Tag Archives: teaching

Post it Plus

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pipI came across the app ‘Post it Plus’ by accident. I often use post its as a teaching tool with groups of students, asking them to write ideas on post its and then move them around into themes or rank order. Since I had my ipad I have sometimes photographed these – but the Post It Plus app is a more flexible and versatile way of doing this.

When you open the app it allows you to take a photograph of a group of post its. To do this you hold down  the capture icon. Green lines appear around the post its that have been captured and if there are any that do not have a green line, you can touch these and the green line will appear around them so that all the post its are present. You then touch ‘create board’ and the image is saved. I usually take groups of post its and end up with maybe four or five boards to record an activity.

IMG_0333

After this you can move the boards on top of each other to make them all into one, you can name each group and the bigger group, add additional post its and write onto them and the board.

You can also share and export the boards in a number of ways eg by email as a PDF, as a photo, via social media etc. I was able to send the PDF record of our discussions to a group of students after the session so that they could use the discussion ideas after the session. I could have annotated questions and  comments onto it to challenge them further – maybe next time! I’ve added one to see what it looks like, above)

You can read more about the app here.

Explain Everything

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Explain Everything

Explain Everything is an app (IOS, Android and Windows)

Cost – £2.29 in the Apple appstore.

You can read about it at this link Explain Everything

It is a very flexible presentation tool allowing you to:

  • import and insert documents, pictures and video
  • draw and annotate
  • move and animate
  • zoom and pan
  • record and play
  • export and share

There are some useful video tutorials available at the link above and some help pages within the app.

So far I have used Explain Everything in three different ways.

I have made a presentation that consists of a sequence of slides that I have added spoken commentary to. This was to introduce an assignment to students and remind them of where the supporting resources are. It was useful to be able to record the commentary with each slide and it was very easy to stop and rerecord small sections without having to record the whole thing in one go.

It can be seen here:

I have also narrated a short guide for students showing them how to get from the opening page of a NILE module to their discussion board and then how to access and use the discussion board. It was so useful to be able to click on the sequence links and show students where to click and what to expect live in the website.

It can be seen here:

Finally I have used it construct two page by page views of collaborative sketchbooks that I have been working on this year. I was able to add the sequence of photos, add annotations and export the presentation to YouTube, Dropbox, imovie and ibooks and email it to myself. I would like to have added music but couldn’t quite work out how to do this.

One of these can be seen here:

I think this app has got a huge amount of potential for use with and by students and I am looking forward to exploring it further.

Fragment

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Fragment

an IOS / Android app

cost £1.49

There is brief film that gives an overview of what can be done with the app at this link Fragment Prismatic Photo effects

How to use it:

the opening screen

the opening screen

When the app opens you can choose to use the last photo you were editing, a photo from your photo album, or ‘inspiration’ eg one of the preloaded images.

 

 

 

choosing the photo and size

choosing the photo and size

 

 

If you choose one of your own photos you can then choose a size and proportion. You can back to photos using the arrow to the left and forward to the app using the arrow on the right.

 

manipulating the image

manipulating the image

 

 

On the next screen you can choose to manipulate the photo using the effects randomly (arrows on right) or touch each shape in the line below to choose specific ones. Move the image around on the screen to change the size and orientation within the chosen shape.

 

changing colours

changing colours

You can touch the small inverted triangle at the bottom to move to the next screen. On this next screen you can change colour and within that the brightness and contrast as well as blurring, inverting and desaturating.

 

a refragmented image

a refragmented image

 

 

 

Touching the arrow at the top right allows you to save the image, refragment it and share it. It can be useful to save it at different stages as you work because it is sometimes impossible to back and recreate the same image again.

 

Ideas:

  • manipulating photos
  • make some art, photograph it, fragment it, make more art from it
  • use to make backgrounds for presentations
  • print out and use as collage, draw onto

Other associated apps – Tangent

If you have tried out the Fragment app please add your examples and ideas in the comments below.

 

 

 

Padlet

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Link –  Padlet

Padlet allows you to set up a space or ‘wall’ that you and others can add text, pictures and links to immediately. You can see these pop up on the screen and you can share or download the contents of the Padlet wall.

Website – free to use

Help – padlet help

Account – set up using your email address, with Facebook or with your google account

padlet lableHow to create a wall

Click the ‘create new padlet’ label or the + on padlet instthe right hand list.

This will create your new padlet wall.

You can then give your wall a title and description using the daisy wheel symbol at the bottom of the list on the right.

When you click on this symbol you have other options too.

You can add an image and a background (wallpaper) to the wall and choose whether the layout will be free form, a stream or a grid.

padlet instrYou can copy the wall if you want to use the same wall with different groups of people.

You can make the wall private, password protected or public depending on your requirements.

share                                           When you click on the arrow symbol this gives you various options to share the padlet wall so that others can add to it.

As you can see you can email the link or share it using social media.

 

 

 

Why use a Padlet wall?

You can use this tool to ask pupils or students in a class or people in an audience to contribute comments, ideas, recommendations in the form of text, pictures and links. It can be useful to collect views after an event or experience. When the wall is complete you can download it as a PDF.

