A Feature Article on Our Work

Recently we were approached by the people at iStopMotion about the ways in which we use the program with our students.   We responded and shared our 7th grade animation project with them as well as our YouTube Playlist of Best Animations from last year's DVA.

We are very honoured that they chose to write an article about our work and would like to take this opportunity to share it with the community.

Please click here to read the article.

You can watch some of our student videos below.

Our New Animation Stations-Part One!

We decided last school year that our current tripod, nootle and ipad combination for shooting animation footage were just not working out.

It was then that we discovered the G7 Pro iPad Tripod. It turns out it was the best choice we could have made.


Today, while the new animation workspace was being painted chromakey green, we moved the students out of the studio and set them up with their G7s and iPads.  They had a wonderful time as they worked at provisional stations, filming the initial animation sequences for the stories they had written.

Both teachers and students were thrilled with the flexibility and sturdiness of the G7s. This  combined with the use of iStopMotion and Green Screen by DoInk has really helped us to streamline the animation process and keep frustration levels low.  Having a more stable setup this time around will pay off nicely in the end, as student productions will be much smoother than they have been in the past.

Creating French Dialogues with iPads and Google Drive

Last week we did a bit of work with the French department, on a small cross curricular initiative. The 6th grade students have been working on writing up dialogues in French lessons and the teacher was looking for a simple way to record these using video.  Our 6s have used the iPads a great deal this year for both audio and video work, so I suggested them as our tool of choice.  It just made sense, the kids are familiar with them and the apps are very user friendly.

Next we looked at all the options and decided that due to time restraints and the required outcome, a fully edited video was not needed this time around. Next, we needed to address the potential issues of trying to share media work on iPads with teachers, over wifi connections. This can be a huge problem. DropBox blocked and emailing the videos would not only be difficult, due to their size, but also be a breach of our school email protocol.  In the end we decided to work with Google Drive and I am so glad we did!

This made a lot of sense. We are a Google Apps school and the kids use their Google Apps accounts for a good portion of the work they do, across subjects and grades.  The initial plan was to record the videos with the camera app and then upload to drive. Later that day I began playing around with the upload option in Drive when I struck gold! I was thrilled to find that one of the options was to record a video through the Drive App!

This is so easy to do! All you do is navigate to the folder you want the video to be uploaded to, click the plus symbol. Next, select Use Camera from the menu and point and record.

When you have finished recording, you will be asked whether or not you want to use the video. If you select the Use Video option, it will save in your Google Drive account within the folder you specified in the beginning. The other options are to preview your videos before you select Use Video and  retake them if needed. Finally, be prepared to wait a few minutes to process videos before they are viewable. This was fine for us, as our students used the wait time to share their videos with their French teacher.

Now none of this is particularly new. The option has been around for a while. It is new to me however.  I am thrilled with how easily staff and students can create videos, and share them right in their Google Drive Apps. 

If you would like more information about video creation within Google Drive for the iPad, Bill Campbell has produced a good video on the process.

Below I have included a short Animoto video featuring some of our students as they work through the activity. As you can see in the video, the iPads, or any mobile device for that matter, are fantastic for audio/video work. These devices enable kids to plug in, move around and work in more unconventional learning spaces, outside of the tradition classroom walls.

Morphing the A Better World Project with Tellegami

During the last round of our A Better World Project, we realised we would need yet another talking avatar generator. While we still used Morfo on a few iPads and gave the kids the option to use Crazy Talk,  we needed an alternative that would serve the needs of some of our students, better than the current apps did.

One of the problems we had encountered is that Crazy Talk, while wonderful, is quite complex and takes a while to learn well. There is nothing wrong with spending that time, but when the weeks go by and it is all about the app as opposed to being all about the creativity, a balance must be found.  We also found that Morfo, on some of our ipads, would no longer allow us to download the videos without paying and this caught us out in the middle of the project. We didn't have a budget to purchase it with.

Another problem which we encountered, was that we had begun to run out of time during the project, and this was becoming a pattern with each new group. We attributed much of this to the extra time devoted to the work with Crazy Talk. It seems that some students really fly with it while others struggle a great deal. We needed another option for those students.

