You Must Use Technology in The Classroom!

There is no disputing from me or anyone else I chat to about exploiting tech in regards to students being digital natives. My four year old has his own android tablet that he now uses having migrated from an iPad. He has been able to change the volume, listen to music and view photos, enter his password, delete apps (much to my wife’s annoyance) before the age of three. Now he downloads apps, renames folders (all to his name!), delights in screen casting to our two main TV’s and can hyandle his way around a Roku 3 with ease (his two year old brother is fast following in his footsteps!) and this was all before starting school in September last year. But….

How many times have we heard “you must use technology in the classroom”, a colleague asked recently “I am not a tech junkie, I am not up to speed with these things and I am afraid of them going wrong!” (certainly words to that effect). So we chatted about the obvious opening statement and that it was all too often bandied about without real on the ground discussions. I have certainly known organisations that chuck money at new systems to give the WOW factor, not all organisations have that sort of available funds. Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying that no discussions have taken place, the dark days of not allowing learners own devices (often superior to anything we could give them) to be used in the classroom environment to take pictures of diagrams, record activities and advice, set reminders for upcoming deadlines but the conversations regarding deploying and engaging with technology are few and far between if we are still having everyday well practised tutors scratching their heads to go beyond photos, video and reminders. As long as these following four points can fit a technology you will be fine.

1. Curriculum first and foremost, tech just enhances it
2. Seek support when you have identified a need, such as training, and practice/use it soon – you snooze you loose!
3. Professional development should encourage existing skills to build upon, not highlight deficiencies as wlel as cover suggested plan B’s but should be easy and not attempt to turn the tutor into a fledgling helpdesk support. 
4. Teachers need to plan for using technology in their classroom, including strategies to address things they think might go wrong (like we would for any other activity). These could be getting students to support with the tech or good old fashioned traditional methods to revert to.

Well I say “This is how you can use technology in the classroom, and not make it a headache!”. Get those digital natives to do what comes naturally to them and do the work (we only have to facilitate) or dare I say train the trainer? Some suggestions to ease you along…

No work at all (or minimal):

• If your students have to keep a logbook – get them to blog!
• Want to get them to write a succinct piece of work – within 140 characters, just like a text or tweet
• Want to encourage discussion about today’s or an upcoming topic, create discussion using an obscure hashtag of your own, no need for twitter yourself. I just use my initials and some reference the learners will grasp #asctechinclass
• Glossary or wiki on your VLE course page
• QR codes or short URL generator such as Bit.ly linking to online resources
• Online Galleries of student work such as Instagram
• Learners using aggregators such as feedly or as information aggregators themselves by using pInterest
• Online Galleries of student work such as Instagram

 

Some work required:

• Poll everywhere, simply text wall or multiple choice questions you can set up – answers via text, tweet or on the web!
• Quiz systems such as Socrative, you can even share quizzes with other users
• Attendance and performance monitoring apps such as classroom dojo
• Move from PowerPoint to Prezi
• Podcasts (you knew that was going to come somewhere). My first attempt was simply audio recording a presentation I made of a session whereby a sick learner could catch up by following along with the powerpoint!

 

I hope this moves you forward 🙂

Andy

Ringr Mobile

Recently I was starting to look into recording a long distance conversation, Skype was the most common medium with various recording options but no clear winner. Enter Ringr Mobile for iOS, a free high quality call recording app, where the only effort is to sign up. Once signed up and logged in you can start a new conversation by entering the email of the person you wish to speak to, set a date & time and a message.

Update: Having talked with the developers I have now tried it on a iPhone 5C and the date & time are editable, it is an iPhone 6 Plus (iPhone 6 untested) issue. It is strongly advised to put in the details of the date, time and focus of your recording if using an iPhone 6 Plus as this is the only way your collaborator will know! I am informed an update is on its way, hopefully this will be fixed. 

Once you have sent the invite out you will see a list of initiated requests containing the email address and the time you requested. So to the developers I ask that the initiate screen asks for…

• Name (emails can be obscure or not well known)
• Email address
• Date and time of suggested call (to be set by user iPhone 6 Plus issues to be corrected)
• Message (topic)

A future feature would be to enable suggested date and time changes from the invitee if suggested timings are not convenient. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic app, the pay-off comes with the fact that you then have your conversation (the invitee receives a code to put into their iOS device) and on termination have the ability to download the audio that comes in four MP3 128kbps flavours…

1. Mixed (mono)
2. Mixed (stereo) with one participant on the left channel and the other participant on the right
3. Interviewer (mono)
4. interviewee (mono)

The grief that you can save, particularly if you are looking to have captured evidence of a phone conversation for assessment. I hope the developers keep up the great start they have done with this app. Definitely one with huge potential for evidencing and it claims to be is coming to android. Keep an eye out here – http://www.ringr.us/

Update: The Developers recommend keeping app open whilst audio uploads

Andy

Volume OSD – 3RVX

My keyboard has died, and my spare does not like the fact that my current desktop, for some obstinate reason, will not install any dot net framework from Microsoft since v4.0 despite my best efforts. This has resulted in the lose of my volume OSD (On-Screen-Display), and do I miss it!

