Apple Regional Training Centre Session 3

iPads and Assessment  (App links to follow)

After an information packed first session it was time to focus on individual areas of iPad use that benefits teachers and students. This time the topic of assessment.

Before we got going a few people wanted to talk Apple TV and in particular AirPlay. I only use airplay in classes now but some schools have a problem with their filtering software blocking the ports. While this should be a straight forward port fix some school do not deal with their filtering supplier directly. There are workarounds...

1. For the more technically capable just get on old wifi router and setup a separate wireless connection. As long as you do not connect this to the schools network or external telephone line you are only creating a wifi hotspot not an internet enabled hotspot so no worries about bypassing filters.  Downsides you can not therefore connect to the internet while connected so preload all material.

2. iPad 3G or iPhone hotspot. As long as you disable the data connection you can setup a wifi hotsopt on your iPhone or iPad, you still will have to keep changing networks but it works with out any extra equipment.

3. Buy a portable wifi device but dont put a sim card in. You will be able to carry a wifi hotspot wherever you go. I use these devices on trips to avoid roaming charges and just by a sim card wherever I go then connect my iPhone and iPad to that. Same disadvantages as above.

Here are amazon links to the devices.
1. The one I use

2. A cheaper Alternative

3. Even cheaper by not tested.


Back to the session.....


The main Topics were 
1. Note Taking
2. Recording
3. Storage
4. Markbook
5. Planning
6. Games
7. Free content

Notes

Before you can assess you need the students to be able to create the notes. 

Pages

£6.99

Not the cheapest of Word style apps but worth every penny, especially due to the WebDAV integration and iCloud which I will mention later on.

iAnnotate

£6.99

Again not the cheapest but packed full of features. Basically this app will allow you to place notes (both types and handwritten) on PDF documents. This allows you to use all those PDFs that come with your course and avoid any printing.

Simple Mind

FREE

For those that like using mind maps this is a great tool. If you want to share the notes you can either pay for the upgrade or use the iPads screen capture (home button and power at the same time) to add the page to your photo album 

Creative Book Builder

£2.49

Get your students to create their own text books. This has updated LAST NIGHT so I wasn't able to tell you about the sharing and publishing features. Once I have explored this I will write a separate Blog. This is an amazing app. 


Toontastic
Free
This app allows students to get really creative. Even though is is aimed at younger students (pre loaded with cartoons) you can import pictures and more secondary orientated material. 

iMovie

£2.99

For the price this is amazing. If your have an iPhone, iPod Touch or you are working in a pair you can use the extra device to record the audio. Again I am making a YouTube video to show how this is possible and why you should if you could. 

Recording

Recorder

£1.49

I use this to recorder to record voice notes for my students coursework. I start the recording and go to their current work in a shared Dropbox account and as I read the CW I dictate my feedback. It saves my typing time and the students say I give more detailed notes.

Showme

Free

This is primarily used for demoing worked examples but turn it around and make your students show you how they completed the question. Now you can be everywhere at once. 

It also contins lots of online contributions. 

AudioNote

£2.99

I don't use this a lot but many of my colleagues do. Record the lesson and as you make notes the app time codes them. When you play it back it highlights the notes in real time but more usefully you can click on the notes and it takes you straight to the audio. 

inClass

Free

I wasted a great deal of money looking for a note taking app that incorporated text, images, audio AND VIDEO. Ironically this one was free! A fantastic app for all forms of notes and is able to organise across subjects and topics easily. 

Storage

This is a touchy subject. Where is the data held? A key question asked by many an eSafety officer. Rightly so in many instances. Here are my thoughts.....

If the data is NOT identifiable/sensitive there is no reason your data can't be stored in the Cloud.

So if it's your students CW or homework or your class notes (no names included) then you are fine. Only class notes and student/school information can not be stored out of your country. For this type of data I use DropBox. 

DropBox

Free

2GB of free storage but an app that allows for Dropbox integration is a must for me. Many apps might be better but without Dropbox backup or storage I won't touch them. 

