Five Friday Finds

Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher's time, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others!

General- 

Googlios: Google meets ePortfolios
Collection of resources for creating ePortfolios using free Google tools

Language-

The Devil’s Arithmetic Webquest
Webquest based on the young adult novel “The Devil’s Arithmetic”

Math-

Amusement Park Physics
Learn about the history, math & science behind a variety of amusement park rides (Okay, it is not strictly math, but it sure is fun to virtually build a roller coaster, or collide bumper cars!)

Science-

Virtual Pig Dissection
Exactly that - virtual pig dissection (requires Shockwave player)

Social Studies-

Trading Around the World
A game to experience the challenges & excitement of international trade; player tries to get the best price for the goods sold and biggest bargains for the goods bought.

iPads in the Classroom - More To Books Than the iBook Store

One advantage of the iPad is its versatility in dealing with books.  There is a convenience factor in having one device to handle both eBooks and audiobooks.  However, the fact that pdf files can be added to the device is a big bonus!

eBooks
Apple uses the ePub format for eBooks.  This means you are able to find eBooks from many other sources outside the iBook store and use them on your iPad.  These other books will even display on your “Bookshelf” in the iBooks app.

There are many advantages of using the ePub books. You can look up word definitions, annotate notes, highlight text & create bookmarks simply by clicking on the text.  (A pop-up displays with these choices.)  To add ePub files to your iPad:

1. Find the desired ePub books online and download them to your computer (note where you download them so you can find them!)
   
2. In iTunes, go to the File Menu and select Add File to Library.
   

3. Find and select the downloaded book, making sure you get the ePub file (here I am adding Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women)
   

4. It will add it to your iTunes Library under the Books icon (Note: If the Books icon is not visible, it will show up after you add the first book.)

PDF Documents
In addition to ePub Books, PDF documents can be loaded onto the iPad.  These will also be added to the iBook app.  Adding PDF documents follows exactly the same steps as adding the ePub books above.  Of course, if you are adding your own PDF documents you will not need to go get them from the Internet.

By default, PDF documents have their own Bookshelf as it categorizes them separate from the ePub books.  To access them in the iBooks app, when looking at your bookshelf click on "Collections" (it is right next to "Store") in the upper left corner.  You should see choices of "Books" and "PDFs" to select from.  It is here that you can create your own collection categories if there is another way you would like to categorize your materials.

AudioBooks
Apple iTunes uses the ACC format for audio by default.  However, the following formats are also compatible:  M4A, M4B, M4P, MP3, WAV, Audible (formats 2, 3, & 4), Apple Lossless, and AIFF.

Follow these steps to get your Audio format books into iTunes:

1. Find the desired audio books and download them to your computer (note where you download them so you can find them!).  If you have a built-in audio player in your browser, you will need to right-click on the file link and choose to save it.
   
   
2. In iTunes, go to the File Menu -> Add File to Library
   

3. Find and select the downloaded book, making sure you get the audio file. (Here I’m adding a chapter of Huck Finn.)
   

4. It will add it to your iTunes Library in one of two places:
1.  If it is a stand-along file, it will be in your Music library
2. If it is part of a Podcast series, it will be in your Podcasts library

Places To Find Books
Some useful sites for books, most are free or have a large range of free selections:
ePub Books

• ePubBooks
• Project Gutenburg
• 300+ Places for Free Books Online (exhaustive list of both book collections and individual books offered by the authors; grouped by Genre at the bottom of the list to help)
• ePubBud
• ManyBooks.net
• Free ePub Children’s Picture Books
• Open Library
• Barnes & Noble eBooks·

pdf Books

• FlexBooks
• Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics (other formats, as well)
• Free High School Science Texts (Mathematics & Science texts; coordinated in South Africa!)
• 150 Free Textbooks (various formats)
• Open Textbooks – Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (various formats)
• Textbooks – Center of Mathematics

AudioBooks

• Books Should Be Free
• Lit2Go (many of these are also available from iTunesU)
• 87 Places for Free Audio Books Online
• ThoughtAudio (philosophy & classic literature)
• LibriVox
• Podiobooks
• Open Culture
• Learn Out Loud

Five Friday Finds

Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher's time, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others!

General-

Snip.ly

“Capture and share the best snips from any page”

ELA-

Topicmarks

Upload your document, and Topicmarks summarizes the text documents for you electronically.

Math-

 MathTV

Site with extensive collection of mathematics tutorials

Science-

 Powering the Earth

Interactive graphical representation of electricity consumption, renewable electricity, & CO2 Emissions.

Social Studies-

The History Lab

Lots of historical resources (sites, videos, etc) organized by theme.

Five Friday Finds

Wouldn’t you know it?  On Friday the 13th all my pre-set postings don’t get posted! Here this one is a few days later…

Here are some resources you or your staff may find useful.  Please feel free to share with others

General-

Free Audio Books

 Free Audio Books from the public domain

Language-

Newspaper Blackout

Newspaper + Marker = Poetry

Math-

Brightstorm

Free math videos, explaining concepts & sample problems

Science-

WeatherSpark

Interactive weather graphs that the user can pan & zoom.  Provides the entire history of any weather station on earth.

Social Studies-

Library of Congress - National Jukebox

Historical audio recordings available to the public.

Have a great week!

iPads in the Classroom - It's More Than Just Apps!

While I am the first to admit that I love apps and what they do, it is amazing to me that we so easily overlook all the other "stuff" we can load onto an iPad or iPod Touch to make it an even more potent learning device!

Here is a short run-down of ALL the content (including apps) that can be added and made available to your students (or to you personally!):
(Please note:  these are how we add it as members of an academic institution using iTunes accounts with None selected for the payment option.)

