My Top Apps for this Week

My top 3 apps for this week have been:

Book Creator - to create Learning Stories

We have started making these. The students all created their own covers and first section which was titled 'About Me'. 

Explain Everything - to create Math Stories

The students learned to create talking, animated Math stories. This was a follow up to their learning in class. It was a very exciting session. The students used the hands-free headphones and mics to record their voice.

Merriam Webster - dictionary with voice recognition

Things I like:

It allows the student to search for words by speaking.

It gives you examples of how the word can be used in a sentence.

The definitions are simple.

It also gives you synonyms and antonyms.

iPad Learning - Using iPads as a Learning Tool

I am often asked what are the best apps for learning with iPads. Actually it's not just about the apps. It's about the teaching and learning. I am fortunate to work in an IB school and as a part of a team. This team compromises of another year level teacher, an EAL teacher (just for our two classes) and an Indonesian teacher with a strong inquiry background.

We plan together and teach together. One of the great things about that is amongst us there is a lot of experience from which we can draw so many ideas. I want to give you a glimpse into the current learning in my class.

The inquiry is all about conflict. What is conflict, how it is caused and the different ways it is resolved ... or not resolved. I teach 9 year old children and the point of this unit of learning is for my students to learn to describe everyday conflicts and to learn how these conflicts are resolved and hopefully learn about some strategies for themselves.

Have you noticed yet that I'm not talking about apps but about the learning?

During Literacy time I have been doing a novel study with the class. I chose to study Anne of Green Gables as there are so many examples of conflict in this story that my class can relate to. I have 1:1 iPads in my classroom. I was able to locate many iPad books of Anne of Green Gables but I have chosen an ESL version which is simplified and much more accessible for my students.

I like this version because it has illustrations throughout the text and it comes complete with comprehension tasks at the end of the book. My students are creating a book review using the Book Creator app on their iPads as we read the story and watch the movie in parts. We don't need any paper because we read and create the review directly on the iPads.

Anyways, back to the iMovie Conflict Theatre task. As my class is developing their understanding of how to describe conflicts, they have been placed in small groups of 3 to create a script based on a conflict that they have experienced themselves at school.

I really like for my students to work in groups to write. This gives them an opportunity to learn from one another. The students were asked to write for 3 roles; the narrator, the protagonist and the antagonist.

Here is an example script written by one of the groups using Pages on the iPad:

     

 Being a Bully

Narrator : There was a girl called Amy. She had a big problem about being bullied at school. Kelly was a bully and she was always saying bad words to Amy.

Amy : I don't have any friends to play with so I don't want to go to school.

Kelly : How come you don't have any friends like me!

Amy : ...

Narrator : Amy always ignores her. She always using the avoiding strategy.

Narrator : The next day Kelly came to Amy to bully her again.

Kelly : Give me that iPad!

Amy : No I don't want you to take my iPad because you already have one.

Keily : Hey I said give me your iPad!

Amy : But I am still using it right now.

Kelly : I said now Amy!!!

Amy : Fine I will read a book instead of using my iPad. You can have my iPad now. I can continue my work with my iPad later on when you return it.

Narrator : Amy was using the accommodating strategy.

Narrator : At lunch time Kelly approached Amy at the cafe.

Kelly : Hey you ugly girl.

Narrator : Amy couldn't deal with this problem anymore so she decided to force Kelly to stop bullying her. Kelly pushed Amy.

Amy : Try to hit me more. I will hit you back!

Kelly : Ok, if you lose you have to buy lunch for me.

Narrator : So they started fighting but the fight didn't stop. Then school was over for the day. This is using the forcing strategy.

Narrator : The next day Amy tried to trade something that Kelly needs so she would be nicer to Amy. Kelly tried to using the compromising strategy.

Amy : I really want to be good friends with you.

Kelly : I don't want any friends like you.

Amy : If you will be friends with me, I will help you with math.

Kelly : hmmm.. Let me think.....

Narrator : They became friends just for that day.

Narrator : The following week, Kelly bullied  Amy again. So Amy tried to find a new tactic. This time she tried the collaborating strategy.

Amy : Kelly if you don't stop bullying me I will write this problem my the blog so everyone will read it and know who you really are.

Kelly : I dare you, you jerk!!

Amy : I don't care if I am a jerk but I want to stop this bullying forever.

Kelly : mmmmmm....... Ok. Lets just stop this thing.

Kelly : I'm so sorry......

Narrator : So they became best friends forever after they had tried so many different solutions. 

This script was written by two girls and a boy. Now that the script is ready having been emailed to the teacher and checked and emailed back, the next step was to make it into an iMovie. Here is a short film of some of the students actually filming their iMovies. Before each group went out to film, they sat with a teacher and broke their script into scenes. They also learned about camera angles, how best to shoot with an iPad and how to act out their scene making it interesting and full of action! 

