iVisual Touch Infographic of 2103 Lunch N' Learns

Today, I learned about the iVisual info Touch iPad Infographic App through Richard Byrne @ iPad Apps For School.  We have implemented infographics in our high school Human Geography last year so I was intrigued to see if an iPad app could be used with students.

I created an infographic for Lunch N' Learn statistics.  This is the first full year of volunteer learning opportunities for our high school staff.

Positives of iVisual Touch 

• Free Form Writing Lines
• Multiple Backgrounds
• Four Pages of Icons
• Colorful World Flags
• Color Palette
• Seven Fonts
• Add Pictures (Great to use with other apps such as Skitch or PicCollage)
• Grid Lines for Creating
• Save To Camera Roll (Great for uploading to Google Drive)

Negatives of iVisual Touch

• No Locking Options of Objects
• No Undo Button
• No Automatic Save
• Free app great to try, but limited options (I purchased the full app)

Impact On Students:

Creativity: Students can continue to use their imagination to create graphics that express their summary skills.

G Drive (Green) App For Downloading Video From Google Drive To iMovie

Saving video to an iPad from Google Drive was not possible until I found a solution courtesy of one of our IT people, @kenwestphal.

Collaborating with multiple students on different iPads or taking video with an iPhone or iPod was a difficult task because the Google Drive app only allowed downloading of images for use in iMovie.  Using the G Drive (Green) app now allows for videos to be imported into iMovie once the video is uploaded to a student's or teacher's Google Drive account.

If students are recording video using an Android device, the video will need to be converted before G Drive will import it into iMovie on the iPad.  We use Any Video Converter.

G Drive (Green) App
Google Drive App

View how it works!  Don't forget to have students log out of the G Drive app.


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SKYWARD: Cloning An Assignment

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Written Directions

IFTTT-Trigger: Email From Teacher; Action: SMS To Student

Our calculus teacher was tutoring a student on a Friday.  He forgot to mention a crucial part of the solution. He emailed the student the critical part to the solution.  On Monday, he asked the student, "Did you get me email?"  The student replied,

     "No, I never check my school email!"

Solution: Create a trigger and action using IFTTT.  IFTTT is so simple, a teacher almost can't afford to not offer it to their students.



Great thing about this was that I created the trigger and action on my iPhone in front of the teacher.  He sent me an email and the text showed up on my iPhone.  Demonstrating how it worked so quickly was a selling point!
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Haiku Deck On Web For Book Publication

I searched for a web tool that students could write a book about Canada and would, according to a middle school teacher,

• Drag and drop pictures or easy to insert pictures from web or upload
• Easy to add text
• Embed on blogger
• Log In with Gmail or easy to create an account
• Chromebook or laptop/desktop

I tried Google Drive tools and couldn't get into the template gallery according to an error message.

I tried widbook.com and it was a social site that I didn't think students needed to mess around with.

I tried storybird.com and it was also a lengthy sign up process and constituted social networking.

The above products, while great in their own right, didn't meet most of the criteria that the teacher was looking for.

I decided to look at Haiku Deck for creating an online book.  We have used Haiku Deck for a number of other creation projects and I believe this tool will work for creating a book. View short book.

Print YouTube Video Scripts

I learned about Printing YouTube video clips from SLATE!

The directions are easy.

The result lands in your Google Drive or on paper.

Impact On Students:

Critical Thinking:  Teachers print the YouTube video out or create it digitally.  Students write a reflection to summarize their learning or pull out video elements.

Trading Card Final Sharing Activity in AP Human Geography

The Trading Card activity was taking to a level by Mrs. Brylski that actually had the students print the Trading Cards and trade!

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Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students needed to decipher the information that should be placed for each question.
Collaboration:  The discussion that incurred during the trading of cards was pretty in depth.  Some great feedback was provided for each student by each student.

iPads, iPhones, iPods, BYOD in Google Hangouts For AP Biology Review

Today, was a classic "go slow to go fast"!

Mrs. Vertz has decided that a Google Hangout would be the best tool for an "at home" review session. Prior to today's lesson, Mrs. Vertz walked through information for setting up personal accounts.  We spent an entire class period dedicated to setting up personal Gmail accounts.  We needed personal Gmail accounts so that Google Plus and Google Hangouts could handle more than one person.  Our district has decided that Google Plus will be enabled for teachers only.

