Creating in eBackpack

    

       Though most think of eBackpack as a way to send and receive materials and lessons between students and teachers, eBackpack is much more than that.  Students can do many things in eBackpack.  They can create documents that include drawings, photos, audio, and text.  They can also record audio up to 2o minutes and video up to 12 minutes in length!    Students can take pictures of their work in eBackpack and record themselves explaining their thinking, reading, or reflecting on their work.  When reading, students can take a picture of their book and then insert that picture into a document where they can read a passage, circle or highlight key ideas, great writer’s craft, or literary elements.  They can even type or write their thoughts right next to the picture!  Think of all the Post-it Notes we will save!   Students  with wifi can even participate in a discussion with the teacher and classmates over a book, a lesson, and more.  Teachers can insert live links into assignment instructions to take students to specific websites.  Documents can come alive with teachers’ voices leaving important messages and reminders for kids.  A teacher can even read a passage aloud for students in eBackpack!

To start creating:

1. Tap on the plus sign in the upper right hand corner
2. Tap on Create Document.
3. Name the document and tap OK.
4. Tap Mark it.
5. Now, you can insert text, draw, insert images or take photos.
6. To insert an audio recording, tap on the microphone at the top of the screen.  Then, tap in the document where you’d like the audio to appear.
7. When finished, students tap save and select a location for the document.  They can turn it in or save to My Files.
8. Remember, when you tap on the plus sign to start creating, you can also record a video or record audio.  When finished, those recordings can also be saved to My Files or turned in.

Shadow Puppet EDU

     

     Shadow Puppet Edu is an easy to use app for the iPad that allows students to create presentations and projects using their voice, music, photos, and short videos.  The creations can easily be uploaded into eBackpack for teachers to review and share.  It is very similar to iMovie, but is a simpler and quicker app to use.  Here are some facts about it: It can be used without internet connection!  Videos can be up to 30 minutes in length and can include up to 100 video clips and or photos.  Text, audio, and interactive effects can be added to each photo/video clip.  Video clips can be up to 30 seconds, but you can add more clips from the same video by tapping and holding on the video until the option to select another clip pops up. The photos can be original or students can search from places like the Library of Congress, Met Museum of Art, NASA, NOAA, and more.  They even have an ideas section to help you get started!

To Get Started: 

1. Tap on Create New.
2. Select and few photo and video clips to make into a video.
3. Tap on the music note to add music.  This must be done at the beginning of the recording.
4. Tap start and narrate the story while flipping through the photos and clips.
5. While recording, you can draw, zoom, and add text.
6. When finished, tap save.  It will save the video to your camera roll.  You can also tap more and choose to open in another app.  Then, you can upload it to eBackpack or another app like iMovie, iTunes U, etc.
7.  Tap on Reorder to rearrange or remove photos or videos.
8.  Turn the mic off if you do not want to record your voice.
9.   If you make a mistake, tap undo to erase everything from the page and start again.

Changes to iTunes U

     For those of you who do not know, Apple has recently made some changes to iTunes U.Teachers can now not only assign work to students, but also collect work.  They can hold class discussions, and there is an integrated grade book component to it as well!  Teachers who have been using iTunes U as a one way street between them and their students can continue to use it this way.  You can continue to use it to post information, resources, and assignments.  However, if you'd like to use the app to do more, it is now possible!   The following link provides teachers with more information about the new features!
Apple iTunes U

Discovery Education

   

     If you are looking for a great all-purpose tool to use in the classroom, Discovery Education is it! Discovery Education is a video streaming service to which NWCS subscribes.  In Discovery Ed, you can find videos, images, lesson plans, class activities and more!  Many of us have been using these resources for quite some time, but what we didn't realize is that Discovery Education has much more to offer!
     As students create more and more content on their iPads (especially videos in iMovie) it is becoming more of a challenge to get those videos from them.  Discovery Education provides a simple platform students and teachers can use for this!  Students can simply login to Discovery Education and choose to create a board.  They then choose to add items and select media.  Next, they choose to upload media from their device, and select the video they want.  Once this is done, they choose to share their board with their teacher.  Now teachers can view all student-created iMovies in one place without taking up storage on their own devices.  They simply choose to view student boards, and that is that!
     Another nice feature of the board builder in Discovery Education is that students can create these boards (which are like interactive digital posters) and include not only their own original videos but also images and video from Discovery Education.  Students can include text, headlines, and much more on their boards.  It is a great presentation and creation tool for the classroom!