So far it's looking very nice. The kids are learning about using their voice, facial expressions and their hands to convey emotion. How can kids learn this? Well, I simply project the video clips via airplay to my Mac and project them up in the classroom. As we watch each take, we can discuss what works and what doesn't. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to finishing the captures so that we can begin the editing process.

eBook Little Fish Hits 3,000 Downloads!

The success of Little Fish the eBook has been quite staggering. I first made this book with my son, John about a year ago in a printed version. John came home one day from playing to show me a tiny fish that he had caught from a river in the housing complex that we live in. He had so much to tell me about this fish and I encouraged him to take me to the river to show me where he caught it.

I took my iPhone to take photos and John rode his bike. I asked John to tell me the story as we went and I took photos to be later put into the book.

We downloaded the photos onto my Macbook and I put the story together using the program called Keynote. John was able to retell the story easily. We put a sentence for each photo keeping the story simple yet engaging.

Originally we wrote the story in Indonesian as John had only just turned 5 at the time and his English wasn't very fluent. Later I translated it into English. The result was then printed onto paper and I took it to a book binder to put a hard cover on it. John was able to share his book with his class but that's as far as it went.

I have been making books such as these for years here in Indonesia. Simple stories that can be printed up and hard bound for classroom use. It is very difficult to publish a book here in Indonesia. Most publishers will only print 3000 and so therefore will only choose books that have the potential to sell well.

'Little Fish' was well received by John's class and we kept a copy at home on our bookshelf. At that time there were no apps for creating books which allowed the user to have control over the layout. I have always used a simple layout style featuring large photos and simple text. I have preferred to use a landscape page orientation for picture books as I can make the picture really fill the page.

A few months ago I learned about an app on the iPad called Book Creator. I read that it can produce a file that is compliant with the requirements for the iBookstore. I started to use the app in different classes to produce books but I had not thought of publishing any of them. I decided that I needed a test product so I quickly revised 'Little Fish' making it in English only and adding voice recordings to make it more engaging.

I uploaded the book to iTunes Connect and set about getting it published. I have already written about that experience in a post here.

To date the book has been downloaded 3,000 times. I find myself thinking about why ...

It is simple and personal
It has full colour photos that show what happened
It has a voice recording which can help young children learning to read
It has been created by a child with help from his mother - not by a professional publishing house
What this means ...
It is amazing to think that people can now share their stories in this way. My son's book is regularly featured by Apple in the iBookstore alongside professional authors such as Beatrix Potter.  John gets feedback about his book from people on the other side of the world.  

 

The difference here is this book has gone through the same system that other authors experience - yet it was made by ordinary people.

Production - Editing - Selection (by Apple) - Marketing - Feedback

I know I keep saying this but this is the beginnings of the publishing revolution.

Completing the Bamboo House Designs

Today the students completed their community house designs. They also completed individual assessments on the geometry found in the building models.

I asked the students to label their model houses with all the geometry terms that they could find. Here are the students discussing in their groups about what geometry can be found in their houses.


Here the groups are consulting their Maths reference books to check the names of the geometry terms found in their model house.

We have a total of seven house designs in the class. As a summative assessment, the students were interviewed by Ms Agnes to find out their individual understanding of the geometry terms in their house models.

To wrap up this inquiry, Ms Jane used the iPad app A+ Measuring Finger. We booked out seven of the school iPads. It was the first time that 5MJ had used them. Ms Jane asked the students to write a reflection about using the iPad app and how that has made a connection to our central idea for this geometry inquiry, “Geometric tools and methods can be used to solve problems relating to shape and space”.


The app was very useful as many groups found out that some of the angles in their house were not what they thought that they were.



After the students had finished their reflections, they posted them to their blogs and included the screen shots of their house models from the iPads. Ms Jane was very impressed with the reflection that Keaton wrote. She has sent his reflection to a new educational website about apps called Appitic.com Ms Jane was very excited to get a direct reply from that website saying that they thought that Keaton’s reflection was wonderful and they have published it on their site. Click here to read Keaton’s Reflection Online Congratulations Keaton!

"Grade 5 Student Reflection about Using the iPad A+ Measuring Finger App (by Keaton)

Today 5MJ finished building our model houses and we printed some labels that said things like acute angle, triangle, rectangle and all those sort of geometric names. Ms Jane found an app on the IPad called A+ Measuring Finger. We used it to measure our houses that we made. We went to the protractor section of the app and used it to take a picture of the house and then we drew the angles over that picture to measure them. It told us how many degrees it is.

