Sunday, June 15, 2014

YEAH!! Mobile Thing 23

I was determined to finish on this last day, but thought it might take until midnight. ;-)  I like completing what I start, and having finished 23 Things on a Stick, I knew there would always be some advantage to finishing.

I did experience some frustrations with 23 Mobile Things though.  In the beginning I felt like most of the apps were ones that I already had experience with and either used on a regular basis or had decided I didn't care to use for a variety of reasons, and so it felt like I wasn't learning anything new or experiencing any challenge.  Well, this spring provided enough challenges in my personal and work life, so now I'm grateful.  Challenge from 23 Mobile Things would have been enough to make me quit. The other major frustration had nothing to do with the program itself, but with the way mobile technologies work.  A few weeks ago I got the e-mail from Springpad that they were shutting down.  At least this time I made a point of migrating my information over to Evernote (Springpad's recommended replacement app) before the deadline to avoid losing everything, like had happened to me before, but it's still not the same.  I know there were some poster sessions at this year's TIES conference about using Springpad in various instructional contexts.  Using this example, there was clearly some function in Springpad that was considered unique, since Evernote has been around so much longer, and so while their work done in Springpad is not completely lost, the functionality and purpose of creating in Springpad is possibly lost when moved out into Evernote.  I can see those types of things dissuading someone from branching out.  Going back to a comment I made in Thing 13 - Presentations, this supports the notion of learning and understanding the basic concept and function of the app because there is a great likelihood that that particular app won't be available or maintained and you'll need to move to another bookmarking, interactive whiteboard, photo editing, audio recording app against your choosing.

I would certainly participate in future 23 Things programs, as I always get something out of them!

Mobile Thing 22

So exciting...!  Apps Gone Free is like the app equivalent to BookBub and why pay for anything when there is a chance of getting it free?  A friend has been using Diana Photo quite a bit lately and talking it up like mad.  Today it was free!  It allows two photos to be layered over each other, adjusting the opacity and creating some interesting combinations.

Every year I like to check out AASL's top 25 apps for teaching and learning.  Many of them have been included either in these Mobile Things, or similar variations.

Mobile Thing 21

My favorites?!?

LibraryThing - Two years ago I found myself regularly purchasing books, only to arrive home and find it sitting on the shelf already.  After years of warehouse sales, conventions and conferences and general shopping, I had no clue what I actually owned versus titles I had heard about or read reviews of.  I decided one of my summer projects would be to catalog my home collection, and LibraryThing seemed to be the way to go.  It had a free account limit of 200-250 titles, and I'm glad I opted for the lifelong, one-time fee of $25 because by the end of that summer, I had 1400 titles cataloged.  It's now increased to almost 1700, and that is a list very handy to have available when standing at the store!

LOCPix - Kind of like what I was hoping LIFE for iPad would provide, LOCPix has all the photography collections digitized by the Library of Congress, available by collection.  Individual images can be saved as a favorite and prints can be ordered from the LOC.

Camera Zoo - Another fun photo app.  First graders used this app to photograph their partners as an animal (seven options to choose from).  Super cute and they had a ton of fun!!

Pocket - I've already mentioned this in one of the earliest Things, but Pocket can be attached to an RSS reader like Feedly, and with a single tap save blog posts into you Pocket.  Then within the Pocket app, folders and tags can be used to organize anything saved into pocket.

Mobile Thing 20

Alzheimers and dementia runs in my family.  Probably an unlikely start to a post on Thing 20: Games, but those in my generation and my parents' generation are interested in word puzzles and number games that aid in maintaining mental acuity.  I also have a old tetris addiction, which tends to lead me to the bubble/jingo type games.  That being said, I've added three game apps to my device: Word Abacus, Word Collapse and Word Warp.  All addictive.  I just finished reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library to the 4th and 5th graders and there were a number of word puzzles that could have been helped by practicing on these apps, especially Word Warp.  I need to continue practicing!

