2013 App Smash Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to Tina Mills, PCMS communication arts teacher, for winning the 2013 App Smash Challenge!

Mrs. Mills had students combine the PicCollage app and the iMovie trailer app.  As Mrs. Mills states,
     
"In the past, students have used the iMovie trailer and had a blast with it.  The only problem is that sometimes they want to include more than one word or image (in a spot in the trailer) and can't change the templates.  I have had them use PicCollage to add multiple texts and images into one image.  They then can insert the PicCollage picture into the iMovie trailer."

Thank you, Mrs. Mills, for accepting the first App Smash Challenge!

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G Drive (Green) App For Downloading Video From Google Drive To iMovie

Saving video to an iPad from Google Drive was not possible until I found a solution courtesy of one of our IT people, @kenwestphal.

Collaborating with multiple students on different iPads or taking video with an iPhone or iPod was a difficult task because the Google Drive app only allowed downloading of images for use in iMovie.  Using the G Drive (Green) app now allows for videos to be imported into iMovie once the video is uploaded to a student's or teacher's Google Drive account.

If students are recording video using an Android device, the video will need to be converted before G Drive will import it into iMovie on the iPad.  We use Any Video Converter.

G Drive (Green) App
Google Drive App

View how it works!  Don't forget to have students log out of the G Drive app.


Video Link

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Pic Collage For European Beverage

Mrs. Brylski, World Geography teacher, challenged her students to create a beverage to sell to customers after they had learned about their culture.  Using Pic Collage on the iPad, students created a marketing tool to sell their created beverage. Upon completion, the flyer will be evaluated by the teacher and by an ad marketing agent using a Google Shared Folder.  Inside the folder will be the ads and a Google Document that will provide an area of comments for the marketing agent.  Students will take these comments and improve their add for an ultimate "winner" to be chosen.

Video Link


ITLS Strand 1
SAMR Redefinition

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Storyboarding For iMovie

Our AP Environmental Science students are about to embark on creating videos for two "areas of concern' (AOC) in our local area.  These videos will be made with an iPad and iMovie.

Before the videos can be created, some preparation work needs to be done.

Credit

Students need to know that storyboarding is truly what makes the video pop!  Thinking through the following items will help to ensure a final quality product.

• Scene Setting: Where will the scene be filmed? If still images, what scenes will the still images portray.
• Scene Characters: Who will be in the scene?
• Scene Visual: Somewhat similar to scene setting, but with more emphasis on the actions that will take place during the scene.
• Scene Text: Specifically, what will be said and who will say the exact words during the scene.

Storyboard Usable Information For PHS Teachers Here

While we love using technology at the correct time in our district, the best tool for storyboarding is paper and pencil.  Therefore, the link below may be useful as a storyboard.  Students will only print out the number of scenes that they fill will take place during their production.

Storyboard Scene setting, characters, text, and visual printout

ITLS Strand 1

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PHS iPad Apps By Department

I was finally able to create lists of apps that exist on our department iPads at the high school level.  I was able to save these lists as pdfs via the iTunes store app on our MacBooks.  I liked how I could include the name of the iPad app and a picture of the app.

It is truly interesting to see how the types of apps are different between departments and how some are the same.

VIEW THE APPS

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United Streaming and Opposing Views

Informational Text for the Common Core State Standards can be printed text but doesn't always need to be.  Opposing Viewpoints is a great resource for printed text in various forms, while Discovery Education is a great resource for visual informational resources.  See what both of them bring to your classroom.

• Both resources work great on laptops, Chromebooks and iPads through the Chrome browser.  This would work especially if the teacher is projecting a video they have on their account.  A challenge does occur when a teacher would like students to watch the video with a log in.
• Paid version of Discovery Education app is available on the iPad
• All resources look great on a projected screen

Opposing Viewpoints Information

United Streaming (Discovery Education) Information

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iPad Whiteboard App In Science Class

The Whiteboard app for the iPad has many uses.  Hear how, Ms. Thut, uses the app in her science class.


Video Link
ITLS Standard: 1 and Skill (Grade 9)

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Quizlet On The iPad For Relationship Building In Speech Class

Mr. Manning, after taking my three credit graduate class this summer, decided to use Quizlet on the iPad to build relationships in speech class.  As he stated, "Students need to feel comfortable in the presence of others in order to successfully deliver a speech."  Because of this, students provided details about themselves as students in the class documented information about the students.  Quizlet provided a great tool to learn who each person was in the class.

Mr. Manning also states a great observation as to how the iPads, and the iPads alone, engage the students.



Video Link

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Google Drive App and Google Spreadsheet To Document IEP Standard Progress

Mr. Goodness continues to utilize seamless integration with his iPad, the Google Drive app, and a Google Spreadsheet on his computer to document student progress.  View how the organization is allowing him to know the specific accomplishments and areas of work for each student.  In addition, all of this information is at his fingertips for parent viewing during IEP meetings.

Awesome!



Video Link

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Promotional Video Lunch N' Learn Year 2

Creating a promotional video for our Pulaski High School weekly Lunch N' Learn provided me with a great opportunity to use a technology tool that I learned about at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in Austin.

