After you get your treats at the Mingle Jingle, join us in 239A to learn all the pros and cons of the current tablets available on the market. If you are thinking about purchasing a tablet over the holidays, come listen and ask questions as we discuss everything you should know about tablets. We welcome input and sharing of tablet tips, tricks, and apps among all who attend! Drop in, no registration necessary! This will be our last Tablet User's Group for the Fall Semester.
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October 2013 Meeting - iOS 7 New Features and Changes
Apple's new iOS7 was released prior to the October meeting. A review of the significantly different design and features of iOS7 was provided. The iOS7 platform offers many new features that provide direct support to the newest ipad 4 and the iPhone 5c and 5s.
A few of the new features discussed:
A few of the new features discussed:
- The new "flat" 2D design with brighter colors.
- Swipe down from the middle of your home screen to search your ipad.
- The settings area has many reorganization and new feature changes. The cellular screen is at the top level of settings now. You can determine whether or not individual apps should receive data. By default all apps do. If you have limited data, turning off cellular data for some apps, may help conserve your data.
- Go to Settings > Sounds to explore dozens of new system sounds and ringtones.
- Create customized shared photo streams.
- Do Not Disturb Settings has gotten an update. You can now choose to silence calls and notifications only when your device is locked.
- To Switch between opened apps, double-click the home button and click the thumbnail of the app you want to view.
- To close an app, double-click the home button to see thumbnail views of all open apps. Drag the thumbnail up to close the app.
- You can now add an unlimited number of apps to any folder.
- You can allow automatic update of apps: Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Automatic Downloads to turn it on.
- iOS7 added AirDrop, allowing you to share files directly with devices connected to the same WiFi connection.
- Radio is added in iTunes, allowing you to add and play radio stations of your choice.
- You can close a Safari tab by clicking on the x button, or simply swipe it to the left.
- Enable/Disable Bold Text or Change Font Size System-wide by going to Settings > General > Text Size and adjust the font size to your liking.
- In iOS 7, you can simply use swipe gestures to go back a screen, rather than pressing that pesky back button on the display.
- iOS 7 supports dynamic wallpapers, in short: animated wallpapers. Go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness > Choose Wallpaper > Dynamic, and there you’ll see a bunch of animated wallpapers which respond to your device’s movement.
September 2013 Meeting
In the September 2013 meeting we discussed productivity apps for ipad and Android. We discussed the basics of the Android operating system.
2.) There are several versions of the Android operating system. See http://www.androidcentral.com/android-versions for a list and explanation of the different versions.
3.) Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, etc... can decide which version of Android they want to deploy and on which devices of theirs. Many modify the Android operating system and app store or market to their own version. The manufacturers also decide when to release updates of the operating system and to which devices.
4.) The most current version of the Android Operating system is Jelly Bean. The newest version being worked on by Google right now is Kit Kat, no finish date has been set.
5.) The Android market place where you purchase and download apps is open. Anyone can put an app in the market place. This is different from Apple which requires a $99/yr license to have an app in their store and they also do some filtering of what can be in the store. Knowing this should just make you more aware and careful when you purchase a new app.
One of our Chemistry faculty demonstrated her Samsung All Share Hub and explained how it works with both her Samsung phone and tablet to wirelessly stream apps to the in-room projector. If you want to know more about the device visit: Samsung's All Share product page. The device works very well and only requires the phone or tablet o be connected to the guest wi-fi. While this is a proprietary solution only for Samsung devices, it is a good example of an easy and reliable way to stream to the class room projectors. We will continue to research and explore different methods of accomplishing wireless streaming to the in room projectors with our devices.
Two apps we reviewed at this meeting were:
The app provides several options for bringing in documents that can be marked up. It fairly easy to get started and use right away. There is a slight learning curve because there are so many tools available in the app. One of our math faculty, Dawn, has been using the app successfully to mark up student submitted problems and return feedback as a pdf file. I have been using the app in our web fundamentals course to capture a student's web page and mark it up with feedback. I return it to the student as a pdf file.
iAnnotate: http://www.branchfire.com/iannotate/
Available for ipad at $9.99 (often discounted during teacher appreciation week)
Lite or demo version is currently available on Android for free. A full version will be coming soon.
