Following my previous post about iPhone and iPod apps for schools, I thought that it might be useful to write a second post, which also includes links to relevant iPad apps, now that the device has been released. Here are links to some useful apps, sites and resources:

App Suggestions:

• iPhone, apps and the headteacher – The New Head shares a number of useful apps which he uses on a daily basis. A very useful post.
• iPhone apps spreadsheet – A collaborative Google spreadsheet with suggested apps for a huge range of curriculum areas.
• Top iPhone apps for teachers and students – Six apps which are recommended by an advisor for teaching and learning with ICT.
• Learning Continuity – A large list of useful iPad applications for use in educational contexts.
• Ten iPad apps for librarians – This post shares ten different iPad applications that might be useful for librarians, although many of them might be useful for schools and other educators too.
• More iPad apps – Principal Eric Sheninger shares some of his favourite iPad apps in . Don’t miss his original post either.
• 10 iPad apps for Educators – Here’s a video which shows how the iPad might be used by teachers:

• iPads in Science – An amazing list of apps and ideas for using iPads in your Science lessons.
• Punflay – This company makes a large number of iPod / iPad games and educational applications, including a virtual Frog Dissection, physics puzzles and Maths games.
• EducationApps – Another company making educational software, targetted to the UK market.
• Apps for children 0-7 years – A selection of applications for use with younger children.
• Top iPhone / iPod apps for kids – A large number of applications for children to use in the classroom.
• 100 hard to find apps for schools – This list is an extremely useful collection of apps organised by category.
• Animation Creator HD – Lets you make stop-motion animations on the iPad screen. Children in my own class loved using the Pivot Stick Animator software this week, so I’m going to buy this one and see how it compares!
• Singing Fingers – How could you use this fun tool in your classroom?

Other Links:

• The iPad and iPod user group wiki – A useful site with a number of tips for using iPods in the classroom.
• 3 year old using an iPad – If you’re not convinced that young children can use these devices effectively, watch this video of a 3 year old using the 123 Color HD application.
• Introducing the iPad – Matt Lovegrove outlines his initial experiences of using his iPad with his class. Follow his blog for future updates.
• iPad in Education – Oliver Quinlan shares his experiences of an iPad in Education event which he attended.
• This post on the Seomra Ranga blog outlines how one school has arranged their use of iPod Touches in the classroom. It contains some useful advice about extra equipment that might help.

Apps that I’ve used at school:

• Evernote – I use Evernote all the time on my iPhone, iPad and computers. It’s a note taking tool which I use for taking minutes in staff meetings, jotting down ideas, drafting lesson plans and much more. By entering notes on one device, it is automatically synced to every other device (and to the online service too).

Image – Evernote, iPad App Store

• FileBrowser – With this app, I can access files our our school’s network. It’s a great way of quickly browsing the network and looking at important documents when I’m not near my school computer.
• iResponse Pro – I discovered this app whilst attending some training by Chris Thomas. It’s a fantastic assessment tool that works just like a voting system. Teachers set up their questions and the children can use their iPods / iPads to respond to them.
• Videos – We’ve used the built-in Videos app to watch instructional videos in Literacy lessons and to watch movie trailers when learning about dialogue and speech recently.
• Maps – Another built-in application with huge potential for classroom use… it could be used to look at street and satellite maps of an area you are studying. Street View could also be used to get the children to go on a virtual tour of particular places. I’ve started adding ‘Places and Maps’ to the Teaching Themes site, so why not explore some of these places with your iPods and iPads?
• Plants vs Zombies – This isn’t educational at all, but I showed it to my class once when I first got my iPad and they’ve been begging to play it together again ever since!

Many thanks to my Twitter network who have shared many of these over the past few months. I’m keen to explore this topic in future posts, so please get in touch with suggested apps / links or leave a comment. Thanks!

