New #iear Post - iWriteWords

Check out my new app review on the IEAR website. We love the iWriteWords app for both iPods and iPads. 
Click here to read it!

IEAR Post: My Pictures Talk app

This was originally posted (my first!) at IEAR, a great place to find iOS (iPad, iPod, etc.) apps.

App Title: My Pictures Talk

Grade Level: Any

Purpose: A - Think "Photo Story 3 meets the iOS." A simple to use slideshow creation tool. 

Program Functionality: B+ - I really like how easy it ease to create a new slideshow. It's simple to pull in pics or video synched to your device or use your devices camera (hopefully iPad2's also?) to add. It's also incredibly easy to add text and audio directly on to slides. The only drawback is, once you finish a slide, you are directed back to the slideshow home page to create a new page. I would love to see a "save and make new slide" button. Files are also shared as a zip file, not as a movie.

Overall Educational Value: A - The app bills itself as a "video modeling tool." Our original purpose for this app was exactly that - using it with special education students to work on video modeling. But the app is so flexible, I could see it being used for a LOT of different purposes in the elementary classroom.

Cost: $9.99 ($4.99 if you buy 20 in Apple's VPP)

Classroom Use/Ideas: Again, the flexibility of this tool is amazing and really only limits you to your imagination. Combining real pictures or video with the text and audio can be huge for the special education student needing extra guidance or any student wanting to share what they know. And all of the creation can be done on the iOS device.

iTunes link: My Pictures Talk

Reviewer: Josh Allen

Blog: The Tech Fridge

Moving Mobile: Month 3

You learn very early in your life that January in Nebraska holds many opportunities for snow days! Since coming back from Winter Break, we still haven't had a full week of classes. That can make rescheduling meetings just as long as the meeting would've been.
However, our Special Education staff is continuing to implement their iPads and iPod Touches (previous posts here and here). One thing that we are excited to see is that the search for apps is moving from reinforcement to skill development. Reinforcement is great, and it's a continual part of engaging the students, but the device isn't being fully leveraged if that's the only thing you are using it for. One app that we are very excited about are iWriteWords (there is a free version). iWriteWords lines up fairly well with our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum and "forces" students to practice writing letters correctly before moving on to the next task. 
Our next big step is going to be creating our own videos for students. These videos will be focused on telling a story or cues that a student would normally use paper for (On a somewhat separate thought, we have discussed creating movies to demonstrate math processes...something that could be put on these devices as well). Our February monthly meeting will be a hands on training on using power point slides to create movies. I'm very excited about this because of the customization it will bring to each device for students. I'm hoping that we can jointly create a library of videos for teachers to access both on the device and on their computers. 

Our First Month of Becoming More Mobile

This week we (virtually) brought our SPED teachers back together to see how things are going with their iPads and iPods (read here for the back story). As with anything new, there are still a couple people who haven't coordinated the schedules of students and paras, but the majority of the teachers have taken off. Most of the use we are seeing is for concept reinforcement, which wasn't surprising. One thing that has helped me tremendously is the building visits we've been taking. I've learned a lot more about what teachers (and students) want from the device by being able to watch. And I've tried to take those visits with one of our Inclusion Facilitators. We both are very comfortable with our area of expertise, so it's been a great partnership.

As we told the teachers, we won't know what you want the iPad or iPod to do unless you ask. For example, many of our teachers use Boardmaker to create social stories for our students. One teacher we were with had a large binder with many social stories and other documents. Through their observation, I threw out the suggestion to use Boardmaker to create social stories on PowerPoint slides and export as pictures. We haven't tried it yet, but it's on the table for January. Another idea that one of our inclusion facilitators had was to use Voice Memos to create "switches" (new terminology for me - audio to help students transition to a new activity). Through some brainstorming, we talked about using PowerPoint to create a picture with text or picture examples, narrate over the picture in iMovie, then create a movie that could be on the iPod/iPad. We talk so much about find this app, find that app, but we also need to think about how we can quickly and easily create our own material, especially for these students who have so much individualized for them.

So that's where we are at. We are currently evaluating apps to purchase. We don't want to buy a bunch of apps that do the same thing, but that's easier said then done when teachers all come with their own ideas and backgrounds. We'll meet again in mid-January and keep doing some building visits.

Here's a link to the PowerPoint we used for Adobe Connect that has our questions and free app recommendations on it.

