The new Year 7 students were very much on the ball with using iPads and were very much raring to go. After successfully obtaining their Bunsen Burner Licence students were asked to create an instruction manual for using a Bunsen Burner safely in a Science laboratory.
Students used Comic Life to produce their comics and worked in small groups of 3 or 4. The students produced some amazing Comics and worked exceptionally well as a team.
The students learnt how to send work from the iPads which will be a massive help later on as this seems to be an issue with some groups. During the last 10 minutes of the lesson students and teachers are frantically trying to share work with peers and practising this skill will hopefully make the end of the lesson panic a thing of the past.
Using Zappar is like opening up another dimension where the world around you comes to life – just point your device at any Zappar powered image or object and watch video, games and 3D animation magically appear before your eyes!
I recently used the Zappar app to enhance the learning experience for Year 7 students to enhance the normal flame testing activity. When planning the lesson I was a little concerned that using the iPads at the same time as a practical would not work, but it was really successful. Students were given mystery chemicals to identify (A-F), using a flow chart to find links between flame colour and element symbols. One member of the practical group was then appointed to use the Zappar app to check the flame colour and find out which element the chemical symbol was for.
The flow chart stage could even be bypassed in the future going straight from the identification of flame colour to the Zappar app.
Video Physics brings complex video analysis to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and into the hands of the students. The app allows students to take a video of any object in motion and then by marking its position frame by frame analyse the motion graphically to scale. Video Physics draws trajectory, position, and velocity graphs for the object. Videos can then be shared with Facebook, YouTube and the Camera Roll, which includes the video with markers showing the motion and also the graphs produced from the data collected. Video Physics will display the path of the ball and provide graphs of Y vs X as well as the X and Y position and velocity as a function of time.
This app is perfect for reluctant students that are not engaged in physics and allows them to use technology and see real life situations being transformed into quite complex graphical physics.
The features of Vernier Video Physics are as follows.
• Capture a new video using the built-in camera, choose a video from your photo library, or use one of our sample videos.
• Mark the position of one object, frame by frame.
• Set the scale of the video using an object of known size.
• Optionally set coordinate system location and rotation.
• View graphs of trajectory, and x/y position and velocity.
• Export the marked video to Facebook or your Photo Library. Graphs are appended to video.
• Email the video and data for further analysis in Vernier’s Logger Pro software for OSX and Windows.
I used this app with Year 9 students last week with the help of @TESScience@asober . I have found that these students are always engaged when using iPads combined practical activity, however, some girls lack self confidence and motivation but during this lesson these two girls produced the best replication of the displacement time graph (seen below) from the whole group and were very pleased to share this with the group at the end of the lesson. The app allows all learners to access the activity and allows some students to show off their skills. The students progressed immensely during the lesson with their understanding of drawing graphs, interpreting graphs and working as a team using iPads. A very productive and pleasing lesson. The lesson plan that we used during this lesson and accompanying resources can be found at the following links. Both resources have been uploaded to the TES Resources by Alessio Bernardelli Science Subject Advisor for the TES.
Reflection.app has provided an alternative to using Apple TV to mirror your iPad or iPhone. Reflection allows you to mirror your iPhone 4S, iPad 2 or iPad 3 to any Mac running OS X 10.6+, wirelessly. Previsouly I had been looking to purchase Apple TV to utilise the AirPlay function of the iPads within the classroom. The ability to wirelessly share the iPad screen with my MacBook linked to a projector allows me or the students to share the iPad screen with the whole class from anywhere in the class or anywhere on the school premises. As long as I the device is connected to the same WiFi network as the Mac running OS X 10.6+ then the mirroring will work.
Reflection also allows you to easily demo iOS apps on any Mac running OS X Lion using AirPlay Mirroring on iOS 5. Mirroring and recording the MacBook screen using Camstasia allows you to make instructional videos that can be shared with students or the students could produce their own to demonstrate to their peers. This is one option that I will be exploring with my Digital Leaders. Follow their progress and excellent advice at @PCSADigiLeaders.
Reflection currently cost $14.99 (approx £10) for an individual licence or $49.99 (approx £40) for 5 licences. This is a lot cheaper than forking out £100 for Apple TV + £40 VGA to HDMI convertor to allow this to work in the classroom with a projector that doesn’t have a HDMI input.
Check out my first attempt of a iPad Screencast. More to follow!