A few things you should know about the Android operating system:
1.) Google codes and maintains the Android operating system. It is "open source." This means other companies can use it on their devices and customize however they choose.2.) There are several versions of the Android operating system. See http://www.androidcentral.com/android-versions for a list and explanation of the different versions.
3.) Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, etc... can decide which version of Android they want to deploy and on which devices of theirs. Many modify the Android operating system and app store or market to their own version. The manufacturers also decide when to release updates of the operating system and to which devices.
4.) The most current version of the Android Operating system is Jelly Bean. The newest version being worked on by Google right now is Kit Kat, no finish date has been set.5.) The Android market place where you purchase and download apps is open. Anyone can put an app in the market place. This is different from Apple which requires a $99/yr license to have an app in their store and they also do some filtering of what can be in the store. Knowing this should just make you more aware and careful when you purchase a new app.
One of our Chemistry faculty demonstrated her Samsung All Share Hub and explained how it works with both her Samsung phone and tablet to wirelessly stream apps to the in-room projector. If you want to know more about the device visit: Samsung's All Share product page. The device works very well and only requires the phone or tablet o be connected to the guest wi-fi. While this is a proprietary solution only for Samsung devices, it is a good example of an easy and reliable way to stream to the class room projectors. We will continue to research and explore different methods of accomplishing wireless streaming to the in room projectors with our devices.
Two apps we reviewed at this meeting were:
iAnnotate
iAnnotate turns your tablet into a world-class productivity tool for reading, marking up, and sharing PDF documents, Word/PowerPoint files, web pages and images. The iAnnotate app provides a ton of features for marking up a document, pen, stamps, highlighters, comments and more. You can also include audio comments.The app provides several options for bringing in documents that can be marked up. It fairly easy to get started and use right away. There is a slight learning curve because there are so many tools available in the app. One of our math faculty, Dawn, has been using the app successfully to mark up student submitted problems and return feedback as a pdf file. I have been using the app in our web fundamentals course to capture a student's web page and mark it up with feedback. I return it to the student as a pdf file.
iAnnotate: http://www.branchfire.com/iannotate/
Available for ipad at $9.99 (often discounted during teacher appreciation week)
Lite or demo version is currently available on Android for free. A full version will be coming soon.
Evernote
A note-taking tool that is so much more! A whole universe of add-ons, apps, and tools can be found at www.evernote.com. Creating a free account gives you access to an online note-taking tool. You can organize your notes by notebooks. You can search these notebooks and share these individual notes or notebooks through email. There are add-ons for all of the major browsers that allow you "clip" a whole web page, an image or paragraph of text to a note in your account. You can download software for both the mac and pc so you can easily access your notes and make new ones. There are also apps for all major mobile platforms. You can insert audio and video into your notes, record notes on a device that has a microphone and so much more. Evernote is the Swiss army knife for research, note-taking and collecting web-based resources. There are so many uses for it and the best feature of Evernote is that it works seamlessly across multiple devices and platforms without a hiccup.
Evernote provides several video tutorials for getting started: https://evernote.com/video/
Visit https://evernote.com/evernote/ and click the drop-down arrow next to "get evernote for windows" to see all of the options available for mobile and other platforms. Evernote is free. There is a premium version that gives you additional space and features. There are several accessories and tools that you can use with Evernote that available for purchase. Evernote has it's own marketplace because there are so many. Have fun exploring this tool.
Our October user's group will feature a brief overview of the new iOS7 and we'll look at whiteboard and recording apps for all platforms. Hope you can join us. If not, look for another blog post coming soon.
Fall 2013 Tablet User's Group
The TLC staff will facilitate a tablet user's group on the 1st Monday and 3rd Wednesday each month. Staff will choose and highlight a few functions and apps to start the discussion. We welcome input and sharing of tablet tips, tricks, and apps among all who attend! Drop in, no registration necessary!
