Once again what I am learning is spilling over to other places....

Today I found myself working with my OSTA committee discussing how we wanted to redesign the website in order to attract more members as well as provide more benefits to the members.  Although only four of us were present we got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time over Skype!

As always, I found myself well versed in not only using collaborative tools with my colleagues live, but also problem solving the basic technical issues and proposing a technology component to our website and future conference presentations--i.e. back channeling, google doc for notes, etc....  (A lot of this idea is modeled after what Silvia Rosenthal (Langwitches) did at ITSC!)  As more and more schools continue to add technology into the classroom it is going to be important that we begin to share how these new tools can be used effectively while also enhancing the curriculum.  This leads very nicely into the STEM initiative taking place in education and hopefully will lead to more grants this coming school year!

Unfortunately, I still am not seeing a lot of scientific examples as to how to use the iPad in the classroom.  Of course basic formal and informal assessment, research, presentation capabilities, camera/camcorder capabilities (although not great on iPad 2) and study devices are all there...but how do we use it otherwise? Or is this enough?  I am not sure I can justify that knowing that there are web based tools that do all the same things.  Is the difference that these tools are 1:1 all the time?  Does this make the classroom more efficient?  Are students really more engaged and willing to complete some of the more traditional assignments?  I think at our showcase the teachers will address this issue.

Still waiting to see the outline...hint, hint;)

Music Time Machine

I love these time machines...right now the Music and Political Time Machines are FREE!  I would love to also get the Video Time Machine.  Right now I am playing with the Music Time Machine.  Here you can choose years in music from 1945 through 2012 and either the U.S. or U.K. charts.  Once you have selected these two variables you then click on "Who was number one?".  It will pull up who was number one and many additional tools:  biography, photo gallery, discography, top tracks, and videos.  Under Bio you get information and links.  When I did 1945 I came up with the Andrews Sisters--song--Rhum and Coca-Cola.  Under Bio you get a Wikipedia link.  Under photo gallery you get several images of the singers, cover albums, etc...  Discography is very interesting--you get all the album covers and then can go into them and listen to snip-its of the songs on each album.  This would make a great history lesson--not only could you study the album covers but also the songs and how they are influenced by the history at the time.  It would be interesting to have students take a different year, research the history of the time and explain how the two effected each other!  I can see this as a very powerful tool during war times!  The music is very representative of the political happenings of the time.  I should note that the videos really aren't videos--at least not the four I have tried so far.  Other issues I have include that the app runs very slow and is frustrating at this point--I probably wouldn't try to run it with students yet....  But I love the idea and history link possibilities!

21 Signs You're a 21st Century Teacher

I love waking up and reading inspirational and thought provoking blogs!  What a great way to start my day--thinking the technology and educational way!  So, today the first email I read is one from the Simple K12 blog titled, "  21 Signs You're a 21st Century Teacher.  Here there are:

1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interview they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia or other countries.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.
6. You prepare substitutes with details directions...via podcasts.
7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person study...and the create mock social media profiles of their characters.
8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group wiki.
9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the globe.
10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because their are so many free resources on the web you can use.
11. You realize that importance of professional development...and you read blogs, join online communities and tweet for self development.
12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of China...and never leave your classroom.
13. You students share stories of their summer vacation...through an  online photo repository.
14. You visit the Louvre with your students ...and don't spend a dime.
15. You teach your student not to be bullies or cyber-bullies.
16. You make your students students turn in their cell phones before class starts... because you plan on using them in class.
17. You require your student to summarize a recent chapter...and submit it to you via a text message.
18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.
19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.
20. You are reading this.
21. You tweet this page, blog about it, "like" it, or email it to someone else.

Ok, here is the list and although I agree with most of them I think there are many more that can be added as well as made better.  As I read through this list I had many thoughts that I wanted to post.  Let me take them one at a time and discuss my thoughts.

