edtech-challenges blog

Improving Reading using Smart Phones.

Posted on July 14, 2015 by AlanP

When you plan (or have) to use smart phones in class you are dealing with a relatively small viewing area. Asking students to read articles or PDFs can be quite awkward and counter productive with the students scrolling up and down and pushing the screen from side to side. However, there is one type of reading exercise that can be done effectively on most smart phones: get students to guess what the next chunk of a sentence is going to be.

From: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1507/150709-recycling-sq.htm

Every time the student guesses correctly, the selected text joins on the end of the paragraph. If they select wrongly then their percentage drops. The students are engaged in completing the text as they want to be the first to finish – a helpful dash of gaming! I usually tell students to hit the restart button once they make a wrong choice.

For English as a foreign language teachers, an excellent source of these exercises is BreakingEnglishNews.com. There are hundreds of lessons that include this type of exercise that span all sorts of topics at low to high levels of English.

If you want to create your own you’ll have to buy the software from: http://www.cict.co.uk/textoys/sequitur.php Note – this is a free plug, as I don’t have any connection with the company that sells it – just admiration for a tool that has lasted for a long time as a top tool for eLearning.

To find out how to quickly get the students to access the website on smart phones, see my article here: SmartPhones

Posted in elearning tools | Tagged BNE, reading, sequitur, smart phones | Leave a comment

iPads Wireshare and Guided Access saved the day

Posted on June 12, 2015 by AlanP

Today I had a student who needed to view a video and take notes while the rest were studying. Normally I use a spare room that has an eBoard or wait till I get into the lab, but neither were possible at the time and this student needed to do this exercise today. As my students don’t have tablets or laptops, and their phones would not be suitable for this exercise, I was stumped. I didn’t want to lend the student my own laptop as I was using it, plus there were many personal documents I didn’t want students to have access to.

My iPad also had personal documents on it so I didn’t want to use it either. Then I remembered that iPads have an accessibility limiter called Guided Access. This allows anyone to limit access to only one app and you can even restrict spaces on the app. For example, you could prevent someone from changing the browser page by not allowing them to access the url area at the top of the browser page. You can find out how to implement this iPad feature here: Guided Access

Next hurdle – the video was on my laptop, not my iPad. I could put it in a folder in a Box.com folder or Google Drive folder and wait for the video to be transferred that way, but that would most likely take far too long. Then I remembered the numerous wireless transfer apps I had downloaded, and that option offered the possibility of a speedier transfer. I have used File Hub in the past but decided to try the Wireshare app this time. I opened up the app on my iPad and then on my laptop browser I typed in the web address that Wireshare displayed. At that web address I was asked to select a file to upload to my iPad. Within 5 minutes the 250 MB video was in my iPad.

Soon after, my student was set up in a spare classroom and doing the exercise.

Note: You can use this method to transfer any files from your iPad to your laptop. You may have to first transfer the file from it original app The picture below shows the video which I uploaded from my laptop and a photo I selected from my iPad’s camera roll which I could download to my laptop.

Laptop view:

wireshare

iPad view

Posted in iPad | Tagged iPad, transfer, Wireshare | Leave a comment

A winning formula for a snappy, engaging, smartphone classroom

Posted on February 27, 2015 by AlanP

Image from: http://image.shellypalmer.com/2013/03/Smartphones.jpg

What if your class only had smartphones, not tablets or laptops? My students have a mixture of Android and Apple phones. So that eliminates using any app that isn’t on both app markets. Even so, I’m reluctant to request that students get any particular app as some phones may not have much space for them. With my old android HTC Desire I quickly got to the stage of only being able to add an extra app if I deleted one of a similar size. It also eliminates flash sites as the Safari browser on iPhones doesn’t support flash websites, although the blue Puffin (paid) browser in the Apple App Store does. Websites that support HTML 5 are fine with both android and Apple phones. I check the websites with my android Samsung and Apple iPad to see if they are in fact suitable for both operating systems.

Original image: http://www.edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/google-forms.jpg

I often use Google forms to create an online quiz then get students to take the quiz using their smartphones. For example, I can create a quiz for an exercise that requires short text answers or multiple choice selection. There are 7 types of quizzes that you can make using Google forms. If the quiz requires a reading text I usually provide it on paper – there is a limit to what you can reasonably expect from students, and scrolling up and down PDFs looking for answers and the questions is a bit too much.