Apps for Conducting Assessment on a Tablet
On Wednesday, May 8, Illinois Central College hosted the first regional assessment fair. Brandy Thatcher, Instructional Media Developer presented one of the break-out sessions on the topic of using a tablet to conduct assessment. While the ultimate conclusion is that you can not accomplish full formative assessment on a tablet, you can use the tablet to complete many task that support assessment.
The main reasons that you can not use a tablet for all of your assessment, is real estate! Who wants to sit in front of an 8 or 10 inch screen for hours attempting to grade papers and insert comments or type in a gradebook. If you are going to use a wireless keyboard you'll need a table or desk and you might as well move to a computer.
The tablet still has many uses, though. The easiest use is for a second screen. If you are entering grades and comments for any multimedia assignment: videos, web pages, graphics, etc... The ability to view the work on the tablet and enter your feedback in the grade book on your laptop or computer is very convenient.
Many of the learning management system apps, such as Blackboard, are very limited in what a teacher can accomplish with them. Few allow you access to the grade book or grade center. Most do allow full access to the discussion board. However, you can not grade discussion board items from the app. If you teach online and use the discussion board extensively, this is a great way to monitor the discussion and give quick replies. Having the ability to respond to a student discussion on the go makes the app a valuable tool. Many of the learning management systems are working on enhancing their apps, so that teachers can do more assessment on a tablet, look for these features in the next year.
Newer tablets almost always have a camera and video is a good assessment tool for many different disciplines. The tablet camera app can be used to record demonstrations, student speeches, student projects or the instructor. The video can be used simply as a reflection tool in the classroom or can easily be posted online for supplemental instruction and review.
There are several free whiteboard apps for recording demonstrations of annotating a number of sources, while providing audio commentary. These recordings can be published to a website account and embedded into course management systems. The recommended whiteboards apps are ShowMe and Educreations. There are several other apps for proving annotation on documents, audio and video feedback. View the slideshow below to learn more about the recommended apps demonstrated in the assessment fair session.
The main reasons that you can not use a tablet for all of your assessment, is real estate! Who wants to sit in front of an 8 or 10 inch screen for hours attempting to grade papers and insert comments or type in a gradebook. If you are going to use a wireless keyboard you'll need a table or desk and you might as well move to a computer.The tablet still has many uses, though. The easiest use is for a second screen. If you are entering grades and comments for any multimedia assignment: videos, web pages, graphics, etc... The ability to view the work on the tablet and enter your feedback in the grade book on your laptop or computer is very convenient.
Many of the learning management system apps, such as Blackboard, are very limited in what a teacher can accomplish with them. Few allow you access to the grade book or grade center. Most do allow full access to the discussion board. However, you can not grade discussion board items from the app. If you teach online and use the discussion board extensively, this is a great way to monitor the discussion and give quick replies. Having the ability to respond to a student discussion on the go makes the app a valuable tool. Many of the learning management systems are working on enhancing their apps, so that teachers can do more assessment on a tablet, look for these features in the next year.
Newer tablets almost always have a camera and video is a good assessment tool for many different disciplines. The tablet camera app can be used to record demonstrations, student speeches, student projects or the instructor. The video can be used simply as a reflection tool in the classroom or can easily be posted online for supplemental instruction and review.
There are several free whiteboard apps for recording demonstrations of annotating a number of sources, while providing audio commentary. These recordings can be published to a website account and embedded into course management systems. The recommended whiteboards apps are ShowMe and Educreations. There are several other apps for proving annotation on documents, audio and video feedback. View the slideshow below to learn more about the recommended apps demonstrated in the assessment fair session.
Assessment Fair 2013: Using Tablets to Conduct Assessment from bthat
What apps are you using for assessment??
photo credit: ebayink via photopin cc
What apps are you using for assessment??
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
This tablet user's group was a planning session for Fall 2013. The tablet user's group will take a break over the summer, however, we will be highlighting apps and tablet tips in the TLC email news and here on the blog.