Here are some details about new free resources from Futurelab:

Education Eye
Education Eye is a free, engaging and easy-to-use online space that gives access to a wide range of useful and relevant innovations across educations’ varied communities. Connecting people with innovative uses of digital technology, new resources and new approaches to teaching and learning to help inspire further innovation in education.

Infocow
Infocow is a social search website made for and created by young people aged 14-19. It connects young people with sites, stories, information and inspiration to help take control of their lives. Infocow links to hundreds of different websites and sources of information that can help with making positive changes, whether that’s finding out what to do after GCSEs, or what the first steps are to leaving home. The following Youtube video explains more…

Digital literacy across the curriculum
This handbook aims to introduce educational practitioners to the concepts and contexts of digital literacy and to support them in developing their own practice aimed at fostering the components of digital literacy in classroom subject teaching and in real school settings.

The main Futurelab site has a large collection of resources and information for teachers. It’s well worth exploring.

Practical Action (a development charity that focuses on the use of sustainable technology in Africa, Asia and South America) have joined forces with Primary Engineer to offer a Special Leaders Award. The award is available for three ages groups: Primary (5-11), Secondary (11-16) and advanced (17-19).

To obtain the award, students need to provide evidence that they have been actively involved in promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) in their school and to interview someone who works in this area.

For our award pupils need to interview someone working in an area related to the development of technologies, products or services which incorporate sustainability as a key factor. The winners for each group will receive a solar powered media player. The winner of the advanced level will also spend a day working with a sustainable product designer.

This PDF flyer gives more information:

The deadline for interviews and Leaders Award applications (via email only) is 30th June 2010. Find out more on the Practical Action and Primary Engineer sites.

Mouse Mischief is a way of helping your pupils actively participate in lessons using their own mice to interact with your slides on the interactive whiteboard screen. It works with Powerpoint and is free to use. Find out more in this Youtube video:

Guardian.co.uk has recently announced a new section on their website. The new area, called ‘Classroom Innovation’ is dedicated to the use of technology in schools as a teaching and learning tool.

www.guardian.co.uk/classroom-innovation

Each fortnight, they are planning to put up new material bridging the gap between the rapid advance in technology and the practical realities of teaching in class. The site currently has a selection of education / technology news articles, advice for schools trying to make social networking sites safer for their pupils, a competition to win a portable PC and best practice advice.

What proportion of the children in your school have a computer and Internet access at home? With lots of schools introducing virtual learning environments to support learning outside of the classroom, what happens to those children who don’t have the right equipment?

From the Home Access site…

‘Home Access is a government drive which will help low-income families to get access to a computer and the internet to get online at home.

If you are a low income family in receipt of certain benefits you could qualify for a grant to buy a computer and/or a minimum of one years’ internet access. The programme is aimed at those that need it most and targets families that do not have access to a computer or the internet at home.’

Parents who would like to find out more should visit www.homeaccess.org.uk. Schools can help to support the scheme by visiting the partner area and requesting promotional materials. You can also download 10 handy sheets which explain the scheme in detail at Keen2Learn.

BETT, the ‘world’s largest educational technology event’ took place last week and I was very lucky to be able to spend a few days there. Here are some of the things that I discovered:

• Anithings – A ‘creativity tool’ which lets children create animations by simply dragging objects around on screen. It costs £250 for a site licence, but there is a 10% discount during January.

• Interactive Resources – This company makes the (extremely useful) Maths Packs, Teaching materials and Primary Games which can be used on interactive whiteboard and / or individual computers. During BETT, I was given a quick tour of the new online version of their site, allowing teachers (and pupils) to access the resources online at home and school. Teachers can also filter all of the resources by subject / topic and allocate activities to students who can try them when they next log in.
• Story Stage – I watched a demo of this software from Scholastic and was really impressed at the ability to connect multiple mice to the same computer, allowing children to work collaboratively. Why doesn’t all software allow multiple users like Story Stage?

