EduCreations (click here to open in the AppStore) to create videos about noun and verb endings, but got a great idea to use it also for sentence diagraming this weekend."

Personal Note
If you would like to share lesson plans or other ideas you have, please let me know.  You can become a guest blogger on the site, or just send me your idea in an email and I'll post it like I did above.

Note on Two of the Apps Mentioned Above
Explain Everything allows you to create presentations on your iPad.  You create slides (if you have presentations in PDF format, you can import them) and then record your presentation slide by slide. After you have recorded all of them, it will compile all the slides and your recording together into a single video file that you can upload to YouTube or other sharing platforms.  The advantage over EduCreations (basically the same thing but free) is 1. with single slide recording mistakes in recordings are limited to a slide vs. the whole presentation; and 2. you can upload to YouTube or others whereas Educreations posts it on their site and you direct students to their link.

I personally use Class Dojo and find it to be the first time I've understood how participation can be documented and a valid aspect of the grade.  For instance, I can actually bring up a report on any student and state by date which accuracy examples and instances of when a student has been a positive or negative influence in the class.  Further, it is free!

New Apps, App Ideas, and Other Practical Ideas for Use in the Classroom (inspired from the JSEA Technology Conference)

As promised, a more practical post from the Tech Conference:

GradeCam

If you use Scantron for quizzes or tests: GradeCam is an affordable option that would cut out the purchasing of the forms as well as you going to the work area to process the scores.  As soon as a student is finished, you could take a picture of his answers using your iPad and it would immediately give you his result. As more come to you, using your Camera you would have instant results and see, by person or the aggregate, what learning has been missed.

Book Creator or Creative Book Builder

These two apps are essentially ways to create iBooks on your iPad.  The first is more simple with a more intuitive learning curve, while the second is more advanced but can be more cumbersome. 

Ideas would be to have students use one of these apps to create a book as a unit assessment of overall course assessment.  They could use it in a group project to create a student's guide to the course for next years' class, or create a visual glossary or even a resource compendium to help differentiate learning.

EduCanon

Imagine taking a YouTube (or Vimeo or others) video you have created and placing stops during it that bring up quiz questions.  The student answers the quiz question and they get immediate feedback (for multiple choice ones). Once they have answered the question, they are allowed to resume watching the video.  You are given the results, so you can formatively assess the learning as it is taking place in the video.

If you flip the classroom instruction, this might be a way to embed a type of worksheet into the actual video.  At the least, they cannot skip ahead and they are forced to engage in the viewing.  Accessing the scoring data also gives you more focused points for remediation.

Vernier Video Physics (Math/Science)

Using the Camera, a student can record something in motion and the data analysis within the program will draw trajectory, position, and velocity graphs for the object.

An instructor from Brophy uses this to prove gravity and acceleration, and then has students discover the laws of physics with motion in the AngryBirds universe. 

The Grading Game (English)

Competing as an "evil" English teacher bent on giving students terrible grades, the "player" gets writing samples and a time limit.  The goal is to bring the grade down finding mistakes in grammar as quickly as possible.  Teachers have found this to quickly increase student capacities in writing.

ComicLife or Comics Head Lite (English, Theology)

Create comic strips on the iPad. 

If you are having students create story outlines, have them take pictures enacting key scenes and use the bubbles or captions of the comic strip to analyze or provide grounds justifying why the scenes they select are crucial in the development of the plot.  Limit it to two pages to force their evaluative capacities.

TI-Nspire Calculator and Keynote (Math)

For Math: have students find real life examples of 90 degree angles or other concepts, take photos of them, highlight the area or lines the image represents. Using the Inspire app, have it analyze the data and then insert this analysis into a Keynote presentation.  This can become a creative unit review and integrated into future physics or architecture lessons, can add application and depth to learning.

iPhoto (English, Fine Arts, Languages, Science, Social Studies, Theology)

Have students take photos that can express the meaning of vocab words or key concepts.  Using iPhoto and the Web Journal feature, have them create a photo glossary of terms/concepts for a unit.  With the sharing feature, this could be done as a group project or with peer review. 

iMovie (Social Studies, English, Theology)

Using Ken Burns documentaries as examples, have students use photos in the iMovie app and by adjusting the effects and adding in recordings, have them create their own documentaries of a time period.

iCircuit (Science)

Create and experiment with circuit design/analysis.

TimeLapse (Fine Arts, Science, any project with a visual aid)

Turn your Camera into a time lapse camera.  Set the length of time to "record" or just set it to take a shot every 5 seconds, you can use this to show the progression of something over time.  

Imagine setting this up to record dissection or the creation of an art piece. Every five seconds a photo is taken and at the end, it makes this into a movie. Import that into iMovie and they can give audio commentary on the dissection/piece of art.

Another idea stems from RCA Animate.  Have students create a graphic in the stop-motion style to be used to present ideas/concepts.

Holomic or AirMicroScope (Science)

The first, Holomic, turns an iPhone into a microscope, even an electron microscope.  You can also do blood or allergen analysis.

The second, AirMicroScope, turns the iPad into a microscope.  With the click of a button the teacher is able to send an image of a cell into every students' Camera Roll.

SmartMusic (Fine Arts)

Students can come home, practice music on their instrument (voice included) and the software will record and analyze their performance.  The student will even receive feedback on how to improve.