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More Teaching Ideas for the iPad

7 Jan

The Atomic Web Browser app - an iPad alternative to Safari.

I’m excited to start my first full semester with an iPad at hand, ready for use in the classroom. I’ve found some ways to work around the frustrations I encountered in my first attempt to teach with the iPad, so here are some of my new strategies and plans for using the iPad during teaching.

Projecting the Web

I’ve downloaded Atomic Web Browser for 99 cents, which will project web content through the VGA connector. This is a major advantage over Safari for iPad. I also much prefer the tabbed browsing offered by this browser to the page system in Safari, as it’s more convenient both for casual reading and for pre-loading a selection of web pages prior to the start of class and easily switching among them. It also supports multi-touch, which is nice when you’ve become accustomed to that capability elsewhere.

Blackboard on the iPad

Starting up the Blackboard Mobile Learn iPad app.

(Setting aside the variety of problems with Blackboard itself for a moment…) The new Blackboard Mobile Learn app is much improved from its previous versions, which for me were essentially useless. You can do a lot of what you can on the web through the app at this point, so administering your class activities on the move during class time (or from your couch at home) is now much more feasible.

Teaching Writing

The iCardSort app in action.

I’m not teaching a writing course this spring, but I can see how some apps I’ve started using for myself are going to be very helpful in working with students on their projects. For example, iCardSort, a free iPad app, can be used to show students how to brainstorm and organize their ideas for a new project. Outliner (currently $4.99) can be the next step in the process, generating a clear outline for the project that can be easily manipulated. (I use Inspiration for outlining on my laptop, though I may move to something with a better UI sometime soon.)

Using the Outliner app for one of my own research projects.

For the more visually oriented, a mindmapping app like iThoughts HD ($9.99) might be a better option, though I haven’t tried it myself. iThoughts HD will apparently also project through the VGA connector, so an all-class brainstorm session for writing projects or other topics is an exciting possibility. Unlike a whiteboard activity, the iThoughts HD session can be saved as PDF and shared with the class in a more permanent form. (Hmm – I may have to buy this one after all.)

When I do teach writing again, I’m also really looking forward to being able to walk around the computer lab with the iPad and immediately locate and show students examples of things we’re working on. For example, I could go find examples of anecdotal leads in online news stories for a student who’s unsure about how they’re used – without having to borrow the student’s computer or project the example on the classroom screen through the instructor’s station, which would distract everyone from their work.

Demonstrating Multimedia

Another great aspect of having an iPad in the classroom for someone teaching journalism and communication is simply the ability to show students some of the innovative new ways media professionals are preparing content for the iPad. If I hadn’t been able to use an iPad through my university, I’d feel very much left out of this rapidly developing area of the industry. However, I’m happy to be able to demonstrate these new products in class and discuss them knowledgeably with students as someone who keeps up with the field and uses these new products daily. The iPad has been a great asset in this way for me as an instructor.

New MediaShift Post: Narrative Magazine

8 Oct

A screenshot of Narrative's iPhone app.

I forgot to post here earlier this week that I have a new story up at MediaShift about Narrative Magazine, a digital literary magazine that is using a variety of formats to provide its content. Wherever the audience may be, Narrative is there.

I think the biggest lesson of Narrative for other magazines is that diversification is key. Though it’s a lot of work and requires some investment of scarce resources, especially for a nonprofit, Narrative has worked to develop a website, print-on-demand options, mobile apps, merchandise and more. They have made their content and their brand recognizable and available to readers who are early and later adopters. I think magazines that adopt such a strategy – now – are best prepared to deal with the changing audience they will face in the coming years.

New Approaches to International Digital Magazine Editions

19 Sep

Just a quick note: I saw today that Zinio will soon allow publishers to dynamically determine their digital magazine pricing based on the reader’s location. I’m hoping this will mean I can soon get more reasonable prices for and/or better access to some of the international magazines I’d like to read more often, all in a digital format, as I discussed in this previous post.

Here’s Zinio’s press release on the new Zinio MAP system.

It would be great to see magazines have more opportunities to go global using digital formats, not only making their content more widely available, but also reducing the environmental impact of international readership. I hope to see other companies also enter this market to provide us more choices in our

Memorable Moments with iPad Magazines

10 Sep

A sample magazine shown in the Zinio iPad app.

What moments stand out most in my first few weeks of magazine reading on the iPad?

  • Positioning the iPad carefully against a pillow on my stomach while lying down, then carefully moving a fold of shirt out of the way so the pages wouldn’t hit it when I turned them. Yes. Really. Old habits die hard.
  • Flying immediately to jump pages, rather than getting lost in a jumble of un-numbered ad pages at the back. In the Zinio app, I tap the blue-outlined link to the continuation of the article, and I’m magically there. Ah.
  • Buying digital single copies of magazines I don’t subscribe to, just because I want to see how they look.
  • Trying hard to find digital subscription options for all my favorites, with about 60 percent success.
  • Being annoyed by digital subscriptions that cost more – sometimes far more, even double – than the discounted faculty print edition subscriptions that have spoiled me. (Economist, I’m looking at you.) Come on – help me be greener, without bankrupting me.
  • Wanting to tweet articles from digital replica magazines with no means of doing so easily. If magazines want to replicate the solitary experience of reading print, they’re doing a good job with these digital editions…but I’m used to social reading now, and I miss it when it’s not available.

