iPad – A Tool For Digital Natives

Recently my son came home from school all excited with a letter saying that his school was going to start an individual iPad program for the senior grades from next year.

This is great to see! Not only because his Dad is a IT Teacher but because….

Our children are growing up in the 21 Century, it’s a very different one in which you or I grew up in! I saw and used my first computer when I was in year 9 in High School. It was a Commodore Vic 20 – Remember those?

: Commodore Vic20

Right from an early age our kids are exposed to all kinds of technological devices and technologies such as fridges that can tell you when you’re out of milk, microwaves that literally tell you how to cook a meal, televisions that you can surf the internet on, smartphones, GPS devices, digital cameras, voip phones you name it they are surrounded by it – TECHNOLOGY IS EVERYWHERE! (well almost everywhere!) Whether you like it or not this is the world that our kids are growing up in. And what’s more our kids are experts and intuitive at using all this technology!

Our kids are digital natives so what better way to keep them engaged and enthusiastic about the learning that they do at school, by giving them the tools or in this case, an iPad to use to enhance their learning.

In his recent article Sesh Kumar from Learning Solutions magazine said that…

“The iPad… enables a host of activities such as referencing, collaborating, and creating content. In an August 2010 Wired.com article, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet,” the transformation from open Web browsing to specialized apps was a change driven by the Apple model of mobile computing. The iPad leverages this trend by providing personalized choice of content, a big plus for student users…. …there’s no doubt that the iPad has taken personal computing to the next level. Considering computing devices began with a vision of revolutionizing education, it’s not surprising that many of the iPad’s features appeal to educational users.”

You can read the whole article by Sesh here – Why the iPad is a Learning Tool

Some other interesting articles you might want to read about iPads in Education

How the iPad 2 Will Revolutionize Education

Top 4 Advantages to using iPads in K-12 Schools

10 Big Benefits of Using iPads in Schools

You might also be interested in looking at the videos below

Year of the iPad in Education

iPad as an Educational Tool

Rather than re-invent the wheel I’ve put together a list of websites that provide links, review, guides and resources to some of the best iPad apps you can find on the net. Some are free apps and others you have to pay a small fee to download.

Victorian Government iPads for Learning website

Victorian Government iPads for Learning website Education Apps

iPad Curriculum

Learning and Teaching with iPads

40 Useful iPad Apps With Beautiful Interfaces

5 Great Educational iPad Apps of Kids

Apps for parents: Best iPad apps for elementary school kids

Elementary (Primary) School iPad Apps

12 Great iPad Apps for Elementary School Kids

10 iPad Apps You Don’t Want To Go To School Without

Excellent iPad Apps for Education

I’m Back!

Hi Everyone,
After a very long hiatus (over 24 months) I’m back writing here on my blog. My goal is to bring it back to its former glory, trying some new and interesting things and just see what happens with it. I’ve been out of the blogosphere for quite some time and hasn’t the landscape changed?
There are so many bloggers out there these days, so many people trying to get their voices heard on various subjects that interest them that it’s hard to really figure out which ones are the good ones and which aren’t really worth your time. My re-entry into blogging isn’t to try and please the masses or to strive to get the most hits in a single day…I’m back to reclaim my passion for writing about technology and about the stuff that interests ME the most.
I’m looking forward to getting back to writing on here, and if by some miracle my site starts getting popular again simply from what I like to write about, then that’s fantastic! It’s a great way for likeminded people to get together and discuss the topics that interest them the most, and to get people talking about how they are using technology in education; that is one of the great goals I hope I can reach.
Thanks.

Sumo Paint – Let Your Student’s Creativity Flourish

Sumo Paint is a free online paint and image editing program (you can register to get more features – like saving your creations online) that looks similar in feel to those higher end photo imaging programs such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Fun and easy to use, sumo paint provides a palette of tools that should be well-known to users of software based paint programs.
Some of the features and tools that you are offered are creating lines, special blending and opacity effects, cross-hatching, numerous brush types and variations, adjusting shading, colour balance, saturation, tint, hue, texture, contrast, tone, rotation, and the choice in picking colour schemes seem endless, just to name a few.

