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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iVisual Touch Infographic of 2103 Lunch N' Learns

Today, I learned about the iVisual info Touch iPad Infographic App through Richard Byrne @ iPad Apps For School.  We have implemented infographics in our high school Human Geography last year so I was intrigued to see if an iPad app could be used with students.

I created an infographic for Lunch N' Learn statistics.  This is the first full year of volunteer learning opportunities for our high school staff.

Positives of iVisual Touch 

• Free Form Writing Lines
• Multiple Backgrounds
• Four Pages of Icons
• Colorful World Flags
• Color Palette
• Seven Fonts
• Add Pictures (Great to use with other apps such as Skitch or PicCollage)
• Grid Lines for Creating
• Save To Camera Roll (Great for uploading to Google Drive)

Negatives of iVisual Touch

• No Locking Options of Objects
• No Undo Button
• No Automatic Save
• Free app great to try, but limited options (I purchased the full app)

Impact On Students:

Creativity: Students can continue to use their imagination to create graphics that express their summary skills.

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Basic Anatomy Students Helping Patients

Last year, Mr. Anderson embarked on a problem-based learning opportunity for his Anatomy students.

Read.

This year, Mr. Anderson invited my to his classroom for the final days of the learning environment.  Students were introduced to a patient.  That patient was shown an informational iMovie describing the body part that was being affected.  The iPad provided a great conversation starter between the patient and the students. Within that movie, students provided factual information along with specific footage of the students describing the body parts functions. (Special thanks to Mr. Gosse for being a patient)

Video Link


Impact On Students:
Collaboration: Students worked in partners to develop an information iMovie that would provide patients with some of the knowledge they needed to understand what was ailing them.
Creativity: Students need to use a multi-media approach complete with audio, video, and still images to convey information in a clear and concise manner.
Critical Thinking: Students experienced a wealthy of information and placing the correct information into the video was vital.  In addition, students needed to transfer the knowledge they had of the body parts to the patient while having a conversation.  It wasn't all about the technology.  Students needed to critically think about the most important information and provide that to the patient.

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Searching Google Drive Using Filters & Creation Tools

Tired of trying to organize the plethora of Google Drive files you create or that have been shared with you?

Stop.

Learn to search with key shortcuts that will help you be more efficient.

• Dropdown Menu Icon
• Search Operators
• " " Quotes
• OR
• - Hyphen
• from:
• to:
• type:
• before: YYYY-MM-DD after:YYYY-MM-DD
• owner:
• title:

Video Link


Add Apps Search To Gmail
Video Link


Search Your Google Drive

Engaging New Web Tools!
FutureMe 
Make Badges

Engaging New iPad App Tools!
Tellagami (Free)
Fuzel (Free)
Fuzel Tutorial Video Link

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Fuzel Collage Creation App

I recently discovered the redesigned Fuzel App. There are many apps that all for creation of collages, but this one seems to have an enormous amount of templates in which to insert pictures.

Sharing options, including save to camera roll, can provide easy uploading to Google Drive.

Video Link

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iMovie Updates In iOS 7

Many great features have been added to the iMovie app in iOS 7 for iPad.  My Explain Everything video will, well, Explain Everything.  Providing students with a storyboard prior to creating will help in the process.

Important Features

• Three tabs get you access
• Video
• Project
• Theater
• ? Button always has answers (use it)
• Yellow tab has > provides more information
• +
• Movie
• Trailer
• Movie
• Flexible, Creativity
• Pictures/Videos
• Add any music you want
• Trailer
• Set areas for pictures/videos
• Set areas for text
• Rigid
• Music is provided
• Projects Tab>Click Specific Project
• Small Triangle Button--play video without producing it
• Box With Up Arrow--produce video
• Trash Can--Delete
• Pencil--Edit Title

Video Link


CANVA--Creation Tool

Impact On Students

• Creativity--It's all about creativity.  It's endless
• Critical Thinking--Providing a storyboard prior to creating a video will enable efficiency while using the app
• Citizenship--If the videos are being published to the web, consideration must be made for proper digital citizenship.