Mobile Thing 19

My hobbies tend to lean more toward the areas of handicrafts, so I searched for apps for knitting and bookmaking (book binding, as the first search brought up betting/bookie apps ;-).  In the area of bookmaking, there were mostly apps for how to create either digital books and photo albums to either be shared digitally or printed and bound.  I downloaded Mosaic and bookPress.  Mosaic allows you to choose 20 pictures to be printed and bound in a hardbound linen book for $25.  It is just the images on each page, with no option to add text or captions that I could see.  bookPress has a companion website called bookemon which is for k-12 educators to have a private, collaborative class section and be able to turn student works into printed books for purchase.

For knitting, I installed four apps.  I was rather disappointed with the Lion Brand Yarns app because while it specified searchable patterns (which I regularly download from the Lion Brand website as pdfs and store in iBooks), every search I conducted resulted in nothing.  Craftsy's Knitting app linked to a ton of patterns, some free and most at a cost, but easily allows for patterns to be added to a wish list or library.  Knit is a row and stitch counter that I have yet to figure out how to use.  Within the app, some of the menus and options are in an Asian font, so I can't read it.  Maybe I'll try to combine iTranslate (which I downloaded in Thing 18, but didn't mention in that post) with Knit to figure it out.  I'm currently working on a project that requires a cabled strip 83" long, so keeping track of my rows on that one would be very useful.  Lastly, Gaugefy Free is to help adjust gauges in knitting swatches (which I don't use as much as I should), so another app that could be useful in certain situations.

Mobile Thing 18

So many choices in the Education Thing!  A few I've used for years and love, like artCircles, Socrative and TED.  I will frequently show portions of TED Talks if done by authors we are reading or on topics that apply to curriculum.  Teaching at an arts school, artCircles provides fascinating articles connecting elements of art to other aspects of daily life, which always supports the importance and relevance of the arts in our world.

For my new exploration, I added Today's Document from the National Archive and Bill Nye the Science Guy.  Once again, I was really looking forward to using LIFE for iPad, but it wasn't available in the app store and round-about searching didn't result in anything.  Whereas Bill Nye's 20th anniversary app is full of fun (first thing I tapped on was his desk drawer and got a 9-step lesson in how to tie a bow tie), Today's Document is something that I'll be able to work into the classroom.  I'm working to include more primary sources into curriculum and think this app would give a good starting point.  I'm curious whether the documents for specific dates are ever changed out.  Another reason I interested in the LIFE app as it claimed to connect to the LIFE photo archive, an addition to primary sources.

Mobile Thing 17

I was very disappointed that the three apps in Connecting to the Community, I was not able to find or install.  Minneapolis Skyway and MN Museums could not be found in the Apple App Store.  I tried the links, searching directly in the app store and also navigating from the organization websites.  And what's the deal with MN Beer Activists only being available for Android devices?!?  I know a ton of beer enthusiasts that are Apple users, so they are losing out on a major section of the market!

The one app I did (will) find useful in this Thing was the MN State Fair app...although it is still shows 2013 information.  I hope this singular app will be updated for 2014, rather than creating a new 2014 app that people will need to search for and install.  A local, favorite bakery has recently reopened and applied for inclusion in the State Fair, so I'd definitely use the app to locate a Han's Bakery bee sting at the Fair this year!  YUM!!

Mobile Thing 16

I found it somewhat ironic that while exploring Thing 16, Audio, I was re-watching The King's Speech.  With all the scenes in front of a microphone, it seemed apropos to try the three audio apps suggested.

Audioboo was on the AASL top recommended sites/apps probably three years ago.  Initially, I remembered it just having the recording function, with audio files then being exported and could be posted/shared separately.  This fall the music teacher was having students use Audioboo and reported that with the added ability to search and follow channels, we had students searching for inappropriate content.  I've never had an issue with teaching students, as part of responsible use, to avoid galleries or channels, especially in a school setting, that they know would be inappropriate, but also understand others' unwillingness to deal with students' temptations.

iPadio and SoundCloud were rather similar to each other, but I did like how SoundCloud easily offered recordings to be saved privately; not forcing a user to search for how to do that.  I can't stand the sound of my voice recorded, so being able to let a recording "mature" in a private setting might give an opportunity for me to establish a slight distance from it before sharing with others.

