Newspaper Blackout Poetry

Using Brushes & any News app (such as NY Times, Stuff, BBC) on the iPad, you can easily make creative blackout poetry. I have already written about Newspaper Blackout here, but see below for my  quick tutorial video.

Newspaper Blackout Tutorial from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.

Storytelling with Puppets

We have 2 great storytelling apps: Sock Puppets & Puppet Pals HD. Our language teachers (e.g. Wendy Liao) use these to reinforce conversational skills, and they find that it really motivates the kids to do their best.

One of the best things about Puppet Pals HD is that you can (with the Director’s Pass) upload your own characters (either hand-drawn, or photos of the students themselves) and backgrounds, which makes the app more suitable for upper-elementary and middle school learners.

Create Soundtracks with GarageBand

GarageBand manages to make even a novice feel like an expert on the iPad. The addition of Smart music (e.g. Smart Guitar, Smart Drums) can turn every student into an accomplished composer with very little  teacher input.

GarageBand Tutorial from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.

Photography

With the advent of the iPad 2, the ability to create content has definitely gone up a notch. Taking your own photos, editing them and using them in cross-curricular ways is easy, fun and very creative.

By way of example, apps like Camera+ (currently only for iPhone), Adobe Photoshop Express, and ColorSplash for iPad all let you edit your photos in new and wonderful ways.

Apps such as Strip Designer or Comic Touch (currently only for iPhone) allow you to take these photos and transform them into comics or flashcards (to name but a few). Our early years teachers sent students out to find words starting with the letter M for example.

Bill Atkinson Photo Card lets you use your photos to create beautiful postcards to send to others. Some teachers have used this app for character studies, where students write a postcard in the manner of one of the characters in the novel they are studying. In our early years department, students emailed their teacher and told them about their favourite holiday, relating to their unit on celebrations.

If we have time…

I’d love to share some kinetic typography using Keynote. Also using Creative Book Builder to make ePubs straight from the iPad, however as it’s a new app, it’s a little buggy right now. It is definitely one to keep an eye on.

I’m always on the lookout for great apps that allow you to create rather than consume, so drop some suggestions in the comments!

I use Camera+ to edit any photo I want to post online now – the quality of the images far exceeds the capability of my trusty old 3GS iPhone. I know a picture tells a thousand words, so here are a couple of before & after shots for comparison:

Sometimes when new tech initiatives come along, you put off using them because you think they will be too complicated and/or will only make sense to the real tech geeks. I confess to feeling this way about ePub at first, but having had a good old play with them alongside my colleague Wendy Liao, I now think they are easy to create and offer great potential for learning in the classroom. There are a few tricks to know before getting started (see below), but once you know what they are, it’s pretty much smooth sailing from there. Anyone who can make a Pages document, can make an ePub.

Reason 2 – Instant authorship

I know that I’m not the only educator looking for innovative ways to share student work with the wider community. By having students create ePubs, they can share their work with anyone who has a iPod/iPad. Our students can become published authors in a few clicks. This has great potential for all curriculum areas.

Reason 3 – Maximize offline time

When on a field trip, luxuries like WiFi are not usually available. Students can make notes/observations on a teacher-created ePub while offline, and email the notes to the teacher (or themselves) for later use when they return to a WiFi environment.

Reason 4 – Access multiple literacies

Images, audio and video can be incorporated into ePubs. This means students can access pre-selected material to support learning using multiple literacies. In the example I refer to below, Wendy embedded audio files of the correct pronunciation of some of the images/vocab she wanted the students to understand (see photo, left).

This format also allows students to show their understanding in a variety of forms, which can be embedded in an ePub. They are not limited to word processing.

Reason 5 – Portability

One of the best things about an ePub is that they are read on devices that are inherently mobile – iPods/iPads. You can read them any time, anywhere, without the need for a wifi connection.

Case Study: ePub for Chinatown Visit

Chinese teacher Wendy Liao created an ePub for her Grade 6 students to work with when they visited Chinatown during the lead up to Chinese New Year. Here is the link if you would like to try it out for yourself.

Students downloaded it at school (with wifi access), then made notes as they went along (by highlighting a passage, clicking note, then typing their response). When they returned to school, they emailed their group’s notes to Wendy, and she had each group’s feedback instantly.

Trick 1

If you are running Pages 09, then you can turn any word processing document into an ePub. That’s the first trick – it has to be a word processing document to make an ePub.

Trick 2

To make your ePub more visually interesting, use styles & formatting. Click View – Show Styles Drawer while in Pages to enable formats that ePub recognize.

