ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Kate Miffitt

ShowMe, an interactive whiteboard app for the iPad, allows users to create voice-over tutorials that can be shared online. It has a simple interface with a writing tool, upload image function, and a record button. Captured videos are uploaded directly to ShowMe’s website, where users can set privacy options; share their videos via Facebook, Twitter, and email; or get embed code. (I created a demo, but the blog seems to be stripping the embed code).

This app could be used to create shorter lectures for student review or for a classroom flip, which moves the traditional lecture outside of class to free up time for activity-based learning in the classroom. It also is useful during office hours to address difficult concepts for students while creating a reusable learning object.

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Google+ as a Collaboration System?

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Kirt H. Wilson

Thanks to Chris Long, I’ve recently been using Google+, the new social network created by the Overlords of the Internet. Google+ has received a lot of tech press lately, (use Google to google Google+), but most of this commentary seems to revolve around the presumed battle royale between Facebook and Google. This is an understandable frame for reporters; after all, who really wants to sustain two completely discrete social networking systems? One has to come out on top, right? What are you going to do, reserve one for your family and old high school friends and the other for your professional colleagues?

Huh. . . well . . . now that I mention it . . .

But anyway, that’s not really my point. I’m beginning to wonder if Google+ could become a powerful system for academic collaboration. An example is in order.

In June, three of my national colleagues and I ran a workshop on critical methodologies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. To prepare for this week-long seminar, we used Skype for multi-person video chat, Google Documents for the ToDo list, the agenda, and our seminar schedule. We used Dropbox to share the 60+ PDFs that constituted the readings for that week, and email to discuss, monitor, and archive our progress. How many of these systems could we have eliminated by using Google+?

We would have started with two Google+ Circles–one for the seminar planners (numbering 4) and one for every seminar participant (26 total). Using the circles to post messages to the relevant individuals, we might have curtailed email by sending out messages and announcements to targeted groups. Each post would remain discrete from the others, but each post would also have threaded comments and discussion that we could examine at our leisure. Result? Email eliminated or at least drastically reduced.

Implementing the right version of Skype on each planner’s computer, across Windows and Mac platforms, was a task in and of itself. The “Hangouts” feature of Google+ seems more intuitive, and the setup is browser based rather than requiring application installations and updates. I haven’t played with the multi-person video chat yet, but supposedly the one to one video is pretty solid. So, Skype is eliminated (secret happy dance ensues).

As far as I can tell, no hooks seem to exist between Google Documents and Google+, but one can imagine a situation in which the two systems are intertwined effectively. Imagine that every new version or major update of a shared document is automatically posted to the circle of those who have access to that document. You could then be notified when your colleague has completed her section or revision of the collaborative document. Links to that document, from the Google+ wall or news feed, would help make sure that everyone is looking at the right document and not the document started two days ago that is now defunct.

Could Google+ or perhaps another google service replace Dropbox? Maybe someday, but to be honest I’m not sure that I would go that far. Integration is a wonderful thing, but sometimes a secondary system is a prudent investment in time and effort. Having a shared Dropbox for session planners and participants might be a wise choice just in case Google+ fails at some point.

Conclusion? Using Google+ as a collaboration tool for research and teaching seems like a path worth exploring. I certainly can’t imagine trying to do the same thing with my Facebook account. Grandma simply doesn’t need to know what one of my colleagues thinks about the Foucault reading I’ve recommended.

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Traveling with my iPad

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Jillian Balay

Over the past month or so, I have done quite a bit of traveling (California, Nevada, and Massachusetts, to name a few places).  I am happy to report that my iPad was extremely useful and helped me to remain quite productive throughout my travels.

A large part of my current job, Program Assistant/Social Media Curator in the College of the Liberal Arts, is to manage the social media venues for the Office of Undergraduate Studies.  In the past, when I was out of the office and had to check on one of our sites, I was forced to track down a computer or see if my incredibly unreliable smart phone (which shall remain unnamed) might finally decide to work.

The iPad proved to be an incredibly convenient and reliable tool to have with me on my travels. At a moment’s notice, I could check on our Facebook page to delete any dreaded FB spam or visit our LAUS@PSU blog to see who was commenting on our posts.  The iPad, of course, enabled me to check in with the office via email from time to time. But I actually ended up relying on Twitter for the most part to communicate with bloggers and coworkers.  I scheduled blog posts, approved pictures to use for a new post, and confirmed the working title for a student post – all via Twitter. I think that the iPad is a great tool for anyone working with social media in Higher Education.  It allowed me to take my work with me and to stay in touch when I needed to.  A device like the iPad is beneficial for a position like mine in particular because the social media dimensions of my job require it to be more dynamic.

While traveling, the iPad also helped me to continue working on my summer Art History independent study.  I mostly used a combination of Dropbox and GoodReader to read, edit and cite PDFs.  That said, I still had to take a few books with me on the trip because they are currently unavailable in digital form (shocking, I know!).

