Friday iPad Resouce: Bring documents to life with Slate

Adobe just released Slate and it is FREE.  Take documents and bring them to life!

Wow, this is an amazing tool. Of course I am an Adobe fan for years,  but Slate is simple,  add text, photos, layout and apply style & motion.  Scrolling transitions make words and images move for an engaging & compelling read.  If you’ve used Adobe Voice,  also Free,  you’ll find similarities.   

Adobe Slate is a fun and easy way to turn any document – a lesson, newsletter, book report or presentation – into a stunning visual story, in just minutes.  Clearly, an exciting way to present information!!

Just type or talk to add text and use your favorite photos. Choose one of the awesome themes and gorgeous fonts, magazine-style designs and motion automatically transforms your story – guaranteeing a marvelous read on any device.  

Each Slate story you publish is simply a link.  No unrelated content, no random ads — just your story. You can share it via text message, email, social media or embed it where you want on your own website.  Anyone can view your Slate and it will look great, whether they're using a phone, and iPad, a tablet, or computer.

Find out more on the Slate website.

Learn more about Slate:  

A few stunning EXAMPLES
Find more examples at Tweets #madewithSlate https://twitter.com/hashtag/madewithSlate?src=hash 

Slate, is an extremely powerful communication tool — An easy way to share your knowledge and express creativity in visual essays, reports, journal entries, portfolios, book reports, science projects and more.  Ditch that Powerpoint! Through a simple link to the web, you can share your ideas and knowledge with the world.

Slate is free, which is kinda of unusual for Adobe, it makes me wonder if it will eventually be a paid app. So, install it on your iPad now, while it is free. Check Slate out, you will not be disappointed.  

By the way, we will be learning Slate in the DED318 class this semester!!

Tuesday iPad Resource: instaGrok RESEARCH tool

 instGrok

Scour the web with this research engine to look for pedagogically sound digital materials. 

Research any topic with an interactive concept map that you can customize and share.  instaGrok is an interactive research engine, that lets you learn about any topic.  It is free for everyone and works on your computer and iPad. Create an account to customize, save and share concept maps of your research. 

Official Description

instaGrok is an educational (re)search engine that lets students (any anyone else) research any topic in an engaging, visual way. instaGrok finds the best information on the topic and presents it as interactive concept map ("grok"), showing key facts, concepts and relationships, videos, images and more. Users can pin their favorite materials to their grok and take notes in the built-in journals.

Kinda of tough tool to explain, so give it a try. A green button on the top right of the website is a tutorial ...Teacher, Start Tutorial. But, just watch the short demo video below, I believe you will understand how awesome instaGrok is for research!!  Make sure you create a free account so that you can customize, save & share. 

iPad Resource Monday: Quick Key for Formative Assessment


Quick Key is an app that turns your iPhone/iPad into a bubble sheet scanner. Quick Key, the mobile app that puts a digital classroom into the palm of your hand, no network required! Scan paper quizzes, tests, and surveys with your mobile device.

Quick Key  makes it very easy for you to quickly grade multiple choice and true/false quizzes. Basically, create your quiz on the Quick Key website then print and distribute your bubble sheet. After your students have completed the bubble sheet you simply scan the sheets with your iPhone or iPad, (resolution on an iPad is bit grainy) and the grading is wrapped up for you. 

From the app you can send grades to the classes that you have created on the Quick Key website. If you enter students’ email addresses into your class rosters on Quick Key, you can have grades emailed to students.  Teachers are already over worked, most have created many great formative and summative assessments over the years. Quick Key allows teachers to use the assessments that they have already created. Not reinventing the wheel!

So, if you use Formative Assessments & bubble sheets, this may be the solution you have been needing.  I hate to admit it, but I have no idea where a “Scranton Bubble Sheet Reader” is even located.  Quick Key would totally solve that problem, it is in my hand!!


iPad Resource for Tuesday - Zaption

Zaption lets you embed questions within the video

 

Flipping your class and using videos. We all know that it is better to ask questions throughout the text rather than only at the end of the chapter, so asking questions after a topic is covered in the video and not waiting until the end is a better plan as well. Although that’s what we do most of the time because there is not easy way to do to ask question during the video.  