Educreations app turns the iPad into a recordable, interactive and mobile whiteboard. Now sharing a tutorial or educational video is very simple and easily combines voice with annotation of pictures and photos. The possibilities are endless for this app in the classroom. Teachers could use this to show students some key concepts or students could demonstrate there learning to produce a short video to help peers and share with the world through email, facebook and twitter.
FEATURES
• Record and replay your voice, handwriting and drawings
• Add photos from the iPad camera, Photo Albums or Dropbox
• Animate images by dragging them around while recording
• Pause and resume recording anytime
• Create multiple whiteboard pages
• Undo and redo your actions
• Choose from 10 different ink colors
• Create a free account on educreations.com and choose who can view your lessons
• Share your lessons via email, Facebook and Twitter
• Embed your lessons on your blog or website
I have recently started to experiment with the Socrative app that is available online and via apps for iPad, iPhone and also Android mobile devices. Any device that access the internet can utilise Socrative in the classroom.
Socrative brings smart clickers, student response and ease of use to a whole new level. Students can be engaged all lesson with educational exercises and games. You can gather feedback instantly from all students anonymously.
Socractive has a wide variety of activities to use when assessing students learning. Students can access the specific ‘room’ of the teacher to answer the question that have been verbal asked or from a pre setup quiz.
All feedback can be seen instantly by the teacher and can also be shared at the end of a quiz via a report. These reports offer a breakdown of each students response to the question. It even marks the quiz and responses for you!
I recently used a ‘Space Race’ quiz that I had made as a starter activity to assess prior knowledge of a topic and the students loved it. The loved it so much that the students developed there own ‘Space Race’ quiz during the lesson to use during the plenary exercise.
The students can watch their rocket fly across the screen and compete with all members of the class to complete the exercise. Excellent motivation for learning and AfL combined.
The work that @asober, @tesscience and I have carried to make this app a must have in any classroom can be seen here where we produced and shared a collection of Socrative quizzes ready for the exam season this year.
Recently Apple released iBooks Author that allows anyone to create stunning iBooks. All you need is an idea (or Scheme of Learning) and a Mac. Apple have offered a range of pre designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. You can add your own text and images, use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps.
iBooks author offers an amazing opportunity for Teachers and Learners alike to personalise learning and offer an enriched interactive learning environment.
The Apple-designed templates give you an easily accessible way to design your book. iBooks Author allows you to import texts and chapters from Page and Microsoft Word. The ability to add Multitouch widgets adds the interactive aspect to your iBook. Add a photo gallery, chapter review, movie, Keynote presentation, interactive image with callouts, 3D object, or custom HTML anywhere in your book. These could also include a range of ways to make your iBook accessible to a range of learners and abilities.
iBooks a can be exported to iPads running the latest iBook software via email or syncing via iTunes. You are also able to submit your iBook to the iBookstore and iTunes U or share your book as a PDF file.
I will trialling iBooks Author alongside other members of my faculty. It has a massive potential to make sharing resources with learners and colleagues leap into the future. There is so much more to follow!
I recently used the I Can Animate app with a BTEC group who love demonstrating their knowledge through anything but writing. The lesson was focused on enzyme action and required the students to understand the lock and key theory of how enzymes work, the structure of enzymes and how the enzyme-substrate complex forms and works.
After a brief introduction I handed over to the students. Students were given a success criteria and suggested apps and the rest was over to them. I also chose to make some QR codes available to some students who required more support. These QR codes linked to websites and also short teaching videos to cater for different learning styles and abilities.
All students decided to use I Can Animate app combined with iMovie where they provided a voice over to their animation. I Can Animate is an excellent animation app for only £1.99 as it provides a very simple but effective onion skinning and a range easy to use settings and functions.
I Can Animate App features:
• Capture frames using the inbuilt camera
• Displays onion skinning
• Adjust exposure, white balance and focus
• Time lapse
• Review last five frames
• Preview whole project
• Supports a library of multiple projects
Share your movie
• Export your animation in three movie sizes: medium, large or HD.
• Exported animations are added to your camera roll which can then be shared through email, MMS, MobileMe and YouTube. Exported animations can also be added to an iMovie project for a really polished movie.
I Can Animate provides hours of fun for both the serious and amateur animator. This app also allows students to demonstrate their learning in a fun and creative way that is easy to share during the class and also upload to YouTube or share via Twitter and the you never know the video may go viral!
Once the students had completed their short movie, they were easily shared with myself via email and shared with the world via YouTube. Some examples can be seen below.