Trick 3

Make use of the master template of ePub Best Practices provided by Apple instead. This way, you can copy and paste the formatting, which will allow you to work within a proven document – much easier than starting from scratch. This Apple Support page has excellent information when and how to use ePub.

I would love to know how you are using them in your schools, so feel free to share your ideas!

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men’s health.

Nearly every male staff member at our school has grown a Mo in support of men’s health. While we don’t have an official team linked to the website above, we are doing our little bit to help. Check out this year’s candidates!

The ed-tech people out there might be wondering what this has to do with technology – the answer is wait and see! I hope that in sharing what our school is doing, other schools might take up the charge to raise funds next year.

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I have already mentioned what the men are doing, but the support does not stop there! On the last day of Movember, students can make a $1 donation to get a Mo painted on them. We then take Pro-Mo photos afterwards, so they feel like rock stars.

We came across an exciting find the other day using the iPod Touch. The $2.99 Strip Designer app (which is excellent and you should totally get regardless) has a whole set of moustache stickers that you can add to photos. On our version 4 iPod Touch set, it works perfectly with the dual-facing camera. The image of me above was made using Strip Designer.

This year it would be great if we can extend the use of Strip Designer and get some more people into the Movember spirit.

Why not try it yourself!

For this year’s Hands On Literacy conference, my teaching colleague Louise Phinney and I teamed up (again!) to present about Early Years Literacy with the iPod Touch.

Thankfully, our school recently purchased the latest version of the iPod Touch – which comes complete with a dual-facing HD camera/video. I consider this a complete game-changer, especially in the Early Years, as it opens up so many ways for students and teachers to document learning.

One of the links I was pleased to share with people was our ever-increasing list of iPod Touch apps we are currently using at UWCSEA East. They are loosely arranged into categories (which we have as folders on our iPod Touches), so students and teachers can find apps easily.

Louise has been doing some fantastic work in the Early Years at our school, so it was great to share what has been going on inside our classrooms. Although we would like share our presentation and include all images and videos, due to some restrictions on the use of student images, we are unable to do so at this time (with the exception of my K1 daughter – I’ll happily post her modeling what we’ve been doing!). In the meantime, here is a highlights package of what we shared:

Not just One-Hit Wonders

As Digital Literacy teachers, we are always on the look out for apps that go beyond being a “One-Hit Wonder” and have versatility across subject disciplines and grade levels. Here are a few of our favourites:

	Comic Touch $2.99 This app works fantastically with the dual-facing camera on the iPod Touch. We used this with our K1s, who are currently exploring feelings as a part of their unit of inquiry into Who We Are.  Students took pictures of themselves showing different emotions/feelings, then added a speech bubble naming the feeling.
	Strip Designer $2.99 This neat app allows you to make a variety of comic strips, however we used the most basic ‘title page’ format to create a visual dictionary of ‘M words’ with some K2 students. Our K2s blew me away with their picture taking ability – check out the example to the right! Again, this app has the potential to be used at many different grade levels for different purposes.
	QR Code Reader for iPhone Free Much has been written about QR Codes lately, and this was our big WOW exciting thing to share. We showed this video on how a High School in the states are using QR Codes, then shared some task cards Louise had created to consolidate phonics, literacy and mathematics work in the classroom. I will share the examples in another post, but suffice to say our participants seemed impressed  :-) To generate our QR Codes, we used the Kaywa QR Code Generator.
	Sonic Pics $2.99 This easy-to-use app lets you create narrated slideshows of photos you have taken. Our G1 students went on a shape hunt, and took photos of shapes in the environment around them. They selected the best images, and explained the properties of each of the shapes shown. The list of ideas one could use this app with is endless. Students could photograph their work (e.g. a piece of art they are constructing from start to finish, and explain the process, narrate field trips, explain a solution to a maths problem and many more.

Presenting with Louise was relaxing and enjoyable, and I am looking forward to our next workshop – whatever it may entail..!