My transition into digital reading has been an interesting experience, and it’s really just begun! I’m trying to be aware of my physical, psychological and intellectual reactions as I proceed further into the world of digital magazine readership. Have you noticed any side effects or unusual responses in yourself?

Getting Started with the iPad: Teaching

2 Sep

A slide from this morning's class on the 2Screens app.

Update: I’ve written a newer post about teaching with the iPad, if you’re interested in seeing how some of my later experiments worked out.

My first effort to teach using the iPad wasn’t entirely voluntary. The DVI-to-VGA adapter for my MacBook Pro failed, and because I couldn’t get a new one in time for my class this morning, I spent a frantic 45 minutes before class buying two new apps, tweaking my morning lecture to be compatible, and testing connections to be sure everything would work.

So, my complete list of technology employed in this morning’s class?

MacBook Pro, iClicker base and USB cable, iClicker instructor remote, iPad with dock-to-VGA adapter, 2Screens iPad app, iPhone with Bluetooth activated, 2Screens Remote iPhone app.

Whew! I arrived to class 15 minutes early to hook it all up.

This list of technology is not really what I anticipated when I first planned to teach using the iPad. I thought it would be pretty seamless: make my Keynote presentation with embedded videos, animation, etc., as usual; sync it to the iPad; connect it to the projector, and go, with my iPhone as the remote.

I forgot a couple of major issues along the way, though, and didn’t know some other key facts. The biggest drawback I wish I’d known is that the iPad doesn’t simply project whatever is on the screen. Only apps that have that capability will project. You can’t project items purchased from iTunes (thanks, Apple!). Apparently the YouTube and Netflix apps do project, but I haven’t tried them myself yet.

An obvious and class-specific problem: I use iClickers in this large class of 120 students to take attendance, give quizzes, and do participation activities. I can’t connect the iClicker receiver base to the iPad (no USB port and no compatibility). Therefore, the laptop still has to go to class with me anyway.

Also, I have iWork ’08 on my MacBook. The iPad version of Keynote only accepts files saved with Keynote ’09. This means I have to request an upgrade from my tech support folks. In the short term (very short, this morning), I have to export my Keynote file to PDF (losing all the video, transitions and animations), then flip through the PDF using an app called 2Screens.

2Screens ($4.99) is not bad. There’s very little explanation in the help menus or website about how to use it, but once you muddle through, you can show a PDF or PowerPoint file easily. It didn’t like my Keynote file this morning, and I’m still trying to figure out why (it may be too large). You can also draw on the slide, and your doodles project on the screen.

A screenshot of the 2Screens Remote app on my iPhone.

The 2Screens Remote app ($2.99) for the iPhone worked well for me via Bluetooth. There’s no preview of the next slide, which is annoying when you’re in the back of a lecture hall and wonder what’s coming up next, but a positive factor is that the Bluetooth connection still functions from that distance. Connecting via Bluetooth was easy – probably easier than the routine I hear that Apple’s Remote app requires over wifi, when you’re on a secure campus network.

My overall presentation experience was a little rough. I have also read online that Keynote on the iPad doesn’t even save all the characteristics created in the full version of Keynote, which may be a frustration even once I get upgraded to iWork ’09.

For some presentations, I could get by with the combination of tools I tried today, but for classes or other times I’m using lots of media, the iPad may not cut it yet.

On other fronts, I’ve had more success. I am enamored with the Attendance app ($3.99; suggested to me by Marcus O’Donnell), and am about to start using it not just for taking roll, but also for tracking group participation and selecting random students to harass, I mean question, in class. It creates groups for you as well based on imported CSV files (e.g., what Blackboard will export from your roster). I’m going to test that function this weekend now that add/drop is over.

A marked-up reading I assigned to some independent study students.

I’ve also had a great time using iAnnotate ($9.99) as a PDF reader and note-taker. I love being able to read, highlight, underline and create notes right in the app. These features have already saved me over 100 pages of printing this semester, helping me justify the app’s cost.

Three of my "notebooks" in the Chapters app.

Finally, for various other purposes, I’m finding the Chapters app ($3.99) extremely useful. I have a “notebook” for each of a couple of committees I’m on, one for class prep notes for my graduate seminar, one as a personal workout log, and so on. It’s cleanly designed and functional. I like that it dates each entry, but you can change dates to be past or future, so I can plan future classes and enter notes in advance. (Mismatched dates would drive me nuts.) I am thrilled to move toward paperless class sessions and committee meetings.

Gee Ekachai also pointed me to this resource for academics wanting to use the iPad productively, created by a professor at Marquette. There are some great tips there.

Have you found other ways to integrate the iPad into your teaching? Have solutions to my problems? I’d love to hear about them.

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