We looked around and discovered Tellegami. This is a free app that is simple to use and effective. Using Tellegami, the work shifts from dedicating a huge amount of time to learning an app to being creative with a simple app. This is exactly what we needed for some of our students.  Not only is it available for iOS, but also be downloaded on Android devices.

I have added a page on the A Better World Project with more information I have found on how to use this lovely little app. I hope you enjoy it. We do!

Here is a short video clip of one of the student projects created with Tellegami.

Blogger for iPad and Flipboard

Blogger App

This is my first post from my iPad. It is hard even for me to believe considering how much I adore my iPad. The problem is that I only just discovered the free,blogger app. This is quite remiss on my part considering it was released in November 2012.  To be fair, I had looked for it last summer, only to find there wasn't one. It was disappointing, but life went on and I kept blogging on my Mac. A few weeks back I searched for it again, and there it was. I was skeptical at first, as my experiences with Google Drive have been less than ideal. I doubted that it would be a game changer. I was wrong!

I love it. While it is not perfect in my opinion, this simple app is very friendly. I really like that allows users to switch between blogs with a tap. That is something we have come to expect from Google accounts.

When Looking ahead at the new school year, I can see how we are going to use this. Our 5th grade students are coming up to secondary with their own blogs in August. They are bloggers and we want to encourage them to keep it up and extend their blogging to include other areas of focus.  This app is going to facilitate the to work we will do with them involving sharing, reflection and digital portfolios.

Jen's Wishlist for the Blogger App:

Link and embed options would be fab!

 Lessons learned:

-Google Apps for iPad are evolving in a good way.

-Don't give up! Always check back for Apps you want that don't exist. If you are patient, someone will invent them. If you know your stuff, it could even be you.

Flipboard

My other new love is Flipboard. It isn't new really. It has been around since December of 2010. I downloaded it sometime last year after reading about and then proceeded to get busy and forget to play with it. A few weeks back I was getting frustrated in trying to keep track of all my feeds.There were too many. It was unmanageable. I was missing out on so much!

I solved the problem. The school had just lent me a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I added the Flipboard widget. It is fantastic! I brings everything together in one place as a digital magazine. it is oranised by the feeds of your choice, flips beautifully through them and is easy to share from to your different social networks. 

As I was sat at the breakfast table this morning, during the traditional wait for my kids to get ready, I didn't go to Twitter or Facebook, instead I opened Flipboard on my iPad. Yes the app was still there! (I am an App hoarder!) It is hard to describe how much I enjoyed the experience of flipping through articles from my chosen feeds. I was reading a magazine, for which I had chosen the content, based on my interests.

It struck me how lovely and effortless it was to bring so much of what I am interested in into one place. Not since I discovered Google Reader so many years ago have I had this experience and trust me, this is so much better. If you miss Google Reader, get over it and get Flipboard

Scratch Work and Side by Side for iPad

I have mentioned my zeal for Diigo many times over and have developed a fondness of  Evernote over the last year. They are the perfect tools for so many jobs. There is however a new app in town, a new discovery of sorts (New for me that is.), that I think will place right up there with the other two. I don't think it will steal the limelight, but rather emerge as  the perfect tool for note taking of a different kind.

There is no perfect note taking app for all jobs.  It is a matter of the  right tool for the right job really. If you or your students are frustrated with taking notes on the iPad by switching between apps, then this is the app for you.  Enter  Scratch work for online note taking. What a great idea! The browser window sits side by side on the iPad screen along with the notepad, allowing you to take notes without switching back and forth between apps. What a great tool!

It also allows you to  open a browser window or the notepad in full screen, link notes to the web pages they came from, Insert images, graphs and drawings, input math characters as well as email your notes as plain text or pdf files.



The fun doesn't stop there. There is yet another app out there which works in a similar way, but with even more windows!

The Side by Side app allows you to open  up to four windows and arrange them in different ways, up to a quarter of the screen each when four are open. With this app,  you to web browse in up to four windows, open a note window and take text notes by typing them in or copying them into the notepad with one click. Using Side by Side you can search search items you have starred by keyword and even save files for viewing offline using the filing cabinet and bookmark items if you haven't quite finished.

