Learning Without Frontiers 2012 - all schools that are moving towards 1:1 projects should send delegates to this event. It is thought provoking and challenging. The spaces we worked in were inflatable igloos! This kind of sets the tone. I ran a luddite2geek session which is really about common sense and engagement. I do look a bit freaky in that space!
Using Hype with the new iBook Author tool will enable some very cool outcomes. This is a bit techy - but in secondary schools this could be very appealing.
The best 1:1 iOS finds at BETT 2012 are free…
Being busy presenting, I didn’t get much of a chance to look around BETT 2012. For me, the two best things were not actually at BETT. The first thing was this….
This is about to be launched and I like it a lot!
This page is a tease. It sign posts a new and FREE way to create interactive question sets with audio and video content. You create on the big screen with an easy to use interface and publish to the devices. I was shown a demo and it is so fast and easy. Every teacher will be able to create great simple but powerful IOS content with this tool. This is without having to be a developer.
It could be massive especially in the primary sector.
The Best 1:1 iOS find at BETT part 2 was… also part visible and invisible. This being the BETT winners of ICT Company of the Year (Less than £1 Million) - Radiowaves.
These guys are true education innovators. They are quick and nimble and make the big guys look a little clueless. The invisible bit is that they have a free stealth iOS app that is about to be launched. It is in effect an iOS only social publishing tool for learning. Content from the camera roll can be zapped straight into the learners social learning space. Many schools even 1:1 iOS schools don’t actually realise that you can’t post content into a web 2.0 space from Safari.
I blog on Tumblr, use Posterous spaces for workshops/iPad content distribution (this being one example of “post2publish” carnage) - but this is different.
The advantage of the new Radiowaves app is the sharing of social iOS content, enabling teachers to explore how socially shared content shapes literacy and of course learning in general.
I think 1:1 iOS schools are going to love it.
I can’t wait for both of these releases!
This is the first cut of the Look @ Me video shot at Bowes Primary. It was really quickly in FCX in time for BETT - Hopefully I’ll get a proper version of it completed this week. It’s a great tool, saving teachers loads of time and hassle.
Christmas Collaboration apps (or just having some fun!)
So a Footie and Music mix will do it every time for me…..
Kicking off with FIFA 12…..Invite some mates round for a game (if you have mates). I used to have them. The optional use of 2 iPod touches/iPhones as controllers is a cool touch pun intended. At 69p only it beats Murdoch’s regime and hey you own the teams! …. But note that is 1GB of your iOS device ripped!
Remember to screen shot the best goals ;-) for the post match analysis.
FIFA 12 by EA SPORTS for iPad
CollabraCam: Collaborative Mobile Multicam Video Production
Rockmate
This App allows for up to 4 Musicians/noise makers to Play on the iPad at one time - so it really makes sense if you are on a budget ;-)
iPad for Pops
Come on Pops you can do it! - Even if the girl can’t say ebooks properly - it’s a sure fun way to make stuff on a cold November afternoon. “Bring it on Apps store - it’s showtime”.
Oh and here’s part 2 -
Yes… the irony being it is a Flash/browser based tool. Edited in iMovie and Music in Garageband.
Tilt Shift revisited
Today is the final day that Crumplepop’s cool Shrinkray plug in is available for free.
Here’s Kate’s (my daughter) experimental clip from earlier in the summer using a Nikon 3100 and Final Cut. The right content, distance and angle are all critical to the success of this genre of work. It is everywhere now esp advertising.
Untitled from kate coultas on Vimeo.
Busy Busy Busy
Liverpool, London, Lithuania - I seem to be doing lot’s of places begining with L at the moment. I had a great couple of days in Vilnius Lithuania where the country was having it’s first education technology show. The president came to the iPad stand and explained that she had just bought an iPad! The Apple stand had Apple’s for the teacher complete with cute little stickers! There was a very talented teacher called Stasele Riskiene demoing the use iPod Touches for teaching languages.
It seems that iPod and iPad are absolutely everywhere.