If you have suggestions of times that would work best for you to participate in the tablet user's group in the fall, please comment below.
For the fall we are considering having app themes for each of the tablet user's groups, some of the themes might be: productivity, health/medical; science/math, note-taking/word processing, arts, English/language/literature, whiteboard/recording, audio/video, ereaders/news... what do you think? What themes would you like to see?
If you have suggestions of times that would work best for you to participate in the tablet user's group in the fall, please comment below.
For the fall we are considering having app themes for each of the tablet user's groups, some of the themes might be: productivity, health/medical; science/math, note-taking/word processing, arts, English/language/literature, whiteboard/recording, audio/video, ereaders/news... what do you think? What themes would you like to see?
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Jeff Maston, Instructional System Administrator, presented
The Poetry App
By Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-poetry-app/id501967950?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mcsaatchimobile.thepoetryapp&hl=en
The Poetry App will draw you into a parallel universe of over 100 poems from sixteen of the greatest poets of all time, accompanied by video and audio narrations from over 30 world class actors and performers including Juliet Stevenson, Bob Geldof, Simon Callow, Dominic West and Roger Moore.
Features:
Read poetry from 16 of the greatest poets through the ages
Listen and watch powerful narrations by over 30 world class actors and performers
Read in-depth introductions and essays by Josephine Hart on each poet and their poems
Create your own poems with the ability to record your own narration
Share everything through Email, Twitter and Facebook
New favourites library – allows you to download audio and videos for viewing without and Internet connection. Download your favourite poems and take them with you anywhere.
Remember, however, that not everything is what it seems and additional content has been hidden throughout the app such as Bob Geldof readings and interviews with Josephine Hart and Jeremy Irons.
The Poetry App
By Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-poetry-app/id501967950?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mcsaatchimobile.thepoetryapp&hl=en
The Poetry App will draw you into a parallel universe of over 100 poems from sixteen of the greatest poets of all time, accompanied by video and audio narrations from over 30 world class actors and performers including Juliet Stevenson, Bob Geldof, Simon Callow, Dominic West and Roger Moore.
Features:
Read poetry from 16 of the greatest poets through the ages
Listen and watch powerful narrations by over 30 world class actors and performers
Read in-depth introductions and essays by Josephine Hart on each poet and their poems
Create your own poems with the ability to record your own narration
Share everything through Email, Twitter and Facebook
New favourites library – allows you to download audio and videos for viewing without and Internet connection. Download your favourite poems and take them with you anywhere.
Remember, however, that not everything is what it seems and additional content has been hidden throughout the app such as Bob Geldof readings and interviews with Josephine Hart and Jeremy Irons.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Jeff Maston, Instructional Systems Administrator, demonstrated two apps.
MyScript Calculator
This calculator app uses
handwriting recognition rather than traditional calculator buttons.
Basically, it allows you to solve math problem’s by writing on your
iPad’s screen. It seems to work very well, and in some ways is simpler to
use than a standard calculator because you don’t need to figure out the right
buttons to push.
MyScript Calculator is a free
download from the itunes store and is also available for Android tablets.
Lekh Diagram
This app allows you to create
diagrams like flow charts or organizational charts on your ipad. Lekh
Diagram allows you to draw your chart with your finger (or stylus) and it uses
shape recognition to convert your drawings into nice looking shapes. Tapping on
the shapes you created gives you options for copying, deleting, or modifying
the shape (rounded corners on a rectangle, or convert an oval into a perfect
circle, for example). Drawing connecting lines and arrows between the
shapes is as simple as dragging your finger from one shape to the other.
If these types of charts are
something you need to create for the work that you do, Lekh Diagram is worth
checking out. It is available as a free, almost full-feature,
download. The only features you are limited from accessing in the free
version are the features that would allow you to export your diagrams (by
email, dropbox, or uploading to your photos). You can turn on the export
features for $2.99.
Mark DuBois, Web Systems Professor, demonstrated two apps.