Again if you haven't already tried it out, you should. Here is a short video which demonstrates all of its functions.

IPads and/or Chromebooks

I have been spending a few hours this weekend looking at iPads and Chromebooks. I have run a pilot on a small number of iPads and played briefly with a Chromebook. I am no expert on Chromebooks, having had little exposure to them, so I wanted to see how they measured up when it came to iPads. It is a bit like apples and oranges really. Here are my findings so far.

“The iPad 4 and Samsung Chromebook 550 represent the “best available” models, respectively.

• Boot times measured in seconds
• Battery life of 10 hours (iPad) or 6 hours (Chromebook)
• Weight of 1.5lbs. (iPad) or 3lbs. (Chromebook)
• Limited access to the file system
• Streamlined updates of the operating system, apps or extensions
• Built-in cameras, microphones and speakers for video conferencing
• Ubiquitous connectivity, thanks to WiFi or WiFi plus cellular data connections.” (Wolber, 2013)

iPads	Chromebooks
Use	Use
wifi needed for certain apps	wi-Fi-only
encourage mono-tasking	run a single application - a web browser - complemented by user-added extensions and web apps
touch screen and voiceover (external keyboards available for a price)	conventional trackpad and keyboard
changes orientation	no orientation changes
back-facing camera: 5 MP, 1080p HD with video stabilization, face detection, flash Front-facing FaceTime camera: 1.2 MP, 720p HD	front-facing camera: 153,600 pixels, VGA (640 x 480)
mobile Device Management of iPads with third party software	Google Apps’ control panel provides controls for management of Chrome OS devices
email and basic document editing, reliable and powerful mulitmedia creation with a variety of free and paid apps (no flash) Advanced doc editing with pages, sheets with numbers and presentations with keynote. Alternative free apps available.	email and basic document editing, no multimedia except through chrome apps, Alternative free apps available.
Microsoft Office, is not available	Microsoft Office, is not available
Google Drive create and edit Docs and Sheets	Google Drive works fully
no file manager	file manager
Easy Transition for Mac Users	Easy transition to chromebook for Google apps users.
multimedia creation tools in the form of apps readily available, usually for free but upgrades often for a price. A stable internet connection is required to transfer any large files from an iPad elsewhere. Smaller files can be transferred through email.	Chromebook are ideal for those who work primarily on the Web, not designer, developers or those creating multimedia projects. The necessary tools aren't available, can be found in the Chrome store but many are not terribly reliable, especially when a less than ideal internet connection is available. Primary useage: write, send and receive email, work on google docs and other Web applications, play some games, and browse the web.
Working with one app at a time	Work by flipping between app tabs
The iOS is not internet dependent, most apps run without a network connection. No file manager is available.	The linux based OS is designed for people who spend the majority of their time on the Internet. The device runs apps through a browser and it comes with with media player and a file manager. That dramatically limits its utility when you're disconnected from the Internet. Some apps such as Google Drive Offline and Notepad will still run.
Specs	Specs
The iPad mini (starting at $329) is considerably smaller and lighter than the iPad, but lacks the “retina display” of the larger iPad. Mini $329 7.9 inches screen 0.68 lbs 10 hour battery life 1.4 GHz Apple A6X (ARM-based) SoC (system on a chip), PowerVR SGX554MP4 quad-core GPU	Samsung built US$249 is half the price of the least expensive 10-inch iPad Chromebook: 2.42 lbs, 11.4" x 8.09" x .69", 11″ screens and slower performance are available  such as the Samsung Chromebook at $249. It weighs 2 pounds and measures 0.8″ thick. 16GB standard on board memory, 2GB of RAM, a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, HDMI output, a .3MP web camera, dual 1.5w speakers and a 6.5 hour life expectancy of battery 1.7 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (ARM-based) SoC, ARM Mali-T604 quad-core GPU A less-expensive  alternative is the Acer C7 which offers a conventional hard drive  and costs $199. Google includes 100GB of online storage for up to 1 year, after  which a fee must be paid.
aluminum unibody construction and solid glass	aluminum-colored plastic
iPad 3: 2048 x 1536 pixels ipad mini 1024-by-768 pixels	1366 x 768 pixels,
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology	Bluetooth 3.0
ipad 3 : 45.0 seconds	Chromebook: 9.1 seconds
Wake from sleep instantaneous	Wake from sleep instantaneous
RAM and Storage not expandable	RAM and Storage not expandable, has built-in SD card slot for extra storage
Audio, Bluetooth, dock connector/Lightning	Bluetooth, USB 3 (1 port), USB 2 (1 port), HDMI

