Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Learning with iPad #msmeca11

These are my notes from the afternoon session, “Learning with iPad” at the 2011 Mississippi Educational Computing Association annual conference in Jackson on February 7th. This session was presented by Neil Hitchcock. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. KEEP IN MIND VOLUME PRICING FOR SOME APPS IS AVAILABLE, THE PRICES I LISTED NEXT TO APP NAMES / LINKS ARE THE STANDARD / CONSUMER PRICES. I DID ROUND UP. 🙂

This session will be a high level overview of using the iPad in Education, Learning with the iPad

Starting with something obvious, but it’s important to discuss
– Why are we spending money on technology for students?
– We’ve been doing research on technology in education since the 1980s at Apple
– we’ve learned students who are engaged are learning leaps and bounds ahead of others
— retention of content, internalization
— important to involve students in the learning, not just spoon-feed content
— in line with ISTE NETS
— lots of power in a collaborative learning environment
— giving students the ability to leverage their innate creativity, their own genius
— letting students build and create: technology is a great facilitator of this

Tech must be easy to use, easy to access, needs to give students access to the world of information (all those encyclopedias)
– giving students a picture of the world
– tools to create

iPad is an excellent device for this and unique to address student needs
– iPad has been out less than a year
– we have stories now of kids who didn’t like science, and now love science thanks to their use of iPad apps

[NOW SHOWING APPLE IPAD ADVERTISEMENT “THE IPAD HAS ALL THE WORLD’S LEARNING IN IT” (5 min, 50 seconds, video is linked on www.apple.com/education/ipad, not embeddable or directly linkable, however)
– video is a series of case study stories in K-12 and higher education
“The iPad has changed the way our faculty look at learning and they way they transmit knowledge.” – Seaton Hall

Overview of today’s
iPad Basics
Accessibility Features
Apps
Resources
Q&A

The iPhone is the first smartphone a blind person can fully navigate
– YEAH! THIS REMINDS ME OF ALAN KAY’S PRESO AT

iPad Basics
– headphone jack
– microphone (side by side)
– power / sleep / wake
– mute
– volume up/down
– home putton
– 30 pin connector
– speaker

Screen is multi-touch, you can use all 10 fingers to play the piano
– also responds to multi-touch gestueres

Can turn voice-over on in system preferences
– need to learn 2 and 3 finger swipes
– can read webpages, email, etc.
– reaches all learners
– close captioning
– zooming features

Discovery Education has a great collection of HTML5 videos you can access via their website

We have a separate session on iTunesU: Some universities are posting entire libraries of content, all the courses they offer
– open courseware
– are also “beyond” college and university content, other organizations offering educational content

Now looking at iTunes on the Mac desktop
– showing “The Heart of Happy Hollow” from the Univ of South Florida on iTunesU (part of the Lit2Go collection)

Now looking at iBooks and Apps Store
– there are over 350,000 apps
– Apps are available through the iTunes Store

Now looking at The Elements for iPad and iPhone ($14)

The Elements on iPad

“look at how rich this content is”
– app integrates into Wolfram Alpha website to pull live web content

In April 2010 a new element was added to the periodic table
– imagine all those schools with old periodic tables

This is more engaging than just staring at the periodic table
– “my son used some of his allowance to buy this app”

There are several free periodic table apps that are free
– some show as you change temperature, how the states of different elements change (dynamically)

I WONDER WHAT APP THAT IS? I JUST NOTICED NOW ON THE IPAD YOU CAN FILTER BY LOTS OF DIFFERENT THINGS IN THE SEARCH INTERFACE, INCLUDING PRICE…. SO HERE ARE THE FREE IPAD APPS FOR “PERIODIC TABLE!” COOL!

Free iOS Periodic Table Apps (Feb 2011)

More science apps…

StarWalk Astronomy App ($3)
– it takes care of location information and knows where you are

Remember when you get these devices in the classroom, it’s not about YOU (as the teacher) just showing this content to students… It’s about them being hands-on with the iPads.

AMEN. VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER! INTERESTING TO WATCH PARTICIPANTS HERE RESPONDING TO THESE APPS WITH AMAZING, GRAPHICALLY-APPEALING CONTENT. I SHOULD COUNT HOW MANY TIMES THE WORD ‘AMAZING’ HAS BEEN AND IS BEING SAID…

Now showing the Wolfram Alpha app

Wolfram Alpha on iPad

INTERESTING SIDEBAR (MY COMMENT, NOT IN THE PRESO)… WHEN THIS APP WAS RELEASED IT WAS INITIALLY $50, NOW IT’S $2!

Now showing “Space Time” app for iPad ($20)

SpaceTime for iPad

Now switching to elementary math apps: Time, Money & Fractions On-Track ($10)

Math Bingo ($1)
– K-5 math app

THIS NOW REMINDS ME OF MATH BLASTER…

Now showing MultDiv?

Showing Pearson GrammarPrep ($4)

MY COMMENT: I’M DREAMING OF FREE APPS LIKE AUDIOBOO, CINCH, IPADIO, ETC. AT THIS POINT IN THE PRESO…. (NO FOCUS YET ON CONTENT CREATION) ALL APPS SHOWN UP TO THIS POINT HAVE BEEN COMMERCIAL, NO FREE APPS HAVE BEEN SHOWN / DEMOED LIVE.