From an educational perspective, what I find really cool about this program is that students who have used a computer have more than likely messed around with a paint program of some description in the past and because of that will find Sumo Paint intuitively easy to use, with little or no instruction before they are creating their masterpieces.

Recently I began using Sumo Paint with the year 2 and year 3 classes at the school where I work with great success. Prior to this they had only used Microsoft Paint or Tux Paint! The students seem to be really enthusiastic in using and creating artwork with the web 2 application and will often tell me the next day that they used it when they got home from school or showed it to their parents.

They are able to save their work in either png or jpg format, and since the program is free and online, they can access it at home, in the library, basically from anywhere there is a computer and an internet connection. Plus any artwork they create can be instantly put up on to the classroom/school website/blog or sent, via email to friends and family if they wish to do so.

Sumo Paint is a fantastic tool to use with your students, and because it’s online and did I mention free, you don’t have to purchase or download any other software. Why not give Sumo Paint a go in your classroom and watch your student’s creativity flourish.

To get to Sumo Paint or learn more about this cool online paint program either click here or on the Sumo Paint icon above.

See what is possible with Sumo Paint in this four minute video.

Stock.XCHNG – Why Use It In The Classroom?

Despite the name, this website has nothing to do with the trading of shares (not that such a premise would not be without its education merits!). Stock.XCHNG is a website that instead deals with the trading of digital photos. More often than not, the process is generally one-way (you, downloading the photos of your choice), but there is the option of uploading pictures of your own or even pictures that the students have taken. Source the easy-to-use search engine at SXC and you can have dozens of copyright-free pictures on any topic within seconds.
Some of you might be reading this overview, wondering at its relevance. Perhaps you, like many other teachers, simply tap into Google Images to quickly scour through thousands of websites to find a suitable picture or clip art for your presentation or newsletter. What many teachers don’t realise is that, without proper referencing, this can be illegal. And yet, because the quick search/paste method of digital photography is so painless, many teachers (and members of society at large) have become entirely too comfortable with infringing the creative rights of photographers and individuals the world over. Perhaps now you are starting to see the merits of a website entirely comprised of copyright-free, easy to download images.
Stock.XCHNG has a pleasing variety of images for you to search through, more so than some other “free” websites. It could and probably should therefore be one of the first places you start your search for digital images for integration in the classroom.
Teaching students the ethics associated with utilising technology, particularly web-based material, is one of the forefront issues in recent curriculum. It is therefore vital that as educators, we model the same expectations we have for the students.

Stock.XCHNG is teacher and student friendly and its use should be considered by time and copyright conscious classrooms everywhere.

If you would like to learn more about using Stock.XCHNG in your classroom click here for your free guide.

Classtools.net – Why Use It In The Classroom?

ClassTools.net is worth its weight in educational gold. A virtual toolbox for teachers to use in the creation of digital activities, it not only allows you to customize interactive games and lessons in a couple of quick easy steps, but provides you with an exciting range of in-class resources that you can pull out to enhance the mundane routines your students may be accustomed to.
So just how easy are these tools to use? In all honesty, they couldn’t be much easier. Choose the type of activity you are looking to create from a massive selection of genres, including arcade games, word sorts, lucky picks (just to name a few), then enter the content you would like the students to revise/explore and your activity or game is ready to go. It really is that simple.
Needless to say, the classroom applications for such a website are limitless. You can create and save activities to revise content taught in class by embedding them into a blog. You can set up and run game show themed lessons as a way to engage student interest. You could make your own retro-themed video game for students to play as they match definitions to words. All of these possibilities can be set up and run in matter of minutes.
You are no doubt beginning to calculate the worth of this website. The especially adventurous may wish to allow students to utilise ClassTools for themselves, creating activities and lessons for presentation to their peers. Regardless of how it is used, ClassTools.net can and should be utilised by any educator seeking to effortlessly embed ICT into the ordinary things of the classroom.
ClassTools.net can be used to enhance any KLA or content, and can be used to foster higher-level thinking skills. The worth of this website and its contribution to quality learning in your students is only limited by the creativity and skill of the user.

If you would like to learn more about using classtools.net in your classroom click here for your free guide.