It did not even cross my mind to look for an alternative for a few week, however much I missed the OSD to my annoyance. Then I stumble on 3RVX, from Matthew Malensek, a highly customisable solution. Happiness restored.

If you have never had a volume OSD you must try this (I am running v2.5 whilst v3 is in final development), you’ll wonder why you have been checking the system tray all this time!
http://matthew.malensek.net/projects/3RVX/ 

Andy

Podcasting Software

Software for my desktop PC is already sorted with the trusty Audacity and I have my Logitech Pro 9000 to currently suffice.

I have nailed down four IOS apps (having downloaded and played with a whole host of apps that have been disregarded due to anything from lack of features, buggy, restrictions. The following apps are worthy of use in order of preference:

1. Garage Band: fully featured perfect if a bit of a learning curve. Good price especially the go you have it free as part of a recent IOS device purchase
2. Opinion: simple interface minimal learning curve. Fun. recording, splitting, rearranging and audio import. Free version is limited to 10 minutes. £2.99 lifts this limitation. This app has just been updated to allow exporting to a wide range of other apps such as Dropbox and VLC player. I instantly purchased the ability to record longer than 20 minutes as I’m not limited by having to email and keep with 25meg.
3. Rode Rec LE: great for simple recordings and records digital input. No frill. No editing. Use if you going to edit elsewhere such as on the PC. Great ability to download file by using browser window.
4.  Wavepad Sound Editor (Special mention): this at first look like it is really flexible. However the app is buggy in parts. One to keep an eye on.

For what editing I might do in the move or away from my main PC I am going to use Garage Band. Things to bear in mind when creating a new file is to click the + in the top right and corner, select section A and select automatic. when returned to the main screen deselect the metronome, you are now ready to record your audio. I do like the fact you can add files to the app in iTunes, this is where I have kept my into and outro clips.

On completion of editing the final file can be sent via email or sent to Dropbox or iCloud. I choose to send mine to VLC player for final review and access the file through iTunes to move onto my desktop.

Andy

Podcasting

Having finally found my feet with blogging so that its workable for me I thought the next evolution would be Podcasts, Don’t get me wrong I have dabbled with the technology and ideas behind podcasting. I have dabbled in audio a number of times as a lecturer in the past including feedback embedded in assignments, guidance for activity tasks, audio-casting a full series of lectures to accompany existing presentations for absent learners (HE level) with most being well received. I have even created the odd music track to accompany various video projects (re-used a number of times across the years). But I have never created a Podcast in its full context:

• Recorded, edited and saved an audio file ✓
• Located on a webpage ✓
• Audio jingles, effects & enhancements ✓
• Created a series of related audio ✓
• RSS Feed ✗

Hence the term audio-casting earlier as I have never set up an RSS feed. I have a number of milestones to reach in order to get the first Podcast off the ground

• Modify a music track to have an intro and exit clip for each Podcast ✓
• Identify a worthy topic ✓
• Identify some apps for recording on the go, if the opportunity arises ✓
• Identify a length and interval for the podcast to be sustainable ✓
• Record and edit
• Identify a platform ✓
• Set it up
• Publish to iTunes

The audience being made of those avidly following the blog posts to those that may listen to the podcasts in isolation – a ten to twenty minute length  every month is my aim with the current thinking of a TechLec “Month in Review” focus. Effectively a summary of the topics in the blog with updates, developments and maybe snippets of things that in themselves not worthy of a specific post but useful as side-notes.  There are a host of solutions as a platform for the podcasts but I do like to learn as much as I can from these activities and I think I would spend fortunes trying the easy options that cost and don’t really develop you. Thankfully, is currently seems, I can use the WordPress Blog itself – details in an upcoming blog as I  progress (or not!).

I am interested in recording via desktop and on-the-go with the iPhone 6 Plus using a variety of apps and devices, to be blogged about in future posts, these are already identified in the most part. My worries are that it may well be a bit rough around the edges, for the time being I am going to use the microphone of my Logitech Pro 9000 Webcam, not ideal in the long term, if the podcasts work out the way I intend I will likely purchase a semi-decent dedicated microphone for desktop and externally for my iPhone 6 Plus and on a final note my voice! I think I will naturally avoid those singular level monotonous vocal ranges  that some podcasts have, only being saved by sterling content, as I am fairly expressive but it will be at the expense of having a Thames Estuary Accent (that’s posh for Essex). Although I did have a past lecturer tell me that they would like to hear me carry-out a podcast as they could imagine it being engaging with my vocal range, I will let you draw your own conclusions from that comment!

Andy

Google Chromecast

i2.cdn.turner.com

 

I now have two of these, especially as Curry’s were selling them at £18 across black Friday week with free delivery. Effectively the Chromecast allows you to display your favourite apps to a HDMI capable display. In the box you will find the Chromecast itself, a USB power adapter, USB power cable and a flexible adapter (useful for if your Chromecast cannot directly fit into a HDMI port). All this for under an RRP of £30. The power adapter is only needed if you don’t have a powered USB port locally such as in the TV. In my case I power one of my Chromecasts via a local Wii console which has USB ports at the rear.

