Thing 16...audio

Coming from the dark ages, when recordings were done on a tape player, I found this thing to be delightful.  After reading through all the information and watching the video,I tried audioboo and had a recording taped and published within a few minutes. I can see this being a great tool for students, but I probably won't use it too often.

However, I know that I will use the microphone on my phone to record my text messages.  Sometimes, I love the new technology.

Thing 15--infographics

Infographics may be a new buzz word, but making visuals in education have been around for a long time.  As a classroom teacher I used visuals similar to these to drive home a point or a message. Charts and graphs were used to enhance learning in my elementary classroom, and we even had students make them. But now these visual learning devices can be made with an app...by anyone, and at our fingertips.

I first looked at the long list of examples at Info.graphics. Then I looked at all of them available at Google images, and finally as I walked the halls at school, I saw many of these that give information, or instruct.  My favorite is the list on the English teacher's door that relates the top one hundred books to read...with images of the books and a short description.

Then I tried it for myself with iVisual.  What fun!  It made the task very easy, even an elementary student could produce an Infographic.

I am not sure how I would use it in my personal life, other than reading them for information. Professionally, this would be a very useful tool for students and teachers alike and could be used to demonstrate knowledge of a subject or relay information.

Thing 14--videos

I never have been much for making videos, much less sharing them with the world.  But, I did try "Vine".  I made a short video of my cat and dog wrestling. (The cat won.). Anyway, using "Vine" was pretty slick. I made the video, and was clearly able to see how to share it on whatever social media one prefers. I have posted photos on Facebook, and if I can get my girls to cooperate, I would post them in a video on Facebook.

I have also played with the video camera available on my iPad.  And, have posted them to Facebook, as well.

I think Vine was more user friendly, and I can see students of all ages making 6 second videos for some of their coursework.

After this experience, I may just use it more often.

Thing 13-- Presentations

I chose to investigate the first app listed for presentations called "Deck".  I built a short presentation about the school's upcoming book fair. I found the app very easy to use. I liked the colorful themes, and really liked the set up.  From this app anyone can make a presentation, using an outline of what they want their audience to know.  I wish I had had access to this app when I was actually doing presentations.  Since I am in retirement mode, I don't think I will be doing any presentations, but I will certainly recommend that others use this app when they need to make a quick presentation that is informative and to the point.

I did not try any of the other presentation applications.

Thing 12: Books, books and more books

I have used the free books available on the iPad, but was grateful for the explanation on how to use the site.  I have read some of the books from that site.

I also looked at the Yalsa for young readers app.  I think that this is a great way to find books for our young adults.  It is easy to navigate and has tons of book listings.  I am sending this reference to our new Media Specialist, so that she can get ideas for book orders for the next school year.

I next tried the istory books.  What a great site for young readers to read and listen to story time favorites.  The graphics are beautiful and the reading voice is very clear. The fact that is free is an added bonus.  I am also suggesting this site to the new Specialist so she can get the information to our elementary classroom teachers for next year.

While perusing the iStory app, I also found a link for an app review/tutorial site called phonesavvy.com.  It has been a great help for me while trying to figure out my new smart phone. It has great tutorials that are quick and easy to look at while giving great directions for handling the phone apps.

Of all of these, the one I will most likely use, is the Free Books for apple.  I like the idea of free ebooks, love reading on my iPad, and like the features it offers, like highlighting and adding notes.

Thing 11...library and reference

Wow! I downloaded the app for ELM on my iPad.  I have used the ELM resources before and have promoted them in my school libraries. The ease of adding this app to the iPad just increased the user friendliness of all the Elm resources.  It is also appropriate for grades K through 12.   I am going to relay the information from Thing 11 to our technology committee and suggest the add the ELM app to our iPads so all students have easy access to the resources.

I checked to see if our local library, but did not find an app to their information. However, I am an avid user of Overdrive and Zinnio.  I, now read my magazines through  Zinnio, and download ebooks and audio books for my reading and listening pleasure. Right now I have four books downloaded, ready for me to read on my kindle while I am on vacation.

Thing 10 sharing photos

I read through the information on both the Instagram and Snapchat.  I played around with them a bit, but found that they might not be as useful for me as Facebook, or one of the photo companies like Snapfish or Shutterfly.  Sharing on both of these is easy, and quick, and since I have an account with both of them it is much easier for me to work with.  Even Facebook photo sharing makes more sense for me since my family and friends are all over Facebook.  It was useful to go through these apps however, because some of the techniques work with the other photo sharing applications that I mentioned above.