Feb 7 2012

iPad training course – Twiggy Speaks…

My original view on the iPad honestly was that they were going to be useful but rather more distracting for some students because of the apps available. Four of us now have been using iPads for 2-3 weeks now and I am starting to rethink this distracting and procrastinating issue. In class you do not have a lot of time to mess around as it is and with the help of the iPad I have been able to make notes a lot quicker and I have become more organised as a result as well.

This is also due to the fact of the applications we have installed as a class. The apps that we got were notability, myhomework, good reader, google, keynote, dropbox (at the start). Dropbox is an app that I also downloaded onto my laptop and how it works is that I can put any document into that Dropbox account and I will be able to open it up on my iPad or you can also do it the other way round where the document on your iPad can be put into Dropbox and can be opened up on your laptop.

Good reader is an app that we also linked to Dropbox. It is an app that can automatically refresh any folder that has been linked to it and you will able to see any updates that have been made to the folder. We also linked our google docs account to google reader meaning that we will be able to access any sort of document on google reader and we can also link other people to that folder like and share files and it could be useful for teachers as they can update the folder with files they want their student to have.

The two apps that I like the most are notability and myhomework. With my homework you create a list of us subjects on the side and when you want to add homework, you simply just click on the add sign and all you have to type in is the description and the rest is like a checklist, like due on what date, or what subject. Notability is where I make all my class notes, whether it is typing or writing with a stylus. I can easily change the paper style to lined or square and quickly change the color of the ink. With the help of a stylus, I can easily write as if I was writing on a piece of paper and easily draw diagrams on it. Another thing with notability is that you can also record as you are working, like record the teacher talking. This can be helpful when your making notes and you are not able to keep up with the teacher.

However, before the iPads were introduced to teachers, they were a little skeptical about this pilot program because they were not sure how iPads could be used in a classroom situation without being a distraction. When the teachers finally got their iPads they started to realise the use of the iPads and thought to themselves that iPads can be used in a constructive way. There is a problem to this though, after looking at several teachers I came to the conclusion that it will take some time for some teachers to use iPad in the classroom scenario creatively and effectively cause as of now I feel like teachers are going to be wasting a lot of time trying to figure out on how to use the iPad rather than actually using it. It also goes for some students as well cause they were using the iPad as a five year old would.

Nevertheless So far I have found the use of iPads very useful and they have made me a lot more organised and efficient. So far so good….. 🙂

By twiggy • ipad • Comments Off on iPad training course – Twiggy Speaks…

Jan 30 2012

Ruminations, Codes of Conduct and Training…

Well the iPAD trial is well underway at Egham – and even though not all students have gone 1-to-1 yet the possibilities that the iPAD may has as a productivity and learning tool seem to be beginning to be understood. The initial communications and iPad Letter with Code of Conduct took much longer than expected – but it is interesting to note were received well by both parents and students. We are at the stage of collecting all the permissions back in before we begin the 1-to-1 program apart from four ITGS students who have been trained earlier (and already posting to this weblog) and are helping with all the iPAD training that both students and teachers are receiving. This has been working really well as it is spreading the knowledge and understanding of the workflow necessary.

Most interesting is how essential I have realised this training is for both students and teachers – as otherwise a tool such as the iPAD would not, however usable it may seem, be understood as an educational and productivity tool. Obviously many iPAD programs are realising this issue and a recent article in the Chronical of Higher Education highlights this and many more points to focus on with any iPAD implementation. A great quote from this is the following :- “As one of my students said, “The litmus test is that it has to simplify rather than complicate life.”” – which is something I often forgot when training others. However the article very much resonates with other areas such as the importance of training students, and making sure that the tool is used in the right situations e.g. the right tool for the right job!

Areas we have already concentrated on include the following :-

• Dropbox and Storage
• Notability and notetaking apps and connection to Dropbox
• eClicker and quiz best apps
• App + Pro Flashcards and how students can use their iPAD for revision
• Google Apps account and synchronising a central calendar
• Shortcuts and backchanneling with Todays Meet
• Workflow and the four Finger Swipe
• WordPress and blogging
• Using Diigo and a RSS reader for reading around subjects

Hopefully much much more to come over the coming weeks. Will it be a success or a failure – interesting to know and at this stage I will continue to sit on the fence. But it was very interesting to note a teacher emailing me to suggest one student that has really struggled but suggested – ” The student made very good use of the ipad this afternoon – I set the class a creative writing task, and he really got on with it.” More to follow – but up next will be some more student posts…

By drtech • ipad • Comments Off on Ruminations, Codes of Conduct and Training…

Jan 17 2012

They can give us iPads, but they can never give us….

If when I was five, my teacher came to me and told me that I would be using a magical picture frame in the place of a cluster of papers I would have been confused.

First of all, it’s a magical picture frame, how can you expect to control and trust a five year old with one.

And secondly, what was the problem with paper in the first place?

Anyway, the point still stands, as a theoretical five year old you can imagine my surprise when our ITGS teacher came to us and told that we would be the test group for the iPads…

How can you expect to trust a 16 year old with a magical picture frame?

The problems that could arise in classes are immediately obvious. As a chronically underachieving and easily distracted student, the first thing I expect I will do is, and I’m sure others are with me on this; procrastinate into a dark infinity.