1. Instantly here I thought about the multimedia projects that Gail has been doing with her students.  As I think about the resources the students have been using they have been the traditional resources although most of them have been located on the web.  After thinking about this for a while I have to admit that I have never looked at blogs, podcasts, or interviews as a possible resource for research...let along cite them!  I don't even know if how to search for such resources to be honest.  Perhaps Google searching for "podcasts on Albert Einstein" would bring some up.  I will have to give this a try.  My question would then be...are these credible resources?  I also got to thinking about the apps Joe showed me the other day...Time machine and Political machine might be interesting resources for some people.  For example, there was a video of Annie Oakly doing target practice...seems to be rare footage!  How cool would that be to include in a research report?!?!  At PRHS the students look at propaganda during WWII and then create their own propaganda pictures based around a theme or idea.  I loved that on the Time Machine app you can select the years you want and one of the categories for film clips was ADS!  How cool would it be to study ads over the last 150 years (yes the machine actually goes back into the 1800's) through this app and then begin creating ones for this age? I think that the projects the students turn out after developing this background knowledge would be much stronger and more effective than the current way they are developed.  I feel like a lot of times in education we just glaze over topics, spit out a project and move on.  I think back to my first years of teaching and how powerful it was to use discovery teaching methods with my students...yes we only covered two and a half units the whole year...but my students learned much more than that and say the relationship between the units much more than probably any of my students after that.  I think there is a lot to learn and it would be nice if some of my local teachers were willing to begin the process of moving into the 21st century.  SO, what does that mean for me...?  As one job comes to a close...now what?  How do I take this information out and share what I have learned?  That will have to be debated in another blog post.

Ok, looking at this lengthy response tells me that I might want to break these replies up into separate posts.  Some I have more to say than others, but I will spare you the extra reading here.  Look for additional post around these subjects!  I am off to work out!

Busy Bee!

Today was a very busy day.  I finally completed getting all the 5th, 7th, and 8th grades hooked up to "Find my iPad".  That is easy, but still takes some time.  In addition, I managed to get all the student videos from Gail's Youtube channel onto a working pages document that contains all the URL's for the videos.  She can then attach them where she wants.  We didn't make the videos public but rather Unscribed so that we could share them with more than 50 people (this is the limit if Private).  Gail wanted to be able to send these URL's to her students so they could view each others.  Today's process went much easier once I figured out that "Command C" copies and "Command V" pastes! "Command T" adds a new Tab on the Mac when using the internet!  Very helpful!

Fluency app

One of the things the first grade teacher is doing has to do with an app called "Fluency". At the last iDevice cadre meeting Gail and I were talking about this and when Heidi came over Gail got very excited about the same app and discussion ensued.  Next thing I know, Gail is wanting to get it purchased and put it on the iPad.  She had me test it out on her iPad after setting up a new Dropbox account--by the way how many new accounts and passwords are we going to get this year?  Crazy!

I find it interesting that my influence as a by product of Weston's grant has now come full circle! Let me explain....

As the OSTA region 5 representative it is my duty to not only make contact with other teachers, but also to continue to promote continued growth professionally and in the field of science. This has been greatly enhanced by both partaking in regional technology cadres as well as the many other technology cadres as the result of my acceptance of the TOSA position for Weston Middle School. This year I decided to see if there were any teachers in the Rock interested in coming to the regional technology cadre. One teacher in particular that I had hoped to bring in was the kindergarden teacher who just got a promethean board from the PRES PTC (OK, I had spear headed this after she approached me at the end of last school year).

Since this was a suggested requirement of getting the board I formally invited her to join us (after getting Joe's permission). She was excited and ready to learn. Later this year Quest sent out a grant opportunity for these regional members. Quickly I asked the kindergarten teacher if she was interested in putting something together. The short deadline resulted in a exspidited visit to observe Echo teachers using iTouches in the elementary classroom--this had been a plan for a while. Long story short, the K,1,2 teachers now have 8 iTouches in their classrooms and are doing amazing things.


So, Today I am here setting up this app for Gail. Here are some things to keep in mind as setting this up:

• Make sure have a Dropbox account and create a folder called Scripts.
• All word documents must have the ending .txt and should be saved in scripts folder in Dropbox.
• Plain text = .txt!  Duh!
• When you turn a pages document into plain text the apostrophes don't carry over.  (Am looking into how to fix this.)

Final note, once done it works fabulous and after talking to Michael (the designer) found out that he is working on an update which will include allowing teachers to set the time rather than students!  That will make Gail happy!  Glad I asked.

Need a laugh?

Here are some Funnies for the day!  Enjoy!!!

Taken from Simple K12 blog (see funnies link):

They're silly, they're fun, and they're safe to use around students.  Enjoy!

