LearnShifting

I did what most folks did, downloaded ibooks 2.0 and read about the new features... I was going to paste the link but I am sure Apple won't mind if I promote iBooks 2.0 by copying in their promotional text. It is a free download for your i-everything from the app store.

Introducing iBooks 2 — now with iBooks textbooks.

• Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
• iBooks textbooks are filled with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
• Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
• Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textbook
• Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
• Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the page

The iBookstore offers textbooks on Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, and Physics from McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
These textbooks are currently available to customers in the United States. Textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are coming soon.

iBooks textbooks are created with iBooks Author — now available as a free download on the Mac App Store.

Along with iBooks 2.0 comes a new and free authoring tool called ibooks Author, which only works on a mac and the books you create only play on an iPad... so there is an immediate dilemma for a school jurisdiction with only 3% of our computer fleet consisting of iPads.

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This entry was posted on February 1, 2012 at 10:37 AM and has received 45 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Today is the day we celebrate World Teachers Day.

It wasn't until I started working in education and my own child attended school did I realise the importance of schools in community. Police stations deal with many events in community that are not joyous or filled with learning (although I am sure some hard lessons are learnt by folks in that environment). Hospitals and clinics treat the sick and injured, saving and giving life but even there people are exposed to a mix of pain and suffering. An exception is greeting your newborn child or seeing someone cured.

In school there are challenges to  be sure, but we are teaching, nurturing, guiding and trying to prepare children to be the best that they can be with a value set that makes them a citizen of the planet. So today we celebrate those people who do that job of helping mum and dad guide their child along a path of learning and maybe more importantly understanding the learning.

Today is also Bill Gate's birthday, a person who like Steve Jobs has had a profound affect on the residents of this planet.

Today also marks the day that I have been using computers for longer than I have not used a computer.

Today I also have a birthday and turning 50 is always a time for a little reflection.

Last night I compiled my first iPad application and transferred it from the Mac to the iPad. It is a shocker of an app, it doesn't really do much and half the buttons didn't work, however I don't mind because at 49 and 364 days of age, I was able to do it by myself.

So thanks to a combination of Mr Gates and Mr Jobs - my 25 year involvement with computers at a professional level is something to celebrate because like the very children we are trying to inspire, mentor and teach it is self satisfying to feel that at 50 I still have the urge to bash away at something new until I know how to do it and be excited by it.

Today is also Hari Sumpah Pemuda or national youth oath day in Indonesia and it is also Bandanna Day where you can purchase a bandanna to help  youth cancer patients.

So I apologise for a self indulgent post, but hopefully the message of life long learning comes through loud and clear.... on this rather special day for me and a few others.

Now to get those two pesky buttons working!

This entry was posted on October 28, 2011 at 5:15 PM and has received 121 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Alison introduced me to a $4.50 iPad app yesterday called Creative Book Builder which allows you to create eBooks/iBooks on your iPad. I have focused in the past on solutions that start on the Windows platform because our standard operating environment is Windows and our teachers and corporate staff have Dell laptops issued to them.

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This entry was posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:07 AM and has received 535 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I have been on this quest to offer a solution to teachers that would enable them to create a talking book. I had a few criteria though.

• You had to be able to use free tools to do it.
• It couldn’t be something that teachers thought was too difficult and not worth the effort
• It had to play on the iPad
• It had to play on other devices as well, including Windows
• As the book was read, words would highlight. (Don’t get too excited by this – it is not there yet, but more on that later)
• I also wanted teachers to be able to share the books with students and other teachers who had iPads without going through iTunes

I need to tell you that this has been a long time coming and I feel that out of our teaching community, about 90% would be able to create an eBook without audio after about ten minutes guidance (ie reading this blog entry) and of that group, half would be willing to have a go at adding audio and video to their book.

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This entry was posted on August 21, 2011 at 5:26 PM and has received 497 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Actually it belongs to a good friend and it was dropped off yesterday to either be resurrected or given the last rites. When Adam plugged it into the wall it didn't stir - a cold lifeless black rectangle. But with the deftness of a lifesaver, Adam applied the iPad equivilent of CPR and revived the small beasty. How did he do it? if you follow the instructions below -

Reset the iPad or iPhone by holding the Power Button at the top right of the device and the home button (the 'Circular Button') at the bottom center of the face at the same time. Hold them both until you see the screen go black and the white Apple logo appear. When this happens, you can let go - the  iPad or iPhone is rebooting.

My friend's iPad made a full recovery.

This entry was posted on April 12, 2011 at 9:57 AM and has received 361 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Firstly the good thing about the iPad 2.0 (which PCs have been able to do for almost 30 years) - Now you can plug a cable into the iPad 2.0 and display whatever is on the iPad 2.0's screen onto another device like a TV or data projector, not just videos and photos as you can with iPad 1.0. So if you are teaching an iPad app in the classroom, now you can display it on your projector (if you have an iPad 2.0).

For those of us with wireless iPad version 1.0 (me) the latest release of the iOS which is now at version 4.3 allows you to use a 3G device (my iPhone 3GS did the trick) to act as a local wifi hotspot. I was able to tether my iPad and iPod touch to the phone using bluetooth and access the Internet and mail from the iPad.

People in the vicinity can't randomly access your personal hotspot.

