Today's Free App

The Pro version of iFunFace is currently free in the App Store. It gives you access to lots of fun special features.

iFunFace Pro

Popplet

Popplet is a fantastic app but it is also a browser based program. Just some ideas for using Popplet in the classroom:

Here are some of the features of the browser based version.

-Easy + Free (PCs)

- Online 

- Zooming work space.

-Integrate text, upload image from your PC.

- Add youtube links, flicker pictures, google maps, and amazon pictures.

- Share it using social media like twitter, facebook or embed it to a blog.

- PC +iPad

-Allow access to multiple users by email.

- Bookmarklet that let you clip images and text from other websites and post them to your popplet boards.

- Multi language support.

- Export it as a JPG or PDF file.

-Print it.

- Comments on boxes or bubbles.

- Draw.

These ideas are for both the browser based version and the app.

- Presenting historical events: use the timeline option with the lines and multi-media to create a historical model for an event.

- A brainstorming "Creative thinking" tool : you can use it to trigger creative thinking in a workspace that can be expanded , recording class notes , or the generated ideas in a brainstorming session.

- Project Based Learning  : popplet can be used for group work, with the ability to add elements like pictures it is an effective platform for project based learning.

- Storytelling: Timelines will mutlimedia can be used to tell a story.

- Summarizing : Students can summarize ideas from a book they read in the classroom, teachers can also present the main ideas of a lesson.

- Organizing: Mind map is also a great way to organize thoughts from a brain stroming session.

- ScrapBook/ School or class photo albums /Posters : popplet final projects can be exported as JPG or PDF files and you can also print it.

- Introducing/ presenting new topics.

- Differentiation / Visual learners.

-  Planning for a unit 

- Homework and assignment : Print it, or use it online and fill in the blank.

- Feedback with comments

- Phonics: word banking of phonic sounds

Cut Me In

I really like this app and not just for fun. It is a really simple way for students to do a quick report on a location. And, of course, it can just be part of a much larger ePub. Here I have combined it with Strip Designer to add some speech bubbles etc.

Favourite Apps For Publishing

Here are some of my favourite apps that can be saved to the camera roll and used in an ePub or iMovie. This is just a few of the obvious ones and there are so many more but there is so much you can do with just these apps.

Zondle

Zondle is a program that enables teachers to create games to match exactly their teaching aims and their students’ learning needs. It is a browser based program that is free to use and free to join. Teachers create a membership and classes in the browser based version. The Zondle app is also free and students can use this on an iPad to log in to their class and play the games. 

Basically, teachers create a set of questions (multiple choice, true/false or short answer) and students select which game they would like to use to answer these questions.

Teachers and students can also search topics to look for questions already provided by other users. Teachers can set tasks for students and students go straight to these tasks by going to the correct folder. Zondle has some pretty cool resources for teachers. There is a Team Play section that is designed for the whole class to use on the IWB.

The website can be found here.

Zondle

Today's Free App

Shake-a-Phrase: Fun with words and sentences is currently free in the App Store. It is a fun language app for creative writing prompts, vocabulary and parts of speech.

Shake-a-Phrase

More About QR Codes

Okay it has taken a while but QR Codes have really taken off at our school. Yes, they are old news but still a fantastic way to motivate students. There are so many different ways to use them in the classroom. On my Pinterest that is linked from this Blog I have a Board just about QR Codes and Aurasmas.

One really cool way to use QR Codes is to link movies to them. This could be instructions for a task, an introduction to a lesson, a movie students have made, a challenge or a fun way to send a message. The movie They are a range of ways you can link a movie to a QR Code and, believe me, I have tried most of them. Here is the one I have found the easiest.

You need a GoogleDocs Account and the GoogleDrive all on your iPads. You can link anything from the camera roll, so any creation that has been sent to the camera roll. 

Step 1. Sign into your GoogleDocs account in GoogleDrive on each iPad

Step 2. Sign into you GoogleDocs account on a desktop or laptop

Step 3. Upload your movie in GoogleDrive on the iPad, select the expand arrow next to your movie and rename it. 

Step 4. Go to your computer and find your movie in your Drive or in Recents and tick the box.

