Projects: Photos Editing on the iPad

As students look more and more to report creation on mobile devices, a photo-editing tool has become a must. SnapSeed is a photo editing app that comes highly rated and at the right price—free. It has a simple interface and options such as crop, size, rotate, fill and stroke, text, wrap, gradient, fade, lens flare, and camera fill. Although, it is not a full-featured photo-editing tool, it’s said to be able to create wonderful images. SnapSeed was named the best mobile photo app of 2012 and the iPad App of the Year. If you are looking for photo-editing apps that have more options, take a look at Photogene ($2.99) and Adobe Photoshop Touch ($9.99). These and other photo apps were recommended by John Paul Titlow at Readwrite.com.

 

For additional recommendations for photo-editing apps, search the App Store for Fun with Filters.

Time Tech’s 50 Best Sites & Services of 2013

TIME magazine gives an annual salute to “sites and services that keep you entertained and informed, save you time and money—and maybe even change your life.” Some of the recommended sites that may be of interest to educators are:  the TWiT (This Week in Tech) network, which keeps you up-to-date with what’s happening in technology; Feedly, an RSS reader for sharing what you read/and or saving it to read at another time; MyPermissions that helps you discover what permissions you’ve allowed and lets you revoke them if you want; Office Web Apps, which may be “all the Office you need”; Pixlr, a photo editor that works with your browser; Forvo, like Wikipedia for pronunciations; Super Simple Learning with its focus on math and phonics through video and song; and Distance to Mars, which lets you and your students travel through the universe to Mars—428,000 pixels away.

Britain from Above

Geography teachers should appreciate Britain from Above, a free gallery of over 16,000 historical aerial images of the United Kingdom, 1919-1953. To find images, you and your students can search by clicking on an interactive map or entering a place name. There are sections to help you with browsing through the photo galleries; finding photos you or your students would like to view; and adding comments, photos, and adding keywords. Why not explore the castles of England and Scotland, classical architecture, railways, canals, unidentifiable photos, coastlines, islands, ...?

What Can You Do with an iPad in the Classroom?

Tom Barrett, in his 103 Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom, has developed a presentation with tips and ideas for teachers. You can browse his tips and tips contributed by other educators through a Google Docs presentation, and you can add your own ideas if you wish. Barrett wants to keep track of how people are using the resource and urges you to email him or tweet him @tombarrett.

Serif’s Inexpensive, But Highly Effective Software

Serif’s software works well and gets excellent reviews. Besides that, it’s quite inexpensive and all the products, whether for desktop publishing; video, panorama, or art creation; photo editing, Web design, or craft projects, work with the same interface. If you use Windows, Serif products are well worth looking into. The programs do not work with Mac OS. The latest versions of the software products sell for $99, but there are often specials offering them for lower prices. If you don’t need the latest versions, you can get Serif’s desktop publisher, for example, anywhere from about $20-$45 on Amazon.