Presentation Link
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presentation-link-app-for/id441472908?mt=8
A powerful tool to show interactive presentations on your iPad: Import existing presentations as a pdf or images, integrate videos and set hyperlinks for a truly touch-enabled, mobile presentation experience. The app is $4.99.
A powerful tool to show interactive presentations on your iPad: Import existing presentations as a pdf or images, integrate videos and set hyperlinks for a truly touch-enabled, mobile presentation experience. The app is $4.99.
Picture Link
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/picture-link/id385702117?mt=8
Picture Link is a super simple presentation app that enables you to hold interactive slideshows with images and videos on your iPad. The basic idea is that you can link different pictures with transparent hyperlink buttons. This makes it very easy to navigate between slides in real time, as sometimes the right picture at the right time says more than a thousand words.
Mark also mentioned the Foolproof and Sleipnir apps for ipad.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Meeting
The Tablet User's Group reviewed Google apps available for tablets. Google offers many mobile apps for the ios platform. You can review all the apps available at this url: http://www.google.com/mobile/ios/
You will find plenty of apps for Google's own native mobile platform, Android at http://www.google.com/mobile/android/
If you have a Windows 8 device, the best word of advice right now for using Google apps on it, is... "good luck." You can search for how to get Google apps on Windows 8 devices but the results are pretty poor.
Here is a great how-to on syncing your ipad and google apps account: http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/documentation/sync-ipad-and-google-apps.php
Google Drive for iOS and Android is one of the most useful tools. Google Drive is file storage in the cloud. It lets you keep all your files organized in one place and it can be accessed and synced from any iOS, Android device or your computer. Any file type can be uploaded and the standard account offers 5 GB of storage. With the drive tool on a tablet you can, view your files on drive, pin them for offline viewing and create new documents or spreadsheets.
The browser to have on your tablet. Did you know that you don't just have to use Safari on the iPad? You can download the Chrome browser from the app store and drag the icon right down to the dock (bottom of the ipad where those icons always stay).
You will find plenty of apps for Google's own native mobile platform, Android at http://www.google.com/mobile/android/
If you have a Windows 8 device, the best word of advice right now for using Google apps on it, is... "good luck." You can search for how to get Google apps on Windows 8 devices but the results are pretty poor.
Here is a great how-to on syncing your ipad and google apps account: http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/documentation/sync-ipad-and-google-apps.php
Google Drive
Google Drive for iOS and Android is one of the most useful tools. Google Drive is file storage in the cloud. It lets you keep all your files organized in one place and it can be accessed and synced from any iOS, Android device or your computer. Any file type can be uploaded and the standard account offers 5 GB of storage. With the drive tool on a tablet you can, view your files on drive, pin them for offline viewing and create new documents or spreadsheets.Chrome
The browser to have on your tablet. Did you know that you don't just have to use Safari on the iPad? You can download the Chrome browser from the app store and drag the icon right down to the dock (bottom of the ipad where those icons always stay). Wednesday, March 6, 2013 Meeting
News & Trends Apps (Keeping Current)
reddit
The topic of the user group was using apps to keep up with current news and trends, especially in technology. Three apps were reviewed.Jeff Maston gave a presentation on reddit. http://www.reddit.com/ is a website where users enter current topics, news, trends, etc.... into "subreddits" (individual web pages within the site) that are theme based. Each entry is voted up or down in importance by users. The top voted entries are filtered to the main reddit page. You can learn more about reddit at http://www.reddit.com/about/. In order to vote on reddit you will need to setup a free account. The free account also allows you to save and organize the "subreddits" you are interested in seeing. The disadvantage of a site like reddit is that there is a ton of information flowing through the site at any time and there can be a lot of entries that are not of any value and some that are flat out inappropriate. The advantage of the reddit is that all this information and source-crowded information allows mostly only really important news and resources to be voted to the top of the web pages. Using an account and selecting topics that interest you will provide you with great current information and resources on those topics. An example of a subreddit is this one on tablets: http://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/ This is a great place to ask questions, get recommendations and read up on the latest tablets. You will also find subreddits for each major tablet platform, like Apple iPad and Android and even specific subreddits for tablets like the Nexus7 or KindleFire. These are great places to learn tips and techniques for using your specific tablet, find out about bugs or problems with updates and learn about new apps.