Google – Why Use It In The Classroom?

Have you ever Googled yourself? Anyone familiar with the world’s biggest search engine has probably succumbed to the temptation at some point. Google is renowned for finding information — a lot of information, and fast. I remember the first time I used Google to conduct research for a university assignment and the resulting aneurism when confronted with the millions of matches to my particular topic. Needless to say, it took me some time to sift through all those matches to my query. In time, I learnt how to search a bit more effectively.
Google is probably the most extensively used search engine that most teachers currently utilize in one way or another, but have you ever considered using it for the dozens of other applications and features it offers for educational and e-learning purposes?

A quick exploration of these features reveals a wealth of educational benefits.

Google Maps can quickly and easily chart a journey between two destinations, complete with ETA.
Google Alerts can tip you off when fresh news breaks by sending you an email with the details.
Google Images can provide you with literally millions of stimulus pictures to inspire class discussions.
Google Reader allows you to follow the latest up-to-date trends and information in education or on any topic you choose.
Google Docs allows you to create, share, edit and collaborate with other users of your choosing on word-processing, spreadsheets etc online.

In addition to these, there are plenty of other products for you to test out and consider for you and your classroom (there isn’t enough space in this post to list them all!)

Google is the “swiss army knife” for any educator working within the digital age. You could almost “live off Google alone”, given the sheer scope of options this website offers and the symbiotic relationship a lot of these applications share with learning.
Be sure to know your obligations as far as copyright is concerned, especially if you think it acceptable to start copying unreferenced images or text into your presentations (it’s actually illegal!). Use Google effectively, reference the websites you learn from and vast amounts of information, images, videos, articles and resources will be under your command. Use your power wisely.

If you would like to learn more about using google in your classroom click here for your free guide.

Here is a video by Common Craft that explains how to use a search engine like google more effectively.

If you already use google or any of it’s many applications in your day to day work as an educator, why not leave us a comment below and tell us how you use it?

Make Your Own Interactive Wiimote Whiteboard

wiimote3 One of the more techie things that I have been playing around with over the last 12 months has been the Wiimote Whiteboard. What precisely is a Wiimote Whiteboard I hear you say? Originally developed by Johnny Chung Lee from Carnegie Mellon University, it’s a way to turn a simple data projector into an inexpensive yet very effective Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). Basically you connect a Nintendo Wiimote via Bluetooth to your computer (that’s hooked up to your data projector), point the Wiimote at whatever your going to use as your screen (it could be a blank wall, floor or normal whiteboard), use some free Wiimote Whiteboard configuration software, and use an IR-pen (you can either create your own or buy ready made IR-pens online) to access the screen. The Infrared Sensor in the Wiimote detects where you have positioned your IR-pen relative to the screen and translates that to the computer, just like a mouse.
On a side note, the original wiimote whitboard software created by Johnny Lee has been further refined by Boon Jin. Visit BoonJin.com to download Wiimote Smoothboard 1.0. This application is first-rate and has some nice features like floating toolbars, offscreen toggles for onscreen keyboards etc. N.B. It does require Net Framework 3.5 to work.

The real beauty of this setup is the cost! It can all be done for $120-$140 AUD or less! The software is available free on the internet, a Wiimote costs $60-$70 AUD, a usb Bluetooth dongle for $40 AUD (if your computer or Laptop doesn’t have Bluetooth built-in), an IRpen $10 AUD (make yourself from parts bought at an electronics store) or buy online $8-$10 US (ready made), and a tripod $20 AUD.

There are a copious amount of sites devoted to providing advice and ideas on creating and using the Wiimote Whiteboard. Here are just a few to get you started.

http://www.wiimoteproject.com/

http://wiimoteproject.ning.com/

http://www.boonjin.com/wp/

http://www.smoothboard.net/

Johnny Lees Blog

Here are a few videos you might be interested in watching about Wiimote Whiteboards!

A video of me using a Wiimote Whiteboard

Johnny Chung Lee on TED

Wikipedia – Why Use It In The Classroom?