Note:
“In a browser-and-app world, you should be able to seamlessly switch devices. The device matters only to provide access to data and an application. The data lives in the cloud; the application is either a browser or installed app”(Wolber, 2012)

“The perfect device is the one that does what you want it to do.”


In Summary

Any purchase of ipads and/or chromebooks should be based on their intended use of said devices. Both differ in many ways, and offer advantages over the other depending on their intended use. Similarities do exist, such as cloud storage, apps, powerful batteries 6-10 hours), bluetooth, the use of apps and cloud computing.

Understanding each devices limitations and strengths is vital when making a decision to purchase. For example, Chromebooks are not the best option for any work involving multimedia. Instead they are they are the ideal option for basic document (text,sheets, presentation) work, emailing  and other forms of communication as well as web browsing. They use internet dependent apps in most cases, so work best where the internet connection is strong. My experience with Chrome apps so far has been mixed. Multimedia apps can be slow and at times unreliable. I have found the same thing true for some of the basic Google Apps, such as Drive, Sites and even Gmail at times.  An investment solely in Chromebooks brings with it certain limitations. I would not want to attempt to run any class in which student work was dependent on Chrome store multimedia apps dependent on a stable internet connection. I think that generally teachers would find this a frustrating experience if they did not first understand the limitations of the device.

Ipads on the other hand will run word processing, presentation and spreadsheet apps independently of a wifi connection. They are the more powerful devices, but for a higher cost. They perform all the basic tasks as well as  excel at  powerful multimedia activities, all of this on just one device. They are the more complete solution, as they offer greater versatility, and are quality devices that will last for many years. The majority of students are familiar with how they work, and with the introduction of the ipad mini, the cost has come down considerably while and portability has improved.

Ideally a school might consider offering both of these powerful devices to teachers and students, budgets allowing. Once those planning the learning experiences, the teachers,  understood the strengths and weaknesses of each, they would be in a good position to plan and deploy lessons which optimise their use in learning experiences.

It is my suggestion that the school pilot a set of Chromebooks whilst providing teachers with a roaming set of mini iPads simultaneously.  We have piloted ipads successfully in ICT lessons as well as English and there is a great deal of potential for other subjects as well, assuming a sufficient number of devices were made available. In the case of a dual investment, teachers should receive a brief orientation session with the devices that would focus on how to best maximise the use of each in the educational setting.

Bibliography
Wolber, Andy. "Chromebook or IPad: Choose Your Post-PC Device Wisely." TechRepublic. CBS Interactive Inc, Dec. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/chromebook-or-ipad-choose-your-post-pc-device-wisely/1682>.

Sande, Steven. "TUAW Smackdown: Google Chromebook vs. Apple IPad, MacBook Air." TUAW. TUAW, 3 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <http://www.tuaw.com/2012/11/23/tuaw-smackdown-google-chromebook-vs-apple-ipad-macbook-air/>.

Steve. "Decadent Waste." Http://decadentwaste.net. Squarespace, 12 Mar. 12. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <http://decadentwaste.net/decadentwaste/2011/03/navigate-using-a-bluetooth-keyboard-on-your-ios-device>.

"Why Choose a Chromebook or Chromebox? - Chrome OS Wiki." Why Choose a Chromebook or Chromebox? - Chrome OS Wiki. Google Sites, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <https://sites.google.com/site/chromeoswikisite/home/choosing-a-chromebook>.

Wood, Joe. "Chromebook Caution." Web log post. JoeWoodOnline. WorldPress, 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <http://www.joewoodonline.com/chromebook-caution/>.

