12 of Google Photos’ Most Amazing Features


“Google Photos has grown into an awesome service. From automatically backing up your phone’s pictures to letting you easily share your photos, there’s a lot to love for anyone who works with photos. Whether you want to make a mini stop-motion animation or just make a slideshow of related pictures, Photos can help. Select the Animation button under the Assistant tab, and you can choose from 2–50 photos to add. Once you’re satisfied, click Create and you’ll have a neat little GIF ready to share.” — Ben Stegner

Read Full Article.

Pokémon Go Automatically Granting Permission to Read Your Gmail

Pokemon Go

The Verge is reporting that “Pokémon Go has become wildly popular in the days since its release last week, but the app may be hiding a serious security issue. In many cases, users who sign into the app through a Google Account are often inadvertently granting broad permissions over all information linked to the account, including the power to read and send emails. At no point in the sign-in process does the app notify users that full access is being granted” (Source). Read more at The Verge.

Perhaps the app developer will correct this issue in the near future.

Mobile Technology Can Be Assistive Technology

iPad Education in Use

“Mobile learning is seen by many as a disruptive technology. This is because it has been identified as a technology which holds great potential to transform the learning and teaching within a classroom. What follows is a mash-up presented at the NSWDEC 5th Biennial Equity Conference in 2011 which explains some of the issues.” (Source)

Suggested Reading: Literacy and Mobile Learning

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Book Apps: A Reading Revolution, or the End of Reading?
“Even if high-quality apps do manage to change the way we read, though, it’s unclear how many current readers will respond. The mere fact that something is possible does not automatically make it desirable.”

Books vs. Screens: Which Should Your Kids Be Reading?
“Canadian author Margaret Atwood thrilled her 285,000-plus Twitter followers by defending their kind as “dedicated readers” who are boldly exploring new frontiers in literacy. Calling the Internet in general “a great literacy driver,” she defended even the most minimal form of screen-based reading as an unalloyed good – “because reading is in fact extremely interactive from a neurological point of view,” she said. “Your brain lights up a lot.””

For Some Kids, a Book Is Just an iPad That Doesn’t Work
“[Calvin] Wang designs interactive storybooks for the iPad. He was inspired, he says, by watching his daughter interact with a movable cardboard book. Since then, Loud Crow, his Vancouver-based firm, has turned an array of children’s picture books that take the pop-up concept into the digital age. Books such as Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit now respond to touch by moving, twirling, speaking and noise-making.”

Digital Lit: How New Ways to Read Mean New Ways to Write
“The e-book is changing the publishing business, but will digital technology actually change the way we tell stories, the way writers write – for better or for worse?”

ShowMe iPad App: Easily Create Online Video Tutorials

ShowMe makes it possible to easily record interactive lessons on your iPad and share them online. It’s simple and intuitive and is the type of technology that can revolutionize the way we teach, provide support, and individualize instruction. Here is a quick video demonstration.

Examples
The following video tutorials are examples of how ShowMe might be used in and out of the classroom. (Note to ShowMe’s staff: It would be helpful to teachers if the tutorials were embeddable.)

Potential Impact
I agree with TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld that was is especially exciting about Show Me is that we are getting a “glimpse of how the iPad can completely change the way people learn. Any teacher can simply record their lessons and their students would need nothing more than an iPad to learn. Add some real-time chat and maybe some video, and it is not too difficult to see how this kind of technology can turn the iPad into a classroom.” (Source)

Free Apps: Everyday Math

The McGraw-Hill School Education Group has made all of their Everyday Mathematics apps available for FREE during the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Conference. The apps are available in iPod Touch/iPhone and iPad versions. Students often find these drill and practice educational games to be engaging for long stretches of time. The NCTM Conference begins April 13th and concludes on April 16th, so be sure to download your free copies of these apps by the end of Saturday.

Addition Top It Beat the Computer Multiplication
Tric-Trac Equivalent Fractions
Subtraction Top-It Divisibility Dash
Baseball Multiplication (1-6 Facts) Name That Number

 

Hat tip to Karyn Keenan and Cindy Brock for bringing this to my attention.

Wrap-Up: Apple Education Workshops – @umidt

(Cross-posted from IDT News)

Apple Education Workshops hosted by the Instructional Design and Technology program at the University of Memphis was a series of ten events over three days. The more than 240 workshop participants had an opportunity to learn about and discuss the opportunities and challenges facing educators in 2011. Attendees came from public and private schools, universities, corporations, and health care providers throughout the Midsouth.

Presenters Tim Matheny, Apple Senior Systems Engineer and Dr. Barry Adams, Education Technology Consultant with Apple spoke with K-12 educators of the Mid-South as well as University of Memphis students, faculty, and administrators on various topics such as the five issues facing higher education, educational theories and practices, and future implications.

Participants had an opportunity to hear and experience with hands-on activities how Apple has responded to these current trends and issues in education and what they as individual educators could do in their own learning environments.

Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Memphis

Free Apple Education Workshops

Instructional Design and Technology at the University of MemphisThe Instructional Design and Technology program at The University of Memphis (UM IDT) is pleased to offer FREE workshops on Apple tools and applications. These will be conducted by Tim Matheny, a Senior System Engineer with Apple. Seating is limited and registration is required…but these top-notch workshops are FREE.

Use the links below to discover additional information and register.

MONDAY, MARCH 21

Accessibility: Technology Enabling All Students
Register at http://umidt-accessibility.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Place: 310 Ball Hall, University of Memphis

ILife ‘11 in Education
Register at http://umidt-ilife.eventbrite.com.
Time: 5:45 PM – 7:15 PM
Place: 310 Ball Hall, University of Memphis

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22

IPad Tools
NOTE: This workshop is also offered on Wednesday.
Register at http://umidt-ipad01.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23

iPad Tools
NOTE: This workshop is also offered on Tuesday.
Register at http://umidt-ipad02.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis

Creating Media for iPods, iPads, and iPhones
Register at http://umidt-iosmedia.eventbrite.com.
Time: 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis

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