The Educational Engineer

Apps for our Mobile iPAD cart

I have been compiling apps to install on our cart.  The cart contains 30 iPADs with Kennsington bluetooth keyboard cases.  I will post better list on the wiki, when I get a little free time.  A word of warning for app installs for mobile carts.  The cost of Apps built up when you are working with a cart.  Here is a list of app I installed on the iPAD: 

 

 

Title . Evernote . Dropbox . Prezi . QuickOffice Mobile Connect . Google Earth . Twitter . Scratchwork . Noterize . Penultimate . PI-83 . Frog Dissection . Dictionary.com . Unit Circle HD . Kindle . Nook . Stanza . GoogleBooks . Total Recall . Forms

. HistoryMaps $0.00 . Voice Recorder for iPAD . DataAnalysis . Graphing Calculator HD . Graphing Calculator 3D . Graphing Calc . Dejibo Scoreboard . Strip Designer . Chalk . Groupboard . Shareboard . Whiteboard HD . DNA Model . A Lifecycle App . SparkVUE . Science@VL . 3d Brain Anatomy . 3D Brain . My Congress . DJ Soundbox Pro

. Comic Strip . EMD_PTE . 3D Cell & Stain . TED . Skype . Artrage . Skeletal 3D . Build-a-Story . SAS Flash Cards . History Tools . Nations . Animal Sounds HD . Cartoon Studio . Map Projector . Extreme Monsters #1 . Extreme Monsters #2 . Electrons . Grazing Web Browser . 100,000 Free Books - Wattpad . Free Books - 23,469 classic to go

. Lincoln Letters, iPAD Edition . Zite . ABC News . CBS News . WRAL.com . 11 HD Raleigh (WTVD) . mTouch+ . Padboard . Power Presenter . Statistical Visualizer . Slide by Slide . GrooveMaker Free for iPAD . TeacherPal . AutoCAD WS . Flipboard . Air Guitar . mild Elements . Go SkyWatch Planetarium . Video Science . PBS for iPAD

. On Air . Quick Graph . Algebra Touch . Discovery Channel HD .

Where are the ebooks for the iPAD?

Here at N.C. State, I am part of the group that is in charge of the K-12 textbook collection. When we first received ebooks with the state adoption, I was excited. The eTextbooks could be placed on ereaders including iPADs. I inserted the cd into my computer. To my surprise, the ebook was a HTML page with an image viewer imbedded. The images were poor scans of pages of the textbook. I was so disappointed that these ebooks were useless. When I was a grad student at East Carolina University, I made ebooks for Palm and Pocket PC devices. We started with .PDB and .LIT files. The ebooks on the CD were poorer in quality the those ebooks of ten years ago. Then, we switched to .PDFs for mobile devices. Using .PDFs, publishers could limit printing, embed watermarks, and other functions to increase the value of the ebook. The one thing the iPADs allow is the ability to collect data from textbooks. It is a shame that publishers have not jumped on this aspect. I am trying to put together a grant to built a software development kit where professors and teachers could work together to built etextbooks that focus what is being taught to the classroom. A teacher probably use between 60-75 % of a standard textbook. Etextbooks need to be able to have interactive homework that tracks attempts to achieve a correct answer to homework, not just that it was completed. If you are a Publisher and you are reading this, please do not release an .ePub or .PDF and call it a day.

iPAD continues

I am running multiple iPAD projects currently. I am planning to clone our iPAD cart in the next week or two. I am trying to decide between subject-based app folders and app pages. I will probably decide right before I start cloning. All of the projects I am working are really taking a toll on keeping the wiki up to date. I have three pages of apps to add and review. Back to the projects, the Ed psych project is going well in it's first month. Students are using them in their other classes, which is a bonus. With the students using the iPADs in their other classes, they are developing good questions about how to use the iPADs. The other two projects involve
math and counsellor Ed. Math involves replacing graphing calculators and counsellor Ed is collecting data and reviewing interviewing skills via air video.

iPAD Project Directions

As I read about all of these places of learning implimenting new iPAD projects, I do not see a goal to their projects.  Two of the projects I am working on focus on three to four apps to acheive a stated goal.  The other one is open ended, but I hope to limited it down to ten to fifteen apps.  Most projects sounds as if they are giving students iPADs and telling them to go forth and figure it out on their own.  This is how most one to one laptops projects fail.  One thing I have found is that there are not as many textbooks available for the iPAD as I thought.  Inkling and CourseSmart are the two apps that have the most textbooks available.  Having access to the majority of textbooks for the state of North Carolina and their ematerials are mostly an HTML viewer with pages saved as images.   Publishers of textbooks are not ready for the mobile revolution.   So I am interested to see how some of the textbooks projects woorkout.   I would like to here about projects that have a focus.

Making a Move

I am going to start placing more iPAD notes on this blog.  The more I read on iPADs and their integration into Education, the more I see incorrect assumptions on what they can do.  First of all, in an educational environment the keyboard doc is a must.  Taking notes on the virtual keyboard will cause trouble with student concentration.  The keyboard doc creates more avenues of information entry for students and teachers.   The biggest drawback as far as etext go is that the publishers are not redy to start producing textbooks that show well on the iPAD.  If textbooks could take on the qualities of vooks with the combination of video and text, students would be more engaged to the text.  Also, the book needs to have projection built into the teacher's edition.  The reflectiveness from the screen makes using a doc cam with it impossible .  

 

We are hoping to make our first volume purchase  from the app store.  I have not found that anyone else has used this method of installing apps.  I will post more as we go through the the process.  

 

That is enough for now.

Teach with your iPAD on Trailmeme

I am trying Trailmeme out.  I made a iPAD Trail.  Not sure how it will work.


Teach with your iPAD on Trailmeme.

Teach with your iPAD on Trailmeme

Photovisi - Create a Collage From Your Photos!

I really like collages.  This website allows me to upload 21 images per collage.This one has images of app icon.  Photovisi - Create a Collage From Your Photos!.

 

I have been working on trying to capture how I envision teaching with the iPAD. I will say there have been a variety of great apps coming out lately for collaboration (currently testing Share board). I have almost filled the 11 page limit for the fourth time with apps. I am hoping to get my 2nd iPAD i loaned out back soon. For more collaborative testing. I am testing between my iTouches and iPAD to see how apps work together. I really (I mean RRRReeeaaaaalllllyyyy interested in collaborative note-taking. (Springpad and Springnote) One thing that bugs so far is that I can not get wysiwygs to work. I try to work on wiki page, and the function will not work. A real bummer. Time to forge on.

Answergarden: iPAD...

I created an answergarden for the iPAD to gauge other folks' thought on the device.  Please spread around.

Answergarden: iPAD....

Answergarden: iPAD...

iPAD Wix book

My iPAD Wix book try 2
Free website - Wix.com