Medium--informational text

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Tellagami App Used For Breakfast Bytes Promotional Video

The Tellagami app was used for promoting tomorrow's Breakfast Bytes.
Tellagami app was...

• easy to use
• adaptable to my creativity
• sharable

Video Link

I also added this to the "Creation Apps on iPad".

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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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Pulaski High School Hub (Library) Introduction and Pic Collage

Last year, the civics teachers, Mr. Nickerson and Mrs. McCumber, had the students complete a black and white map labeling the areas of the library.  This year, with the help of Pic Collage on the iPad, creates an authentic picture of the areas in the library with pictures of the students.

Check it out actual video footage and reflection from Mrs. McCumber!

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Air Server For Connecting iPads To Computer

While conducting Day 3 of my "Teaching With Technology Tools" graduate class, I was able to incorporate the Air Server app for displaying iPads on my laptop computer.

Bottom line: Fantastic!

Students created Explain Everything screen casts or PicCollage creations that could be used in their classroom.  In an efficient sharing method, the Air Server app allowed for students to quickly connect to display their creation and to disconnect so that another student could display their creation.

Thankfully, our district has decided to purchase this amazing tool for our teachers!

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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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Explain Everything Video Tutorial

I have been wanting to complete this for some time. Mission accomplished!

All digital buttons in the Explain Everything app have great features.  Watch the five minute video tutorial on the features of Explain Everything.



Don't forget to have students log out of third party accounts.

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Flowboard - Storytelling On The iPad

Flowboard is another great storytelling tool.

• Elegant
• Simple
• Multiple Options

My First Flowboard Creation

View Features Of Flowboard

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Poetry Analysis Project

Miss Tubbs, high school English teacher, came to me with an idea for using a digital tool as a means for students to analyze poetry.  I offered three different tools that I felt would engage students so that they could be creative while interpreting poetry.

Tools suggested were...

• Haiku Deck - iPad App
• SMORE - web based
• Thinglink

The following paragraph is Miss Tubbs' wonderful, enlightening reflection of the process.

Here are some samples from the poetry analysis project.  Students chose different poems to analyze.  They had to find a theme in the poem and use three categories of poetic techniques to explain how those techniques created the theme.  While students liked Haiku deck, Smore and Thinglink worked better for this project because they were able to write using complete sentences and be more thorough in their explanations.

Smore student example:

https://www.smore.com/7b6m-the-seven-ages-of-man

Smore teacher example:

https://www.smore.com/hk9p-we-never-know-how-high-we-are?ref=my

Haiku Deck student example:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/4PxGuN6qCb

Haiku Deck teacher example:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/0GzexUQmvz/we-never-know

Thinglink student example:

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/381164533370060801

Thinglink teacher example:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/377903033310248960

Thank you to Miss Tubbs for sharing her reflection and some fantastic student creations!

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Haiku Deck Video Tutorial

I have offered Haiku Deck as a fantastic presentation tool for the iPad many times.

• Written Form To Explain Jasmine YouTube App
• High School English Paint Poetry
• Essentail Elements of Life In Physical Science
• AP Environmental Science

Our high school Chemistry teacher wanted a tool for an AP Chemistry Final Project to take pictures of the equipment/chemicals throughout the steps of the demonstration so a viewer could easily see and read the vital parts of the process.

Haiku Deck will be the perfect tool for this.

View the video tutorial of how to use Haiku Deck below...

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Lunch N' Learn Topic Vote Announced

 I used a picture of our Google Form results and the Postale app to alert staff about the topic for today.

The app was quite easy to use and allows for a number of customized settings.

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PicCollage For Writing In The Workplace

Mr. Mentink, the Writing In The Workplace teacher, asked me how he could enhance a traditional poster learning activity with technology.  The result is an engaging one and a half days of learning that previously occurred over four to five days.

See how PicCollage enhanced and empowered the students in the educational experience.

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iPad Whiteboard For Authentic Connections In Science

Mr. Lenz discovered the whiteboard app and put it to good use.  View how technology was incorporated into his Science classroom at the right time and for the right reason.

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