Just found another great app.....

Voice Notes

With the help of one of my techie friends I have been introduced to the app Voice Dictation for Notes ($1.99).

I am in love with this app, it is so easy and accurate to use.  The initial set up is quick and supports multiple languages. I chose English GB as my choice of languages as I like to have the "our" added to words like "colour, favourite, etc".  It is also possible to add punctuation with voice prompts to your text for example "My name is Kaia (period)." and it adds the punctuation.  I think what I love the most is the "OPEN IN" option.  This app is well worth the $1.99 if you or one of your students is in need of a speech to text app.

This my Valentine's Day gift to all of you....Have a wonderful Friday and Happy Family Day long weekend. :-)

Disabled iPad.....

 You've Forgotten Your Passcode....

What to do next....

For the most part the teachers call me the Assistive Technology Resource Teacher to help them out of this unfortunate circumstance....

This is where I bite my tongue (I am usually using some inappropriate words in my head), as I am now having to spend a time significant amount of time resetting the device.

So here are some steps that might help my schools reset the devices themselves....

1. Connect the USB cable used to sync your device to your computer, but do not connect it to your iPad.
2. Turn your iPad off by holding down the sleep/hold button in the top right corner until the slider appears at the top. 
3. When the iPad is off, hold down the home button and connect the USB cable (which should still be attached to your computer) to the dock connector. The iPad will turn on and display the Apple logo. Keep holding the home button until the iTunes logo/USB cable appears on the screen. You can let it go then. The iPad is now in recovery mode.
4. Now follow the steps to reset and backup the device.

I hope this helps, and if you get stuck let me know I am will be happy to come to help ( if you're outside of Renfrew County you might be on your own) you fix the problem.

Here are the steps right from Apple Support.....

If you can't update or restore your iOS device

You can use recovery mode if you can't update or restore your iOS device.

You might need to use recovery mode if:

• You can't update or restore because iTunes doesn't recognize your device or says it's "in recovery mode". 
• The Apple logo remains onscreen for several minutes with no progress bar.
• The Connect to iTunes screen appears.

See what to do if the progress bar remains onscreen for several minutes

Use recovery mode

Recovery mode erases your device and restores it, which should resolve the issue. If you previously synced with iTunes or iCloud, you may be able to restore from your backup after recovery.

1. Turn off your device. If you can't turn it off, press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time and wait a few seconds for it to turn off.
2. Plug the device's USB cable into your computer only.
3. Hold down the device's Home button as you connect the USB cable to it.
4. When you see the Connect to iTunes screen, release the Home button. If you don't see this screen, try steps 1 through 3 one more time.
   
   iTunes should open and display a message such as: "iTunes has detected an iPad in recovery mode. You must restore this iPad before it can be used with iTunes."
    
5. Use iTunes to restore your device.

Had some time thought I would add a post.

Here's an app I think iTunes users might like to use after Christmas.

After Christmas, iTunes gives away free music, videos, books, apps, and a variety of other things for 12 days.  Check it out...I always seem to find a few things that I enjoy.  Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you are so busy finishing your shopping that have forgotten to add this app to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. 

Happy Holidays!!!!

On the 12th Day of Apps....

We celebrated with....

Nearpod

It's FREE....

This app has become one of my favourites for teachers to use in their classrooms with all students to increase student engagement.  Students of all ages are using this app in classrooms around our school board with great success.  

I found this on the Nearpod website and I thought it provided good info on what you can do with Nearpod in your classroom.  I have posted the link below.

Create interactive classes with ease

Using the Nearpod Content Tool, simply upload a pdf or start a new presentation and add interactive features.

Share content in real time

Push information, questions, and activities to students’ mobile devices.

Engage students

Multimedia content harnesses the students’ attention, keeping them focused and minimizing off-task behavior.

Control students' devices

Teachers can see all student activity in real-time, check attendance and identify students who log out from Nearpod.

Quickly assess student progress

Obtain detailed real-time and post-session reports showing individual and class results.

Here is a link to the Nearpod website that you may find useful

http://www.nearpod.com/how-it-works/

Also a quick YouTube clip on how Nearpod could work for you in your classroom.

Thank you for checking in on my 12 Days of Apps. I hope you found something that you might be able to use in your teaching practice. Enjoy your holidays.... They are well deserved....

The 11th Day of Apps...

My True Love of Apps, Gave to Me.....

Socrative!!