There are reddit mobile apps for all of the major tablets available. The standard reddit app in Google Play and the Apple iOS store works well. The iOS version was demonstrated in our meeting. There are also alternative apps that can be used to manage reddit. The Alien Blue app for iOS was demonstrated at the meeting. This app is currently available for the ipad and iphone and provides a more streamlined user interface than the standard reddit app (free) and some additional features for organizing your reddit account. The Alien Blue for ipad app is $3.99 but worth it if you find yourself spending a lot of time on reddit.
All Things D
Brandy Thatcher presented the AllThingsD app to the user's group. AllThingsD.com is a website devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. But it is different from other sites in this space. It is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources.This website provides really current information and resources on anything related to the digital world. There are mobile apps available for both Android and Apple and more information on them can be found here: http://allthingsd.com/mobile/. The Apple mobile was demonstrated in our meeting. The app's magazine like interface provides easy reading. Visiting this app once or twice a week and browsing through the stories is an enjoyable way to keep current on the world of technology.
Flipboard
Brandy Thatcher demonstrated the Flipboard app. Flipboard's slogan is "Your Social News Magazine" and that is essentially what it is. The app has a magazine like interface that allows you to flip through the headlines of sources you have indicated and click on them to read the articles. The best feature of Flipboard is the ability to customize it to only the sources you want to see. This is a great way to see lots of sources you would like to keep up with. You can add any public facebook page, Twitter stream, web page, blog, etc... to your Flipboard sources. You can add your own Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linked In, Instagram accounts (and more) to see anything shared with you in the Flipboard format. The search interface is easy to use and you can easily add sources like USA Today, BBC, National Geographic, etc... You can also add the standard Flipboard feeds of stories they have aggregated. The streamlined interface and aggregation of stories from all these sources helps you stay up to date without getting stressed.An added bonus app:
Create an account with http://www.readability.com/ and use it to store and organize articles that you want to read later. It's a very easy to read text based format for collecting and archiving articles you want to read later. It works with Flipboard and many other apps. You can set readability up on many, many devices including tablets, phones, ereaders and even your computer. By logging into your readability account on each device all of the articles you saved will be synched and you can access them from any device. Brandy demonstrated in Flipboard how you can select and article and select the read it later link then by choosing the readability app the article is saved to the app.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 Meeting
Audio Recording Apps
Brandy Thatcher demonstrated the three apps that are great for creating audio recordings with a tablet.
SOUND CLOUD
http://www.soundcloud.fm
Advertised as the world’s leading social sound platform, Sound Cloud offers a website and mobile app for finding, sharing and creating audio and music. You can listen to a variety of music, podcasts, comedy and news available in their library. You can follow other Sound Cloud accounts, so you will see their new audio and updates. One of the strengths of Sound Cloud is the ability to easily record an audio file on a tablet using the mobile app. The app is available in the iOS/Apple store, Android/Google Play store, and in the Windows 8 store.Creating Recordings with Sound CloudYou can create a free account on the Sound Cloud website or through the mobile app. One of the best advantages of using Sound Cloud is that you can easily publish your recording to the Sound Cloud website from your tablet. With your recording stored in the online, you can get embed code for the recording to place in Blackboard or another website. You do have to access the website from a computer to get the embed code for the recording. You have a choice of making each recording private or public. If the recordings are public you have the option to share them on Facebook or Twitter from your mobile app. If the recording is private you can share it through email with the mobile app. You can download m4a files of your recording from the website, also. There is a limit with the free account that allows you 120 minutes of recorded audio hosted in your Sound Cloud account. You can have up to 100 downloads per recording. You can visit http://soundcloud.com/101/education to learn more about using Sound Cloud in education.
