Tag Archives: iphone

Technology for Teaching: This Semester’s Report

5 Nov

This post was updated a little bit and republished at PBS MediaShift on Nov. 14. Thanks to my editors there for the chance to take it to a wider audience!

Because of a couple of my past posts, people often find my blog when they’re looking for information on teaching with the iPad. So I thought I might give an update on the technology tools I’m using in my teaching and personal productivity this semester on various platforms. I’ve mentioned some of these before, but it’s interesting to track which ones have infiltrated my workflow permanently and which have failed to prove their utility (for my purposes, at least).

Long post, so please click on through to read more!

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.

Managing the Professor’s Library

18 Aug

A trial run of BooksApp on my iPhone.

I recently searched my office bookshelves for two books I want to use this fall in a course. I know I owned them. I remember buying them in grad school. Then it hit me: I loaned them both to a student, and they haven’t been seen since.

After placing a quick Amazon order for replacements (sigh), I realized I needed a better system for lending books to students. I asked the Twitterverse for ideas. Here are some of the suggestions I received from those who have more wisely addressed the problem for their own libraries.

  • On the low-tech end of the spectrum, Janni Aragon (@janniaragon) suggested holding a student’s grade hostage – well, those are my terms, not hers. Her system is simple: she keeps a list of items checked out by students and tells them she will not post a grade until the books and/or articles are returned.
  • Similarly, Brad King (@Brad_King) keeps a collection of notecards documenting items students have checked out, and gives them a failing grade in his course if they don’t return his stuff. (These are great solutions for students in your courses, but I often work with students I am not currently teaching in a course, so they’re a bit more…elusive.)
  • For a short-term loan – say, a student needs to make a copy of an article or book chapter - Katie Johnson‘s (@KatieAJohnson) solution is terrific: have the student leave a piece of collateral behind, such as a phone or iPad. (I might run away with the iPad, though.)
  • Matt Thomas (@mattthomas) recommended a piece of Mac software called Books. It’s free and looks pretty snazzy. It appears to be transitioning into a new product called Codex that will also track a book collection. However, even Codex is now on hold, as its developer notes that iTunes may soon feature a book cataloging utility (maybe part of iBooks?).
  • Dave Childers suggests another software solution called Delicious Library, also for Macs. This software uses your webcam to recognize and catalog your books – and all sorts of other items you want to document in your office or household. You can even attach an item to a friend’s Address Book record to track who has been loaned what. It also interfaces with an iPhone or iPod, creates bibliographies (including in APA style!), and has a lot of other cool features. It does cost $40, but for a comprehensive solution, this looks to be a great option.
  • Finally, because I am rarely away from my iPhone, I also looked for an app solution. I found one called BooksApp that costs $1.99 and scans barcodes on books to record them into the library. It does track lending of books. My first attempt at cataloging with it went well; the barcode scanner is a little finicky, but works, and it’s a lot easier than typing ISBNs into the phone.

Any other suggestions for low- or high-tech solutions to this problem? Please share in the comments.

My Five Easy Multimedia Tips

29 Jun
I attended the June 13-18 Multimedia Storytelling Workshop at the Knight Digital Media Center at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. It was a phenomenal experience. I met 19 fabulous journalism professionals and a great group of knowledgeable and skilled trainers; I learned new photo, video, audio, and web skills; I listened to stories of multimedia successes in the newsroom; and I ate one tasty meal after another, gaining three pounds during the workshop.

Oh, and a 10-year-old gymnast accidentally jumped on my head while I was under a trampoline, setting up a video camera. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

Our class of workshop fellows. An amazing group!

Most of the things I learned at the workshop were fairly technical – how to shoot a variety of pictures for an effective slideshow, how to set the white balance on a video camera, how to create a Flash interactive graphic. I loved all these skills and am already working hard to apply them on my own this summer so I can teach them to my colleagues and in my courses this fall.