1. When a teacher asked the six year old student why his handwriting wasn’t as neat as usual, he responded, “I’m trying a new font.”
2. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.  He acquired his size from eating too much pi.
3. How was the Roman Empire cut in half? With a pair of Caesars.
4. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
5. Albert Einstein's Mother: But it's your senior picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse, something...?
6. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
7. There are 10 kinds of mathematicians. Those who can think binarily and those who can't.
8. A neutron walked into a bar and asked, "How much for a drink?" The bartender replied, "For you, no charge."
9. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
10. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
11. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
12. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
13. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
14. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
15. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.  No pun in ten did.
16. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
17. Pi to i: "Get real!"  i to Pi : "Get rational!"
18. Physics quote of the day: Anything that doesn't matter has no mass.
19. Why were the early days of history called the dark ages? Because there were so many knights.

Are you running out of storage space yet?

If you aren't maxing out your iPad 2's storage space yet...it sounds like you will be shortly as more and more apps continue to update in order to meet the new retinal display for the iPad 3.  


After reading this article from MacWorld, I can see why I had to go in and delete a lot of apps, photos, and movies from my iPad.  I wanted to sync my music library as well and realized that I didn't have any room.  


Why, just with the last update to IOS5.1 the file size for Pages, iMovie and Keynote alone have sky rocketed.    Keynote went from 115MB to 327MB; Numbers increased from 109MB to 283MB, and Pages went from 95MB to 269MB. With the exception of iMovie (which also added in new support for iMovie Trailers as it ballooned from 70MB to 404MB), these apps increased their file sizes by a factor between 2.5 and 3. (iMovie is nearly six times larger than before.)


So has anyone checked out their storage space lately?  I probably should have done that this last week and maybe I will try to look at it this week when I am in Weston.  It seems that many of these ideas for upgrades have been very well thought out--meaning Apple is forcing us to upgrade and spend more whether we want to or not.  IF you want to use the new stuff you have to upgrade.  The sad thing is that our poor little iPad 2's are storing lots of graphic files and such that they can't use--can we say wasted space?


Anyway, we may need to ask students to clean up their photos and movies as well as ask teachers to clear off apps they don't use.  I don't know if these small fixes will solve the space issue but we definitely need to be thinking about how we will address this issue.  In the big picture of things...I think it is good that we are going to just wipe the pad clean for next year!  I don't think these devices have enough memory to follow a student all the way through from 5th grade to 8th grade!  And I think considering an outside storage space for student work is something we need to be considering!

15 ideas on how to use blogging in the classroom!

Check out this blog post by Simple K12 and here are my favorite that I think I can use in my own future classroom:

1.  Meet the Author 
When reading a work written by a contemporary author, invite the writer to interact with your students using a blog. Ask students to brainstorm and post questions and comments about the text for the author to respond to. Depending on interest and the author's availability, this can range from a one-time week-long Q&A to an activity that extends throughout the time you're reading the text in class. 

2.  Blog-Pals 
Enlist a teacher at another school who is willing to have students blog with your class. Identify an instructional unit or activity you'll be teaching at the same time such as a weather study or reading a specific book. Take turns posting activities that students from both classes respond to online. Encourage students to comment on posts from other students.


3.  Collaborate to Create an Online Study Guide (maybe a way to use Edmodo)
Students can work collaboratively to build an online study guide using a group dialectical blog journal. Frequent posts to the blog build documentation that serves as a reference when it's time to prepare for a quiz or exam. As you cover material, post prompts that ask students to explore important concepts. Then redirect students to earlier prompts and group comments when it's time to review material.

4.  Create a Blog Tutorial

Challenge your students to write, record, and post an online tutorial explaining to their parents how to use the blog. Use free tools such as Wink (www.debugmode.com/wink/) or VoiceThread.com to create the tutorial.  (Another idea is to assign one student per week to summarize what is happening in class for parents to listen to--see #6.)

5.  Conduct an Online Survey

The next time you need to survey parents, use a free online survey such as SurveyMonkey.com or Polls (zoho.com) to create the survey and link it to your blog. This encourages parents to visit the blog and allows you to collect, tabulate, and report survey results online.

6. Collaborate to Create a Classroom News Blog
Create a blog for communicating general classroom news. Work with students to identify the kinds of information they'd like to share with parents, then engage them in writing and posting daily or weekly news updates.

