This edition of the Digital Learning Newsletter highlights a range of resources related to online tools. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Please email us with any ideas or feedback relating to the latest instalment. -
Digital Learning Committee
Contents: St Margaret’s Senior School Newsletter
Page 2 – Links and Shortcuts -
Website of the Issue: Twiddla
Page 3 – Tutorial: How to establish a Live Mesh and SkyDrive back up. Berwick Grammar School Newsletter Page 4 – Links and Shortcuts -
Web of the Issue: Learning in Hand
Page 5 – Tutorial: How to email to/from the iPad class sets. Junior School Newsletter
Page 6 – Links and Shortcuts -
Web of the Issue: Read Write Think
Page 7 – Tutorial: How to download YouTube videos using KeepVid.
Interesting Blog Post:
On the Video Feed:
Social Bookmarking:
Nov 2012 Issue 4 Website of the Issue Title- Twiddla Link:
http://www.twiddla.com/
Twiddla is an online whiteboard space for collaboration and discussion. The great thing about Twiddla is that you can use it without needing to set up accounts. There is also the capacity to upload a range of file formats for discussion. Why not upload an image as a writing prompt and allow for discussion about where the piece could go? Or get students to place their writing up for critique and advice. A world of possibilities…
Author Stream
Control+F
Location: http://www.authorstream.com An awesome free website for sharing PowerPoint presentations on the internet. You can share them live or post after the fact. This one is great because you get 1GB of space and can limit the privacy settings on your publications. Features a chat window too for real time questions/discussions.
Disapainted Location: http://disapainted.com/ This is a cool tool for animating basic paint images. Could be a great way to get use of the tablet functionality on the laptop. Images could be useful to demonstrate a process.
CuePrompter Location: http://cueprompter.com/ A fun tool for turning your laptop into a teleprompter. Might be useful for those presentations and speeches that the students need a little help with. You just copy and paste the speech in and it scrolls through like the real deal.
Certificate Street Location: http://www.certificatestreet.com/templates/education.html A great site for downloading certificate templates that can be edited. Most require a small fee to remove the watermark from the bottom left corner, but this is very small and not necessary in most cases. Could be perfect for those end-of-year CARE/Homeroom awards.
Control+F, is the keyboard shortcut for the Find command. If you're in a web browser and want to search text on a web page, pressing Control+F will bring up a search box. Just type in that search box and it'll locate the text you're typing on the page. Control+F works in most other applications, too, when you need to find something. For example, Microsoft Word and other word processing applications use this keyboard shortcut
Want to do some free online training in a range of University courses? Check out ‘Coursera’ at https://www.coursera.org/. It is a great portal full of courses offered by a wide range of universities mainly from the United States.
©2012 Digital Learning Committee (Chris Wyatt Head of Digital Learning) Please let us know if there are any tutorials you would like us to add to the next issue or PD/Workshop ideas for us to share next time. wyattc@stmargarets.vic.edu.au
LIVE MESH DOWNLOAD
A step-by-step guide to using the Windows SkyDrive with Live Mesh to back up your important docs and files. To protect your files from hard drive crashes and errors Windows have set up a live back up tool which stores data online live, when you’re connected to a network. This tutorial shows how to set up the Live Mesh application, but assumes that you have a Sky Drive account. Please let me know if you would like assistance setting up that component.
Step 2: When this box appears click on the “choose the programs” link.
Step 1: Once you have clicked on the LIVE MESH link on page one this box will pop up. Click run to install.
Step 3: Deselect all programs except for Windows Live Mesh and click install. Follow the prompts.
Step 4: Sign in using your windows live account. If you don’t have an account then click on the sign up button.
Step 6: Select the folder you wish to sync and click on the sync button.
Step 7: Folders which are not up to date will communicate with the cloud regularly to update the files and information. Folders which are up to date will say so.
Step 5: Once signed in you can then start syncing folders to the cloud
at dents)
Term 4, 2012
Websites of the Month: ‘Learning in Hand’ Link: http://learninginhand.com/
Tony Vincent’s website ‘Learning in Hand’ contains a wealth of information for a number of mobile devices. It includes information on podcasting, the use of iPods, iPod Touches, iPads, Netbooks, PDAs in the classroom, and Project Based Learning. Link: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/learning-in-hand/id254270774?mt=2 Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/tonyvincent123?feature=watch View Tony Vincent’s podcasts, through either iTunes or on YouTube, and learn about how to incorporate a number of new technologies (including a recent episode on QR codes) into your classroom.
iLearn – Ideas for Using the iPad in Your Classroom
Location: http://pinterest.com/sewin2disney/ilearn-ideas-for-using-
Alt+Enter
This Pinterest page contains a wide variety of links to other sites that focus on the effective use of iPads within classrooms.