Whoo Hoo….Problem solved with Zaption!  If you want to create your first Zaption and share interactive video lessons, head over to www.zaption.com on your computer. Your students will use the app to access your video creation. This is a new way to do assessment!

Zaption lets you embed questions within the video. Students can't move forward in the video until they can correctly answer the question. 

Whether you’re flipping your classroom or in-flipping, this is a powerful tool.  Go to the Zaption Gallery and check out examples from a huge variety of content areas and grade levels: https://www.zaption.com/gallery 

Official Description: Zaption allows teachers to easily create interactive video lessons by adding images, text, quizzes, and discussions to existing videos from YouTube or Vimeo. These “learning tours” can be shared privately with a simple link, or embedded in any learning management system -- making Zaption perfect for blended learning, flipped classrooms & online classes in K12 as well as Higher Ed and training. Zaption’s Analytics also track all learner activity, so teachers get immediate and actionable data to improve instruction and personalize learning.

Here is a good tutorial by teacher Klista Rader: 

Link to all the tutorials for using Zaption: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoZaption/videos 

iPad App Resource for Wednesday: Mid-week FUN with Bitmoji

Bitmoji

Official Description http://goo.gl/zvGypO

Bitmoji is your own personal emoji – that you can use right from your keyboard!

• Create an expressive cartoon avatar
• Choose from a growing library of moods, stickers and comic scenes - featuring YOU!
• Use it in iMessage, WhatsApp and more

Just download and sign into the app with Facebook  or email– your unique collection of Bitmoji is already waiting for you!

I have to admit, I have reached that point in life where I absolutely hate pictures of myself, clearly I have not embraced the selfie craze.  I saw this on the Today show this morning and on my, what fun it is.  Ok, admittedly I went a little crazy, but the cool thing is I just made my Avatar and there are tons of options and it just puts your Avatar face or whole body into the scene. So I really only made one.

And there are lots of ways to share, iMessage, Mail, FB Messenger, Facebook, twitter, save to your photos, etc.

This would be a great tool to use with kids in the classroom, they could each make their own avatar and use it on their blogs, in projects, anywhere. 

By the way it is an iPhone app, so if you are looking for it in the APP store on your iPad, look for iPhone Apps! http://goo.gl/zvGypO 

Yes, iPhone apps work on iPad too!!

Here is a link to the Today show report: Customize your cartoon avatar with Bitmoji

The app Bitmoji enables you to create a customized avatar, choosing such details as the shape of your nose and eyes, clothing, build, hair, and more. And you can share it with friends. http://www.today.com/video/today/57061878#57061878


Are you stuck & bored in the world of PowerPoint? Try Adobe Voice

Are you stuck & bored in the world of PowerPoint?  

Adobe Voice might just prove to be a good alternative for you and projects by your students.  

Adobe Voice is a recently released education product from Adobe that allows students to narrate a story over an array of digital images. 

It is FREE. And Adobe rarely gives anything away. 

Voice is a free iPad app that helps you create stunning animated videos in minutes. No filming — just talk to tell your story. Pick from over 25,000 beautiful iconic images to show your ideas and Voice automatically adds cinematic motion and a soundtrack. Persuade, inform and inspire anyone online. Make an impact. 

It doesn’t require any video, rather the tool moves images forward in a cinematic fashion. It has gorgeous templates in terms of storytelling and a huge library of copyright friendly music and images. 

While schools often want to teach students about good digital citizenship, including copyright laws, having a pre-reviewed library can be useful for quicker projects. It can be seen on any platform since it is web based.

But have no fear, you can use your own images too!

Voice helps you create stunning animated videos in minutes. No filming — just talk to tell your story. Pick from over 25,000 beautiful iconic images to show your ideas and Voice automatically adds cinematic motion and a soundtrack. Persuade, inform and inspire anyone online. Make an impact.

Tech Edge: iPads in the Classroom Weekly VideoCasts...EXCELLENT

Guy Trainin,  University of Nebraska has been creating a series of Podcasts, 150 episodes so far.  One each week and only about 5 minutes in length.  

Here is the link to the Tech Edge: iPads in the Classroom YouTube channel to find all the episodes.  The most recent is about using Padlet in the Classroom. There is much to learned in only 5 minutes each week, I encourage you to check them out and subscribe.  Also available in iTunes.