7.  Create a Blog for Problem Solving 
Assess and monitor your upper elementary students' problem-solving skills using a special blog you create for this purpose. Post a weekly challenge, like a riddle or brainteaser, that requires your students to think creatively in order to find a solution. Ask students to post their solutions on the blog, then discuss the solutions with the whole class at the end of the week. Each week's post and comments will be saved in the blog archive for later reference. Expand this activity by inviting students to find and share challenges with the rest of the class. This special purpose blog can be linked to your general classroom blog for easy access.

8.  Illustrate an Activity
Parents of younger children are often at a loss at how to help their child with hands-on projects or activities. Use a blog to post written directions and illustrations parents can use as a guide. For example, folding an origami bat is easy--if you know the steps. Take and post digital photos that show how to fold a bat. When it's time to complete the assignment, send home the paper to fold and the Web address for the directions you've posted on the blog. Encourage parents and students to post questions or comments as they work at home.

What other ways have you used blogs?  Looking through this list it seems like a lot of these same ideas could be used in things like Edmodo, My Big Campus and Collaborize Classroom.  Either way I like the ideas!

iMovie videos too long?

So, while working in Terrie's room we discovered that if a student's iMovie video is too long the iPad won't allow you to email it out to the teacher from the camera roll.  However, as I continued thinking over the weekend I began looking at some of the other exporting methods that are available--YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, CNNiReport, iTunes.  Initially I thought to use YouTube to export these larger files and it does work, but got to wondering if just using the iTunes account for each MAC would be better.  Since  I can't get to an iTunes account here right now I went ahead and tried YouTube!  This worked great since Google ownes YouTube!  Here is what I hate about this though...it seems like we are making a ton of dummy gmail accounts and keeping them all straight is a royal pain.  Maybe it wouldn't be if it was just you and your class....  Anyway...here it goes....

Here is what I did:
1. On the computer I created a dummy gmail account for the science teacher
2.  Then created a channel to upload the videos to
3.  Next, on the iPad I high-lighted the video I wanted to send and selected "YouTube" from the sharing options.
4.  Then at the top I hit share and away it went.
5.  Back on the computer in my "channel" I found my video.

Ok, from there it looks like you can edit, email, tweet, facebook or google+ it!  I think Terrie can then email them all to herself and get them all compiled on the MAC like she wants!  Later I will investigate the iTunes version.  I imagine it will work much the same way!

Digital Journals

As part of my masters program I formulated the idea I wanted to pursue for my doctorate degree...using science notebooks to improve science literacy in the elementary classroom!  Now, that I have been involved in this iPad 2 project I am starting to realize that it seems unrealistic for me to ask my students to use paper and pencil journals for this component.  This issue was also brought up by Gail the other day as she mentioned one possible alternative for her English notebooks--iDiary.

I took a look at this app today and found it very nice.  The full version offers much more than the free version and I can see this replacing the journals for warm-ups very easily.  Perhaps the best feature is that you can email your teacher the warm-ups for evaluating/assessing/informing/etc!  Love it! It worked like a charm---I emailed myself a page from my mock journal and it looked great on my PC!

The only problem I see right now for science is the fact that you can't include charts and graphs unless you manually create them.  And without a stylus this is difficult to make it look nice.  Draw Pad has a variety of papers such as blank, small graph, and large graph; however, once again a stylus is a must.  I also dislike that the writing tool doesn't go very thick.  I tried to graph something like F(x)= 2/3x + 4 and found that the dots were too small and I had to virtually draw a small circle.  It would be nice to find an app that does what both of these apps together!

Another app I looked at was iJournal--for some reason I deleted it...apparently I decided it wasn't very useful.

I will keep looking.

Twitter--to be or not to be?

Coming back from the ITSC conference has really prompted me to look at whether social networking sites are really appropriate in the classroom.  Things like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc....  My gut response is "YES"!   But, how?  As with every app I find and every idea I concoct I want to know what are the educational standards supported by this application and how can it be implemented appropriately?  I keep hearing this saying that we are asking our students to power down, and in some schools like ours "power off" as they walk into school.  Since technology is so much a part of their lives this seems so silly for us "old-timers" to aspect.  It is no wonder many of our students fail to see adults as able to relate to them.  We really have grown up in two different worlds--although the stories are the same--the scenes are more futuristic!  Does that make since?