This shortcut allows you to view the properties for a selected object(s), such as the file size or date of creation.
the-ipad-in-the-classroom/
Apps in Education
Location: http://appsineducation.blogspot.com.au/ This Australian website offers a comprehensive list of education apps available on iTunes. They have been sorted by Key Learning Areas and include a short review.
iPadSchools Wiki
Location: http://ipadschools.wikispaces.com/home This wiki contains links to several other Blogs and websites that focus on the use of iPads within the classroom. It also includes a list of recommended apps and some ideas of how you could use them meaningfully within your class.
iPad Adoption
Location: http://www.scoop.it/t/ipad-adoption/p/2312414689/apps-in-
education-interactive-magazine-classroom-ideas-for-ipads
This site contains ‘a clutch of stories relating to school adoption of iPads’ and includes ides for classroom use, educational app reviews and much more.
If you would like a new app installed on the iPads, please: 1. Speak to a member of the Digital Learning Committee 2. Complete the ‘iPad App Suggestion’ form in full 3. Allow plenty of time for the app to be reviewed and installed before you plan to use it with your class.
©2012 BGS Digital Learning Assistant Heads of Department (Andrew Lardner and Scott Chittenden) Please let us know if there are any tutorials you would like us to add to the next newsletter or you have any PD/Workshop ideas for us to conduct. lardnera@berwickgrammar.vic.edu.au ; chittendens@berwickgrammar.vic.edu.au
This guide outlines how to use the email feature of the iPads to transfer work between the iPads and student/teacher laptops. While there are many other options (such as the use of the Dropbox app which is installed on the iPads), emailing required the least amount of set-up and all users should already be familiar with sending emails from their own laptops using Microsoft Outlook.
Emailing TO iPad Step 1: We are unable to email individual machines but can email an entire set. Determine which set of iPads you would like to email (i.e. BGS/SMS Senior/SMS Junior). Email addresses for these sets are as follows: BGS – SMSBGSIPAD003@stmargarets.vic.edu.au SMS Junior - SMSBGSIPAD002@stmargarets.vic.edu.au SMS Senior - SMSBGSIPAD001@stmargarets.vic.edu.au Step 2: To send an email to BGS, the, type this email address into the “to’ section of the new email window. Complete your email, add attachments, and click ‘send’.
Emailing FROM iPad Step 1: Open the ‘Mail’ app by clicking on the little blue envelope at the bottom of the screen.
Step 2: Click on icon of a little rectangle with a pencil on the side (top right, just below the battery indicator)
Step 3: Fill in the recipients email address, complete the email and click send.
If emailing photographs or videos from the ‘Photos’ app, select your photograph to send, click on the icon of a rectangle with an arrow pointing to the right and select ‘Email Photo.’ Complete as above.
ASK FOR HELP at any time. Andrew and Scott would be delighted to assist you however we are able to.
November 2012 Website of the Month Title- Read Write Think
Link: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroomresources/student-interactives/ A great collection of different interactive activities and lesson ideas sorted into subjects that would fit into the different areas of English. There are things to print and things to show on the IWB and on the classroom computers.
Computer Lab Favourite Location: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/tguidesitemap.htm
CTRL + P
Despite the name, this website has a number of useful activities that could be used in the classroom, on laptops or on the IWB.
Use this key combination to quickly print a document in most Microsoft Programs.
Mighty Book Location: http://www.mightybook.com/
A number of free and interactive books are available on this website.
Maths Skill Builders Location: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/
Free mathematics games. A different thing to present to students who may have finished their Mathletics course or even the year level above.
Johnnie’s Maths Page Location: http://jmathpage.com/ Different Maths games and activities broken into their specific subject area. It doesn’t always give an indication of what age the activities are for so it would be worth checking in advance.
CTRL + ALT + Delete Use this key combination to restart the computer, start the task manager or change your password.
Please see us if there is anything you need between now and the end of the year. There will be more PD available next year.
©2012 SMS Junior School Assistant Heads of Department (Gavin Smith – Pill and Peter Robertson) Please let us know if there are any tutorials you would like us to add to the next newsletter or you have any PD/Workshop ideas for us to conduct. robertsonp@stmargarets.vic.edu.au ; smithg@stmargarets.vic.edu.au
Sometimes it may be necessary to download a copy of a video from YouTube. This website does it quickly and easily. Open Internet Explorer and Open TWO tabs. In Tab 1: Navigate to youtube.com In Tab 2: Navigate to keepvid.com
Step 1: In the first tab, navigate to the clip you want to save.
Step 2: Select and copy the link from the address bar.
Step 3: Click on the second tab and paste it into the box as shown in the picture. Step 4: Click on the grey ‘download’ button. Step 5: Download as an MP4 as it is the most friendly version for Windows.
Please feel free to contact us at any stage if you have any queries, concerns or suggestions. We’d love to hear from you!