However, instead of writing about all those things that others have already discussed in great detail elsewhere, I’m going to tell you the five quick, easy things I learned that can be implemented in a mere moment and that are already helping me produce more interesting, better quality photos, audio, and video. These are probably going to be obvious to some people, but they weren’t to me, since my focus has always been writing.

Soaking it all up.

1. Audio: it’s all about the audio. Despite a lifetime of NPR listenership, I truly never realized how critical it is to ensure that your audio is high-quality and aurally intriguing, whether it’s standing alone or part of a video, and how hard it is to make it work. I learned at the workshop to organize the video I edited (see my team’s project; I edited the video about Cairo, the superstar gymnast) around the various topics interviewees discussed and the ambient sounds we’d recorded. I also learned to not just have constant loud noise in the video, but instead to include “breathing room” so the viewer could relax into the setting and have a deeper experience. I know this video, while it still has room for improvement, is far better than anything of its type that I’d created before.

Not so thrilled about being on camera.

2. Being onscreen: limit the gestures. When I teach in a classroom of 120 or more students, I need to be physically expressive. However, one of our sessions at the workshop was about doing standups on camera. I was terrified of this, but apparently did not completely embarrass myself. One reason? With a mental effort, I kept my flappy hands under control. The coach for this session, Marilyn Pittman, instructed us to make a gesture to accentuate each of the main points of the copy we were reading, then release our hands and relax them by our sides until the next gesture. In other words, no constant gesturing, and no frozen hands and arms in front of your torso. After returning from the workshop, while doing a video Skype interview, I applied this strategy by consciously reminding myself to gesture only rarely and then to relax my hands in my lap (I was seated at my desk). Those lecture-hall-sized gestures would have been horribly distracting in a tiny onscreen video.

3. Video: for the love of all things multimedia, use a tripod. USE A TRIPOD. Or something, anything, to stabilize the camera. Richard Koci Hernandez, who lectured on video storytelling at our workshop, strongly emphasized the importance of not letting shaky hands diminish the quality of your video. I’ve broken out my little Gorillapod tripod that had been gathering dust, even though for now I’m only using it with the video setting on my still camera because I don’t have a better option at home. The image quality may not be HD, but because it’s much more stable, the video that results is far more watchable than what I’ve made without a tripod in the past.

The iTalk app. Yes, I have a clip about goats.

4. Tools: my iPhone has its limits, but if I know them, I can still do some cool stuff with it. And this is my lowly 3GS, not the new iPhone 4, which is even cooler [fangirl alert]. I recently attended a fiber festival in Oakland to indulge in my love of all things yarn-related, and decided on the spot to attempt to produce an audio slideshow of my time there. I walked around and interviewed people using the iTalk app on my phone and just the built-in microphone. I figured if the sound didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be too disappointed. The sound quality turned out to be remarkably good, and I hope to finish the slideshow and post it when I get back from traveling next week. I did pretty much put the phone right up in my interviewees’ faces, but they got used to it. Hernandez has a new post on his blog detailing other great ways to use your iPhone for multimedia production.

Contact with my head in 3...2...1...

5. Storytelling: it’s worth getting slightly injured to get an element of the story that grabs the audience and makes them persist through the rest of the story. My teammate Fenella Saunders and I clambered down into a dusty pit under a trampoline at the nonprofit gymnastics school our team profiled for our project. There among the lost socks and spiderwebs, we shot video of our star gymnast bouncing on the trampoline – from below and off to the side. It made for a great shot, but on a whim, I said, “Let’s put it right under her!” I lowered the tripod and camera, then ventured out to the center of the pit – only to have the gymnast bounce right on top of my head a moment later. The minor neck pain I felt for the rest of the day was made completely worthwhile by the awesome video we got. Everyone who’s watched the video has commented on that shot.

What are your quick and easy solutions to make better multimedia? Share your tips here so I can pass them along to my students and colleagues!
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