Here is a collection of posts that I found thought provoking.  I will continue to add to it as I find more!

http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2011/06/skype-and-twitter-in-classroom.html

Science and iPads

Leah Lacrosse is one of the blogs are regularly read!  She seems to have a passion for science and is wonderful about posting lesson ideas and reflections.  Here are some topics I found promising:

Biomes
http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2011/11/to-view-video-of-this.html - research project; biomes;


Electricity
http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2012/02/keynote-socrative-simple-circuit-app.html

Hydraulics
http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

Solar System
http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-postcards-in-science.html --planets; research

http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2011/12/can-science-be-any-cooler.html - meterorites

possible unit-use poplet to create the unit web-https://picasaweb.google.com/112726160672375154544/ConversationsLearningAndGrowing?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWi6dXMz-DggwE#5694737628119079762

Physical Education
http://leahlacrosse.blogspot.com/2012/01/ipads-in-gym-seriously.html

Mental Case (Flashcards) for Vocabulary development

Taken from this original post by Leah Lacrosse:  


"So, that is where Mental Case (full version $4.99--five stars) makes it a pretty cool process. Unlike other apps that I've tested with students, Mental Case is a kid-tested, teacher approved method of developing vocabulary awareness. :)

Here's why:
*Students can easily create the flashcards. Give them some free explore time, and they are good to go! Seriously, very easy to pick up!

*Picture integration- You can use your pics from the iPad camera, internet, or (best) student created in a drawing app. The pictures are great triggers for understanding the word/definition.

*Voice integration- You can have students record their own voices for the word and definitions. They learn to stress key words, and later they hear THEIR voice. Cool, and fundamentally sound for all students...but, especially a struggling reader.




*Transfer- You can make a set and share to multiple iPads (if you want) via iTunes, syncing w/Mac, Bluetooth, or email. I like having students personalize the sets per iPad (easier and more beneficial, I think).


*Organize- You can create sets based on concepts and help students see connections in words/definitions.


Great app!"


Another one that is similar is Study Blue (Free--five stars)!  After reading through the replies to this original post  it was advised that when you find a couple apps that do basically the same thing...give both to kids have them try them both and determine which one works best for them.  The author noted that she gave Educreations and ShowMe to her students and found they preferred ShowMe--not that other groups wouldn't find the opposite!  Just food for thought.


Check it out! 

Cropping pictures/screenshots

Last Friday I noticed that several students were having issues cropping their screenshots for use in their animal projects.  Gail also posted about this issue and a possible solution.  Although the kids found a way around this I have run across a much more effective approach--SKITCH!  If you don't have it on your pad you must download it today!  It has many other great applications and tools, but the cropping tool is the best I have found for free to date!  I actually wasn't working on this when I ran across it...but it works wonders.  In skitch you can select a photo from the camera roll (perhaps your animal screenshot), a screenshot of an internet page while actually on it, or a live photo.  Once you select your photo there is a cropping tool on the left hand side (4th up from the bottom).  Crop as desired, hit the box with the arrow and then the option furthest to the right (picture with arrow going in), and walla...the new cropped picture is in your camera roll.

Moving videos from Youtube to iPad2

Procedure:

1.  In Youtube locate a video that is appropriate for school use.

2.  Click on “share” below the video frame.  Copy the URL from the box below video frame.

3.  Now open up KeepVid.  There is an address bar at the top that asks you to insert a URL.  This is where you will “paste” the URL you copied from your email in order to convert it to a file format that is compatible with the iPad2.  Once inserted click on the blue “download” button to the right. 

4.  Once downloaded, under the green bar that says “download links” you can select the file format that will work.  For most of these you will right click on “Download MP4 (Mas 480p)”. 

5.  “Save Target As” and choose your location (I choose the Desktop so it is easy to locate) and give it a distinctive file name.

6.  Now that you have the movie you want on the desktop you will need to open up your Google Email account.

7.  “Compose” a message to yourself (in the “address bar” type in yourfirstname.lastname@ athwestsd.org. 

8.  Under the subject heading you will “attach file”. 

9.  Under the “look in” bar you will need to select the location of the movie you downloaded (in my case the desktop).

10.  Send this email once movie is downloaded.

11.  Now, go to you iPad 2 and open up your email.  The message from yourself should be there--if not refresh.

12.  With in the body of the email there is a picture of the movie file for downloading.  Tap it once to begin the download process.