Mobile Thing 15

I am very intrigued by infographics.  I would love to feel confident in infographic creation, and believe that when provided the data and statistics, I could easily use an app like Visualize and iVi Touch Lite to generate the design.  At this point, I don't think I have enough accurate, current data on a single topic to create an infographic that would be used in my teaching...although maybe I should gather the statistics through a school year and present an annual report in infographic format!

I was really looking forward to browsing the collections of the Infographics and info.Graphic apps, but had some issues.  Infographics wouldn't allow me to register an account, freezing up instead.  info.Graphics also froze repeatedly.  I will continue to attempt to use these two apps, but also probably conduct more Internet searches for infographic collections.

Mobile Thing 14


This last year I recorded a few moments of video in the media center and shared it out to small groups via e-mail.  I'd like to do more of that and share it on the media center webpage, or through a digital newsletter (Smore).  I think the apps shared in this Thing could be useful.  Vine would give a quick snapshot video of activity happening in the media center.  Viddy could be used to record student book reviews/recommendations and would require that they hone their review to keep within the 30-second limit.  Socialcam would allow us to record a school song for the menu soundtrack, which would create a video series.  Filters could be applied which would establish a visual consistency.  Those smaller pieces (still images and short videos) could then be combined in Magisto.  Similar to Animoto, Magisto's free account will generate a slightly longer completed video.

Mobile Thing 13

Nothing like the last possible day to finally get around to blogging about the majority of the Mobile Things!  I'm just as bad as the kids at school...but unlike my students I will finish and won't fall back on a long list of lame excuses. ;-)

Presentation apps:
I used Haiku Deck with 5th graders last year for a research project, when it was still in beta form, and really liked the app.  For that particular project, they chose images from a museum site and imported all their images into the app, but I also made some Decks for my own lessons and was very impressed with the visual appeal and quality of the stock images searchable in Haiku Deck's collection.  I really liked that the slides were restricted to the amount of text, maintaining the "bullet point" discussion aspect of a presentation, but that students were able to export their Deck to the website and add presenter's notes to each slide, thus filling out the text that they wanted to share.

Deck Slideshow reminded me of Haiku Deck, but the preset templates and layouts reminded me more of PowerPoint and didn't have the feature of adding presenter's notes.  For those who are more confident in their presentation skills and content that isn't reliant on the visual images in the background, Deck Slideshow would be a great option.

Lensoo Create, Educreations, Show Me and ScreenChomp all seem very similar as interactive whiteboard apps for recording.  I'm sure there are small details that make each app better for various users.  I tend to prefer multiple options, but have been repeatedly told that in a school setting, it's best to simply choose one and teach users to be competent in the concept of the app.  In this case, a comfortable user of one interactive whiteboard app will be able to transfer to a similar app with minor adjustments.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Mobile Thing 12

Ha ha ha, I can't believe I'm about to put this in print, but the last thing I need is more books, print or digital!  Between the almost 1700 print books I own, the hundreds I have checked out to myself from my school library collection, the 1600 Kindle books and ebooks in Bluefire, Book Shout, iBooks, etc. I don't ever worry about running out of reading material.  The one digital format I am lacking is audiobooks, so the Audiobook app is one I will keep.  It'll have to stay on the back burner though until I get caught up with podcasts...lol!

Maybe rather than apps that contain free ebooks, since the classics can mostly be found in Project Gutenburg and a lot of other freebies are self-published, this would be an appropriate venue to explore where to get notices of free ebooks.  Bookbub.com sends a daily e-mail with free or cheap (under $2.99) Amazon or Apple ebooks that are discounted for just the day or a short period of time.  NetGalley and Edelweiss are AWESOME!  You can set up a free account as a blogger, librarian, teacher, or other avid reader and request egalleys of new titles for review.  The 1600 books referenced above...every single one was free!