I really like this app as it provides instant feedback from your students.  Socrative is a smart student response system. It helps increase student engagement, and empowers teachers to engage their students through educational exercises and games through Smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

itunes Description

Socrative brings smart clickers, student response and ease of use to a whole new level. Be engaged for the entire class with educational exercises and games. See all your classmates’ ideas in real time and interact with the responses. Provide your instructor feedback on the lessons and how well you understand the material. Ask your own poll questions for the entire class or build a pre made activity for your whole class. Have Fun!

--WORKS ON ANY DEVICE WITH A WEB BROWSER: Tablets, Smartphones & laptops (expect some types of blackberries)

MOST POPULAR ACTIVITIES:
✔ Short Answer Questions
✔ Space Race
✔ Exit Tickets
✔ Quick Quiz
✔ Multiple Choice

Here is a link about Socrative on YouTube that you may find interesting. There are many great YouTube videos on how to use Socrative in your classroom, check them out they are excellent....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EoJtCtOhio

Only one more Day of Apps to go.... Where have the last 12 days gone?

The 10th Day of Apps

Only 2 more days left.....

So here is the app for the 10th day of apps....

Evernote!!!!

There are a lot of great features associated with using this app that many of my LD students use. This app is becoming infectious because the other day I was at a school and one of the office administrators asked me "what I was showing the student?" so I told her and the next thing I knew she was jumping on the EVERNOTE bandwagon as well.

There are some really great features that even I haven't accessed yet, but what I do have students do is keep track of their notes, take pictures of the board so they can access the teachers' notes later, do audio recordings so they can have access to the teacher's instructions for the assignments.  One of the best things is that students now have access to their notes on more than more device.  There are no more excuses that they left their homework at school.

Teachers and students are really enjoying the features of EVERNOTE.

Description from iTunes: 

Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go. 

Key Features:

• Sync all of your notes across the computers and devices you use
• Create and edit text notes, to-dos and task lists 
• Save, sync and share files 
• Record voice and audio notes
• Search for text inside images
• Organize notes by notebooks and tags
• Email notes and save tweets to your Evernote account
• Connect Evernote to other apps and products you use
• Share notes with friends

There many great yotube videos to choose from that I couldn't decide upon which one to post, so check it out if needed.

This is a great app for everyone, but my LD students are really finding it helpful in organizing their school work and being prepared for class.   

On the 9th Day Apps

My True Love gave to me....

Smart Notebook....
This app is great as students can now access the notes on the iPad that the teacher is using on the Smart Board.  A great accomodation for our special needs students. Just remember that you cannot access the flash player media on the app.  

Description from iTunes....

The SMART Notebook app for iPad is a light version of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software. Using this app, you can create basic multimedia files and complete SMART Notebook lesson activities. You can use the app for individual and collaborative learning with an iPad, and you can use SMART Notebook software with a SMART Board interactive whiteboard for small group and class learning.

Features

• Pens and Erasers. Draw and write using colored digital pens and highlighters, and choose from multiple ink colors, pen thicknesses and eraser sizes.
• Text. Insert or edit typed text and change the font type, color, size and justification on the page using Text Properties.
• Objects. Organize information and change the page layout. Tap to move, rotate or scale an object. Double-tap or tap and hold an object to cut, copy, paste, lock and unlock objects or to change their order. Double-tap or tap and hold an object to activate the Infinite Cloner and to change the sound properties.
• Shape and Line tool. Add shapes and lines to your file and choose the fill color, line color and thickness.
• Photos. Make files visual by inserting photos from the iPad Camera and Camera Roll.
• Sound. Enhance the auditory experience by adding sound recordings to objects. Double-tap or tap and hold an object to view the context menu and record a new sound.
• Share files. Share SMART Notebook files by e-mailing or upload to your Dropbox account.
• Integrated with Dropbox. Keep your SMART Notebook files up-to-date across multiple devices with Dropbox integration. One tap on the Dropbox icon in the SMART Notebook app for iPad file manager and you can quickly login to your Dropbox account to download or upload SMART Notebook files.
• Activity Builder. Complete activities created with the activity builder and reset for the next class.
• Integrated assessment. Easily complete assessments using SMART Response VE.
• Display content. Show content from an iPad on an interactive whiteboard for the whole class to see using AirPlay and an Apple TV or using an HDMI or VGA cable with the proper connectors.
• Save As. Save the file with a new name to create multiple copies with unique file names.
• Revert to Original. With one tap, you can quickly reset a file to the original version for another group of students to complete.