Students can answer the questions online using the Google form. They just need the url of the form. That is a bit tricky as the url of a Google form is very long – far too long to write accurately in a small space of time – here is an example (I’ve changed some of the characters so it won’t take you to a real quiz): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10qdKnhGQhgXWyb54IcQjTo3yc8rHoIT0F6G0Rp-7pMQ/edit#gid=0

So how do I get the weblinks to the students? Emailing them is too time consuming – creating a group emailing list is tedious and then the time taken for the students to open their emails, if they can remember their usernames and passwords, is a drag on class momentum. If you are suddenly faced with a new student or have to take over a new class then emailing is certainly a poor option. A problem with both iOS and android is that it isn’t very easy to highlight and copy text on smartphones – especially from kl1p.com, which used to be my favourite link sharing website. I also used tinyurl.com and bitly.com a lot in the past. They are good for shortening one-off links, but again, a bit tedious to keep creating new ones. My pick for sharing links is Justpaste.it. This website allows you to create a webpage full of hyperlinks which means students are just a tap away from the place on the web that you want them to be. You can create a hyperlink you can just tap to take you to your web address in Justpaste.it and by default only you can edit and delete the content. Once the students have bookmarked your Justpaste.it website, they can quickly get to this gateway and with one more tap they are in the website you want them to be.

You can check if the students have finished their Google quiz by looking at the response spreadsheet on the teacher’s computer or iPad, because their answers appear on the response spreadsheet immediately the students have completed the test and pressed the submit button. When everyone has finished you can then display this on an eBoard or via a projector. A nice feature of this is you can hide the column with the names of the students and show everyone what answers everyone else gave – without revealing individual identities. For the teacher, you instantly know if the class found it easy or difficult, and precisely which questions were the hardest and therefore worth spending feedback time on.

The combination of smartphones, Google Forms, justpaste.it and a way to display the results can make for a livelier and more informed class.

Links:

How to use Google Forms

JustPaste.it

Posted in Android, Android phones, Cloud Computing, collaboration, elearning tools, iOS | Tagged Google forms, justpaste.it | 1 Comment

MyStartSearch – malware solution

Posted on January 28, 2015 by AlanP

My son, Robi, asked me to download a game for him called Hay Day. I went to a download site and downloaded it from there ( I can’t recall which site now). When the exe file was downloading I was warned that there was something wrong in the download by my AVG virus checker, so I stopped the download and checked the computer with the AVG and Ad Aware programs. Clean bill of health. But by then all the browsers (IE11, Chrome and Firefox) were showing mystartsearch as the search engine on the home page. If you want to know what it is, go here: http://www.techsupportall.com/how-to-remove-mystartsearch-com-homepage-removal-help/ This website suggested downloading several anti-malware products, which I didn’t do as I was suspicious about why so many were needed.

Malware: MyStartSearch home page

I spent hours seeking suggestions on the internet as to how to get rid of this malware getting nowhere. I reinstalled Chrome and Firefox browsers. I got rid of all extensions from the browsers, reset the home page several times on each browser, and checked there were no programs installed that could be linked to this malware. In desperation I tried to delete all references to mystartsearch in the registry using RegEdit to find anything starting with mystart. No success in stopping the malware at all and I gave up at this point. I restarted the computer and signed in with my own user name – I share this computer with my son and I have a different user profile. I expected to have the same problem with my browser settings but surprisingly I didn’t!

Which brings me to a solution less drastic than reformatting the computer as many reported they did. This works on Windows 8.1 but will probably work on earlier Windows versions.

Transfer your files from the common folders on your profile (e.g, Music, Documents, etc) to the C drive, external drive, or somewhere else outside your profile.
Create a new user account*. If you try to use the same Microsoft email to create the new account it will not work as Win8 won’t accept two accounts tied to the same Microsoft email account on the same computer. So use a different account – since it is on a Windows machine you may as well get another Microsoft account.
Restart the computer and log in to this new account.
Put all the files you had transferred out of your old malware infected account into the appropriate folders in your new account.
You can now delete your old user profile and bid good riddance to mystartsearch.

There are a few caveats here – the new profile account I started up was malware free, but Robi didn’t transfer any files to it. So if the infection would have been passed on by his files being transferred, I can’t say. Also, as it affects browsers, perhaps if browser settings are synched across machines, which is now a common occurrence, perhaps that will continue to spread the malware.