AUDIOBOO
http://audioboo.fm/
ios: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/audioboo/id305204540?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Audioboo&hl=en
Recording an audio recording is very straight-forward. One limitation is that the recordings can only be 3 minutes long. You can add a title, picture and description for the audio recording. You can save and upload the audio file directly to the Audiboo website. You do have the ability to share your "boos" on Facebook and Twitter. You can click "more" on any recording for additional options to share. You can copy a "url," send it through email and open it in safari. You can also copy embed code for each recording to place it in Blackboard. The website gives you a feature similar to Pinterest where you can create boards (or collections) of your "boos" and organize them. then you could share a board - you can embed the whole board of multiple audio files - might have some use in education setting. There is no ability to download the recordings and there is no ability to make the recordings private.
There is a lot of support information available on the web for using Audioboos in education. Audioboo has a blog that often runs articles on using Audioboo in education. A few resources on Audioboo in education:
- http://blog.audioboo.fm/tag/education/
- http://techmeetsed.com/2011/06/05/audioboo-in-the-classroom-pt-1/
- http://blog.audioboo.fm/2012/10/02/some-great-examples-of-audioboo-in-education/
- http://blog.audioboo.fm/tag/education/
- http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/01/audioboo-your-audio-alternative-in.html
- http://techmeetsed.com/2011/06/05/audioboo-in-the-classroom-pt-1/
WAVEPAD
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/pocket.html
This sound editing software is a professional quality audio editor for the iPhone and iPad. It lets you create and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and reverb. (from the website) The software is available on the Windows and Mac for free. The mobile app called Pocket Wavepad is only available for ios:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-wavepad-hd/id418674227?mt=8http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/pocket.html
This software and app is more complex than the other two audio apps above and it does not provide a website to upload audio too. These would be the main limitations of the app. The app has the benefit of providing a full audio editor within the app. Recording is very simple, the interface for recording is very similar to a cassette player. You will choose an audio file format to save the file in. The file can be emailed or ftp'd. Click the gear icon and choose an mp3 as your format and the default sample rates are likely fine. They can be changed to your specific preferences, though. After you create the recording you can click through to see the waveform and do editing. You can apply effects and filters, cut audio and much more. It does take quite a while to get used to the editor and learn it, but once you do, you can do some very advanced editing right on your ipad. You can import/export audio in the mobile app to your itunes/icloud account. Once you email the audio file to yourself and download the attached mp3 file. I would recommend uploading this audio file to www.divshare.com. This website is a streaming host and setting up a free account gives 5 gig of storage and it provides a simple embed code that can be embedded into your Blackboard site. Ta Da! A lecture capture solution that doesn't cost $60,000+.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Meeting
Blackboard Mobile App
Jeff Maston demonstrated the Blackboard Mobile app.
The Blackboard Mobile Learn app is Blackboard's current answer to providing access to the learning management system via a mobile device.
This video clip provides an overview of the app.
After launching the app for the first time, you'll be prompted to search for your school and then login into Blackboard with your regular username and password for Blackboard. The layout or design of the Blackboard app is quite a bit different from what you see when you log in on a computer.
While the app does offer access to the Blackboard system on a mobile device, many of the features and task you desire to complete are not available through the app. Whichever mobile device being used may limit the Blackboard features that can be accessed from the app, also.
Features of Blackboard Mobile Learn:
- Get course notifications on your mobile device.
- View course announcements.
- Instructors can create new announcements.
- View, create and reply to discussion boards.
- Students can view grades.
- Read blog posts and add comments.
- Read and add comments to Journals (based on permissions, of course)
- Attach items from dropbox to discussion board.
- The control panel and most management aspects of the course are not available in the app.
- The grade center and any ability to enter or grade assignments or discussion boards is not available in the app.
- Adding new content to a course
- Building tests, quizzes, and surveys
- Submitting tests, quizzes, and surveys
- Submitting assignments
- Grading assignments
- Adjusting Grade Center options
- Participating in chat or synchronous sessions
- Viewing any Flash-based instructional content or movies
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