Here are some of the Apps that were mentioned:

	Soundnote (Formerly SoundPaper) $4.99 This fantastic note-taking app records the audio of a meeting etc as you type your notes. On playback, you can skip to a word in your notes to hear the audio at that particular time. This app would be brilliant for note-taking at any conferences, university lectures or meeting.
	Dropbox Free If you are wanting to access your files across different devices, this app is for you. As a bonus, it’s free!
	Blogshelf $4.99 This app allows you to read your blogposts offline. It presents each blog as a book on a shelf (looks quite neat, IMHO)
	Flickstackr $1.99 Pulls up all your Flickr photos in a really nice interface. Also allows you to create stacks of photos from your photos or other people’s photos to create your own slideshows.
	Faces I Make $2.99 This app was developed in conjunction with author/illustrator Hanoch Piven, and his art workshops. Faces I Make allows you to make art from objects around you.
	Evernote Free Sync notes taken on any device with Evernote. Some key features are the ability to take audio notes, and to search for text within images.
	Genius Scan Free Scan all manner of documents and send them by email, PDF or JPG. Great for photographing receipts.
	Molecules Free This app allows you to view 3D renditions of molecules and manipulate them with your fingers.
	Attendance $2.99 This app is a regular attendance app, but what was highlighted to us was its ability to generate random groupings. I believe a PE teacher was explaining how she uses
	Notetaker HD $4.99 This app is for writing and organizing handwritten notes. The person who recommended this app used a stylus to ‘write’ his notes.
	eStroke Animated Chinese Characters $8.99 App for learning correct stroke order for Chinese characters.
	LogMeIn Ignition $29.99 Remotely access your computer and other devices using the very useful (but rather expensive) LogMeIn app.

During my trip, I have been thinking about how much I rely on technology for my travel plans, and how much of a challenge it would be for me to go somewhere without it.

Here is a list of the technology I used to get from my door to the hotel in Shepparton.

1. My trusty iPhone – this is fast becoming my most crucial piece of technology. I seldom go anywhere without it. It is so much more than just a phone, with apps like these:

I used the fabulous (and free) Tripit to input all my travel arrangements – from flights, to rental cars and hotel confirmations. I didn’t print the majority of these documents. Generally speaking, I just held up the phone to show the relevant information. Easy as pie.

Dropbox stored my passport details, entrance tickets to the conference, and other information that is essential to have close at hand, no matter where you are.

Pocket First Aid & CPR has my medical insurance details, should any tragic circumstances ensue (I have my fingers crossed they won’t!), as well as first aid information that might help in an emergency.

Angry Birds & Sudoku – my current diversions, are entertainment in my pocket.

Hipstamatic helps me create moody, artistic photographs that I can share with friends and family (reaching a level of sophistication well beyond the realms of my normal creativity!) – the photo to the right was taken using Hipstamatic, and is the view from the Olivehouse Restaurant, where I had a delicious lunch today.

Just Light Flashlight – my torch in the night

XE Currency - calculating exchange rates at the touch of a button is always a useful tool when overseas.

Facebook & Tweetdeck for keeping in touch with friends and family, near and far.

2. GPS – Without which, I would have quite literally, been lost. Traveling in an unfamiliar location is tricky at the best of times, and using the sat-nav to get to my destination took all of the worry out of my drive from Melbourne to Shepparton.

3. My iPod Touch – by no means a superfluous piece of technology when one already has an iPhone! I consider myself pretty handy with technology these days, yet for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to make the radio in my rental car go. I needed to make sure I didn’t run out of battery on my phone, and a 2 hour trip goes by ever-so-slowly without a little music to sing to… cue the iPod Touch! It sat happily on the dash, belting out my Glee favourites as we moseyed along the Victorian countryside.

4. My (aging) Macbook Pro – Although I realise this is beginning to sound like an advertisement for all things Apple, it was not my intention! The fact of the matter is they make good products! What the Macbook Pro lacks in portability, it makes up for in ease of use – particularly for blogging on the go. It is always quick and easy to connect to wireless networks too.

5. Skype – It would be remiss of me not to mention Skype as a travel tool, as I use it so frequently. I said goodnight to my kids tonight, saw the artwork my daughter had made, chatted to my husband, and made my son laugh. All for free (internet connection notwithstanding).

Technology I made use of at Changi Airport included a DIY immigration, where your thumb is scanned and matched against records in your Green Card. At the Melbourne end, NZ and Australian passport holders could use a fast track service in which you scan your passport (provided it has a microchip in it) and beat the queues at immigration. Thumbs up to these 2 leading airports!

Of course Bump is going to be useful tomorrow – especially at a conference about mobile learning!

I am sure I have forgotten some crucial tools here. What are your tech travel must-haves? I am keen to expand my repertoire…!

Flower Garden
$1.99
Neat little app where you plant, water and grow flowers and send bouquets via email.
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Sonic Pics
$2.99
Fantastically versatile app for narrating over your own images. Either upload images to your photo gallery, or take screenshots to use. This app creates a video of your slideshow which you can email, send to your computer or upload to YouTube.


Number Line
Free
Excellent little app for ordering decimals, percentages and fractions. Would suit middle to upper primary.

iChoose
Free
App which allows you to select from coin toss, yes/no, dice roll, card choice, rock/paper/scissors and many other options. Great for probability and statistics.