* To create a new user account on Win 7:

You need Administrator rights to do this
Go to the Start Button
Click on Control Panel
Click on Manage another account
Click on Create a new account

Posted in Viruses | Tagged malware, virus, Win8 | 1 Comment

Android and Microsoft best tablets for sharing at schools?

Posted on December 29, 2014 by AlanP

If you are a teacher using a shared set of iPads (or, more to the point, the person who has the job of advocating and troubleshooting such an approach) over a whole school or between some classes, have you asked yourself this question: How can students share work in a seamless way, then pass on the iPad to another? Anthony Carabache asked this question here: http://www.anthonycarabache.com/?p=1436 His answer is – you can’t. So he recommends that if you can’t have an iPad per student, then don’t use iPads in schools. I found his article mentioned in a post by Stephen Downes here: http://www.downes.ca/post/63203. Stephen has decided to go the whole hog and ditch Apple products altogether. A counter argument to Anthony and Stephen can be found in a reply below the post by Stephen Downes.

Anthony’s point is that in order to get most content out of an iPad, students need to sign into iCloud, the email app, or some 3rd party app such as Google Drive, or a network drive. There is no USB drive for students to easily save content to. The next student using the iPad will see the same interface, and potentially the same content, which the previous user saw, unless all the content created has been saved somewhere in the cloud and all the apps used have been signed out by the previous user. Inappropriate photos, tweets, or emails, for example, could then be spread by the next student if these accounts are still logged in.

There is an alternative to single user iPads: multi user Android and Microsoft tablets. Beware though, not all Android tablets are capable of having multiple user log ins. The Asus Transformer TF101, for example, is only single user. You would also have to check to see how well the data and accounts of a logged out user are protected from snooping on non-iPad devices before deciding to buy them. Of course if students save their data on a folder on the C drive on a Microsoft PC rather than use the protected user folders, then privacy is non-existent anyway. Is this also possible on Android and Microsoft tablets?

If you are a teacher in a school that has a set of mobile iPads or have to use them in a lab, then you are probably stuck with them. The “privacy when sharing” issue is definitely one that will not disappear soon and has been compounded by the need to use password protected apps or websites to distribute material. Nevertheless, you can still use the power of tablets to create engaging and effective lessons.

A related Edudemic article back in September 2012 by Tom Daccord argued that iPads should only be deployed in a 1-1 scenario, or use BYOD instead. Very interesting to read the comments below it.

Posted in Android, collaboration, elearning tools, iPad, Microsoft | Tagged eLearning, iPads, labs, schools | Leave a comment

Youtube – undervalued information source?

Posted on November 28, 2014 by AlanP

I have been challenged in the past few weeks searching for some information and was pleasantly surprised by what I could find on Youtube.

Some students needed help with transposing formulas, for example, “What is the value of L if you have the values of P and G in this formula: P= L x G?” I tried to find it on Khan Academy but couldn’t without logging in. I wanted a quick solution for the students, not a website where you had to spend time entering details and registering. So I searched for “transposing formulae” in Youtube and was spoiled by choice. I searched quite a few and I eventually chose 2 – the first was an easy introduction, and the second involved square roots which my students needed. What impressed me about both is that the whole screen was taken up by the equations, not the presenter’s back or face, and the presenters left the working on the board to show the steps they had followed.

Transposing (Rearranging) Formulae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeWdpi3kCbs

How To Transpose Formulas With Square Roots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsSZZaH7-ME

The second problem arose when I acquired a Samsung Galaxy Duos and wanted to insert my SD micro-card into it. I couldn’t find where to insert it, then called my 11 year old son to quickly show me what I had obviously overlooked. Surprisingly, even he couldn’t find the slot. So I searched Youtube and found a video which showed me it is inserted just above the where you insert your SIM card. Well hidden!

Youtube, like most other resource repositories, has good and poor resources. It is well worth searching through it now though – especially for visual and aural learners.

Update Jan 2015:

My kids went to swimming lessons and were presumed to know how to do the Survival stroke. Although they were good swimmers and had had lessons before in Abu Dhabi, they had never heard of this stroke as they were new to the system here in Western Australia. The teachers thought the kids were being cheeky when they asked the teachers to demonstrate the Survival stroke, and didn’t show them it. Thankfully, after Robi decided to Google it, he found a Youtube video that was a perfect instructional video for this!