I seem to remember that paper was far easier to use as well, there were not 3 separate passwords that I had to set up and the installation was definitely, overall, far smoother

The results of our test group will be interesting to see, but I will enjoy it until it is inevitably revoked . The idea is at first glance, about as good an idea as kicking an oversized and rather angry vending machine that is having a bad day and is prone to falling over, but that’s fine, I’m sure there is an app for that instead

By klanec • ipad • Comments Off on They can give us iPads, but they can never give us….

Jan 17 2012

iPads Hurray!

Hi there. I’m skysteel from ACS Egham. Last week we started our iPad trial. We set up them and downloaded bunch of note taking apps for our lessons. I’m a IB student so I think that iPad will help me through my subjects. For example, I’m taking economics and in the lessons we have to draw so much graphs and charts. The problem with this is we have to draw them quick but with our iPads we can take a picture of the graphs and the charts and we can insert them into our note taking apps easily. The other thing is sometimes teacher have to explain things very quickly. Again with the help of note taking apps we can record the voice of the teacher and we can listen it at the home and we can take notes too.

An IB student has to be organised. With our iPads we have our school calendar and deadlines in our iPads and our iPads can notify us. Also instead of writing homeworks to our agenda, we can type our homework in to the Reminder and we can add location to it so when we get back home, our iPad can remind us to do our homework.

I think iPads will be very useful to IB students and I think that this project will be very successful.

By skysteel • ipad • Comments Off on iPads Hurray!

Jan 17 2012

iPad Trial – Ready to Go…

iPads are being put on trial here at ACS Egham for the IB students to help improve their organisation and their ability to learn and also help with their time management skills. As a student using iPads, I have already realised that the iPad will be useful as there are a note taking and organising like ICal which our teacher used to sync every single account and now everyone has deadlines for most important subject and of course you can add to it and share that calendar with them.
However, as most people would have thought to themselves that getting an iPad will be a distraction and of course it will be but it will be up to the students to be focused in school and use the iPad appropriately because the iPad is actually very useful and also has a lot of note taking apps and organising apps,

By twiggy • ipad • Comments Off on iPad Trial – Ready to Go…

Jan 17 2012

iPads in school good or bad?

I go to an IB school and we recently have gotten iPads. The iPads are going to help in a big way. It will make its much easier way to take notes. It will also make things easier for us to get out email and organise our notes and assignments. On the other hand it’s a toy and it is easy to get distracted wile using it.
I think I personally will struggle with that but I think I can manage. I take a variety of classes. And this will help in almost all of them. I am a disorganised student. So giving me something that makes it easy to get organised is a good idea. Also it is fun to use. Who doesn’t like being on an iPad (Nick doesn’t count).
A big problem that might happen is that all the student will have one. Students could easily get distracted wile talking to each other in class. And get totally lost by playing video games. In the end I think that the iPads will make a big difference in people school work by keeping then organised.

Cornelius

By cornelius • ipad • Comments Off on iPads in school good or bad?

Jan 14 2012

iPAD App Development – Can a Student Write an App with Little Programming Experience?

So one thing I continue to here is “5 year old creates an iPAD app” when I am searching with Duck Duck Go – however whenever I go to the articles and

Think you need an alternative to Google then DUCK DUCK and GO!

stories I do wonder as it never seems to show how the person created the app. Recent articles include :-

• Ib Student creates an iPAD application an IB Student who has produced an basic text based app to explain some of the parts of the the IB Diploma. It can be downloaded here.
• Three students Art students design Exhibition App although it does seem that a Physics Major helped them a great deal…

So is it that easy – well in truth no. Since my ZX Spectrum programming days things have not really got much easier – however below are a few hints and tips for budding IB students intent on writing an iPAD application.

Android the Alternative

Slightly counter intuitive but I will start by saying that it seems that Programming apps for Android is at the moment simpler and has some really excellent resources. I would recommend anyone goes to Apps for Good and signs up as there tutorials and resources are second to none – and a great and real step by step way to learn how to program Android Apps. However it just so happens Google have closed down the easy to use online App Inventor that all the tutorials are for – and although MIT are taking up the project at this moment in time it has not been fully setup – so I wait with baited breath.

iPAD apps with help from Software

iPHONE/ iPAD Tutorials

There are now a growing number of iPAD tutorials and this is a great time to mention UDEMY – note they have Android tutorials as well including “Write and Publish an Android App” that is free. However UDEMY has a wider variety of iPAD video tutorials some of which you need to pay for but many free like this one. Obviously you can find the usual “Hello World ” text tutorials all over the place.

Programming on the iPAD itself

Recent interesting development in that Apple has finally let an APP allow people to code and program on the iPAD itself. It is called Codea and I have already had a play and it looks like fun. You need to use a Programming language called Lua – which I had not heard of before but is Open Source and has a number of resources to help you out.

So in Conclusion

Is it easy – well as you may have guessed I have not had the time to really explore and from all this initial research I would say no. However I do have a few programming geeks in my IT class – so I believe for their major project they will may want to go down a programming route and maybe the iPAD programming route will be the perfect opportunity. Come back over the next few months to see if it happens!

Related articles

• Should iPads really be used for programming? (thenextweb.com)
• iPad has potential as programming teaching tool, if Apple would let it (gigaom.com)
• Complete iOS App Development Course – Only $79 Instead of $199 (inspiredm.com)

By drtech • ipad • Comments Off on iPAD App Development – Can a Student Write an App with Little Programming Experience?