The iPad also helped to jumpstart my German language studies.  One of the requirements in my masters program is to demonstrate a proficiency in two languages – one of which has to be German.  So far, I have been unable to take the intensive German language classes offered at Penn State and I have been a bit worried about how to go about developing this language proficiency.  I know it may sound silly, but the language apps – especially the games – on the iPad were really helpful.  If I was bored on a flight, or tired of reading, I would put my headphones on and try out one of the German language apps.  I was traveling to CA to visit my brand new baby niece and was able to pick up a few key German words in the “Baby/Kid” section on the flight over.  Did you know, that a pacifier in German is “der Friedensstifter” or “der Schnuller” and baby is “das baby.” Thanks to the iPad, some of these words have already become second nature to me and even my family.  Indeed, my niece’s binkie will forever be known as “der Friedensstifter.”

One last thing I should discuss here is the camera on the iPad2.  I was really excited about this feature. At work, I try to update our LAUS Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter sites with photos of events pertinent to our students or of LAUS Dwight’s latest adventure (LAUS Dwight is a bobble head who has become our unofficial LAUS mascot).  I thought the iPad would be a really great tool for me to use around campus to take these photos and to upload them to the appropriate sites.  The only problem is that the camera in the iPad is not so great.  Every picture I took looked a little too pixilated.  You have to look through a significant amount of fuzz to tell just how cute my baby niece is.  And that is a shame, because believe me, she is the cutest.

Overall, I am quite happy with my iPad so far.  I have mostly used it for work-related tasks at this point.  But, I am excited to see how I will use it as my independent study progresses throughout the rest of the summer.

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iPad Apps

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Christian Brady

xxl13 (who are you?) just posted about not really having time to go through many apps and yet the iPad has already become useful, just for reading. Coincidentally I received an (unsolicited, not sure why I cannot get off these lists) email from Education Tech New listing “7 must-have iPad apps” for educators. They are:

  1. Free Books gives students and teachers access to more than 23,000 books for free. And users also benefit from bells and whistles, including automatic bookmarking, author pages and nighttime reading modes.
  2. Cram lets users upload their study notes onto digital flashcards and multiple choice practice tests. Students can also use pre-loaded study guides from Quizlet.
  3. gFlashPro includes a wide variety of trivia in a flashcard format. The app tracks users performance and can be used in landscape or portrait mode. Bonus: No ads!
  4. PI83 Graphing Calculator saves users money. At only $.99, it is much more affordable than a traditional graphing calculator. The app is designed to replace the TI83 model and features more than 100 math functions.
  5. Sundry Notes lets users import pdf files, search with Google and Wikipedia, draw graphs and make recordings — and it’s free.
  6. Dropbox allows users to save, share, take and access their documents, photos and videos anywhere. Make frequently used files a “favorite” for fast, off-line viewing.
  7. eClicker lets teachers poll students during lessons, and it gives feedback in real time. The app also lets teachers share questions with other teachers via BlueTooth. (This app is designed to be used in conjunction with eClicker Host.)

    Aside from Dropbox none of these are on my must-have list. (I have shared that list elsewhere.) What about you? What apps are must-have for your work-flow or fun?

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    IPad in a busy summer

    Posted on June 22, 2011 by xxl13

    This is a busy summer and I haven’t been able to spend much time exploring all of the different IPad apps out there. After all, I am home most of the time and am used to working with and writing on my laptop. The single most useful function for me, however, has been reading papers on the IPad, using Mendeley. It saves paper and ink, it allows me to organize my readings by project and theme, and most importantly, it helps me make the best out of my fragmented time – this alone is reason enough for me to fall in love with it. With improved productivity, I’m a happy IPad novice.

     

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    Are we splitting our personalities?

    Posted on June 20, 2011 by Christian Brady

    I just thought I should note here as well the article that came out this weekend: Academics and Colleges Split Their Personalities for Social Media

    The article is about academics and academic units with multiple online “identities.” I was interviewed along with several others, but for some reason I was the only one of whom they took silly pictures.

    It is a very good article on a topic that really is a challenge for everyone, not just institutions. Everyone needs to ask themselves, what does my facebook/twitter/blog say about myself. If you are happy with the answer then you don’t have anything to worry about.

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    Stylin’: Using a Stylus with the iPad

    Posted on June 16, 2011 by Kate Miffitt

    For the past week, I’ve been experimenting with using a stylus with the iPad. Now that I’ve gotten into the habit, I find it preferable to using the iPad without. There are a two uses, though, that I find the stylus to be especially powerful for.

