Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun 30 2012

Build with Chrome

A couple of days ago Chrome released Build with Chrome in collaboration with Lego. An online Lego set that lets you create buildings and structures using virtual Lego bricks in virtual Australia and new Zealand.

I have just taken a break from building my virtual home to post it here on the blog.

Ant’s house takes shape from the ground up

I was really excited when I saw the videos advertising this new tool, I was sure there would be lots of opportunities for creative expression and learning.

There is nothing to download and as it is web-based children could of course follow-up on their learning at home. Once a model is built it can be submitted and will appear on the map for others to see. There are a few things to consider before you launch into using this with your class.

  • Anyone can create a building online with Build with Chrome, but you must be  over 18 or get parental permission before you can publish your building  see more of this on the House Rules.
  • There is a limitation to the bricks you can use – I’d say these bricks, windows and door seem to be more from my era of Lego than the vast collection we see in today’s boxes. There are a choice of ten colours for your bricks, but due to the brick limitations you may find your creativity somewhat stifled. Let us hope more bricks are added.
  • Every model is looked at and approved so there is no possibility of children encountering anything rude or anyone using the virtual Lego land as an advertising space.
  • The controls can be a little fiddly but stick with them and you’ll be a pro in no time.
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Jun 27 2012

Transporting the Ipads around

When a school has a set of Ipads that are in high demand there can be a number of issues to deal with aside from what apps to put on them and security, you also need to think about:

  • Charging
  • Transporting
  • Storage

When I used to DJ, I had to carry round a couple of CD players and a mixer. As my equipment was quite cheap to begin with a simple case would suffice, but as I bought more industry standard gear, I needed something more robust. At this point I invested in some custom-made flight cases. This meant the case got scuffed and jogged rather than the sensitive mechanisms of my CD players.

When I started using the school set of Ipads I knew we needed something similar, or else we’d soon find ourselves with cracked screens. The rubber covers and some sturdy Ikea boxes were ok for a while, but I knew we could get something better.

Heavy usage by two or more classes would take their toll on the devices and we would often find a class would get frustrated when they’d find the Ipads only had 2%. Thus ensued a spaghetti of white charging leads and a mass of 4 way extension leads. That is a lot of leads and a huge potential for tangling and a lot of wasted time.

We have recently started using our newly acquired In Sync Charging and Syncing cases. We haven’t got to the syncing part yet, but the charging element is great. No need to plug-in the white connector as each slot in the case has a dock at the base. So drop them all into the slots, plug the case into one plug and return later and everyone is charged and ready.

The case is well padded and on wheels, so it can be easily pulled to the next classroom, that is if you can get there without jeers of “Going on Your Holidays”

I don’t have a price for this bit of a kit and this is only a partial review, but if you do like what you see then speak to Toucan who are experts on all things Apple and Education.

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Jun 26 2012

Giving Longer Responses via the Ipad

Today I taught RE and our theme was Special Places.

I used Youtube to talk about one place where I spent a very long time for many a month, the good old A406, which made up around 2-3 hours a day during my days at 2Simple.

We then contrasted this with a look at  a holiday favourite of mine, rural Snowdonia, which as a place would involve a degree of pilgrimage and effort to get to. However the climb and the exhaustion is all worth it when you can sit and survey the panorama of natural beauty at the summit.

Thanks to Photosynth and my IWB we were able to stroll around the mountain and skirt around the lake and take in some of the awe and wonder.

Here is a link to the Photosynth we looked at today of Snowdon, just in case it is not displaying in your browser.

But what of the children and their special place, this was not something all of them would feel comfortable talking or writing about and yet they each had interesting and relevant ideas to share.

Using a google form I had created earlier, I asked the children to write their answers to some key discussion and reflection points. We were fortunate in that ecah child use an Ipad to access a link I had made on the desktop to the form. In this way the Ipad acted as a giant and more attractive response system.

As they wrote I had the response spreadsheet up on-screen, this meant we could read their answers, but not necessarily know who wrote them. And as such we had both points for discussion and anonymity at the same time.

A simple but effective use of Google Forms and here is a link to over 75 more ways you can use them in your teaching.

Jun 25 2012

A New Way to Print from your Ipad

In the last couple of days Lantronix has released their device for conquering the first world problem that is – How Do I Print From My Ipad?

I look forward to hearing more about this device in the weeks ahead!

Apparently the device will begin shipping in mid July – you can read more on this in their press release here.

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Jun 24 2012

Grid Lens First Look and Play

My app of the week – if I have such a thing-, is Grid Lens . I love the  quirky design and what it does which is both simple and brilliant. On my walls I have lots of composite photo  frames of my children in different poses. This app essentially creates these for you.

You can either do this manually frame by frame or set the camera to burst shoot the images with a short pause in-between. You can see some of my results (right and below) using an Ipod Touch, but of course this would  work equally well ,and indeed be easier to manipulate on Ipad.

This app shakes up what is becoming to be a bit of a clichéd use of the IPad or IPod in schools. Due to their mobility and resemblance to phones,  these devices can often become just about photography. Busyness is also a factor  and a lack of exposure to any other apps can mean taking pictures becomes the sum of  Ipad use in class, nestling comfortably with internet research. This app breaks one of these conventions by offering another way of snapping and presenting images, or at least it remixes the old favourite a bit.

How would I use this with my class? My first thoughts would be to record an event or  school visit as the app would allow me to capture and showcase more than a standard view. It struck me when I used it last night at Greenwich, how much of a challenge it would be to photograph something like the revived Cutty Sark. But using Grid lens my class could snap a series of close-ups.

Why not get the children to complete a treasure hunt of images to collect. This would be a great way of ensuring everyone visited all the locations you wanted them to see on a visit. This could also be done back at school, where you could set the challenge of looking for a series of shapes, textures, emotions, materials or other objects and compile them in a grid. You could begin this activity by working with the children to design the grid layout before setting them off in groups to seek out the images.

Another route might be to look at self-image and challenge children to present a different side of themselves in each frame. There is also a link here to comics and perhaps a freeze frame could be captured in each of the frames as a way into using something like Comic life.

Compilations of juxtaposed images can also be just works or creative art within themselves. The trick is deciding what to piece together in order to form a series of complimentary images. Take a look at the film Symmetry, to see how this can be done, though I would add this is not a film I would use in class!

School use of it aside, this app makes a change from the glut of filter/ instagram type images we all see so much of online.

You can gain inspiration by viewing examples of Grid Lens images over on their Flickr group here

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Jun 23 2012

Lego Superheroes App

If you or children in your class recently picked up some of the free Lego sets in national newspapers, then they could be put to good  ICT use.

To accompany the new Superhero range of minifigs and bricks, Lego has created a movie making app.Last week I have set some groups of  children in my class the task of working on creating mini animated movies using a box of  themed Lego and the free app.So far one group has produced the following film, which they are quite pleased with and I will add others as they are made. The app is bundled with all you need to create a film. It has themed music, effects and title cards. It can export to camera roll for sharing and I guess further editing in Imovie. There is a collection of videos on the Lego Movie Making site, which is worth showing your class before your set them off, in order to set the bar as high as you can.

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