Julian. "The New Google ChromeBook Is Ready To Be Explored, Priced At $249-$329." DFRAGG. DFRAGG, 19 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. <http://www.dfragg.com/2012/10/the-new-google-chromebook-is-ready-to-be-explored-priced-at-249-329/>.

Favourite iPad Animation Apps

This is a guest post by my colleague, Rodrigo Alfaro, based on our animation work with iPads this school year.




We recently purchased a dozen iPads for teacher and student use in the LRC. These iPads are used for many tasks, including animation. We have found a great many useful apps for animation which we hope others will find useful as well.

  Animation Desk Lite for iPad This app has the most features for classical (drawn) animation. Its greatest limitation is that you can only create three scenes in the Lite version. Even so, it is quite a robust application; it includes different pen and brush types, multiple layers of animation, variable frame rates, onion-skinning and even a digital stamp tool which allows you to cut and paste as well. This application is ideal for patient students who have a drawing vocation and enough passion to pursue the completion of one project for a period of time. This application also feels more intuitive if you use a stylus to draw. Animation Desk will allow you to save a scene to the Photo Library (Camera Roll) as a movie, which can then be emailed or exported to a computer with the USB cable.

iStopMotion 
This application is designed for pixilation (sequential picture) sequences. The interface is very simple to use and understand, because as soon as you open the program there is a small tutorial which guides you through the basic functions of the app. When a clip is created, the front or back camera is activated and you can start shooting right away. The tricky part is to keep the ipad as still as possible, so the animation is not jarring and inconsistent. Often times, the best method involves placing the iPad in a static position in front of where the action will take place. Since this is a purchased app, there is no limit to the amount of scenes available to shoot. You also have the option to play back the animation at different speeds. When your sequence is done, you can export to the Photo Library and email your movie from there.

Animation Express
 This application is simple to use. It is very similar in style to Animation Desk, but the interface is less complicated. Even so, it is powerful enough to be able to do rotoscoping (drawing on pictures). It includes 2 modes: the regular drawing mode (which includes, brushes, colour swatches, a stamp tool and a smudge tool), as well as the animating mode, (which includes adding, subtracting or duplicating frames, variable frame rate, a sound recorder and export functionality to get your video out of the ipad and unto a computer. Other features (with the free version) include a shape tool, a Paint Bucket tool which is used to paint large areas of your drawing. This program is accessible and simple enough for those who find Animation Desk too complicated.

Starting a New SY With iPads

The new school year has begun and brought with it our New iPads. We have also received the sync station and the Griffin covers. We did not purchase a sync cart even though we  needed storage, as most of what we found was very expensive, even before the cost of shipping them to El Salvador. We decided to refit an old laptop trolley for them  instead, by a sync/charge tray from Parasync and see how it went.  I have included a picture of our set up so far.

We have since spent many hours syncing them to iTunes accounts, identifying and adding new apps, trying to create new iTunes accounts for each one, and failing miserably.  We have also spent a lot of time basically setting them up with email accounts, itunes accounts, restrictions and folders.

Syncing: This took a while the first time as we were doing 10 at a time, using the sync tray and adding over 200 apps to the iPads. I was so grateful for the tray, which cut my work 10 times over, even if it was a long haul.

Organising: We then invited our students in whenever they had free time to help us organise the apps properly for us. We still haven't finished and the reason for that lies with iTunes accounts.

iTunes: I am not sure if it is my lack of experience or if a great many others have similar issues with iTunes. I know from surfing the forums that there are a lot of people out there who have had similar issues with it, but I am not sure if we are in the minority or not.

Unfortunately, at a point during the process,  iTunes blocked us from creating more than 4 accounts for our iPads. Now we really want everything to be on the up and up with this, really there is no other option, yet we still can't create the accounts through which to purchase apps. This means that we have had to delay and modify some of the plans we had for the devices, for the time being. We contacted Apple, and they said they would help us find a solution. They suggested we gift them to our other devices, which is something we too had considered. Unfortunately after doing so, we have yet to receive the confirmation emails for this. All is not lost, I have a screenshot of the purchases we made.

