{Tech Team} Cell Lab on the iPad

Tina Christian: Cell Lab on the iPad

Check out how our Biology classes are using the iPads and Evernote to perform their labs. This classroom is completely paperless!

Mobicip Web Browser

Telling you all about Mobicip, the web browser app, has been on my "ideas" list for about a month now. Current events have put it on my heart to tell all of my teacher and parent friends about how to protect our children. 

We are living in a MUCH faster world than we grew up in...and I'm only 35! Children have unlimited access to any information available in the world via the internet and they don't possess the maturity to know what is appropriate and what isn't. This is where we need to teach our children digital citizenship or a way to prepare students for a society full of technology. In the meantime, blocking access to certain sites is a step that we must take to protect our younger students. 

If your child uses the Internet for research, I recommend purchasing the Mobicip app. The app is technically free, but you pay $10 per device per year for the service. You set basic school-age levels, on/off times, white list, black-list and key words. You can view reports, download them or have them sent to you. You'll see that some very questionable sites were blocked, sites your kids might have accidentally stumbled upon, or sites you really don't want them to seek out. Check on your kids browsing history from anywhere, anytime. I don't use it to spy on them - they know they have a special browser. I use it to keep them honest - if I have reason to doubt their claims, I can go to the reports.

If you own an iOS (Apple) device, I would recommend making a few adjustments in the settings:

• Turn on Restrictions and set a password that only you know
• Disable Safari and YouTube
• Turn off App Store (Your children know how to download free web browser apps that can take them anywhere and doesn't show in the browser history)
• Turn off In-App Purchases 

These days, in order to protect our children, we have to know at least as much as they do about their devices that connect to the internet. I have been knocking around the idea of offering some parent/student training sessions or even a technology camp for students. If you are interested in one of these sessions as a parent, please contact me.

Simple Transfer App

Simple Transfer is an app that I learned about from Kasey Bell, our Digital Fluency Academy trainer, and it has changed my life! Simple Transfer is the easiest way of transferring your Photos and Videos to computer and other iOS devices wirelessly. You can also transfer the other direction from your computer to your iOS device. No need for a cable, iTunes or extra software on your computer. There is a free version but I went ahead and paid the $2.99 for the app without restrictions. 

GaggleTube (Filtered YouTube)

Do you want to use YouTube videos for the students in your classroom?

The vast majority of school districts (including Commerce ISD) use internet filters to prevent students from accessing YouTube, and with good reason. There is a lot of inappropriate content available on the site, and that content changes rapidly. In fact, every minute more than 24 hours of video is uploaded to the YouTube site. But there is also a wealth of good information on YouTube, and many videos could be very beneficial in instruction at all grade levels and across all content areas. That’s where Gaggle comes in! 

GaggleTube allows searches of appropriate videos with an added layer of Gaggle safety, while still allowing us to block direct access to the YouTube website. Teachers and students can search and preview videos, tag or save them, and show them directly from Gaggle, full screen. Videos can also be embedded in blogs to promote discussions outside of the classroom. We gave our students a version of GaggleTube, allowing them to view only videos that have been filtered by the YouTube Safe Search filter. You’ll find the GaggleTube icon on your left panel within your browser and in the Gaggle iOS app. 

Keep in mind that no filtering system can catch everything all the time, so be sure you watch and listen to any video you might want to use before you show it to your class. And although we have the option to allow students to search filtered video on their own, active monitoring by the classroom teacher is the first line of defense for our students. With GaggleTube and a few minutes of previewing, the world of YouTube video can bring an exciting new dimension to your classroom!

Safari Montage Live 5

SAFARI Montage® Live-5! is the ideal solution for providing reliable school-to-school or school-to-home education for many applications, including AP classes, distance education for homebound students, professional development for teachers at school or at home, and virtual field trips to remote locations.

Other uses include:

Large meetings - faculty, school board, superintendent address, professional development.

Small meetings - teams, collaborative groups, student led conferences.

One to One meetings - evaluations, peer collaboration, parent teacher conferences.