At this link you can see a Padlet wall used as a record of an event – TMNorthants 2014

At this link you can see how teachers have added questions ans challenges to a maths starter:

Minion Alphabet Maths

At this link you can see at Padlet wall created in the Literacy Shed with children’s book recommendations:

Picture Book recommendations

and here is a Padlet that the FDLT Y2 MK group contributed to in a session:

FDLT Y2 MK

Your ideas:

If you use Padlet walls please share links and ideas in the comments section.

 

 

 

 

Pinterest

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Pin3Pinterest

Cost – free

Available on computer, tablet and phone and as website and app

Website – Pinterest

Help and information available here – All about Pinterest

Account – with your email address or sign in using Facebook.

pin4Pins

Pinterest describes pins as visual bookmarks – images that you collect and save or ‘pin’ to boards. You can browse and search the pins of other Pinterest users and pin them to your boards. Images might be your own photos and those taken by others, images collected from the internet and other sources. When you choose a pin and add it you have to name or label it and it is important to note the source of the image so that you can acknowledge the person who originally made it, unless you made or took it yourself.

Pin3Boards

You can collect your pins onto boards that you create, title and share, keep secret or use as a group. Have a look at the help pages above to explore how to create secret and shared boards.

Boards are the way you group your pins around themes related to an idea, interest, event or subject. You can follow the boards of other users that interest you.

Following

You can choose to follow other Pinterest users who pin on themes of interest to you and other users can follow you. You can also follow specific boards made by other users.

Pinterest for learning and teaching

Pinterest can support learning and teaching in a variety of ways both in the classroom and as part of your preparation for support or teaching.

In the classroom

You can collect images around a theme to support learning in a subject or lesson. When starting a unit of work on portraits in art or history you might collect some examples that you want to use in your teaching. You can label these with questions, information or suggestions.

You can pin photos of learning outcomes from a group of pupils or students and these can be shared with the pupils or students and their parents or other interested people – other teaching assistants and teachers.

To support your own role

Pinterest is a great tool for research. There are many teaching resources and ideas already pinned there that can give you ideas or spark off your own ideas for supporting learning. You can search using keywords and phrases to find these and then either follow the boards or users you find or collect the pins you choose onto a board of your own.

You can read a guide by edudemic here – The Teacher’s Guide to Pinterest

Some links to Pinterest users:

Jean Edwards – Jean’s Pinterest boards

Helen Caldwell – Helen’s Pinterest boards

Tate Gallery – Tate Gallery

Teaching Ideas – Teaching Ideas

If you are on Pinterest do add your name and link to the comments below so we can enjoy and learn from your boards.

 

 

 

Skitch

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Skitch

Cost – free

Skitch is an iphone / ipad / Android app that allows you to annotate photos or images with text, arrows and highlights. It is also available to use on a computer (Windows or Mac).

There is some useful guidance about how to use the features available at this link – Skitch guidance

and a video tutorial here – Skitch video tutorial

2014-05-25 22.48.37Skitch can be used as a way of adding words, captions and sentences to images found or taken by the learner.

English

Write descriptive sentences about can be seen in the image.

Annotate an image with questions.

Annotate an image with descriptive words to later use in writing about setting, character etc (a way of developing a word bank).

Label a diagram or photo using boxes or arrows.

2014-05-25 22.59.02Other subjects

Use labelling to teach, learn, extend subject specific vocabulary.

Use as a visual word bank.

Use as a way of noting thoughts or description on a visit – immediate reaction.

 

 

 

 

Visual Poet

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Visual Poet

Cost – free

Visual Poet is an app that allows you to take or choose a series of three photos and label each of them with some text as a caption.

Opening screen

2014-05-26 15.56.31Create – touch ‘create’ to get to the screen where you can add or take three photos.

Do this by touching the photo where it says ‘tap to edit’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This opens a page where you can choose a photo from your photo library, from Tumblr, from Flickr or from Google. 2014-05-25 23.40.38

When you have chosen a photo you use the red box to place the image and choose the photo by double tapping. On this screen you can also add a title, credits for the images and comments or notes. To add text tap in the top box and this opens a text box for you to type into.

2014-05-25 23.40.38-12014-05-25 23.40.40To go back to the main page scroll across like turning the page of a book.

Polish – touch ‘polish’ to to edit the title, credits and comments.

Publish – touch ‘publish’ to email the poem to yourself or someone else.

Scrap – touch scrap to start again.

Browse – allows you see all your Visual Poems.

Settings – allows you to log into Tumblr.

Daisy-1 This app can be used in variety of learning activities allowing learners to use both images and text to record their thoughts, responses, descriptions or questions.

English:

Give learners three words and ask them to find three images to match, and put each word into a sentence relating to the image.

Use three images and three sentences to tell a short story.

Use three images and three descriptive sentences to describe a story character.

Ask learners to use narrative, poetic, reporting, instructive, explanatory or conversational language in their text. (lots of other language possibilities)

Ask learners to choose three photos they have taken on a visit or at an event and annotate them with what they have learned.

Give learners lines of poetry, similes or metaphors and ask them to find images to illustrate them.

Ask learners to choose a key part of a story from the beginning, the middle and the end for their sequence.

Ask learners to suggest three different endings for a story in their sequence.