The best way to connect students was for the teacher to search Google Plus for the exact email address that students created for their Google Personal Gmail.

The mobile devices connected for a number of students as well as personal computers on our network.  We did run into a few error messages for students when connecting to Google Hangouts.  This could be for a number of reasons which we are investigating.

Tonight, we have planned a practice Google Hangout.

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Impact On Students:
Collaboration: A review session is a perfect time for staff and students to pool their resources together to master a topic.  With Google Hangouts, many people can review together in the comforts of their own home or on the go!
Critical Thinking: Students will have questions and both students and staff will determine the best answer. With Google Hangouts, screens can be shared and therefore, resources can be shared!
Citizenship:  Students needed to create personal Google accounts.  Connecting with the proper students from the class was a lesson that forced students to choose the correct contact.

Merge SMART notebook and Google Presentation

If you have SMART notebook files with text/images and you want to combine this with a Google Presentation, there is a small process that will make this work.

Remember, you can write on a Google presentation by following these steps.

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SLATE 2013 Screencasting With iPads

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Looking forward to a great session tomorrow!

View The Presentation

Basic Anatomy Students Helping Patients

Last year, Mr. Anderson embarked on a problem-based learning opportunity for his Anatomy students.

Read.

This year, Mr. Anderson invited my to his classroom for the final days of the learning environment.  Students were introduced to a patient.  That patient was shown an informational iMovie describing the body part that was being affected.  The iPad provided a great conversation starter between the patient and the students. Within that movie, students provided factual information along with specific footage of the students describing the body parts functions. (Special thanks to Mr. Gosse for being a patient)

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Impact On Students:
Collaboration: Students worked in partners to develop an information iMovie that would provide patients with some of the knowledge they needed to understand what was ailing them.
Creativity: Students need to use a multi-media approach complete with audio, video, and still images to convey information in a clear and concise manner.
Critical Thinking: Students experienced a wealthy of information and placing the correct information into the video was vital.  In addition, students needed to transfer the knowledge they had of the body parts to the patient while having a conversation.  It wasn't all about the technology.  Students needed to critically think about the most important information and provide that to the patient.

Writing On A Google Presentation Using SMART Tools...In 20 Seconds

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App Smash Challenge To Our Teachers

Because of a tweet by @mrbadura and his compilation of App Challenges, I decided to present the challenge to our teachers after yesterday's Lunch N' Learn topic.

The app challenge was promoted as this...

• Combine Two Apps for a lesson in your classroom
• Chrome/Web Based OR
• iPad Options
• Submit challenge USING any method (email, link, Google Drive)
• $25 iTunes Card to the Best One (undefined)
• All submissions combined and shared with all teachers
• Deadline Dec 17; 4:00 PM

I also had PRINTED copies for the teachers as this was something that could be taken with them when the left Lunch N' Learn.  

Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Encouraging students to integrate two apps together challenges students to take their thinking to a higher level.  Determining the "work flow' forces students to think "how best can I make this work?"  This is a life long learning lesson.

Critical Thinking: (Similar To Creativity) Encouraging students to integrate two apps together challenges students to take their thinking to a higher level.  Determining the "work flow' forces students to think "how best can I make this work?"  This is a life long learning lesson.

*All credit for this idea needs to be given to @mrbadura and a large thank you to him for sharing!

Searching Google Drive Using Filters & Creation Tools

Tired of trying to organize the plethora of Google Drive files you create or that have been shared with you?

Stop.

Learn to search with key shortcuts that will help you be more efficient.

• Dropdown Menu Icon
• Search Operators
• " " Quotes
• OR
• - Hyphen
• from:
• to:
• type:
• before: YYYY-MM-DD after:YYYY-MM-DD
• owner:
• title:

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Add Apps Search To Gmail
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Search Your Google Drive

Engaging New Web Tools!
FutureMe 
Make Badges

Engaging New iPad App Tools!
Tellagami (Free)
Fuzel (Free)
Fuzel Tutorial Video Link

Fuzel Collage Creation App

I recently discovered the redesigned Fuzel App. There are many apps that all for creation of collages, but this one seems to have an enormous amount of templates in which to insert pictures.

Sharing options, including save to camera roll, can provide easy uploading to Google Drive.

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