    Note-taking: At meetings, it is faster for me to write notes than to type them, and the stylus enables me to take notes in several available apps. The app that I like most so far is Notes Plus. It has a simple notebook interface, but a lot of added features including the ability to zoom in on the writing area, highlight, insert shapes, use the keyboard when needed, and record audio. You can export your notes as PDFs to iTunes or email, or upload to Google Docs.

    Notes Plus note-taking

    screenshot from Notes Plus

    The biggest challenge to incorporating this form of note-taking into my workflow is just being consistent with using the app and storing the notes in a space I use often.

    Visual design: My favorite use for the stylus, though, is for drawing. I certainly don’t have any particular skill in this area, but for design work it is helpful to be able to mock up an idea to have something to react to.

    drawing with SketchBook

    Notes on design with SketchBook

    I’ve been using SketchBook to visualize some design ideas and to mock up images for review. It has more functionality than I’ll ever need, but is intuitive enough to use in the ways I want to.

    So far, the stylus, in conjunction with a few good apps, has proven to improve my experience with the iPad.

     

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    Listening to documents on the iPad

    Posted on June 3, 2011 by Dan Tripp

    Since using the iPad while traveling has been a common thread on this blog, I thought I might write a little bit about my experience with Textcast, a software application for the Mac that converts documents into audio podcasts, which you can then listen to on the iPad (or iPhone or iPod, etc.).  I would imagine there is some comparable product available for Windows, too.

    Textcast uses a basic text-to-speech converter, so the final product isn’t quite audio book quality, but it has, at least in my experience, been usable.  What I do is get full-text pdf articles from the library and convert them into .mp3 files using Textcast.  Then, I listen to them while traveling, especially when driving.  Once, while driving six hours to a conference in Louisville, KY, I even listened to an audio version of my own paper, one I’d written at the last minute, and therefore, had me nervous.  Listening to the document in the car helped me identify weak passages, sketchy phrasings, and other flaws, which I was able to fix once I arrived at the conference hotel.

    So what do you think?  Would you like to listen to articles, perhaps even your own writing, on your iPad?  Or is Lady Gaga more your speed?

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    The EBSCOhost Database on your iPhone, iTouch or iPad (Updated)

    Posted on June 3, 2011 by Kirt H. Wilson

    So, I’m in the middle of conducting EBSCOhost searches and saving PDF files for a research project when I notice a “New” statement at the very bottom of the web page.

    “What?!? Did I read that right? The EBSCO database has an iPhone application?”

    So, I click on the link and my web browser asks for an email address. Seconds later I receive an email from EBSCO with instructions about how to download and register a free iPhone application.

    Now I’m in the office, looking at the app on an iPad, using the 2x function, which isn’t exactly pretty; nevertheless, the search function works perfectly. I can find articles, save citations, and email both to whomever I wish.

    Of course, I’m already thinking about the application’s problems. There is no way I want to read a PDF article in this application when I have GoodReader or Papers for iPad available. After you have downloaded an article, it seems like the only way to transfer the PDF to a different iPad application is to email the document to yourself and then reimport the file from that email. Finally, and I’m just guessing here, I might have to use Penn State’s VPN service to access the database off campus. (Update: The software does not need a direct connection to Penn State’s network to conduct a search. The authorization key for PSU works on any network connection).

    Still, the app is useful. Papers for the iPad can search Google Scholar and JSTOR but nothing else of value to my research. Are there any other electronic database hosts creating iOS applications?

    P.S., If you want to try this app, I recommend that you follow the steps that I did above: 1) run a EBSCOhost search, 2) click on the iPhone app link at the bottom of your results page, 3) provide an email address, and 4) follow the instructions that are sent to you via email.

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    RTF editing on the iPad & a larger gripe

    Posted on June 3, 2011 by Dan Tripp

    First, the good news: the iNotePad HD app will indeed create and edit .rtf files on the iPad.  Unfortunately, that’s about all it is useful for.  iNotePad HD will sync with Dropbox, but only using the .txt format.  Basically, this means you can create and edit .rtf files on the iPad with the app, but you can’t edit .rtf files you already have sitting in your Dropbox.  For now, I’ll have to give up on my dream of editing .rtf files from Scrivener on my iPad.  If I want to work the iPad into my Scrivener workflow, looks like I’ll have to rely on .txt files and lose whatever text formatting that is not supported.  This isn’t a major problem for me, but I sure wish Apple would bring .rtf editing to the iPad.

    On another note, the lack of .rtf editing on the iPad is one more reason why I wish the iPad was actually a computer, with an operating system like Mac OS X, and not iOS. No doubt there are technical arguments as to why iOS is better for the iPad, but I can’t seem to get past the perception that the iPad and its iOS platform are locked down just so Apple can take a 30% cut of all app sales.  I know Apple is a business, and as such, it’s in it for the money, but I’d like to see a little more “form following function” with the iPad and a little less “form pushing profits.”

     

    Posted in Announcement, iPad Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments