Thursday, March 31, 2011

GarageBand Gives a Voice!

Today was a great day. A girl in my class who is very dyslexic wrote a fantastic piece of personal writing for me. In 100 words she told me what it was like to have dyslexia. I wrote and helped with two vocabulary suggestions.

Then we went to GarageBand and, with her writing printed in front of her, she recorded herself reading what she had composed. Finally she put an appropriate soundtrack using the smart instruments within the app.

I was stunned.

Observers from a nearby university who were in my class today researching the effect of iPad on learning and motivation were moved. Her mum, who heard the result after school, wept.

I suppose it's in small moment like that, the ones that don't happen often, you get to see a side to technology that is not only exciting, creative, dynamic and current, but makes an appreciable and fundamental difference to someone's life, self esteem and happiness. I don't think she was any less dyslexic after today but just maybe she felt that for once, she had produced a result that she was genuinely proud of and one that allowed her to express the person that truly lives inside.

The piece of writing is below:

100 Word Story

I looked at the pictures.
Characters I loved; Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog.
I looked at the pictures, not the words.
The pictures were exciting but the words, I couldn't read. They were like a puzzle I couldn't crack.
Others raced to characters; Famous Five, Spongebob, Dahl.
Covers so exciting, but when I opened them I felt lost in a forest of twisting words.
They were like the trees of thorns surrounding Sleeping Beauty's castle.
I knew that there was something great in there but I couldn't find my way in.
That's life with dyslexia


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Whiteboard HD


At school right now we are looking at various options for whiteboard apps on iP2.
To begin with we used apps that were really art apps, like the fantastic 'Brushes'. It's a great app but it was never really created to be stuck as a classroom whiteboard tool. Kind of like making Michaelangelo paint the bathroom!
Then we used the equally fantastic Penultimate. A definite step in the right direction. Easy to use and does exactly what it says on the tin. Some limitations as a whiteboard also; although its great for handwritten text, it doesn't allow you to add printed text or graphics and consequently looks quite 'infant' on the big screen, my handwriting doesn't need any help to look infant!
So, today I gave a test run to whiteboard HD, a dedicated whiteboard app with a four star rating on the app store. You can choose your type, write by hand or add text in a very simple way. The app also allows you to add images and shapes, again, very simply and I was really impressed with the look of the whiteboard on screen.
My one gripe was pointed out by Fraser Speirs, my buddy and school IT guru; the app only allows one whiteboard per project wheras Penutlimate allows multiple pages per project which can then be mailed to students, printed etc.
So, no perfect solution, but I think I'm sticking with whiteboard HD until something better turns up!

Monday, March 28, 2011

First Steps in iMovie: iP2

Today I got round to having an initial play with iMovie on iP2. I was in the iT suite in school, which looks strangely empty compared to the days of the iMacs being sited there. I took a brief 360 of the room and dropped it in iMovie for title and audio. Gave me a chance to mess with adding soundtracks, using themes and fades and adding titles. All in all, I think it could be great in the classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA7w-rOLm08


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

GarageBand Band?

Me and Fraser Speirs testing GBand after school.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmPCTPalHso

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

EPubs: New Learning for Me!

What I am learning:
Today I began to look at exporting assessment material for a current Primary 6/7 project as an ePub document. EPub exporting is built into the export options on the desktop version of Pages on the mac. Basically it enables you to publish an electronic book which can then be read on iPhone, iPod iPad etc.
This is great for collating the output of project material in one beautiful looking document which can include text, images and video and loos very professional. All you have to worry about then is whether the text, pictures or videos are any good!
I ran a quick tutorial with one of the boys in my class on how to create an ePub document and he was very competently beginning the collation of a great looking book very quickly.
This will provide a great record of project work and assessment material that can be accessed by interested staff, friends and parents. I think it will take a while to put together as I have so much material but should look great.
The one thing I wish was that there was an easy way to include audio files without having to drop them into iMovie first.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday, March 27, 2011

iThoughtsHD

Prior to the advent of GBand, my favourite app in the classroom was iThoughtsHD. Essentially a tool for mind mapping, this app has so many fantastic applications in the classroom. I've used it with the children in pairs and group exercises, for planning writing pieces and recording responses, for reporting and also as a planning tool with staff in our department. It is a fantastically flexible and varied tool that has good export options and great potential. I'd like to see the option of adding pictures other than the graphics supplied, and the facility to manipulate size and font of text but these would be the icing on what is essentially a very fine cake already.



This is an example of a topic in the process of being planned. The Key challenge or question is at the centre, surrounded by curricular areas, key questions and activities and curriculum experiences and outcomes. I may also add an assessment ring.

When you email a file from the app you get a PDF of your 'map' and a list version which can also be helpful.

A great little app.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

ADE!

Last week whilst on a residential school trip to York I received notification that I had been accepted into the Apple Distinguished Educator Class of 2011. This was along with Fraser Speirs (no surprise there!) and Jenny Oakley, our superb art teacher.
This is a great honour personally and for us to have three acceptances from the school is really great for us.
What it really means practically I can't wait to discover.
I include my application video below, it also gives some footage of the iPad band that i mentioned earlier. I just can't believe I spent all that money on instrument apps that have been, in the main, bettered by the arrival of GarageBand.

iPad 2 - Another Revolution for the Classroom?

Having received my iPad 2 unexpectedly on launch day UK, are we gearing up for another massive change for the classroom? Well, in the time honoured conclusion for all school discursive essays, yes... and no.

With iPad 1our classroom practice and the opportunities for learning were transformed by some fundamentally significant factors; we now had 1:1 Internet access for every pupil all the time. Each and every pupil had amazing new options for output with Pages, Keynote, iThoughts, Brushes etc sitting expectantly on the desk in front of them all the time. These were factors which opened the possibility of a truly transformational change in the classroom.

Now, with the advent of 2, these are already established and, whilst they will run significantly faster, the revolution in this sense has already happened.

So what may change?

Faster is a big deal, especially when using apps like GarageBand which is already a massive hit in my classroom. The cameras will be interesting when the children finally get iPads with them on, I can picture a trip to an art gallery with a class creating their own MoodBoard, Collage or blog as they go round snapping pictures with the iPad. Interesting and significant possibilities begin to open. Finally with iMovie: I think this may be a killer classroom feature for me. Peer assessment, self assessment, output for creativity in language, music and across the curriculum. I can see myself making great use of iMovie when the children have in their hands such a powerful tool.

So, changes? Yes. Revolution? No. Apple have given us a beautiful and powerful successor to the device that has already made historical records and changed so many aspects of educational life.

I sold my old one to a local restaurant. I hope they look after her.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, March 25, 2011

The iPad 2



Today sees the UK launch of iPad 2, the much-anticipated successor to the original iPad. Ipad has changed our lives in so many ways. I often say to visitors to our school that even after owning the iPad over the summer holidays, I was so unprepared for the revolution that it would bring to teaching and learning in the classroom.

What will be significant about iPad 2?

Already Garageband has become my number 1 favourite app on iPad in the few short weeks it has been available and I've found some fantastic uses for it in the classroom, recording poems as raps, adding soundtracks to language work, creating sound poems and pictures and recording songs in music. On iPad 2 I hope it may run even more sweetly and I may not have the 'optimizing performance' message so frequently.

The major 'can't wait' however is iMovie for iPad. Already in school we use imovie a lot, recording assessments across the curriculum, examples of work for blogs and website as well as specific animation and movie projects. Having imovie on iPad 1:1 in the class would be an open door to so many possibilities.

So am I going to the queue?

No. I'm teaching today and couldn't make the store before 4.30. At that time I doubt there'd be any point in going. One thing is for sure however.

I'm looking forward to getting hold of one soon!