Apps for IOS are minimal with YouTube and BBC iPlayer including Chromecast options. The videos are not directly sent from a mobile device to the Chromecast but instead sends the URL of the desired media to the Chromecast for it to fetch directly. The mobile device acts as a controller for video playback, volume and queuing up further videos.

Third party apps exist to send photos and videos but these can be erratic depending upon the strength of you network connections and bandwidth.

Using an android device rewards you with far greater benefits such as full screen casting of your device (Apple still prefers its own AirPlay setup). And the need for streaming photos has been made moot since Sky’s recent update and ability to stream photos through the Sky+ app.

I cannot see these being used in a wider teaching context mainly due to the fact that the Chromecast would need to be connected to a network, that is not to say it cannot be used, I’m wondering if it’s possible to tether to a smartphone – maybe a future trial.

Update: To tether to a smartphone your likely to need two devices 1) smartphone to act as “router” 2) device to perform connection activities (the iPhone does not list its own hotspot as an internal option within the Chromecast app)

Andy

Smartwatch Pro / Smartwatch+ (and other Pebble Apps)

There are a range of apps for the Pebble (and certainly far more on android) and a number of them are free, such as:

• Watch faces
• yelp – places of interest locator
• movable (step counter)
• cards for pebble (a placeholder for user defined text)
• Battery status
• Speed warning (avoid those speeding tickets)
• GPS (poor)
• Weather

To get the most out of your pebble your going to need to pay for a few apps, some claim a lot and don’t deliver very much:

• camera controllers/previewers
• music controllers (beyond the basic default features, such as volume control)
• locate smartphone
• GPS (not so poor)
• Calender/reminder alerts
• Twitter feeds

And finally there are those apps that do a number of the above functions and a bit more:

• Smartwatch+ some smarter watch faces require this for full functionality – such as the “smartstatus” watch face
• Smartwatch Pro which is required by Morpheuz (previous post) a favourite app of mine (currently the new version of Smartwatch Pro is awaiting release and needed by Morpheuz)

So they don’t cost much but there is a downside, the multifunction apps have to be running to work. Meaning you cannot “ping” your smartphone if the associated app is not running on your smartphone. grrrrrr! This includes any camera or gps related app (these work with there own camera and gps facilities and not your preferred apps)

Andy

Morpheus Sleep Monitor for the Pebble Smart Watch

http://www.morpheuz.net

Have I mentioned I am an insomniac? or so I thought. With the Pebble Smart Watch App Morpheuz I am sure of it! Its a great little app that effectively monitors the accelerometer in the watch, gathering data throughout your sleep period that upon waking you can export to your smartphone whereby you are presented with an analysis of your sleep pattern.

Your sleep is split in to fours categories, and will give you line and pie charts along with breakdown of statistics:

1. Awake?
2. Light
3. Deep
4. Ignore

The app will only cache the last monitored sleep, but you can export CSV data, you will need the Smartwatch Pro app (post coming soon) to pass the data to Apples Health App so that you can monitor overall trends.

 

Disclaimer: My sleep pattern is not normally as bad as above.
My two year old decided he had recovered from his illness and did not want to be alone or sleep!

Additional benefits include:

• Repeat settings – use the app once and and it will reactivate automatically the following night
• Set a 10 minute “ignore” period – should you not want a cup-of-tea making break monitored
• Setting a preferred wake period whereby the watch will wake you at you lightest sleep point
• weekend lay-in or power-nap modes

 

Andy

Design Your Own Pebble Watch Face

One of the fun things to do with the Pebble is to design your own watch face at www.watchface-generator.de for free [we like free!]. It is extremely easy to do and allows you to manipulate:

• Background image
• Analog[ue] or digital watch face
• Date
• Free Text
• Extras such as battery and connection indicators (such as vibrate and invert watch face colours on loss of Bluetooth connectivity)

The resultant generated watch face is given to you as a link or QR Code that you can scan, allowing you to download a your-watchface-name.pbw file that you can then open in your pebble app.

Note: this will take up one of your 8/16 app allocation spaces.

My lad particularly likes the spider-man watch faces!

Capti Text Reading App (IOS)

https://www.captivoice.com

Capti is a great app that allows you to listen to everything you want to read on the go. You can listen from :

1. a browser
2. clipboard
3. GoogleDrive
4. Dropbox.
5. Instapaper
6. Pocket
7. Bookshare
8. A existing document – by downloading and then opening in Capti (I listened to the FELTAG Report whilst travelling between meetings with this app and the Plantronics M55 Bluetooth Headset – see prior post)

I love the fact you effectively create a playlist, so you can load-up content prior to listening. You can also change voices and the speed of those voices (either manually within voices or x2 when playing)!

 

Andy