Step 5. Select the share icon at the top (the little person with the plus).

Step 6. Change the Privacy setting to Anyone with this link.

Step 7. Copy the URL link from the box.

Step 8. Open you QR Code created program. I use www.qrstuff.com when I am on a computer

Step 9. Make sure the Data Type in the list on the left has Website URL selected and paste your link.

Step 10. Select a colour for your QR Code and select Download QR Code. You can then save this to your computer as an image to do as you want with.

Most of these steps can be completed in a slightly different way on an iPad. I just find it smoother on a computer because it is far easier to copy the link and I figure you need to be on a computer to print it anyway.

Today's Free App

Math Splat is a fun mental math game with difficulty levels. Basically you splat paint on the correct answers and if you get three wrong you are out.

Math Splat

Edmodo

Edmodo is a Web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to safely share ideas, files, assignments, videos, projects, etc.with students and with other teachers in real time. It is a browser based program and it is also a free app. Edmodo on the iPad is more limited in what can be uploaded but photos, movies from the camera roll can be. It is a safe and secure social learning site for classrooms. Edmodo does not require student email addresses and only the people who have the group code can see the students.

The teacher must first register (for free). Then they can create a group or groups for their class. Students will then register and use the teacher’s code to join that class. On the front page of Edmodo, there is a video: What is Edmodo? Spend a few minutes reviewing this video before signing up.

Edmodo can be found at www.edmodo.com and the app can be found at The App Store

Here are many things teachers and students can do with Edmodo 

1. Post assignments for students. Edmodo allows teachers to attach files to assignment announcements. If there is a file your students need in order to complete an assignment, they can access it at the same place they view the announcement.

2. Create digital libraries. Students and teachers can create digital libraries for housing their important files. No need to keep track of USB drives because you can access your files from any Internet-connected computer.

3. Post messages on the "wall." This allows students to ask questions of each other and their teacher. Teachers, of course, can post messages for all students to read.

4. Create learning groups. Teachers can create groups of their students according to the courses they teach or create groups of students who are supposed to be working together.

5.  Post polls for students. Use the polls to gather informal feedback on a question like, "do you feel prepared for next week's quiz?"

6. Post a quiz for students to take. You can attach links and files to each question and answer choice. This allows you to post a document and ask students to read and respond to it. Quizzes can be in multiple choice, trufalse, fill in the blank, or short answer form. You can allow students to see their scores immediately or you can disable that option.

7. Connect with other teachers. Join discussion groups to share ideas about lesson plans, teaching strategies, and project development. Discuss tools and content that you use.

8. Create a calendar of events and assignments.

9. Access Edmodo through the free app on an iPad.

10. Turn in assignments. Students can upload assignments for their teachers to view and grade. Teachers can annotate the assignments directly in Edmodo.

11. Create parent accounts. Teachers can create parent accounts. Parent accounts allow parents to see their children's assignments and grades. Teachers can also send alerts to parents about school events, missed assignments, and other important messages through Edmodo.

12. Generate printable class rosters. If you're going to have a substitute teacher in your classroom who needs a printed roster, you can print one from your Edmodo account.

13. Embed videos, images, and audio clips into your wall to spark a class discussion online.

Publishing with iPads

Most people know by now that I am a huge fan of any creation app in which the creation can be sent to the camera roll. This is because it can then be sent anywhere. There are several options for publishing once the creation is turned into a movie or still image in the camera roll. Just some of those options are:

Use photo stream to share with another device

Plug the iPad into a computer without iTunes and get photos off as with a camera

Use iTunes

Use a camera connection to share with another iPad

Create an ePub such as with Book Creator - this can then be sent to iBooks.

Compile creations into an iMovie and send to camera roll ......

Upload to YouTube, Vimeo, GoogleDocs, Edmodo

I will post more information on some of these methods in future posts.

QR Codes

There are so many amazing ideas for creating QR Codes on-line. You just have to Google it! Here is the link to one scavenger hunt lesson idea, complete with reflection. This teacher used the website www.classtools.net to create the codes. This website also includes some other great resources such as Fakebook and FakeSMS. Imagine getting to create a Facebook page that Paddy Hannan, Captain Cook or a first settler might have. You can also create fake messages between 2 people - how about between Captain Arthur Phillip and Captain James Cook (yes I know he was dead) but imagine the conversation that would have taken place when Phillip realised Botany Bay......