With this update it means that you really only need one 3G sim card and therefore one data plan. Something to consider if you have an iPhone and are considering buying an iPad. Was it fast? Certainly was.

This entry was posted on March 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM and has received 1240 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

If you have an iPad or an iPhone, the operating system update many have been waiting for is here. It is worth updating but if you haven't updated your iTunes in a while you'll need to get that upgraded to 10.1.

Here is a small video about the upgrade from Cnet which interestingly began with an ad for the Windows mobile 7 phone.

 Go to http://apple.com for details about the release. But here is a useful article for the enterprise http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/368723/6_sets_useful_apple_ipad_resources/ from computerworld

iOS 4.2 Software Update for iPad

This update contains over 100 new features for iPad including support for multitasking, folders, unified mail inbox, Game Center, AirPrint, AirPlay, and many system improvements. It is highly recommended for all iPad users.

iOS 4.2 for iPad includes the following:

• Multitasking support for third-party apps

- Multitasking user interface to quickly move between

apps, adjust screen brightness, control playback,

lock screen-rotation, and manage print jobs

- Support for audio apps to play in the background

- VoIP apps can receive and maintain calls in the

background or when device is asleep

- Apps can monitor location and take action while

running in the background

- Alerts and messages can be pushed to apps using

push and local notifications

- Apps can complete tasks in the background

• Folders to better organize and access apps

• Mail improvements

- Unified inbox to view emails from all accounts in one

place

- Fast inbox switching to quickly switch between

different email accounts

- Threaded messages to view multiple emails from the

same conversation

- Import .ics files into Calendar

- Open attachments with compatible third-party apps

- File or delete search results

- Option to select size of photo attachments

- Messages in the Outbox can be edited or deleted

• Game Center

- Send and receive friend requests

- Invite friends to multi-player games over the Internet

- Play multi-player games by auto-matching with other

players

- View Leaderboards and Achievements

- Discover new games from friends

• AirPrint

- Print mail, photos, web pages, and more directly to

AirPrint compatible printers on a local wireless network

• AirPlay

- Wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos to

Apple TV

- Wirelessly stream music to AirPlay-enabled speakers or

receivers, including AirPort Express

• Find text on web pages in Safari

• Use Spotlight to search the web and Wikipedia

• Suggestions and recent searches appear during a web

search

• Support for TV show rentals using iTunes

• Create and edit iTunes playlists on device

• Support for iTunes gifting of apps

• Send and accept calendar invitations wirelessly with

supported CalDAV servers

• Support for MobileMe calendar sharing

• Enhanced location privacy

- A Location Services icon appears in the status bar to

indicate when Location Services are being used

- Location Services can be enabled and disabled per app

- Indication of apps that have requested your location

within the last 24 hours

• Additional Parental Controls

- Prevent adding friends in Game Center and deletion

of apps

- Restrict changes to Accounts and Location Services

settings

• New languages, dictionaries and keyboards

• New fonts available in Notes

• Wirelessly sync notes using IMAP-based mail accounts

• Automatic spellcheck

• Silence background sounds using the Silent switch on

the side of iPad

• Improved support for Bluetooth AVRCP

• Persistent WiFi connection to receive push notifications

• Support for Bluetooth braille displays and International

braille tables, control VoiceOver using an external

keyboard, and other accessibility enhancements

• Wireless delivery of carrier settings updates for

iPad WiFi + 3G

• Improved enterprise support

- Support for third-party Mobile Device Management

solutions

- Enables wireless distribution of enterprise applications

- Exchange Server 2010 compatibility

- Support for multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts

- Support for Juniper Junos Pulse and Cisco

AnyConnect SSL VPN apps (available from the

App Store)

• More than 1,500 new developer APIs

• Bug fixes

Products compatible with this software update:

• iPad

• iPad WiFi + 3G

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPad at:

<http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipad>

For more information about iPad, go to:

This entry was posted on November 23, 2010 at 8:47 AM and has received 173 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Pamela from Maningrida picked this article about the use of the iPad with students with special needs that she thought might be of interest.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575547971877769154.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews

On an unrelated topic I did go to JB Hi Fi last night and purchased a 64gig WiFi iPad. It was extremely easy to transfer the purchases and content from the loan iPad to my iPad (oops Joe's iPad). So the journey and articles will continue on the iPad and I hope to be able to create a talking book that works on the iPad.

This entry was posted on October 14, 2010 at 11:59 AM and has received 324 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

After a couple of wonderful weeks finding out and confirming that the iPad has place in the education world, the backpacker world and even executive land, I have to hand it back... I bought a case for it, cleaned the glass with the little cloth that came with the case, accessorised it with apps and even searched for stars and planets using it down at our airfield on the outskirts of Darwin one night.

Yes, I used it for work too... what was it useful for? Instant on and researching documents in our SharePoint site or Google and making notes in meetings that immediately were available in an email before I had walked back to my desk.

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This entry was posted on October 13, 2010 at 8:40 AM and has received 326 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Thanks to Cassie for these links

http://momswithapps.com/apps-for-special-needs/

iPad app list for (Special) education

Also there is a major trial being undertaken in Victoria with iPads and you can find out more here. http://vicipadtrial.org/

Thanks to Pamela for the link to the following blog http://manorlakesvicipadtrial.globalteacher.org.au/

This entry was posted on October 8, 2010 at 9:32 AM and has received 765 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.