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.