• Apps: apps can be added using a variety of methods
• find free apps in the iTunes Store & download
• OR redeem an app code received from a Volume Purchase Program Facilitator
• OR gift an app to the account from another iTunes account
• Music: any music from the iTunes library can be selected for upload to an iPad, including teacher or student created audio files, and audio books; you can add individual songs, albums, playlists, genres or artists, giving you the flexibility to put just what you want on there.
• import audio files you created or own from CD into iTunes Music Library
• OR add copyright free audio files downloaded to your computer to iTunes Music Library
• OR download audio files from iTunes Store
• Movies: movies, including screencasts, can be added to the devices
• import files you created or own from CD into the iTunes Movie Library
• OR add copyright free movie files downloaded to your computer to iTunes Movie Library
• Podcasts: podcasts work best (the way they are supposed to :-)  ) when subscribed to within the iTunes store
• iTunes U: again, material from iTunes U works best (the way it is supposed to :-)  ) when subscribed to or downloaded within the iTunes store; material in iTunes U is free, and more is added every day so check it out periodically.
• Photos: photos, including graphics, screenshots or illustrations, can be used by students on their device; it is best if items are stored in a common picture folder (or in iPhoto if you use a Mac) so you don't have to continually cahnge where iTunes looks for the material
• scan items you created or own onto your computer, and add to picture folder
• OR download copyright free items from the Internet
• OR import pictures from your camera or SD card
• Books: there are multiple ways to get eBooks on your device; while ePub is the format Apple uses, you can also add pdf files including documents/handouts you create for your classroom.
• download copyright free pdf or ePub books/files and add them to your iTunes Book Library
• OR create your own material, save it as pdf and add it to your iTunes Book Library

Do you have any other method for adding material without purchasing it?  Please share!

iPads in the Classroom - Volume Purchase Program Explained (as best I can...)

(Several things have changed in the VPP since April.  Please check out the updated post about the program.)

During the month of April, I spent considerable time with my colleagues helping one of our local school districts set up a pilot program with 50 iPads.  (My previous experience has been with iPod Touches-see iPod Touch Experiment.)

The hardest part for me in the process was understanding the ins and outs of the Volume Purchase Program.  There are several tiers to the process, so it made putting the whole picture together for those that only have access to one or two of the tiers in a way they can understand a little daunting.

What are advantages to using the Volume Purchase Program?  There are several for schools:

• Tracking purchases and where they have been distributed: the system is in place; it isn't pretty, but if you mark right on the spreadsheets with the redemption code where the codes are distributed you have some way of keeping record of where purchased apps are being dispersed.
• Tax exempt purchasing: if you work for a non-profit (such as a school), you are not charged sales tax upon purchase
• Multiple purchase discount: for many apps, if you are purchasing more than 20 of an app, you get the volume discounting which is usually 50% off.

So, what are the tiers & what does an account at each level have the ability to do?  Here it is in a nutshell from top to bottom... or side to side... or around the world (you get the picture):

1. Program Manager: (This person is the one that oversees the program. More information at: http://edu-vpp.apple.com/asvpp.html. Note: If you are a school, this person must be an approved purchaser for your institution.)
1. Creates and oversees the Program Facilitator account
2. Purchases and distributes the Volume Vouchers that are applied to Program Facilitator accounts
   
2. Program Facilitator (all done on App Store Volume Purchase Program website, NOT iTunes)
1. Redeems Vouchers for credit to purchase apps 
2. Searches for and purchases apps, selecting the quantity needed
3. Accesses redeem code spreadsheet to distribute codes to iTunes Users
4. For many institution, retains documentation of distribution of codes (who got what)
   
3. iTunes User
1. Redeems apps using codes given by program facilitator (either in iTunes or on the device)
2. Submits requested apps to Program Facilitator

A note:  you cannot use the same iTunes account as a Facilitator that you use on your iTunes.  So, since I am a facilitator and also have an iPad to sync, I have two different iTunes accounts: one I use as a facilitator to purchase my apps, and the one I use to add content to the iPad (which includes redeeming those codes I get to my facilitator account).

Five Friday Finds - Some General Tools

So April was pretty busy (there will be other posts about that!), but I’m ready to resume our Five Friday Finds!

Here are some resources you or your staff may find useful.  Please feel free to share with others

General-

Zamzar

File conversion tool; upload your file or paste in the website URL, Zamzar with convert it for you.  They have added eBook format conversion!

Readability

Browser add-on & mobile app to eliminate all the extra “stuff” on web pages, making the text easier to read.  The Bookmarklet is free to use in the web browsers; there is a subscription for additional services, including read later & sharing features and mobile access.

Embed Plus

Enhance the viewer experience around the YouTube video you embed with an upgrade in their playback controls.  It is currently free.

Present.me

Easily record & share your PowerPoints presentations, with you included as part of the presentation!  Free account limits to a 15 minute length and 10 per month.

Creaza

An online suite of creative tools, including mind-mapping, cartooning, movie editing, audio editing.  Requires an account; free version offers limited features of each tool.

Have a great weekend!

Five Friday Finds

Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others!

General-

HippoCampus

Homework & study help using digital media.

Language-

RhymeZone

 Type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms, definition, etc.

Math-

Illuminations

 Standards-based math resources and activities.  Site maintained by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Science-

Solar System Scope

 SSS means Astronomy for Everybody. Whether you are a student, astronomy fan or an accidental browser, you are most welcome to play with our user-friendly application. It's full of space-art graphics, has easy-to-use interface with various settings and offers interesting information.  SSS will illustrate you real-time celestial positions with planets and constellations moving over the night sky.

Social Studies-

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt

See how your federal taxes were spent.

Have a great weekend!