Mobile Thing 10

Sharing photos...As I mentioned in the last post, I realized that I am not a daily picture taker.  I take tons of pictures on vacations and prefer to share them with people face-to-face...so I can tell all the stories that go with them.  Yes, "a picture is worth a thousand words", but it's worth even more if I get to tell the five minute story associated with that picture.

I recently heard some of my students talking about Snapchatting with each other before school.  I double checked to see if Snapchat had the age restriction of 13, like many sites, and tucked it in the back of my mind.  The concept of Snapchat just sounds like it could go sketchy so easily, especially with young, immature users.  As if "yolo" mentalities don't enable enough risk-taking behaviors, the idea of an image only "existing" for 10 seconds worries me.  I'm guessing that to interact with friends that you actually know, because of the short time frame, the engagement needs to happen in real time, and so other interactions and sharing are with "friends" in random cyberspace.  I did download the app and set up an account, while sitting across the table from a friend, but at that time both of us didn't try the app.

Instagram is another app I've had installed for years but never got into a habit using.  It falls into that category of "I have other ways of doing the same job" and am personally very selective of which images I share.  Instagram is also one of those accounts that I hesitate to link to other social media accounts, unlike if it was purely a cloud image storage, because I wouldn't want to inadvertently be posting pictures

Mobile Thing 11

For this Thing, I have all three portions to cover.
1.  ELM Mobile
It has been years since I checked out ELM, and I was very impressed with the mobile site.  It is much cleaner in appearance than I remember.   I think I'm going to do some further investigation into the site and probably link it from my media center website.  After having completed the first year of our research curriculum in grades 4 and 5, I know quite a few students who may find the research calculator of value and would give me another "voice saying" that these steps need to be completed in this order and prioritized in such a way to make the due date.

2.  Library apps
I live in Anoka County, and very close to the Ramsey County system, but am very biased as a former employee of Hennepin County Libraries.  That being said, I have chosen not to use their apps, but to always navigate the websites.  The apps feel clunkier to use.  Maybe it's because I used the websites for so many years before the mobile apps were developed.  I also don't care for how certain information is displayed, like My Account.  For example, the list of my requests isn't as visually informative and in the past I've accidentally deleted requests and had to get back on the list.

3.  Vendor apps
I have ebooks in my collection both on FollettShelf and in MackinVIA.  It is a developing collection of ebooks and interesting how even in the same platform, the individual titles will act differently in their readers.  I was very excited when I initially heard that the Follett Destiny app could be used for "remote/mobile" circulation, but when using it on an iPad, a 3rd generation is the minimum requirement for the camera to be able to scan barcodes...and there is a significant lag time which did not make circulation on the iPad an efficient option.  Our district will be upgrading versions of Destiny this summer, so we'll see what's available in the fall.

Mobile Thing 9

I've learned something about myself during Thing 9 and 10.  I'm a huge vacation photographer, but could pretty much care less about capturing my day-to-day life.  I tried all the suggested apps and liked half of them.  I do make a lot of gifts for family and friends, and do like to record the finished products before I give them away.  Color Splurge gave a neat effect to some of these photos.
While I was intrigued by the concept of CamMe, I had a really hard time getting it to work in the selfie mode without having a significant distance.  I watched the video and saw that the devices were propped up to get full-length shots.  This is a scenario I can't envision, but will probably keep the app...you just can't ever be too sure.

Between the two photo editing apps, I definitely preferred Aviary over LINE Camera.  LINE Camera seemed more putzy to use whereas Aviary was more intuitive.  What I thought was interesting (strange) was that if you click on More for sharing from Aviary, some of the choices are apps that basically do the exact same thing.  Here's the image I did in Aviary:
Why would I share this image out to Skitch or LINE Camera?  The arrows and labeling are what I would normally/previously have done in Skitch.  I really like how the images can be shared with the variety of cloud storage like Drive, SugarSync, Dropbox, Box, etc. and in apps like Doceri and Springpad ( :-( which is not around for much longer).