There was a problem because we made this house with our hands so some of the angles that we thought were right angles were about 85 or 95 degrees. This means that those are not a true right angle. After that we found out that we have to take the picture straight otherwise when you try to draw the angle it will not be as accurate. We had to find four to five different kinds of angles such as acute, right, obtuse, straight and reflex. This app really helped us because now we know what angles are in our house and if they should be there or not.

We are now wondering when builders are building houses how do they measure the angle on the house that they are building. Do they have to carry a huge protractor to measure the house? When we were building the houses we had trouble keeping them straight and stable. I think that builders must have an easier way because they use metal in the middle and it is going straight up. Building with chopsticks it is hard to make it stay straight. Sometimes the way you put the elastic bands on is wrong and it pushes the chopstick to go at an angle that you don’t want it to be.

If we were using the app on the IPad during the building of our models, we would be able to make it straighter. We could measure it and then adjust it as we are doing the building. If our building bent in the wrong places it would fall down or the roof would fall through. The only reason we are trying to build a house is because it is part of our Maths inquiry. Our central idea is “Geometric tools and methods can be used to solve problems relating to shape and space”. Actually the main reason we are building a house is because we are hoping to build a 5×4 meter community house for the people at the Serpong landfill. Using geometric tools to build a house can help when you want to make the columns or the walls straight and so that you know what the angle of the roof is. Then you can work out how long the roof is and how many roof tiles or iron roofing you will need."

Here is the video that Ms Jane took of her lesson. Please watch it to learn about how we used the iPad app to measure the angles.

Google Translate App for iPhone - Seriously Cool!

Wow what a fantastic app!! It was just last week that I helped the Chinese teachers at school to get a Google account so that they could use Google Docs as an aid for translation/enhanced communication during staff meetings and training sessions. At the same time I showed them Google Translate - http://translate.google.com The teachers were so excited by the prospect of using Google Docs together with Google Translate. Since that session, some of the teachers told me about how useful it has been for them to be able to use Google Docs during meetings combined with Google Translate. It has really helped them to keep up with what is being discussed.

Today via my Twitter feed @javajive informed me about the newly released Google Translate for iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8



I immediately downloaded it to try out. I am so impressed. The App can translate text between 57 languages and translates by speaking (not typing) for 15 languages. It will also speak 23 languages from written text.

I am thinking of all the ways this App can support language learning. How exciting!!!

Smartboard + JacksonPollock.org

The Pre Kindergarten students at Sinarmas World Academy are currently working on a Unit of Inquiry all about Explorations. This is essentially learning about their world. The students have been exploring the world of Art by using different painting techniques. I came across an online site jacksonpollock.org which has a free tool that allows any user to create Jackson Pollock styled digital artwork. It is fun and simple to use. All you to is click and drag and the page will be soon filled with splashes and streaks of different colored paint.

When this tool is used with a Smartboard, the user can operate it with their fingers.

The Pre K students tried it out recently. It was a lot of fun and we were able to easily save each child's painting by making a screen capture. The students also took turns to play with a similar tool on my iPad called Random Pollock

Here is a video that I took of the lesson. One little boy really took on the whole Jackson Pollock style by jumping around and really throwing his whole body into creating the patterns on the Smartboard.

Press Reader for iPad

I came across this brilliant app for iPad called Pressreader


Pressreader is a fantastic app that allows you to download the print version of newspapers from all over the world. You can get current and back issues. Papers are in full colour and in HD. Double tap zooms on text making it easy to read. Drag your finger around the paper to view all parts of the page. The app is fast and responsive.
This is a FREE app. You get a full version trial for 7 days. After the trial is over you can subscribe to the service and enable the reader to download newspapers of your choice from all over the world. Currently there are over 1400 newspapers to choose from. The app includes a built in emailing option allowing you to email articles. It also has a voice reader that reads the articles to you with a very realistic voice that has intonation. It sounds quite human!! There is also a search feature that can be used to search for keywords in articles or headings.

First Words App

Today I tried out the First Words app for iPad. I am really excited about using it in our 1:1 iPad program at the new sister school of Sinarmas World Academy where I am currently the Tech Integrator.
What's so cool about First Words?
Flash cards have been long used by educators to introduce new vocabulary to students. The iPad with it's large colorful screen makes it all the more enticing.

My son is 4 years old and is currently in Pre Kindergarten. He is learning to speak English (his mother tongue is Indonesian) and as well as this he is learning Mandarin Chinese. This app allows the user to make custom cards. The free version even allows you to edit the pre existing cards to make your own voice over or change the picture entirely from any picture in your iPad photo library. My son John was so excited to be able to put photos of animals he like and record himself saying the name of each animal. We then tried working in Chinese and found that after you configure the International keyboard settings that you can type in Pinyin.
John also was able to include photos of his family and friends. He is so happy to use this app and hear his voice saying the name of each photo loudly and clearly.

This app is a must buy for early childhood educators and parents alike.