Google Drive

Free

5GB of free storage with a Google Account. Integrated with our Google Apps this is a potentially game changing service but many apps haven't incorporated it yet so until then Dropbox is key for me. 

Sensitive Data

So, you've got an iPad and you want to access sensitive data. What are your options? Well for me there is only one, WebDAV. WebDAV isn't an Apple service but is well utilised in Lion Server. If you have a spare MiniMac or Apple computer running Lion you can (with a little help) allow ALL Apple devices to save to an onsite location, and using the app below retrieve the files on any device. So at my school we use DropBox for the students work and WebDav for staff information concerning students. If you share devices then this could be a way of storing the files you create in separate locations. Pages uses WebDav so save work as an alternative (or addition) to iCloud. 

WebDAV Navigator

Free

This allow you to acces the files you save in WebDAV, unlike many apps that only allow you to view the files. 

eMail

In Built

Don't forget about email as a quick way of getting the students work but don't use it as a consistant way of communicating unless you are VERY good at organising your mail. You could create different emails for groups but quickly this workflow becomes messy.

Markbook

aNote

£2.49

There is a free version of this to get you started but I use this to record students progress by taking notes and pictures. This has now become superseeded by inClass 

inClass

Free

While I mention it above for students you can also use it for recording student work. Take photos, make note and record exemplar material for great parents evenings. Good for art and Primary school evidencing of student progress.

TeacherPal

Free
This is a fantastic tool for keeping track of student behaviour, grades, attendance and general information. This is an example of an app that has DropBox support but is probably not appropriate. Backup to iTunes to be safe.

Teacher
Free
This is an app that goes had in hand with the LanSchool software we have installed at school. It allows me to take polls and set multiple choice tests quickly and easily. The students need the free student software and you need LanSchool on your network.

Moodle
Free
As far as I know this is the only app for a VLE, just so happens it's the VLE we use here. Moodle is free and open source. I would try it out. This allows me to check up on out VLE on the fly. Very useful. 

Planning

Teachers Attaché
£2.99
For me I like this planning app because it is not time specific merely a list of my lesson but more importantly linked to my DropBox. This means that I don't need to update the lessons if the resources change, a big time saver.

PlanBook

£6.99
While I don't use this there are many that do. You are either a Teacher's Attache fan or PlanBook. PlanBook is more for people that want weekly planning, so probably better for Primary colleagues, but everyone is different so ask around and make your choice.

Games

There are so many games that record scores or only allow you to progress level by level that you can see how they have done by just letting them Plan.

Beebot
Free
When a class set costs hundreds of pounds then this becomes a very attractive offer. Top Scores are kept and students really want to get to the next level.

Spelling Notebook Free
Free
You can type spellings in and the iPad reads out the word and records the correct or incorrect responses.

Hairy Letters
£1.99
This app is great for students learning how to write letters. A rarity for an app that is also contains proper English Phonics, something to check on app before you purchase in the UK.

Ace Multiply

Free
This is a great maths against time app. My students loved beating my score and then each other. Begging to do multiplication tables didn't happen to me before.

Free Content

There is a vast amount of free content for the iPad but iTunes and iBooks are the gold that should be investigated.

iTunesU
Free
This is a must see. Investigate all the content. Complete courses with integrated resources of a very high quality.

iBooks
Free
With the addition of the recent iBooks2 versions eBooks have now hit a new standard. I highly suggest downloading the example iBook2 'Life on Earth' by clicking this link. The quality of integrated video, audio, interactivity, notes and study cards makes this a game changing content provider. The quality of the material is high class. The only downside is the size of the books (1GB+) in many cases. You can also bypass the iTunes store and create your own files but like mine they can take up to 30min to download (connection depending). If you want to know how to create one download my book (100MB about 5min on 2Meg) but be aware it will open Safari and seem to freeze but it is just downloading the large file.

I hope you found this Blog about assessment informative and don't forget to pass this link on and sign up in the top right for email notifications of the next one and of course follow me on Twitter.

Thanks for your valuable time
@JerseyITguy