Instruction - online, blended, virtual trips, expert discussion panels.

Intrigued? Watch this video explaining how the system works!

Have an idea for SML5 use in your classroom? Let me come and help you get started!

Gaggle

Gaggle is a student learning program that Commerce ISD utilizes. It encompasses many blended learning pieces including the following:

• Email: Gaggle Email includes extensive text filtering, inappropriate image detection and human monitoring.
• GaggleTube - Allow safe searching of YouTube videos even when YouTube is blocked by your district filters. All YouTube access is logged, filtered and monitored. Teachers can also upload videos, and saved videos can be shared, embedded and linked in multiple ways.
• Assignment Drop Boxes - Enable teachers to easily create, assign and collect assignments for a truly paperless classroom. Assignment Drop Boxes are integrated with Google Apps and GaggleTube for a full, rich media learning experience.
• Digital Lockers - Provide online file storage with integrated editing of Word documents, spreadsheets, photos and more.   Individual files and folders can be shared with specific students, classes or the entire school or district. All files are filtered for appropriate content and accessible from school or at home.
• Discussion Boards - Support curriculum and extend learning with ongoing classroom discussions. Teachers can create discussion boards restricted to specified students and classes.
• Social Wall - Provides profile-based connections with sharing, similar to the most popular social networking experiences.

Plus, there's an app for that!

The latest addition is the integration of Google Docs. Students can use their Gaggle login to log into Google Drive where they have access to all of the Google Apps for Education. Google Drive is a wonderful resource for students to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Their work auto-saves and is web based for access across any device and even offline editing. 

The good news is that EVERY STUDENT and TEACHER already have a Gaggle account! All logins follow this 

Username: firstname.lastname@cisdtigers.org

Password: network login

Happy Gaggling!

Heather

Ask3 iOS app for a flipped classroom

Ask3 is a free iPad app from TechSmith. Ask3 is a tool that teachers can use to create short instructional videos that are shared directly to their students’ iPads. Students can use Ask3 to ask questions about the video, mark the video with drawing tools, and create their own audio comments about the video.



You share Ask3 videos to your students through a virtual workspace room. When you register as a teacher you are given a room number to share with your students. Students then open the Ask3 app on their iPads, enter their names, create a password for themselves, and enter the room number that you gave them. Students do not have to have email addresses to use Ask3. Anytime students enter your Ask3 room they can access the videos you’ve posted to the bulletin board in that room.


Ask3 could be a great app to use to develop and share short tutorials with your students. The option for students to insert comments and questions might make Ask3 your new favorite whiteboard app.

Thanks to iPad Apps for School for the tip!

Class Dojo

ClassDojo is a classroom tool that can help teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.

Easily award feedback points for behavior in class in real-time, with just one click of your smartphone or laptop. The data syncs across all devices! 

ClassDojo gives you behavior-tracking analytics and reports that can be shared with parents and administrators, all with just one click. No data entry needed, ever.

It's free, easy for teachers to use, and has a fun, engaging interface for the kids! This behavior management program is being used in elementary classrooms and is even being used in classrooms as high as middle school!

Socrative

Apple trainer, Kevin Shepperd, introduced us to Socrative during a workshop on Challenge Based Learning. Socrative is a FREE student response system that enables teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games. The best part is that this is not just an app for iOS, Socrative can be accessed through smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

How it works:
Teachers login through their device and select an activity which controls the flow of questions and games. Students simply login with their device and interact real time with the content.

Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities a teacher can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file.

ThreeRing digital portfolios

If you want to keep files of student work for your classes (which we all should) but don't have the room or time to file it all, the developers of ThreeRing have the solution to this problem. ThreeRing allows teachers to quickly and easily create digital portfolios of student work. Just snap a picture with your smartphone or iPad, and the app will sort the work by student, tag its content, and upload it to an online interface accessible by teachers, students, and parents. The work can go home with the student and you can have the documentation that you need for parent/teacher conferences. Best part? It's FREE for teachers!