Math Quizzer
Free
Choose from addition, subtraction, multiplication & division (or a combination of these) and then complete the questions. Multi-choice answers are provided below.

Step Trak Lite
Free
Neat app which acts as a pedometer. Simple to use, really effective. You can upload your results to MapMyWalk.
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abc Pocket Phonics
$0.99
I think this is a great little app for the early years. You learn to form letters, hear the sounds of each letter, then blend sounds to make words at the end. The Lite version has the first sounds only, but the full version has sound blends as well. Give it a go! See here for more details on how we used with with K2.

Early Reader
$0.99
Another app for beginning readers. It covers the basic sight words, phonics, etc and is easy to use. You can turn the voice on or off.

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KT-Dict CE
Free
Chinese-English dictionary. See here for more details on how we use it at school.

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Word Magic
$0.99
This app has missing letters which the kids need to select from a list to complete the word. There are a range of settings you can customize, including lowercase or uppercase letters, the missing letters at the beginning, middle or end of the word, and the length of the word (to name but a few).

I will also be looking at the Voice Memo app, which comes preloaded on all iPod Touch and iPhones.


Art
$0.99
Great list of historical artists, their lives, their art, and so much more. If $0.99 seems a little much, why not try the lite version, which is free.

The Muscle System Pro
$19.99
High quality images of the Muscular system, perfect for kids to take screencaptures to use in presentations.
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The Skeletal System Pro
$19.99

High quality images of the Skeletal system, which students can screencapture, making this app money well spent for inquiries relating to the human body.

Google Earth
Free
Excellent iPod Touch version of the desktop programme created by Google. Absolutely awesome.

I love the idea of this, but putting it into practice is something that takes a bit of getting used to. Admitting defeat is not something we tend to do, but I don’t want this blog to become a show-boat of lessons that have gone well without countering it with some of the lessons that haven’t. So here goes:

I stuffed up.

Overall, I think it would be safe to describe my Grade 5 animation project as a bit of a disaster. And that’s if you’re being kind.

The ingredients for success were all there: enthusiastic students, willing and supportive colleagues, the necessary equipment – but several contributing factors meant that the end result just didn’t cut the mustard. Instead of detailing the list of things that went wrong (there is only so much time in the day after all…!), I thought I’d share the lessons I learned through my failures.

Lesson 1. Large photo files + network + 22 students all on the computers = frustration. I wanted to use good quality images to get the best quality for the finished product, however with the scale we were working with (in excess of 300 photos each group), Movie Maker crashed more times that I’ve had hot dinners.
To solve this problem, next year I would reduce the file size to Large or even Medium, to speed the process up, and reduce the chance of crashing.

Lesson 2. Storing video/image files on local machines is much better than accessing files via the school network. I know this seems obvious, but when you have kids using different computers all the time (and occasionally different computers being out of action for some reason), then the network seems like the safest bet. For videos of this magnitude, storing files locally makes the whole thing run much more smoothly.

Lesson 3. Having 22 kids at a time making movies is great in theory, but, practically speaking, 1 per group would have been more manageable for the network. I thought that groups could work together to create and shoot their images, then take the images and edit their a movie individually. One movie per group would be fine, however clear guidelines for each group member would need to be established, so that everyone is responsible for different sections.

Lesson 4. Know your software. Despite making short test versions of animations (as outlined here), Movie Maker wasn’t up for the task on a larger scale. Our other software, Adobe Premiere Elements is a great tool, but the smallest picture duration we could customize it to was 1 frame per second (not nearly fast enough for a decent animation). While trying to fiddle around with the picture duration settings, I discovered Adobe Premiere Elements had a stop-motion animation function (if used with a webcam connected to the computer) which we could have used from the beginning. The quality of the finished movie wouldn’t be as great, however if it meant more kids would be successful in creating an animation, then it’s probably worth trying.

Lesson 5. Persistence pays off. With the Singapore International School Film Festival kicking off in a few short days, I woke at 1am in despair at how despite all the hard work from teachers and students alike, I had not even one video to submit to the Film Fest for consideration. It was heartbreaking. I lay awake for ages composing this blog post in my head. The very next day, one of the students managed to pull together his fabulous animation ready for submission, just in the nick of time. Where other students had given up, Jean-Luc showed an impressive amount of tenacity to keep coming back to the lab, even though each change involved a 10 minute load time, then the distinct possibility of Movie Maker crashing. I am so proud to share this video with you:

Photo Credit: ToGa Wanderings