• Good Evening Cook, dear fellow. It seems, my good fellow, that this Botany Bay leaves a bit to be desired in the old settlement area. What says you my good man?
• Oh dear, my good man. Maybe you need to toughen up a bit!

Now that's fun! Anyway back to the lesson idea I mentioned. 

http://www.activehistory.co.uk/Miscellaneous/menus/history_mystery/qr.php

Today's free app

The Tale of Tom Kitten is a fully interactive version of the Beatrix Potter book. This is the full version, free temporarily.

The Tale of Tom Kitten

Today's Free App

If you are looking for a basic app that can put a label, speech bubble etc. on a photo TypoPic is easy to use and has some pretty cool fonts and effects. You can only use 1 photo and 1 bit of text but, obviously, by using other apps such as PicCollage you could make something pretty fancy.

TypoPic

Today's Free App

Sentence Reading Magic provides the missing link between reading words and reading books-reading sentences. 

This app works on developing reading skills using short vowels and over 40 of the most common sight words. It has a special section to focus on learning 11 of the most difficult sight words to decode.

Sentence Reading Magic Deluxe

Screen casting

I have blogged before about screen casting or whiteboard type apps. I am talking about those apps you can add photos to, draw with and record voice. My two favourites are Educreations (which is free) and Explain Everything. I love these apps because they are so versatile. Just a couple of ways I like to use them are:

for assessment - You can set a student a math problem and record their working out as they go. Record two students solving a problem and her the language they use

and to help struggling students with concepts in maths - record yourself doing a lesson on the app and the student an play it over and over.

I like Educreations because it is simple to use as it doesn't have heaps of buttons etc. The limitation with this one is you can't save creations/lessons to the camera roll. Much like Show Me they get uploaded to cyber space. By creating and logging into the same account on each iPad you can easily share what you have made and what your students have made with each other.

The great thing about Explain Everything is that you can upload to the camera roll and then publish creations. The trouble is it has a lot more buttons and is confusing for younger students.

There is another app that has an interface more like Educreations but can be uploaded to the camera roll. Vittle is a bit expensive but the free version is worth checking out.

Educreations

Explain Everything

Vittle

Augmented Reality

Yesterday I started a lesson with a class in which the students are working in groups to create iMovies about early explorers. The guidelines they have are to include important information and the movie needs to be less than 45 seconds long. This is to keep their movies succinct.

They will then be using Aurasma to create an aura from their movie, using a photo of the explorer as the trigger. As a stimulus and to introduce them to Augmented Reality I used the ColarMix app on the IWB. It worked very well. Of course they all wanted to do a colouring but it got the ball rolling. I then showed them the Captain Cook Aurasma I had created to make things a bit more relevant but I feel that the stimulus got them interested and I am excited to show them how to use Aurasma when they are finished.

Kids Discover Galaxy - Free App

Definitely worth checking out. It is the third app of the Kids Discover series that is currently free in the App Store.

Galaxy

Cells - Free App

Another great free app for a limited time. Cells teaches kids all about cells and covers such topics as DNA and heredity.

Cells

Ancient Greece - Free App

Have kids take a free tour of Ancient Greece in this amazing app that is free for a short time only.

Ancient Greece

Augmented Reality

On the subject of augmented reality, why not have your students create their own set of flashcards using Aurasma. Print out letters for them to colour or have them draw or paint a letter and use it as a trigger. Record a short video of the child talking about things that start with that letter, or showing pictures, or acting out an animal (so many options I won't list them all) and voila!

Of course why stop there? How about having them create their name and link to an iMovie that shows their favourite things.

Augmented Reality ABC Flashcards for Kids

Another really cool FREE app. This one definitely has some educational value. All you have to do is download the free flashcards, print them in colour and use the free app. When you open the app press "get started" and it opens a camera viewer. Place one or more of the cards in view of the camera and watch the magic happen. When you touch the screen on top of the animal or card it also tells you the letter name and animal.