Classroom Timer Apps

If you are looking for a classroom timer that will work with the iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch, the Classroom Timer Pro ($1.99), by Walsall Academy, is easy-to-use and good for timing classroom activities. There is a free version of this product, but the Pro version had better reviews. Glen Storey offers Silent Light—Classroom Timer and Decibel Meter ($3.99) for the iPhone and iPad. It uses the microphones on iPhones and iPads to monitor noise; you can share its screen through projectors and Apple TV.   Designed to help students with management and productivity, ClassTimer by Ventura Educational Systems ($.99) requires iOS4.2 and is compatible with iPads.

Story by Disney

Disney’s free app, “Story," lets you use photos and video on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to create stories. It’s not a game or related to a Disney product; its purpose is to allow you to organize the media you have on your digital devices. Your stories, once complete, can be shared on social media and will look like a book complete with “fluid page turning and animation.” Leah Yamshon of MacWorld in her piece, “Disney Interactive Launches Story, a Non-Disney-Centric Photo App”, says that Story is “very intuitive to use with nice in-app editing features and a stunning final product.” This looks like a great app for schools using iPads in the curriculum.

Mobistories for Ages 2-6

An interesting collection of digital books for children to use at home or school is available from Still Motion Media. The stories target ages 2-6, 4-8, and 6-10, and may be used on Mac and PC computers, iPads, iPhones, iPods, Xbox, Wii, and Playstation. Stories cost about $1 each, but parents can subscribe to Mobistories in order to receive free downloads each month, entrance into Mobistories library collection, and special offers. For school and library subscription offers, contact Still Motion Media. Short previews are available online, and you can also sign up to receive a free book.

Free eBook Suggestions for Children and Teens

Technotes for the Texas Computer Education Association offers some great suggestions for free eBooks for children and teenagers. The books can be read on Kindles or with the Kindle App on Macs, PCs and iOS devices. Some of the titles include: Farm Girl, Jimmy the Racing Frog, The Bobbsey Twins, The Takers: One of the Oz Chronicles, Busy Bees 123, The Wicked Passage, and Flanagan Underage Detective. There are links to these and many other books for children or teens in Technotes.

Policies Educators Don’t Like

eSchool News conducted a poll asking educators what education policies they thought should be eliminated. See if you agree with the top ten that were recommended.

Number 10 - “Creating a single, statewide student information system”

Number 9 - “Teacher licensing requirements”

Number 8 - “Not requiring technology application classes”

Number 7 - “Prohibiting the use of personal technologies or web pages”

Number 6 - “Grade levels based on age”

Number 5 - “Seat-time requirements”

Number 4 - “Rules for auctioning off old equipment

Number 3 - “Unfunded mandates”

Number 2 - “Teacher seniority preferences”

Number 1 - “No Child Left Behind”.

You can go to eSchool News and make your own suggestions about what policies you think schools would be better without.

Second Life in Education

ISTE on Second Life hosts many valuable sessions to keep us up with the latest in technologies for our classrooms. In February, 2011, the group hosted a four-week series about teaching with iPods and iPads.  To learn more about ISTE Second Life, watch the video, Computing in the Clouds and check out the information about Second Life in education.

How to Start a Mobile Learning Program in Your School

On the eSchool News site you can access the Webinar archive, “Launching a Mobile Learning Program: What Every School Leader Should Know”.  Using the archive you’ll learn about Lake Tahoe’s Netbook program and how it saved the district money and saved teachers time in addition to increasing “student engagement and enthusiasm.” Leading the session are Dr. Jim Tarwater, Superintendent of Lake Tahoe School District and Linda Uhrenholt, Regional Education Director, AT&T.  Tahoe’s plan is for all students, Grades 3-12, to have Netbooks with cellular connections by the end of 2012. Uhrenholt says that we are at a tipping point with mobile learning in our schools both for students and for faculties. Students envision learning at their fingertips, not waiting to use computers during a scheduled period. That vision can be achieved with mobile technologies like Netbooks. No longer will students at Tahoe carry heavy backpacks, for their books and their homework will be on their Netbooks. To make the mobile computing happen, the district is partnering with AT&T, Cisco, and Microsoft Live at Edu.  Tarwaters says when you look at the cost of Netbooks compared to the cost of textbooks and laptops, you’ll see great savings. Tahoe will not purchase textbooks in the future except for special needs students. In the Webinar, one of the district’s two IT specialists explains how the program works.

Evernote App in the Classroom

Teacher/Librarian Buffy Hamilton decided to try the Evernote App with her sophomore students. The students were getting started on a research project in which they had to use different types of sources of information (video, photos, database articles, Web articles, etc.) and needed a way to save and organize what they gathered. She says she selected Evernote because it was free and students could use it on their computers at home as well as with iPod, iPhone, Touch, and Android devices. Besides, they could take handwritten notes and scan them in or take a snapshot of them. They could share notes, and using email, they could add to their accounts when they wanted, where they wanted. Hamilton’s students said the program was easy to use, and most continued to use Evernote for their schoolwork after the project was completed. If you’d like to try Evernote with your students, be sure to make use of Hamilton’s Research Guide.

Dinosaur App from the American Museum of Natural History

Explore the world’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils up close through an iPad App. The App includes nearly 1000 images and sixteen detailed dinosaur stories, and will be of interest to all ages. Interactive photographs include information about the fossils and the scientists who uncovered them. Have fun creating a mosaic of the world’s most famous dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex. The App, which was released in December 2010, is available for $2.99 at the iTunes store.  Free American Museum of Natural History Apps are: The Natural History Explorer (fossil treasure hunt, personal GPS, pre-loaded tours, etc.); Cosmic Discoveries (ride through the solar system); and Dinosaurs (photos and renderings of dinosaurs).

Digital Generation Brains: Do They Work in School?

Since the evolution of Sesame Street and its engaging, fast-paced television learning, educators have wondered how classroom teachers can possibly compete with what’s enveloping student minds beyond school. Today the problem is not only beyond school, but in school as well. Keeping students from using digital devices for texting and networking isn’t easy; nor is keeping their minds on school studies. New York Times writer Matt Richtel, in his piece Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction, discusses time he spent with students and staff at Woodside High School, California, where principal David Reilly says he’s “trying to take back [student] attention from the Blackberries and video games” and “to a degree, I’m using technology to do it.” In the school there are now Chinese language classes taught via iPad and audio production classes. Reilly hopes to capture the attention of students who can’t seem to focus on schoolwork because they are too involved with digital activities that offer “instant gratification.” A 14-year-old admitted sending and receiving 27,000 text messages a month, while others are up late into the morning hours on school nights playing video games, social networking, and working on digital movies. Not all educators and researchers agree that adding more tech is the way to challenge today’s students to learn, and research studies cited in the article suggest that video games hamper sleep and seem to “override” what students have studied.  Multitasking doesn’t work, and the brain appears to need downtime, not constant activity, to digest what it learns. Although there are excellent points tackled in this article that all educators must think about, the answers are still waiting. The questions remain: (1) Is the answer good teaching, whether tech is used or not, or (2) are some students so intensely involved in their digital lives that they are not able to focus no matter how effective the teacher?