QR Code Bulletin Board

Our World Languages Department decided to incorporate QR Codes into their bulletin board.  They surveyed their teachers and each submitted their favorite music videos from different countries.  Then, they prepared a page on each artist (or group).  So each page contains the name of the artist, the title of the song, a brief description, and a QR Code to the Youtube video of that song.  Students and staff can use their QR readers to access that song.  Pretty Cool.  The photos below are from the whole bulletin board and one of the pages.

Glogster Instead of Posters!

If you are like me, you are tired of those "same old posters."  Students print pictures, cut them out, and paste them on poster board.  Or they make the "tri-fold presentation board" with printed material and pictures from the web.  Why not make something interactive and colorful?

Glogster allows the user to add pictures, video, audio, links, etc.  It is colorful, interactive, and fun.  A teacher can collect these online posters from students and share them with the class and parents.  Wow!  And we didn't have to buy paper, glue, toner, etc.  With these glogs, students can link to the websites where the material is found, making it easy for the reader to obtain more information, if interested.  These glogs are shareable and embeddable.  They've made it very easy.

Glogster also has a teacher friendly account.  Glogster.edu makes it easy for teachers to share their online posters.  It allows for simple creation of collaborative class projects.

Check out my first glogster.  Literally done in less than one hour.  It contains links, video, and audio.

Annotation Tools in Preview

Preview on the mac has a tool menu that contains annotation tools.  These tools allow you to easily open any pdf file and "mark it up."  These tools are quick to use, giving you easy access to editing and emphasizing a document.  PDF files can be created from anything that is printable.  You  can save your work as a PDF, then display the PDF files on your board or screen with a projector.  Then, using their tools, you can edit, highlight changes or re-emphasize strong parts of the document.  There are many uses for this in the classroom.

Here are the tools:

Here is a tutorial video:

Skype for Open House

Our Chinese teacher has to travel between all 3 of our high schools.  Unfortunately, two of the schools had Open House on the same night, so we had a problem.  She came to me and asked if we could Skype into the classroom to allow the parents to meet her and hear from her, since she would be physically unable to change buildings in the 10 minutes allotted.  I thought it would be a great idea.

We were able to set up the computers and allow the Skype to occur.  She was able to share part of her Keynote presentation as well as talk to the parents.  I believe that the parents were extremely happy to see her talk about Chinese, since I was going to be the alternative.  She left her materials with me, just in case of technical difficulties.  She utilizes many different forms of technology in her class, and this was a way to directly show the parents her command of Skype.

Magic Wand Scanner

Check out this scanner.  It is the Magic Wand Portable Scanner, from VuPoint.  It's a AA battery-powered wand scanner that stores the image on a mini-SD card.  Really, this scanner takes about 5 minutes to setup and with some practice allows you to digitize just about anything you can hold flat.  The wand is about 9 inches wide so it has the ability to scan a sheet of paper, making it easy to scan a student's work without having a flatbed scanner in the room.

Once the scan is complete (and you can store many scans on the same card without having to unload), you hook the scanner up to your computer.  It uses a standard USB cable, which is included.  Once plugged into my mac, iPhoto opened and the images were ready for uploading.  No software to install.  Easy!!!  We are hoping that this wand will make documenting student work a little more accessible and convenient.

We also hope that it will help organize paperwork around the house.  My wife can use it while traveling to organize receipts, so that will save us some follow-up work when she returns home.  Also, it will allow us to throw away papers that we can scan and keep digitally.  We'll let you know in a few months just how helpful this device is.

3 Free iPad Drawing Apps

Here are three drawing apps for the iPad.  They seem to be pretty good for kids to be able to produce work.  Thanks to Shannon Miller for mentioning these.  There are different features available for each program.  These product are free and can be used by students of all ages.  They can play and create.  Check them out.

Crayola's ColorStudio HD - You can make pages using animations, clip art, and free writing.  Work can be saved or shared via email.  The user can also save a picture of their page with a screen-capture.  

Doodle Buddy for iPad -  You can create pages of artwork.  Doodle, stamp, add sounds and pictures to create you work.  Share your work via e-mail or save a picture with a screen-capture.

SketchBook Express - A high-quality tool for creating art.  Use tools to create pencil, pen, or brush marks.  You can also use shapes to create lines, circles, squares, etc.  You can even use layers to add depth to your creations.

10 iPad Apps Every Teacher Needs

Pages
9.99 (4.99 for schools buying at Volume Pricing)
Pages is a word-processing application.  It is designed to allow the user to edit, create, and view documents.  The documents can easily be shared via e-mail, or iTunes.  You can add photos and graphs to your word-processing and you can also utilize some standard templates to create new documents.  Pages is a necessity for the iPad user.

Keynote
9.99 (4.99 for schools buying at Volume Pricing)
Keynote is a presentation application.  It is designed to allow the user to edit, create, view, and share presentations.  Like pages, Keynote presentations can be shared easily via e-mail or iTunes.  Photos, graphs, charts, and other media can be added to your presentations.  It is an outstanding application for the iPad.

Numbers

9.99 (4.99 for schools buying at Volume Pricing)

Numbers is a spreadsheet application.  It is designed to allow the user to edit, create, and view spreadsheets.  It is easily share via e-mail and iTunes.  Data entry and chart creation are nicely accessible in the iPad app, making the Numbers app quite helpful to teachers that utilize spreadsheets.

Air Display

9.99 (4.99 for schools buying at Volume Pricing)

Air Display is an application that allows the iPad to take control of the users computer.  The display of the iPad mirrors the display of the other computer.  The user then utilizes the computers software and documents to perform tasks.  Teachers with LCD projectors on their computers can get the iPad to perform like a Interactive White Board if their computer has software that allows writing.  See information by Wesley Fryer with regards to that process.

Dropbox

Free

Dropbox is a free online storage application.  It is a site that installs on iPads, iPods, iPhones, and computers so the user can store files and have access to them no matter where they are.  Sign up for your free account at dropbox.com and get your friends to sign up as well.  Them more people you get to sign up, the more free storage space you get.

Evernote

Free

Evernote is an outstanding note-taking and idea-organizing application.  It can be used on an iPad or computer with an account that syncs the information between the locations.  It is easy to record audio, take photos, and write notes that can be organized into topic notebooks.  Your account will even give you and email address to e-mail notes into Evernote.  

Google Search

Free

Google Search makes searching the internet extremely easy, by saving you keystrokes.  Google Search utilizes Google's searching capabilities - like Voice Search (speak into the phone or iPad and it translates and starts the search), Google Goggles (searches using photo recognition - take a picture and it tries to find it), and it also uses your location to find information that is in your vicinity.  This is an outstanding application.

Dragon Dictation

Free

Dragon Dictation is a voice-to-text translator.  This application records your speech and translates it into text with outstanding accuracy.  The text can then be sent to others by text message, e-mail, and cut to your clipboard.  Dragon Dictation also connects easily to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Show Me

Free

Show Me is a screencasting application.

See Previous Post

Screen Chomp

Free

Screen Chomp is a screencasting application.

See Previous Post

Here are 10 applications that your iPad would love to have.  The applications will help you be productive and efficient.  As you can see, I like "Free" and feel like there is so much out there to help you do good work.  Here are some.  Send me your others.

Honorable Mention

Scan - A QR Code Reader

Dictionary.com - A Dictionary and Thesaurus look up.

Keynote Remote - Allows you to control your Keynote Presentations from your iPad.