Final Cut Pro X provided me with so many eye catching graphics that no other program has provided me.  I decided that I would use the great people of Pulaski High School to promote our Lunch N' Learn.  I recorded as many people as I could saying, "I'm there!" using my iPad 2.  I then used the fantastically efficient Photosync app and Mac client to seamlessly and efficiently transfer the video clips from my iPad to a Mac wirelessly.  I imported the different media clips into Final Cut Pro X and combined them with the amazing graphics that Final Cut Pro X provides.  I decided that the best song for this video would be OK Go's Here It Goes Again! because it's our second year! Through the sharing options that Final Cut Pro X provides, I was able to easily upload it to my YouTube channel.

The entire process of recording, editing, and producing took just under three hours.  I am thankful that I am able to use Final Cut Pro X and look forward to finding more features and uses for this amazing production tool.

The promotional video is being sent out this morning to over 80 high school staff members as tomorrow starts year two of our wildly famous (ok, just famous) Lunch N' Learn.  I truly appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that our staff brings to these volunteer learning sessions.  Our staff also did a fantastic job of demonstrating their unique personalities when stating, "I'm there!"

Awesome!

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Google Drive Shared Folder For Housing Classroom Resources

Our eighth grade communication arts teachers needed a place to house multiple resources that each of them are creating.  As of now, they were emailing the resources to each other which was causing email overload!  The Google Drive will be used as a cloud storage opportunity with the ability to download the documents that are created.  The documents can be any digital documents including SMART notebook files.  The great thing about this process is that digital tools created on a computer/laptop/chromebook or on an iOS device can be shared with all teachers!

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Importing Google Map KMZ File Into iPad Year 2

Last year, the U.S. History teachers created a Google Map kmz file to import into Google Earth on the iPad.    In year two of integrating technology, we will do the same process, but students will need to get the file from a teacher's website.

View the process below.
Step 1


Step 2



Want to embed the tutorials into your websites?  Simply get the orginial and embed into your site.
U.S. History Civil War Battles Google Maps & iPads
Google Maps KMZ File To iPad

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Northcentral Technical College K-12 Technology Summit

Today was a true blessing!

It is always a wonderful experience to share thoughts on how to integrate technology in education with teachers.  I appreciated the eagerness of the participants to learn something new and to think differently!

My Keynote:


Teachers experienced slides 1-13 for five minutes and then had 55 minutes to "Choose Their Own Adventure" for creating something that they can implement into their educational setting.

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U.S. History 1990 And Early 2000 iMovie Trailers

Mr. Krause recently invited me into his classroom to assist students in developing an iMovie trailer on the iPad.  The task was to create a movie trailer highlighting an assigned topic in U.S. History during the 1990's.

PURPOSE: Movie trailers are done to attract an audience to the film.  The movie trailer will be trying to do the same thing by attracting the audience to your topic by highlighting the important or interesting things about your topic.

See how students created their final U.S. History product.
View the actual documents of the project.  To create the documents to be viewed, I inserted the pictures into   a Google Drive folder, changed the viewing access to "anyone with a link".  I then copied the link to the statement above.

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Photo Size Email Options On iPad...In 20 Seconds

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Docsteach iPad App

Docteach from The National Archives Experience 

The App

DOCSTEACH - Bring History To Life For History Students

DOCSTEACH - iPad App Explanation

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Explain Everything AP Statistics

Mr. Martinson, AP  stated, "Every student in here can do the math, it's the explanation of the data collection and the process that's being assessed."

That's where Explain Everything enters the classroom!  Students in AP Statistics provided a perfect canvas for students to describe the process of data collection and analysis.

Listen to students explain how they are using Explain Everything...


*The video contains the Explain Everything app prior to update.  We updated the app after class and students prior work transitioned to the updated version with no glitches!

After two and a half days of creation time, students will share the created videos to the teacher through the Google Drive exporting option in the Explain Everything app.

Examples of Final Student Productions!

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Explain Everything in High School Science Planets

Mrs. Last had an idea!  Have the students discuss and teach what they knew about planets in our universe.

After showing the Explain Everything app to her during a half hour training session she felt it was going to meet the needs of the students.

Students created tutorials that contained names of the planets, information of those planets, their path of travel, and other features that students wanted to include.

After creating the tutorials, students pushed the video creation to Mrs. Last via the Google Drive feature within the Explain Everything app.

Two examples of student created work are below.

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Teacher Tells Their Story - Episode 3

Mrs. Deprey completed an engaging collaborative project using the iPads.  The Explain Everything app provided the perfect tool for students to create a fractured fairy tale complete with audio and animation.  The video was then shared with third graders in another city.

Hear the process:


View Mrs. Deprey's example:

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Explain Everything Audio and Visual For Junior Papers

Mrs. Denk, high school English teacher, wanted an iPad app for students to present their papers.  In the past, students stood in front of their peers and read their papers.  This year, they are going to read their paper, but they are also adding imagery and audio while reading the paper.  Explain Everything was the perfect tool for this application.

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