Becoming More Mobile

Next week we will hand out 9 iPads and 8 iPod Touches to some of our district's Special Education staff. The devices were purchased through a grant received by the SPED department. These aren't the first devices of their kind in our district, but they are the first that will be supported with specific training (both face to face and online) and will be exclusively in the hands of students. iPod use has always been sporadic and we've never offered training specific to them. We have only a few iPads in the district, mainly concentrated at one high school with their administrators. We see this group of SPED teachers as our "guinea pigs" in many senses - from the management with students to how Apple's Volume Purchasing Program works. We are very fortunate that they've been able to contain their excitement while the SPED, Curriculum, and Technology departments get their ducks in a row.

We definitely see a future for these devices, and other similar ones, in our district. We feel that devices like the iPad could replace a cart (or two) of laptops in our elementary buildings. Through our lease purchasing process, all elementary computers will be replaced by next fall, so it's been good timing for all of this. We still have lots of questions, but many won't be answered until we start moving forward.

One mistake I've already made (in my opinion), is that our resources are stored on our Intranet. It takes an extra step for us to share with the rest of the world. I'm always more than welcome to share, it just isn't as convenient because you have to ask :)

On our Intranet, we've created a FAQ section (from what the buttons do to purchase process), an editable spreadsheet of all of our purchased apps in the district, and a page with links to a variety of resources.

Here are some links that we are starting our teachers out with (thanks to Richard Byrne for sharing bit.ly bundles yesterday!):

• For both the iPad and iPod Touch
• iPad Resources
• iPod Touch Resources

More on iPods in Education

I've always been a fan of using iPods for educational purposes. I think they have many uses, including a few that I've blogged about in the past. The more advances that Apple makes, the more ways we can use them in the classroom (Could iPod Touches be used as a 1:1 classroom?? Just a(n) (unoriginal) thought). So it always intrigues me when new ideas come about.
The Ed Tech Trek blog put out a post about how they are working on a pilot of iPods in the classroom. While there aren't a lot of specific lessons documented, they have set out a good plan to make the iPods successful.
I'd love to hear how other districts are using iPods to enhance their curriculum!

Flash Cards on iPod

The Tech Fridge spent part of last week in Austin keeping warm at a math conference. Got home just in time for snow and sleet. Lucky me...

Browsing through the Classroom 2.0 forum yesterday, I found this great idea for an additional use for your iPods. Tucker Reeck used his ActivBoard (the Promethean interactive whiteboard) to turn the "flip chart" or pages into flash card jpegs. Then those jpegs can be added to multiple school iPods. They can be a center activity that students do on their own or with a para. Don't have iPods at school? You can also put the jpegs online and have students download them at home. Another great idea to take what you are already doing (flash cards) and use technology to get kids to practice more.

Make sure to check back to the discussion to see what other ideas people come up with.

Yes, You Should iPods in Your Classroom

Like all things technology, the market king known as the iPod is, and should be, making its way into your classroom. Not so that you can download the latest Crash Test Dummies remake of "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm", but to increase student achievement in reading and writing, as well as assisting those students with IEPs.
We all know that iPods are used to listen to audio (ground breaking, I know...next week we'll talk about how the sun rises in the east...stay tuned). How that translates to the classroom is simple. For many years there has been a push to create a more "comfortable" atmosphere in a classroom, including but not limited to playing "soothing" music. Like all things in education, it doesn't work well for all kids. So why not utilize headphones? Do you need an iPod for that? Of course not. But it could be simultaneously used as motivation to write more. "You know, that's a pretty bad writing piece. Do you think it's because the iPod distracted you?"
Apple released a story about 18 months ago about a school in Iowa that made audio recordings of their assessments and had their SPED students listen to that instead of being pulled out of the classroom. Trying it in my own classroom, I found the regular ed students became jealous of the SPED students. SPED students met or exceeded their previous test scores, without having the sometimes-persuasive teacher or para assisting them.
Another common use for the iPod is recording fluency passages. There are a number of different microphone adapters that have been made by third party companies that will allow you to record onto the iPod (search the Apple Store for more information). This also comes in handy if you are doing writing revisions. Students can read their passage into the iPod and revise as they listen to themselves.
In science, which would you rather do? Record observations on a piece of paper or into an iPod? You're more like your students then you thought, huh?
As the iPods become more popular, more uses are being discovered. You can search on the Apple Learning Interchange for more information and ideas.
Also, Apple put out a pdf "white paper" last year with the benefits of using iPods. I used much of the research during presentations.