• Smart – It was nice to hear about the release of Smart Notebook 10.6 (available now) which brings compatibility with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on the Mac. It also has a ‘transparent’ tool which makes the Smart Notebook interface disappear, as well as a number of new Maths tools.
• 2Simple – I managed to get a final copy of 2Create a SuperStory, as well as trials of 2Assess ICT and the Online Tools. I’m really impressed with the potential of the online tools, allowing children to use creative software at home and school and save their work to an online storage area. Anthony Evans showed me 2Design&Make (built into the online tools) to make some fantastic 3D models.

• Linkbun.ch – Allows you to share lots of links with one small link which can then be shared via email / Twitter etc. Thanks to @ianyorston for sharing this gem.
• Stupflix – This looks a little like Animoto (as both allow you to combine audio / photos / video) but Stupeflix seems to have more customisation options. Shared by @digitalmaverick.

• Dabbleboard – An online collaborative whiteboard. I’ve used Dabbleboard at home once or twice, but never in the classroom. @bevevans22 talked about this during a Teachmeet Takeover session and I can definitely see it being a valuable addition to a lesson.
• Scratch – Scratch is a programming language which I’ve always thought was a bit complicated. However, @mberry gave us all an entertaining 7 minute demonstration of the program and made it all look incredibly easy. Downloading and trying Scratch is now high up on my ‘to do’ list.

• Newseum - @digitalmaverick mentioned this during his Teachmeet Takeover session about Glogster. The Front pages section lets you view the front pages of a huge collection of newspapers from around the world.
• Class blogging - Oliver Quinlan gave a really inspiring presentation about his class blogs and how time is given for the children to respond to each others’ blog posts. We regularly post items on our school website / blog but children rarely have time to add their own thoughts… something that is sure to change now!

Did you go to BETT? What did you discover?

A new website has been launched to help schools teach pupils about sustainable living and the key role that scientists and engineers will play in tackling the challenges of climate change.

The online resource, 3MWorldlyWise is designed to boost young interest in studying the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths from GCSE to A-level and on to university.

www.3mworldlywise.co.uk

This free website  contains lots of helpful tips for living a ‘greener’ life, along with resources for teachers, and is particularly aimed at students aged from 11-16 years old (although it could also be used by upper KS2 children, I’m sure).

This article was originally posted on my other blog at MrWarner.com. I thought that readers of Teaching News might find it interesting too.

A while ago, I was was offered the chance to receive a Dell Latitude 2100 netbook for review purposes. While I don’t normally write reviews for products on my blogs, I agreed to take a look at the machine for two reasons:

1. My blog post ‘Using Flip Video in the classroom‘ has become extremely popular, attracting lots of views and receiving the most comments of all of the posts here. So, I thought that readers of the blog might also be interested in hearing my experiences of using another gadget in the classroom.
2. I love computers (most of the time!), so it was a nice opportunity to play with a new ‘toy’ without having to spend any money.

Before writing the rest of this post, I want to make it clear that I’m not receiving any payment for this review… and I don’t get to keep the laptop (sadly!).

When I first received the Latitude 2100, I was instantly impressed at how small, compact and sturdy it is. It is covered with a rubber casing which makes it extremely eye-catching and easy to hold. The one that I received was ‘School Bus Gold’ (i.e. yellow)… it’s certainly bright and colourful, but the red and blue ones look smarter (although I’m just fussy!). You can see more images of the netbook on Dell’s site or on Flickr. The machine is supposedly ‘influenced by the needs of primary and secondary students’. Having used it in the classroom for a number of weeks, I can certainly see that it would make a valuable addition to primary and secondary classrooms if you don’t already have netbooks.

Booting and Connections

My review machine is quick to boot into Windows 7, which runs very well. As a Mac user, I’ve only used Windows XP at school over recent years (skipping Vista completely). However, it was very easy to get the machine up and running, connecting it to my home wireless network quickly and allowing me to browse the Internet and listen to BBC Radio via the desktop radio gadget.