13.  After the movie has been downloaded, tap and hold to “save file”. 

14.  Now double check that it is there by moving to your “camera roll”!

15.  If it is there--you have successfully moved a video for use in both iMovie and Keynote.

NOTE:  if you get a run time error--click on RUN

Moving Videos from Vimeo to iPad 2

Procedure:

1.  Locate video you would like to download.  To the right on the video screen select “share” from the chooses.  Type in your email address, a quick “personal message”, and then select “share”.

2.  Open email on iPad 2 and copy the URL that appears in blue under “You can watch it here:”.

3.  Now open up KeepVid.  There is an address bar at the top that asks you to insert a URL.  This is where you will “paste” the URL you copied from your email in order to convert it to a file format that is compatible with the iPad2.  Once inserted click on the blue “download” button to the right. 

4.  Once downloaded, under the green bar that says “download links” you can select the file format that will work.  For most of these you will right click on “Download MP4- High Quality”. 

5.  “Save Target As” and choose your location (I choose the Desktop so it is easy to locate) and give it a distinctive file name.

6.  Now that you have the movie you want on the desktop you will need to open up your Google Email account.

7.  “Compose” a message to yourself (in the “address bar” type in yourfirstname.lastname@ athwestsd.org. 

8.  Under the subject heading you will “attach file”. 

9.  Under the “look in” bar you will need to select the location of the movie you downloaded (in my case the desktop).

10.  Send this email once movie is downloaded.

11.  Now, go to you iPad 2 and open up your email.  The message from yourself should be there--if not refresh.

12.  With in the body of the email there is a picture of the movie file for downloading.  Tap it once to begin the download process.

13.  After the movie has been downloaded, tap and hold to “save file”. 

14.  Now double check that it is there by moving to your “camera roll”!

15.  If it is there--you have successfully moved a video for use in both iMovie and Keynote.

Moving Videos from Archive to iPad 2

Ok, moving videos from one internet source to the iPad has proven to be more difficult than it should have been initially.  The funny thing is once I build some background knowledge (5 hours of surfing, trying, and reading the internet) and found out where the students were trying to get videos from online, it became much easier.

After trial and error, one of the students and I figured out several things.  First, you can't do it on an iPad.  You have to get the movie on the PC first, then eventually email it to yourself and open it on the iPad.  Once this is done you will save it in your camera roll for use within a keynote or iMovie. Second, there are some basic file formats that seem to work the best:  MP4, M4V, MOV.  Third, it appears that the size of the download is also very important--less than 34 MB for sure.  I don't know what the maximum limit is for this but will fill it in when I figure that out!

Here is the first set of directions (perhaps the easiest) and an alternative if the video is too long or too big in MB!

Procedure:

1.  In Archive search for the video you want to download.  If the video is around 1.5 minutes (14 MB) in length proceed with steps 2- 15.  If the video is around 2 minutes (34 MB) in length you will need to go to the alternative procedure below.

2.  Once video you want is located, select “download” from the left menu near the video display screen.

3.  Choose “Quicktime (.mov)” from the dialog box.

4.  On the next pop-up screen select “save”.

5.  The next pop-up dialog box will ask you to select a location to save this video.  I choose the desktop since locating it is easier in the next steps.

6.  Now that you have the movie you want on the desktop you will need to open up your Google Email account.

7.  “Compose” a message to yourself (in the “address bar” type in yourfirstname.lastname@ athwestsd.org. 

8.  Under the subject heading you will “attach file”. 

9.  Under the “look in” bar you will need to select the location of the movie you downloaded (in my case the desktop).

10.  Send this email once movie is downloaded.

11.  Now, go to you iPad 2 and open up your email.  The message from yourself should be there--if not refresh.

12.  With in the body of the email there is a picture of the movie file for downloading.  Tap it once to begin the download process.

13.  After the movie has been downloaded, tap and hold to “save file”. 

14.  Now double check that it is there by moving to your “camera roll”!

15.  If it is there--you have successfully moved a video for use in both iMovie and Keynote.

Alternative procedure for shortening movie on PC for use on iPad 2

2.  Once video you want is located, select “download” from the left menu near the video display screen.

3.  Choose “WindowsMedia (.wmv)” from the dialog box.

4.  On the next pop-up screen select “save”.

5.  The next pop-up dialog box will ask you to select a location to save this video.  I choose the desktop since locating it is easier in the next steps.

6.  Now we will use “Windows Movie Maker” to create a smaller file.  (On AWMS computers you can located Windows Movie Maker by going to “All Programs” and finding it.

