Learning in Touch

Presentation at Education Innovation in Manchester

dbaugh — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:16:55 +0000

Brilliant update to Explain Everything to include video and timeline editing

dbaugh — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:39:59 +0000

Explain Everything is a really popular app loved by many and a question I always get is whether it possible to include video in a project. The answer is now yes. Another question is about editing the timeline produced in a slide. Again now this is possible.

You can now also combine projects which is great for the classroom.

- Posted from my iPad

Apple Teacher Institute 2013 – March 25th to 28th – Malvern College

dbaugh — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:44:59 +0000

The great Apple Teacher Institute is here again.

Where:
Malvern College, Worcestershire

When:
March 25th to 28th 2013

Cost
£595 ex VAT
This covers the full conference fee, tuition, accommodation and meals.

- Posted from my iPad

What a superb update to Book Creator – a real multimedia toolkit

dbaugh — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:26:04 +0000

The ever popular ebook creation App Book Creator has been updated with some tremendous features.

Hyperlinks and richer text editing.
Import books so that you can collaborate with others.
Combine Books you have created.
Improved PDF export

Well worth updating today.

- Posted from my iPad

Enabling schools to make their own secure Cloud service with Kanex meDrive

dbaugh — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:58:02 +0000

Kanex have announced their meDrive file server device for iOS,Mac and Windows that looks really useful for schools as a way of easily and securely storing and sharing resources for iOS. It has WebDAV enabled out of the box and storage is hot swappable.

Kanex say that the device is available immediately all I need to do now is find a supplier in the UK.

- Posted from my iPad

Great Atricle about the Essa Academy – the Bookless School

dbaugh — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:30:11 +0000

Entitled “Essa Academy: Bookless school where everyone has iPad” this BBC News article tells the story of Essa’s journey to its bookless state using a combination of:

1:1 iPad
iTunes U
iBooks Author
Great CPD for staff
and of course great leadership

How do you turn a mind map into a presentation? Using iThoughts HD after its update – brilliance

dbaugh — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:48:55 +0000

It is not often you get excited by an App update but iThoughts HD have really pulled one out of the bag with today’s update. I have been looking for this sort of functionality for ages. I used to be able to do it with Inspiration using my computer and loved it.

First you open iThoughts HD and create your concept map as usual. Using a mind map is great for visual thinkers to get your ideas organized before writing.

If you create sub branches in you map it will create a billeted list on a slide.

You the go to the export icon and choose Send to App tapping Map if you want the whole of your map.

If you then choose PowerPoint/Keynote you can tap on the Keynote icon.

This will then magically create your Keynote presentation for you to be edited and enhanced as you wish.

For the classroom this is sheer genius.

- Posted from my iPad

Using Explain Everything at all SAMR levels

dbaugh — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:51:37 +0000

As a follow up to the last blog entry I looked at the different uses of an App that could be applied to the different levels in the SAMR model. I used Explain Everything as the example App but is could be applied to numerous Apps.

The video below was recorded using Explain Everything.

SAMR model and explain everything from David Baugh on Vimeo.

- Posted from my iPad

Can you classify Apps according to the SAMR model?

dbaugh — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:16:19 +0000

I was delivering Apple Professional Development before Christmas and the discussion started about how different Apps could be used in in the SAMR model.. We came across a blog post on the Apps in Education Blog that did this and it produced some lively argument. The poster from the post is below:

If you look at the poster there are some obvious candidates for the different parts of the model but there are even more anomalies.

The general consensus was that actually the App was not thing that fitted the model but how the App was used. For example Popplet can be used in many ways that are not Substitution and Educreations can definitely be used in ways that cannot be classified as redifinition.

- Posted from my iPad

Thinking of tablets in school. Are iPads the only solution? Why not Android? Find out why not.

dbaugh — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:23:51 +0000

I was working with a group of teachers this week and a number of them from different schools were asking how to answer this question from senior management.

“Are iPads the only solution? Why not Android?”

Now of course schools have choices about which devices they want to put into the hands of students and management have to think carefully about making the right choices and consider all the options.

To management Android is an attractive option on price alone so I thought it would be useful to put my thoughts in answer to these questions down in the hope that someone might find it useful.

Why not Android? and in no particular order:

Battery: As I posted earlier on this weekhttp://www.digitalcreator.org/dvined/?p=1797 the Which? survey was categorical in its findings that iPad had a better battery than the nearest Android competitor – 51% better in the case of iPad 4 and 33% better for the iPad Mini. Now this is a really important thing to consider as we all know that the thing that will kill a lesson is if the device has no power.

Learning Infrastructure: Apple has developed an impressive learnig infrastructure to support iPads in schools that consists of:

iTunes U – over 500,000 free high quality learnig objects and a system for all teachers to create their own iTunes U courses and content all hosted and delivered free.
Apple Professional Development – a set of hands on curriculum workshops created by and delivered by Apple certified trainers. In 2011-12 35,000 teachers were trained this way.
TextBooks – Apple works with publishers to bring new media textbooks to iPad using iBooks Author

Having looked around the Android world this infrastructure does not exist.

Security: This is not area of expertise but it looks worrying for Android and there hase been a huge amount written about it. Kaspersky reports thar:

During 2011, we witnessed an explosion in the number of malicious threats targeting the Android platform. We predicted that the number of threats for Android will continue to grow at an alarming rate. The chart below clearly confirms this:

The number of samples we received continued to grow and peaked in June 2012, when we identified almost 7,000 malicious Android programs. Overall, in 2012, we identified more than 35,000 malicious Android programs, which is about six times more than in 2011.

PC World Identifies 5 security threats specifically for Android that need to be addressed:

SMS Trojans
Carrier IQ
Preloaded Apps
Fake Google Play Stores
Naked Data

PC Advisor found that Study finds 25 percent of Android apps to be a security risk

In my previous post I looked at Semantice comparicon of iOS and Android which school management should consider carefully.

Device Management: Although there are a couple of embryonic Mobile Device Management solutions out there for Android there does not seem to be the choice and robustness in the market place that there is for iPad. Also with iPad there are options for smaller scale management with configuration profiles and using the Configurator App for class sets. This seems to be missing in the android world after extensive searches on the Android Developer site I could find no reference to education or volume licensing.

Consistency: : The Android tablet market is very fractured with offerings from Samsung, Google, Motorola, Sony, Asus, Amazon, LG, Acer, Lenovo and I am sure there are more. The problem is that although all of these do run a version of Android they do not all use the same version and often a manufacturer with skin an Android version for themselves making App consistency and users experience variable at best. With iPad you know that all Apps will work the same no matter which version of iPad you use.

- Posted from my iPad Mini