It was also incredibly easy to use at school, again connecting to our wireless network and enabling us to use lots of web tools in the classroom (Superclubs Plus, Etherpad, Google Docs etc.). The machine doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive and I didn’t install any software on it (apart from Microsoft Security Essentials for virus protection), but most of our ICT work has been online, so this wasn’t an issue. I am sure that it could be connected to a school’s network so that software can be installed in that way if necessary.

Touchscreen

One cool feature of the netbook is the touchscreen. It’s really nice to be able to interact with the machine by tapping on the screen, but the novelty of this can wear off after a while if you’re more used to using a mouse / trackpad. For younger children who might not be as experienced with the trackpad, it is very easy to control the machine by simply touching the icons. Browsing around the web in this way is also easy … I found it very comfortable to hold the machine on my lap and navigate the web by tapping on the hyperlinks.

I did find using scroll bars to be a little awkward… as I had to drag the slider bars (which are much slimmer than my fingers). However, the children (with their much smaller fingers) were whizzing around the screen really quickly. As an iPhone user, I was also expecting to be able to touch and drag on any part of a web page to move around, but this wasn’t possible.

Design

I’ve shown the machine to lots of children at school, as well as friends and family. Everyone has been impressed with how it looks and performs. People couldn’t believe that it was a computer when I first showed it to them. One person mentioned that it looked more like a folder or an exercise book than a laptop.

I was also really pleased with the keyboard. I do have a netbook of my own and the keyboard on that seems a little cramped at times, making typing for long periods a little uncomfortable. However, the keys seem a little larger on the Latitude 2100, making it easy to type on for those with big or little hands!

At our school, we all use standard sized laptops. We don’t have an ICT suite, so large (and heavy) trolleys of laptops move around the classrooms for use in all curriculum areas. Our laptops take over most of the children’s desk space when they’re using them in the classroom, leaving little room for other equipment that might be needed (paper / books etc.). I can really see the benefits of the netbook form factor and would love to have a set of these in my classroom which the children can grab as and when they are needed. The Dell site shows a ‘mobile computing solution’ which can hold and charge 24 of the little machines… I wonder if I can convince my headteacher to buy one?!

Durability, Performance and Reliability

The netbook is extremely tough. I’ve been carrying it back and forwards to school for the past few weeks. I’m normally very careful with my laptops, making sure that they are packed away carefully in my bags. However, I haven’t needed to be as ‘precious’ with this netbook. The tough rubber casing meant that I could just pop it in my bag without worry.

It also performed well in all of the tasks that we used it for… as I mentioned, most of our use of the machine was online. It worked extremely quickly in everything we asked it to do and we didn’t experience any crashes or technical problems.

Battery life hasn’t been an issue either and the battery is removable, so it would be possible to swap batteries in the middle of a lesson if required.

Potential Issues

The screen size can be a problem at times, especially when you are browsing websites with lots of content. However, this is the nature of using a netbook I suppose.

Dell’s site also mentions an optional carry handle which would also provide a little more peace of mind for all if children were allowed to carry them around the classroom. A number of other design features are mentioned on the site which help teachers and pupils to use the machines at school, including:

• a keyboard with antimicrobial protection (which it is claimed, ‘helps inhibit and reduce bacterial growth’),
• network activity lights (to help teachers monitor children’s use of the machines),
• personalisation windows (to help teachers, children and technicians to identify each machine).

Summary

Overall, I’m really pleased with the Latitude 2100. It’s a tough and reliable little machine which looks good and would be great for a teacher to use, carrying back and forth to school… or for a pupil to use as an additional tool in the classroom. The children who used my loan machine were certainly impressed with it, and others who saw it were desperately keen to try it out as well!

Sadly, I have now returned the Latitude 2100, but I would love one for personal use. I can definitely see the benefits of having a set of netbooks like these to help embed technology in the classroom even further.

José Picardo, the Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Nottingham High School, has created a wonderful list of the best free internet resources for education. They are posted on his fantastic blog, Box of Tricks.

www.boxoftricks.net

How many of these resources have you used in your classrooms?