Showing iSentence – Sentence Builder ($4)

Now switching to book apps

Milly Molly and the Bike Ride ($5)
– students can switch to different languages
– students can record themselves reading this book, and they can play back their narration (MY COMMENT: THAT IS A GREAT FEATURE! REMINDS MOE OF STORYKIT – FREE)

Milly Molly and the Bike Ride

THIS REMINDS ME OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DIGITAL LIBRARY, IT HAS A FREE iPad APP TOO AND SUPPORTS MULTIPLE LANGUAGES

Now showing Taoki et compagnie (a French app)
– another app that shows numbers in seven different languages

Now moving out of grammar apps, and into “wet lab” apps

Frog Dissection ($4)

The quality of these is incredible, we are seeing medical schools providing students with all their anatomy and physiology apps, pharmaceutical guides, more…

Some apps let you build flashcards and share them with your classmates

Some book apps let you buy just specific chapters (INTERESTING: I WONDER IF FLAT WORLD KNOWLEDGE HAS IOS APPS?)

developer.apple.com will let you download the app development tools
– download for free, it just costs money if you want to publish to the iTunes store

Mississippi State has been teaching App development for 3-4 students
– they can’t open enough of those class sections

I WONDER WHAT THE NAME OF THAT PROFESSOR IS?

Story of a friend’s son who wrote an app for a physics calculator and made $8000 in a summer instead of working a ‘normal’ summer job

I WONDER WHAT THE NAME OF THAT STUDENT IS, AND THE NAME OF HIS APP? ARE THERE LINKS TO ARTICLES DETAILING THIS STORY?

Dashcode is available free to optimize websites for mobile

iOS Configuration Utility is also free
– fees just kick in when you want to start selling something on the store

Now shifting to Note Taking
– showing default Notes app, with built-in spell check

showing Penultimate app ($1) for iPad

I HOPE HE SHOWS EVERNOTE – THAT’S THE FREE APP THAT’S CHANGED MY LEARNING IN BIG WAYS IN THE PAST YEAR!

Showing LiveNotes($6)
– record the class and take notes

Noteability
– record with built-in mic

There are lot of things you can do with these apps besides access the web

Now moving to iBooks
– there are lots of apps for Social Studies you can use

Encyclopedia Britannica has created Ancient Egypt ($5)
– LOOKS LIKE A NEED INTERFACE…. I THINK THE KEY IS PROVIDING TOOLS WHICH LET STUDENTS CREATE THEIR OWN APPS AND APP INTERFACES FOR THEIR REPORTS / PROJECTS. PAGES DOES LET PEOPLE CREATE EBOOKS THAT CAN INCLUDE RICH MEDIA.

Some of these apps are really high bandwidth

THAT IS SOMETHING IT WOULD BE GOOD TO MEASURE… SCHOOLS DEFINITELY NEED WAYS TO MONITOR AND MANAGE THEIR BANDWIDTH TO THE COMMODITY INTERNET

This Day in History ($1) published by WorldBook
– SO MY QUESTION IS, WHY DON’T WE JUST ACCESS A FREE, HTML5-COMPLIANT VERSION OF THIS CONTENT ON THE WEB INSTEAD OF BUYING AN APP TO DO THIS? (IN THIS SPECIFIC CASE)

Shakespeare in Bits ($15)
– does so much with Romeo and Juliet
– showing the characters and the relationship map between them
– I LIKE HOW THIS APP INCLUDES DIFFERENT KINDS OF RICH MEDIA, REALLY FUN TO THINK ABOUT USING THIS APP TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE!

Shakespeare in Bits: Romeo and Juliet iPad Edition

“I think it is the case you can still read books from Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the iPad”
– MY COMMENT: GIVEN RECENT RUMORS, THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT STATEMENT

Now showing iBooks
– in “The Essential Drucker” ($13)
– showing how you can make highlights and notes in an eBook in iBooks

I ASKED IF THERE IS A WAY TO TAKE THE NOTES YOU’VE MADE OFF THE IPAD, LIKE THE KINDLE APP DOES, AND THE ANSWER IS YES! WHEN VIEWING YOUR NOTES YOU CAN CLICK THE EXPORT BUTTON IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER AND CHOOSE EMAIL OR PRINT. THIS WOULD BE GREAT TO USE WITH A POSTEROUS BLOG, SO STUDENTS TO WEB-PUBLISH THEIR NOTES READILY.

Email Notes from iBooks

Now mentioning Project Gutenberg (YES!)

iPad User Guide is a free download in iBooks and very helpful

Papers ($15) is helpful app, aggregated Google Scholar, NASA, and other research publications / sources
– lets you

Papers for iPad

Now a few content creation apps (these are going to all be Apple apps)

Keynote ($10) for student presentations

Pages

A CLOSING THOUGHT FROM ME: I WAS GLAD TO LEARN ABOUT SOME NEW APPS IN THIS SESSION. IT WAS INTERESTING TO SEE THE ORDER IN WHICH THESE APPS WERE PRESENTED AND THE APPS SELECTED: DEFINITELY THE HIGHEST – “WOW FACTOR” MULTIMEDIA APPS FIRST! I WISHED THERE WAS MORE A MENTION / DEMO OF FREE APPS, BESIDES PROJECT GUTENBERG… BUT AS A VENDOR PRESO I UNDERSTAND… THIS MAY IDENTIFY A NICHE NEED AND OPPORTUNITY AT CONFERENCES LIKE THIS, TO HAVE EDUCATORS (NON-VENDORS) HIGHLIGHT FREE APPS IN SPECIFIC CONTENT AREAS.

Extras: After the session I asked Neil about his favorite audio recording apps. Without hesitation he said iRig! It supports an external mic! The app Amplitude comes in five versions, but it looks like you want the hardware too: iPhone Free, iPhone LE, iPhone, iPad Free, iPad

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One response to “Learning with iPad #msmeca11”

  1. Lori Carter Avatar
    Lori Carter

    OHhhhh I want one! Thanks for the great summary.