Wikipedia, the world’s free online encyclopedia, is a powerful resource to command in your classroom and after exploring its uses, you will wonder how you survived without it. That sounds like a rather illustrious claim, but it is one that is proven to be true by many teachers. Why? Consider the following “classic” classroom scenario.
You are leading a well-prepared session of learning. All is running smoothly, the students are participating and the topic is interesting, thus generating some good discussion. A student raises their hand and, upon having their request validated, innocently asks a question that is beyond your ability to answer. The normal response to this situation obviously varies with the teacher, but, sadly enough, some teachers would prefer to short-change their students with a hopelessly inaccurate, on-the-spot-I-hope-I’m-right cover up, than actually model a real, “professional” response to learning from an unfamiliar situation.
Enter Wikipedia. The same scenario, with Wikipedia nearby can show students your willingness to learn along side them. Wikipedia is quick and effortless to use. Type in your topic and the definition (along with references, pronunciation and related topics, in most instances) will be at your fingertips within seconds.
Wikipedia’s name is derived from the word “wiki”, which is website that anyone can edit or modify. Wikipedia has therefore been created through the collaborative efforts of the world-wide web community, a phenomenal concept in its own right and a tremendous example of learning together as a team. Definitions are often referenced, and relevant hyperlinks provide further connections for you to explore. A world of information is at your fingertips. You’ll wonder what you did without it.

If you would like to learn more about Wikipedia or it’s alternatives click here for your free guide.

Blogger – Why Use It In The Classroom?

Statistics indicate that 28% of Gen Y, in particular, uni students (digital natives) maintain their own blog and regularly read or review others. This figure will only balloon further in the years ahead.

It is therefore important for teachers to not only understand what blogging involves, but to tap in to its potential applications for the classroom.
What is blogging then? Simply put, it’s journal writing, online. The appeal of blogging is that anyone with an opinion can share their views about movies/books/politics/education/anything with the rest of the world. You are, undoubtedly, beginning to see why students find this premise very empowering. It is little wonder that some students find the “mundane” routines of school to be an irrelevant chore when at home, they can share their view of the world with whoever is listening.
Classroom blogging is a very powerful motivational force for writing, particularly with those students who moan and groan about putting pen to page. Using Blogger, a free-to-use website, you can create a blog for your class and use it publish your student’s views, stories, reports or news, thus making them celebrities, much akin to authors (in their minds!) because they suddenly have a massive audience—the world!
Blogger also contains suitable security measures that can lock out unauthorised viewers if you wish to use a class blog that updates class parents with news from the classroom. Along with those described above, there are dozens of other applications for blogging, limited only by your creativity and the conventions of genre writing. The world is your oyster!

If you would like to learn more about blogger or it’s alternatives click here for your free guide.

Common Craft have produced a quick video that explains blogging in simple terms.

Youtube – Why Use It In The Classroom?

YouTube’s name is often associated with teen-age pranks or notoriety, but in actuality YouTube is one of the most valuable assets a classroom teacher can wield in order to integrate technology into daily practice.

Like it or not, we teach a breed of technologically-savvy super students (digital natives), reared on a diet of DVDs, video games and music (and more often than not, a combination of all of the above). These children often eat YouTube for breakfast, so why shouldn’t we dish up some educational cuisines of our own? It’s interesting to note CNN recently found that “popular site YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for almost half the incremental gain in videos viewed.”

The power of YouTube is in the sheer scope and variety of its content. It is an epic dumping ground for videos all the world over; type in a search for any topic and you’ll often get dozens of matches, including quality educational programs prepared and uploaded by businesses, TV stations and educators. However, there is also a great deal of inappropriate material as well, and so to use YouTube effectively, teachers should carefully monitor every clip before sharing them with the class.

Used effectively when planning (along with careful monitoring of content), YouTube will serve you faithfully by acting as the catalyst for quality discussions, luring your students deep into the realm of engagement without them even realising it. You can even work towards the opposite end of the scale by having students create their own videos to upload for global viewing. And what could be more engaging to a student than becoming an internationally renown legend in their own right?

To learn more about Youtube and how you can set up an account for your classroom click here for you free guide.

Technology Integration Mentors

Helping Educators Integrate Technology Into Their Classrooms