For more information about setting up a Discovery Education account for yourself and your students, please visit this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-t7c2dE_deYendzNGRWQnRPMWs/view?usp=sharing

 
   

iOS 8 Tips and Tricks

     iOS 8 has some pretty nifty tricks in it!  You now have more options when using Safari in iOS 8.  You can now save articles and items you like directly into your Evernote account, your Pocket account, and more.  Just tap on the sharing icon (the box with the arrow up) and choose where you would like to put the article.  You can Tweet a link to it, post it on Facebook, etc.  If you do not see Evernote or Pocket as options, but you have those apps installed on your device, go to the More icon and tap on it.  Then, allow access to the apps you want by swiping to green.  Now you can save to Evernote, Pocket, etc. straight from Safari!

     Students can now have an entire screen read to them in Safari or other native iOS apps such as Pages without having to highlight the sections they want read.  To enable this function, go to Settings.  Tap on General.  Tap on Accessibility.  Then tap on Speech.  Swipe to turn on Speak Screen.  Now, when students want an entire screen read, they simply swipe downward from the top of the screen with two fingers.  Options will also come up to allow students to speed up or slow down the reading.  

     Safari is just one of many upgrades in iOS 8!The camera has gotten some great updates, too.   Now, users can do a time-lapse video and a panoramic photo!  There is also a timer for photos that can be set to either 3 seconds or 10 seconds.  In addition to the camera updates, another nice feature is the notification when an app is using your location information in the background.  Users can even disallow the app from doing so within the notification itself.  This will help users know which apps could be potentially draining their battery life by running location services in the background.

     For parents, a nice feature that has been added is in Guided Access.  Parents now have the ability to select how long the iPad can be used before shutting off, thus allowing parents to limit their child's time on the device.

     Finally, if you update your MacBook to Yosemite, you will then be able to air drop from your MacBook to your iPad and vice versa.  This will be a very handy tool in the classroom!

Blogging Basics

    Blogging is a great way to share your thoughts, ideas, and interests with an authentic, real-world audience!  When a blog becomes popular, there are endless possibilities for the author.  Many employers are now looking at the online presence of its prospective employees.  That means they want to view a person's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram account, and maintaining an effective and professional looking blog is one way to create a positive digital presence.

     The term blogging originated from the words "web" and "log".  So essentially, a blog is a web-log or journal.  But it can be so much more!  A blog is a way to communicate not only with text, but with audio and visuals as well.  It is a place to share your knowledge and expertise!

     Some popular blogging sites are Blogger (which is where this blog is hosted), Word Press, Weebly, and Tumblr.  For the purposes of blogging from the iPad, I would suggest using Blogger or Word Press, as they both have apps for iOS devices.  That means you can blog right from your iPad or iPhone.  If you have typed something in Pages and want to use that on your blog, just copy the text and paste it into a new post!

      Before getting started with your blog, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Read other blogs!  Identify what works, and learn from the experts.
2. Don't share personal information on a blog.  Protect yourself, your identify, and privacy.
3. Take care to write professionally.  Proofread and consider your audience!  
4. Blog frequently.  Stay relevant.  A blog that goes untouched for days or weeks will lose the audience it has built.
5. Comment on other blogs, but be sure to remain professional.  There is a difference between criticizing and commenting.  Bullying and bashing others is no way to create a positive online presence and it is a poor display of digital citizenship.
6. Market your blog!  You won't have a big audience to begin with, so you will need to take it upon yourself to build your audience.  Share your blog address with others on Twitter and other social media outlets.  Ask people you know to read your blog and comment on it.
7. Be sure to enable comments on your blog in order to get valuable feedback from your audience!

Answer Garden

     Answer Garden is one of my favorite new discoveries!  This is a web-based tool as well as a free iPad app that It will allow teachers to set up a question, prompt, etc. and students can put in a 20 character answer.  The app then creates a word cloud that displays all student answers. The more a word is used, the
larger it gets. What an awesome way for students to share vivid verbs, descriptive adjectives,WOW words,words to describe a character, brainstormed ideas, etc. Then they can screen shot the word cloud for
use as a resource later!  Check out the example below done as students shared the vivid verbs in their writing!