Sharing class books created in IBA

For those teachers wondering how they can share an iBooks Author project with their
class this is a simple solution.

Lets say that a student has created a book but you don't want to publish it to the iBooks store. However, you do want to make this book available to other students - to download, share and read it.  

1. Export the book as an iBook from the Share menu in iBooks Author and the finished book will have the .ibook file extension. 
2. Next, upload this copy to Dropbox and share the link with your students.  
3. Place the file into the Public folder in Dropbox, this takes less clicks to download. 
4. Finally, students need to visit the Dropbox site in Safari on their iPads and click the option to open the file in iBooks.
5. All students now have access to the finished book and can read it in iBooks on their own iPad.

Snapguide - create & share How to's

Anyone involved in Education and training will love this free app. Its simple but oh so effective. Students (and adults) of all ages can choose to create a guide about something or learn how to do something by reading somebody else's step-by-step how to guide.

Finding the category of guides you are interested in is simple too - simply filter by Topic. 

Download from the App store here

Perfect for explaining science experiments, maths concepts, writing instructions. Learn how to create, build, make or draw something or use a particular technique. With built in photo-editing features you can now rotate and enhance images as you write your guide. 
Snapguide is also available as Web2.0 software and works on a computer as well as an iPad. Students can choose to create a guide from their PC, Mac, iPhone or iPad and learning can take place anywhere, anytime from a mobile device. Brilliant for assessment opportunities and revision.

Check out How to Grow Cress by Barbara Ainscough on Snapguide.

Example iPad policies

If you're working in a school or college environment and using mobile devices like iPads, then inevitably you will be expected to have a policy on various aspects of iPad use.

Many thanks to Simon Elliott @simon_elliott at Mounts Bay Academy for sharing these policies and other pdfs such as essential apps and lesson plans.

Simon Elliott is happy for anyone to use the documents as long as credit is given to Mounts Bay Academy and Simon's website thefreemac.com.

Courtesy of Mounts Bay Academy

Scratch programming - Red Nose Day

Hope that you get your school involved! Why not get your students and colleagues creating Scratch based Red Nose Day games? To support Red Nose Day Get students programming in Scratch  Have Fun! Volunteer University Students and school students have started to add resources and links on www.scratchyournose.com please register to offer your support and get updates. Students at Highfields School, Wolverhampton, supported by Inspire will be live streaming out support activities during the day, schedule tbc.  Why not download a poster from here, print it out and put it up in your school. How many students can you get programming this week? Andrew Goff Director of Education Proud supporters of scratchyournose.com In support of Comic Relief,  registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland)

Padagogy Wheel

Thanks to Allan Carrington - University of Adelaide for this idea. 

I find the wheel really useful and the process of Analyse - Evaluate - Create - Understand - Apply - is already very familiar to the teachers I work with.  

More information about this wheel, including a link to the app wheel with hyperlinks to each of the apps in the iTunes store can be found here.

Allan put this wheel together several years ago so you may not agree with his app choices but thats no problem! Simply substitute your own favourite apps into the wheel to create your own bespoke pedagogy for your school.

Click on the image and zoom to increase the size.