7.  Open Windows Movie Maker and select “import movie” from left menu titled, “1. Capture Video”.  Once you have located the movie (i.e. desktop--located on the left selection bar).  If you have checked the checkbox at the bottom of the screen that says, “create clips for video files” it will break your video into smaller pieces.

8.  View, select, and drag clips into the storyboard at the bottom of the screen. 

9.  If you choose to edit this new movie see selections under “2.  Edit Movie” from the left Movie Tasks menu.

10.  When finished move to “3.  Finish Movie” and choose “Save to my computer”.  Once again I save the new movie to my desktop for easy location.  Be sure to assign a new name so you can tell the difference between this new file and the original.  Click on “Next” at the bottom of the screen.  Click on “Next” again and movie will begin download.

11.  Once downloaded you have the option of clicking “play movie when I click finish”.  If you check this you will be able to preview the video.  If satisfied click on “Finish”.

12.  Now you will need to convert this file to one that is viewable on the iPad.  We will now open “Media Converter SA Edition” (found on the desktop--if not find it under “All Programs”)

13.  In the “Input/Output” section select the files to convert (the edited movie you made in Windows Movie Maker) and select where you want it to go.  In the first dialog box “select your movie file” from desktop and select “open”.  For the “destination” select desktop and for “file type” choose “mp4”.  (If that doesn’t work try m4v or mov--these are supposed to be compatible on iPad 2)

14.  Select “Convert” at the bottom.  If the green circle with the check changes to a red circle with an X you are in the process of converting.  Once it returns to a green circle with a check you are finished.  Check your desktop for the new version in Quicktime!

15. Now that you have the movie you want on the desktop you will need to open up your Google Email account.

16.  “Compose” a message to yourself (in the “address bar” type in yourfirstname.lastname@ athwestsd.org. 

17.  Under the subject heading you will “attach file”. 

18.  Under the “look in” bar you will need to select the location of the movie you downloaded (in my case the desktop).

19.  Send this email once movie is downloaded.

20.  Now, go to you iPad 2 and open up your email.  The message from yourself should be there--if not refresh.

21.  With in the body of the email there is a picture of the movie file for downloading.  Tap it once to begin the download process.

22.  After the movie has been downloaded, tap and hold to “save file”. 

23.  Now double check that it is there by moving to your “camera roll”!

24.  If it is there--you have successfully moved a video for use in both iMovie and Keynote.

Power of Skitch

  Skitch is a great app that I can see many practical uses in the classroom. Skitch is an annotation app that allows you to draw or write over the top of various images. What makes this unique from other apps like Showme is that it has come built in tools that are very useful. Amongst the images you can draw on include: photos (from the camera roll), live pictures, screenshots, webpages, maps (from google earth I believe), and of course your own creation.  What's even better is that these new images then are put directly back into your camera roll for future use--whether that is keynote, pages, photo editors, etc....  Finally, this app will sync into you Evernote if you an account!  (There are several Evernote tools worth looking into if I ever get going on that.)

Some of the immediate uses I can see are:

•  To take a still shot of the materials used for an experiment and then use the text feature to label each of these items.  You can also insert an arrow to point them out.
• What about pulling up a map of where your animal lives, zoom in, and circle the territory or use a wider map to draw the migration patterns of your animal.
• Draw the route a famous explorer took for history class.
• Create a diagram (i.e.  food chains, webs, cycles, cause and effects, force diagrams, etc...) from images on the net or draw your own images
• What about a photo scavenger hunt (i.e.  simple machines, geometric shapes, slope, angles, classification systems, everyday uses of math in the real world, get to know me games, etc...) in which you need to label, draw attention to, etc.
• What if you have a picture you need to quickly crop for a project!

Although I like this app a lot, it doesn't allow you to add audio like ShowMe and other interactive whiteboards like ScreenChomp, and Educreations. The advantage here is that it goes directly into the camera roll.  The others have to be emailed out or linked using a hyperlink.

Digital storytelling

It seems like there are many apps for digital story telling. I just ran across this one today while investigating iDiary: StoryBuddy 2.   Story Buddy 2 costs $4.99 but appears to as much as songbird does but allows you to print your books!  Love that?  With this app you also can send it to iBooks, iTunes, and email. Like many other story telling tools you can add audio, edit and insert pictures, change font sizes, etc....