iPads in Education

"We came across an interesting infographic from edweek which showed that 70% of the top selling educational apps on iTunes are geared towards elementary or pre-school children. It makes an interesting point about app development for middle and high school students. We wonder why is there such a gap between these two markets? "

There are a few important criteria that education technology must satisfy before being used in education. Otherwise, we have a problem.

"The genres of photography, image editing, styling and sharing, being among the most popular on the iOS App Store (after platformers and games in general, of course), are becoming increasingly saturated, which makes it quite hard for both new users and seasoned iPhoneographers to pick out the good ones. Seeing this as another opportunity to help our readers out, we’ve compiled a list of fifteen of the best free apps from the aforementioned genres."

"Going forward again, back to the Food Tech lesson, students were on the PCs and had their iPads as a second screen. On closer inspection, they were using the PC as a second screen to do the research, and the iPad to create the presentation (Explain Everything, Haiku Deck etc...). Interesting, I thought. This is turning that mantra, which at first glance looks like it makes sense, on it's head. I don't even think this is because they still have the novelty aspect of the iPads (they have had them for 6 weeks)."

"If you are a regular reader of teachingwithipad.org, you will know that I rely heavily on cloud storage everyday. Cloud storage is here to stay, and is becoming a integral part of backups and file sharing. Dropbox has been a lifesaver for me for the past four years.

I have spoken with several people who feel that the 2GB that Dropbox offers is not enough. Yes there are ways to use referral to increase your space, but with video and photos it simply is not enough to create a safe online backup of your files.

I wanted to let you know about a brand new cloud service called COPY.COM. Copy is the “easiest way to store, protect, and share” your files."

"It is time, again, to delve into the inner-workings of the iPad. Each week, we give you pointers, tips, and advice for how to do things on your iPad that you may not have known how to do before.

This week, we are going to explain how to get that digital copy of the new movie you just bought onto your iPad for mobile viewing."

"I received an email from an agricultural education colleague in another district inquiring about potential iPad testing apps to to use which also handle scoring. I figured rather than just send her an email, I’d share the three apps I use for assessment purposes with pros and cons of each. All I mention are FREE."

Although the touch-centric UI makes getting to grips with Pages for iOS straightforward, the interface does not appear well-suited to precise positioning of objects, which is necessary in more comp...

"As I wrote in Three Approaches for Getting Content to Elementary Students' iPads - No Email, No Problem http://ow.ly/leG5v ; , a major challenge of working with iPad is actually working with iPad. Unlike a computer, iPad does not function as well in a shared environment because of the challenges of workflow - getting content on and off of the devices. The lack of email, coupled with the Terms of Service that preclude those under the age of 13 from having a cloud storage account, further complicate the problem. In my first post, I outlined three potential approaches for distributing content to students without using email or logins. However the next challenge is to get the work that students create back OFF of iPad. "

These 5 apps are among the less well-known applications to support the flipped classroom model.

"Digital immigrants are still trying to come to grips with all the digital innovations that are unfolding in today's world. And even for those who have succeeded in making the digital transition, they still have an urge for the old days of pen and paper practices. That is probably why even with the prevalence of touch screen devices, some people still prefer to use a stylus when working on their tablets. While stylus does satisfy the craving for holding a pen in your hand, it still does not function as expected."

"By definition, a screencast is a recording of your computer screen accompanied by audio narration.In the past, screencasting tools used to cost a fortune and only tech savvy people were able to use them but thanks to web 2.0 technologies, there are now dozens of easy to use and simple platforms to record your screencast. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already featured several of these tools in previous posts. Today, however, I am going to share with you some of the best iPad apps to create screencasts and tutorials. Check them out below and let us know what you think of them. Enjoy"

"As anyone who has read TUAW over the past few weeks can tell there's no shortage of IPad keyboards on the market these days. All of them tend to use Bluetooth to connect to the iPad, which is fine -- except when you're a school teacher or IT person who needs to figure out which keyboard is paired with a particular iPad. So that students can simply grab a keyboard, plug it in, and start typing away, Logitech has announced the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad (US$59.99, available later this year)."

"Here’s a handy tip for newer iPad users. If you don’t like the default font in the iPad’s built-in Notes app, it’s very easy to change it.

You don’t have a broad range of choices, but there are 3 fonts you can choose to use with the iPad Notes app. Here’s how to select the one you want:"

Social media posts and videos are cropping up in academic publications more and more. This chart shows just how to cite social media with ease.

"Part of the reason I chose this particular school is because they gave out iPads. Not that I needed or wanted another one. But I thought that if the school was progressive enough to provide an iPad they would be using technology in innovative ways, and I wanted to learn more innovative approaches. I was wrong, not much innovation here!"

"There are so many great screencasting apps that I use in my classroom.  Tellagami is a fantastic free iPad app takes it to another level by allowing users to create their own avatars and place themselves anywhere they’d like (I’m “standing” in my classroom now.)"

Pocket and Instapaper are two excellent read-it-later apps / services for the iPad, iOS and beyond. I’ve used both services for years, but for the last year or so I’ve been using Pocket a lot more ...