I’m travelling to Portugal this week to do iPad Garageband workshops. I’m spitting the sessions into to 2. A music session and a kind of Podcast creation session. It is difficult to call Garageband a podcasting tool although you can publish to a posterous account something that is easy and fun to do! I didn’t fancy lugging my guitar to Portugal so I made this cheesy movie to explain how to plug real instruments into GarageBand on the iPad. I edited it in the new version of Final Cut - without any instructions. That doesn’t mean that I am smart - I guess it means that FCPX is more like iMovie!
Digital Roadtrip in Holland
This week I am working in Holland advising some teachers on the use of iPads and iPod touches. One of the underlying challenges is where a 1:1 option isn’t possible, how best can you take a device designed for personal use and effectively share it? There are no simple answers and some pitfalls. But what is clear is that the benefits clearly out weigh the obstacles.
Also after 3.5 years on an iPhone 3G, I’ve got a new iPhone 4S and it has been a revelation, in terms of speed. The camera is lovely and SIri is quite amazing (I don’t have an appropriate adjective).
This video from the 80’s shows how science fiction has become a reality.
Essa iPad Day
I was lucky to be invited to run a series of workshops at ESSA Academy today alongside fellow ADE’s Joe Moretti and Oscar Stringer. Over 100 people crammed in to listen to The ESSA team and attend the workshops that explored the iPad as a content creation tool, as opposed to simply a consumption tool. Every attendee was given an iPad for the day and indeed many ended up buying them!
Uploaded with Skitch!
Kettering Buccleuch Academy
iPad for Languages
This week I spent some time working with the Buccleuch Academy staff. The Academy have bought iPads for Languages and for cross-academy classroom observations. The iPad in languages is a no-brainer. There is a staggering amount of apps for all ages as well as podcast content such as the amazing Radio Lingua. Another useful function of the iPad is the way that the language on the device can be set for the target language of the lesson. The accessibility tool Voice Over will switch to ” speak” in the set language of the device.
iPad for Lesson Observations
Lesson observations are a key part of developing as a teacher. The iPad project at Buccleuch is deploying the iPads to capture and share the lesson observations. Personally I think that the touch is less obtrusive and physically easier to manage, but having spent some time on this project, it really has made me think. Traditionally we shoot on camera and edit on computer. Mobile technologies over the past few years have changed this. Whilst the iPad is is hardly subtle and the touch wins on unobtrusiveness, the Academy staff need to edit and annotate the videos. This is much harder to do on the touch and whilst for students it may be easy, for staff the iPad has proved much easier to edit with.
We created a “house style” template in Photoshop using a screen shot from the iPad. The template was dropped into the Modern iMovie template and then shared to iTunes. This “shared to iTunes” version was then synced to the other 16 teacher assessment iPads. The house style enables all the observations to have a consistent and professional appearance. The “modern” template is particularly good for enabling subtitled comments that comment on the video content. Once this is set up it is very easy for the observer to annotate and of course publish/share the video. We have been looking at both email and wired transfer of video back to computer/shared drop box. Part of the plan is to have a bank of lessons available for OFSTED as evidence of good teaching and on-going appraisal of practice.
Back to Mac -
My training sessions tend to be 50/50 Mac and iPads these days. Here is a 1:1 project where close to 40 primary teachers @Chesterfield Primary School in Enfield are being introduced to iLife, iChat and iWork.
This term is going to be interesting especially with Lion and the soon to be released iOS 5. Tomorrow I’m travelling to Lincoln for an iPad training day and then on to Watford to deliver Mac and iPad training.
About me
This blog tracks the activity of the Digital Roadtrip project AKA Julian Coultas - Apple Education Mentor.
Digital Roadtrip is a Mac based mobile learning studio, providing consultancy for LA's schools, CPD and workshops.
We are experienced iPod Touch and iPad practitioners and help educators with the reality of using these tools to make a difference.
We are CRB checked, fully insured, experienced educators. We work with Primary/Secondary Schools including post 16.
We also work with local authorities and national strategies groups, before the new government came into power. Now we are not sure who we are working with;-)
We are busy and constantly engaged in the classroom with students and teachers.
Julian Coultas - Digitalroadtrip.org
http://twitter.com/#!/digitalroadtrip
+44 (0) 7970323255