Posted in collaboration, elearning tools | Leave a comment

Prezi and multiplatform compatibility: now you hear it, now you don’t

Posted on September 29, 2014 by AlanP

Using Prezi is a prime example of making sure things work in all the platforms you intend to use it on, before you use it. I created a Prezi last week and wanted to share it in an environment where I wouldn’t be guaranteed to have wifi access. I could download it to my laptop, but it is a bit on the heavy side for lugging around too much. My iPad does have a Prezi viewer and editor, so I could use that. Or so I presumed.

Actually I couldn’t use it in my iPad as the Prezi has a video with sound, and the Prezi iPad viewer won’t play sound – something to do with flash technology according to some blogs. I did manage to view the Prezi using the Puffin browser – but still no sound.

So I thought I would use my Android Asus Transformer TF 101. It runs on Android 4.0.3 (also known as the Ice Cream Sandwich version) so it shouldn’t have any problems using flash. However, I couldn’t download the Prezi as there is no dedicated Prezi app for Android like iPads have, and the Prezi download from the website is an exe file and these types of files generally only run on Microsoft Windows systems (you can run some in Linux using the WINE software). So I tried to see what it looked like using my default browser, Chrome, in the Asus. I couldn’t even view it as it said my Adobe Flash player was out of date. When I clicked to update link, I was told that Adobe doesn’t provide a flash update for my device. Well, thanks to the Puffin browser it can play on my device, with sound, so it is fully compatible with Andriod 4.0.3 using wifi.

The result of all this is that I shortened the Prezi by eliminating the sound slides and used my iPad to show the Prezi offline.

There are lots of requests on the web for a dedicated Prezi app for Android – this is another one :). Updating the iPad Prezi app to using sound is another request I would like to add.

Note: Prezi logo from: http://www.friscolibrary.com/sites/default/files/Prezi_Logo.jpg

Posted in Android phones, Cloud Computing, elearning tools, iPad | Tagged Android, Chrome, iPad, linux, Microsoft, Prezi | Leave a comment

Teaching with iPads – not child’s play

Posted on August 30, 2014 by AlanP

When iPads were introduced to one workplace, it was suggested that because even 2 year olds could use it, there wasn’t any real need for training in how to use them. In some ways, that was correct. Just press the icon for the game you want and away you go. But teachers don’t play games on their iPads when teaching. The icons for teaching apps can lead to highly complex apps that each have their own quirky ways to operate and interact with. Woe betide any teacher sauntering into a class to deliver a lesson using an iPad without lots of preparation.

iPads can easily confuse those teachers used to the Windows operating system as there isn’t a searchable file system. You can’t create a PDF using PaperNotes (for example) then leave it in a class folder containing myriads of other formats such as photos and Pages documents, as you can with Windows and Linux based operating system. At least not without installing a special app for this purpose such as File Hub. You can also use cloud storage such as Dropbox to get round this restriction. Android tablets at least have searchable file system so that you can use Windows logic to do a lot of things there.

Another important obstacle for teachers to overcome is how to get access to the work students produce. There is no usb port so students can’t keep it on a usb stick. If students own their iPad then they can create a Box.com or Dropbox account and share a folder with their teachers.

In a lab situation this can be a lot messier. Can you expect the students to log into their own cloud storage at the start of a session and log out of it at the end? Inevitably some students will forget to log out and expose their accounts to other users.

iPad lab

Could you put a generic cloud storage account on all iPads for students to use? Has anyone tried this?

If the work produced is a multimedia object that is in the photo app, then students can connect their iPads to a MacBook or PC to extract the work. Probably the best solution for an institution is to have a shared drive using a WebDAV server.

Providing material to students is a lot easier than getting it from them. Most cloud storage solutions enable you to provide a link to a folder that students can access with or without passwords. You just have to supply the students with the url. This is usually very long but if you use tinyurl.com, or justpaste.it you can give the students a short way to get to the folder.

So be warned – lots of preparation is needed before heading into an iPad lesson if you don’t want the students to just play games!

Posted in Cloud Computing, iPad | Leave a comment

edtech-challenges blog

Improving Reading using Smart Phones.

iPads Wireshare and Guided Access saved the day

A winning formula for a snappy, engaging, smartphone classroom

MyStartSearch – malware solution

Android and Microsoft best tablets for sharing at schools?

Youtube – undervalued information source?

Prezi and multiplatform compatibility: now you hear it, now you don’t

Note: Prezi logo from: http://www.friscolibrary.com/sites/default/files/Prezi_Logo.jpg

Teaching with iPads – not child’s play

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Above is Bluff Knoll which is part of the Stirling Ranges in the south of Western Australia

Teacher training globally

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