Since we were moving to gifting the Apps I decided to create an account in iTunes for each remaining iPad that didn't link to a credit card, since that route was now blocked. Lo and behold, the None option is now missing, forcing anyone who wants to create an account to link it to a credit card. Again I am not the only one experiencing this issue.

Let me just say at this point how much I love my iPad and how excited I am to have a set (albeit a small set) to use with our students. Despite all the obstacles so far, I am still convinced we can make this fly, and fly high! We knew there would be growing pains when we did this.  I just wish Apple would make it a lot easier for Educators in countries outside of the US to purchase apps. At present we don't qualify for their volume purchase plan. 

We are just beginning our pilot and so far it has been very successful. We are using the iPads for animation work, QR Code scavenger hunts, and will be using them for research and note taking as well as class starters and brainstorming, very shortly. We have plenty of other ideas for using this versatile tool and are busily adding them to our schemes of work. I am hoping to be able to report back on the process again very soon.

iPads

This post has a simple title, it needs little else apart from that and the presentation I am sharing within. I recently put this together for a presentation I did on why we should have iPads in our school.

I fell in love with the iPad as a personal device quite soon after purchasing one this past summer, since then it has opened my eyes to the huge range of possibilities for its use in education, some of which I have shared below.

Enjoy!

Braindump #2

Away from ISTE even one day later, I worry quite a bit about forgetting things that caught my attention at the conference. This list is a follow up to the previous post with those things that I thought important to investigate further. It is a do list of sorts.

 *Reminder to self about the number of cards from people I met, who expressed an interest in partnering up our students. These need be organised and followed up on, but not until August.


Interesting Ideas
I have used Voicethread a few times with students and have known about it for ages, but felt I needed a bit of a refresher and some inspiration. The session I attended was fine, not terribly challenging, but it gave me a few more ideas for uses I had not thought of. Certainly book talks are high on our lists of priorities this year and Voicethread is a  good vehicle for this as it allows for image/video uploads as well as collaboration and discussion. It can be used for debates as well, between members of a class, different classes or even different schools. A follow me story could be created with each person or team adding their image/s and chapters to it. There are plenty more uses for it, but these are some that stood out for me.


Things I Missed
One issue with an event  as big as ISTE is that you can't get to every presentation you'd like to. I remember sitting in perfectly good presentations, while TweetDeck spurted tweet after tweet at a rate of 2 per second, praising the joy and conversation of other presentations. This leads me to another job for the list, to browse through ISTE Unplugged.

High Impact
I almost missed Alan November's session  on Empathy: The 21st Century Skill.  It reminded me of things I knew and had pushed to one side, things I should be doing, and it put me to shame. This was a good thing however, as Alan talked to us about searching using site: and country codes as well as using twitter hashtags to search with in order to ensure kids are getting the full picture, understand issues from many perspectives ... I began kicking myself. I hadn't done this with my 7th grades during the Egyptian crisis project we did.  Our work seems so superficial in comparison, and it would have been a perfect unit in which to incorporate such important skills. I haven't gotten over it and that's a good thing. It means I will do better next time.

This lead me to a very important realisation.  I have used Twitter a lot for years and even taught kids to use it to record their own research in tweet format, but I have never had the kids use it to search empathetically, to pop that search bubble  that we have become encased in and find out what is really going on from all sides. Wasn't Twitter instrumental in getting ideas, experiences and news out during the Egyptian crisis...yet that wealth of information remained untapped for my students....Kick, kick, kick.,..Twitter is one of the best research tools around for getting all sides of the stories straight from those who are affected, directly involved and on the front line and at the very least for accessing media sources from around the world. When combined with smart searching using country codes and specific domains you can't go wrong, you will get the full picture.


Next Steps but Not Yet
Finally, one last thing that I can't let slip by is all the talk and excitement about iPads. They have certainly emerged as a must have for schools, There is so much that can be done with such a portable yet complete device. Hundreds of apps aside,  I saw people using their ipads in the most sensible and interesting of ways, capturing images, creating animations and other digital stories, sharing ideas, communicating with each other  and much, much more. There is one dark side however, that I was made aware of. Google Docs doesn't work properly on the iPad yet. No worries however, we have a whole school year to see if they sort out the issue or not.