Saline, Michigan and some new iPhone Apps!

Well, the last 2 days were a great reminder of why I do what I do. I think those of us who do any kind of writing or presenting do it because it energizes us.  And the last two days in Saline, Michigan were definitely a reminder of that.  I was lucky to be presenting with an amazing group of women including Debbie Miller, Ann Marie Corgill, Kathy Collins, Cathy Mere and Mary Lee Hahn.  We also met some great teachers from Saline and other area schools as well as those attending all the way from Colorado. It is amazing that when people get together who believe the same things about children and literacy, the energy is contagious.  So much learning occurred at the conference and in conversations with each other.  

I had my antennae up for great new iPhone apps that I might want to try.  And because I wanted to learn how to use my new Flip Video camera and the new version of iMovie, my friends were great sports by demonstrating favorite apps while I videotaped them. (We are thinking that Apple may want to hire us to do their commercials from now on. See what you think...)

Debbie Miller shared her new favorite iPhone app, a musical instrument on the iPhone--Ocarina.  In the spirit of 21st Century Learning, the sharing definitely became social as others wanted to try.  Quite a fun app and, as you can see, we had fun learning about it.  Ann Marie Corgill learns the app from Debbie.  I imagine we have all downloaded it after getting home since Debbie sold it so well.  You may want to try it too.  

I also learned my new favorite app--Notebook. I was sitting in the audience, listening to Cathy Mere's inspiring keynote, watching Ann Marie write furiously in her notebook. I wanted to write down so much of what I was thinking because of Cathy's talk but my notes app was not really what I wanted. So in the first few minutes of the keynote, I figured there must be a better app. I searched the Apps store, found a great new app called Notebook, purchased it, learned to use it, took notes on Cathy's talk, showed it to Ann Marie who also purchased and used it. Don't you love that?  Finding what you need and being able to use it immediately.  I must say that that this is a great new app. So useful. It allows me to create new notebooks for different things--conference notes, my writing, books I want to read, etc. Within each of the notebooks, I can create notes and reorganize as needed. I can also search my notebooks.  It is such a great tool for keeping notes and things in a more organized way than other notes programs I've seen. I can see lots of implications of this for kids but right now am excited about using the app myself.

Other exciting things include Jenny's new blog. Jenny made us feel so welcome.  We know you'll love her new blog, Literacy Conversations.

Also, rumor has it that Cathy Mere may have a new avatar on Twitter soon!

iPhone App-a-Day All Summer

My iPhone App-A-Day mission is going well so far. My first app--100 Sounds has been quite a hit with friends. I think it could be a great app for kids to use when developing videos--so many sound effects at your fingertips. Thanks to Tod Bernhard, the developer of the app, I was able to see some of the apps used in videos. My favorites are the cartoons and stick figure animation. Great ones to show kids when sharing the possibilities. I am thinking that I have to learn lots of apps and then live with the idea and think about the possibilities as the summer goes on. This week I've found more great apps.

APP #2 of my App-A-Day learning. Today, I learned Sketches, a pretty simple draw program.  I spent a little bit of time learning the tools and reading the FAQs on the site. I figured most of it out.  My 9 year old learned it a bit faster than I did and produced a much better drawing. This program gives you the capability to save up to 30 drawings, to send them via email and to tweet them out on twitter.  It also can create a type of slide show.

Not sure yet how I might use this with kids. I am hoping that some need arises where I need to sketch something out this summer. So many times, I am in a conversation with someone and a sketch explains my thinking.  Instead of paper and pencil, I can just pull out my phone to sketch my thinking.  I can see kids doing similar things with their thinking--another tool to help them hold on to some of their thinking. Much quicker than a draw program on the computer if you are just saving thinking rather than creating a product. I can see a quick sketch to solve a math problem, etc.

APP #3 was a Sunday and I decided to choose something quick and easy to learn. And something that was marketed for education and younger children. I tried WHEELS ON THE BUS which is a great song/reading app for young kids. Last week, I was looking at our very old cassette players with headphones. I believe strongly in the use of audiotapes to go along with text for new readers. I see the impact they make on language and literacy development. But CDs, playaways, etc. are pretty expensive. This new app is simple and fun. A colorful version of WHEELS ON THE BUS with some interactive things that kids can do. My daughter and i had fun opening the doors, swishing the wipers, etc. Kids have control of when to go to the next frame, how long to listen to one page, etc. I am hoping to find more apps like this. A great way for kids to read and listen to text on the iPod touch.

APP #4 Kerry at whatchareading recommended Indiebound, an application that shares new books and has great booklists from Indie Booksellers. A great way to keep up with new books on my iphone. There are several monthly lists that share top 10 books.  I can see how this will come in handy as I keep up with new books. 

APP #5 I bought CameraBag this week. It is a simple app that lets you alter photos on your iPhone/iTouch. You pull up the picture and then have lots of options to change it visually--infared, instant, fisheye, 1962 and more. There are some other things you can do with photos using the apps too. I think with a focus on visual literacy and media literacy, this will be an easy way for kids to alter photos for any type of presentation they are doing--just enough to change the feel of the presentation.

I am finding that the apps are not hard to learn at all. That seems to be the easy part. What I am finding is that there are so many apps out there, that the research and decision-making is what is taking most of my time. So many great apps, so many versions of similar apps, so many possibilities. I am learning a lot just from searching.  

I think I am going to focus on some apps that might support booktalks and conversation next week. Look at a few of the apps that might work to help kids hold their thinking.  Right now, I am starting to think about tools that might be out there that would support deeper thinking and encourage creativity and authentic communication. Time to focus a bit on the apps I am learning.

An iPhone App-a-Day All Summer

Our school received a district grant and will be receiving 25 new iPod Touches this fall. So many possibilities for our students. So, I decided that my summer goal is to learn 50 new iPhone apps before school starts in the fall. That means about 1 per day if I take Sundays off. Over the course of the summer, I will share these applications. I figure that the more applications I find that are useful for me, the more possibilities I will have for students. I am looking for good, authentic applications. I'm thinking this is a good use of my summer--learning as much as I can and find ways that I authentically use apps and then figuring out what that means for kids. Just having the experience of researching apps, trying them out, thinking of ways to use them, etc. will be a great learning experience. I'll be blogging to share the new apps I find. (After today, I'll clump several together each week but since today is my kick-off of this summer fun, I thought I'd give my first app its own post:-)

Since it is officially the first evening of summer, I decided to try a "just for fun" application. Nothing too difficult for my first app. I was looking hard at "More Cowbell" and was ready to buy that but then I came across "100 Sounds". Yesterday, we had a clapout for our 5th graders on their last day. I was thinking it migh have been fun to have a loud sounding bell or whistle. So, I thought a sound application might come in handy someday.

I chose 100Sounds, downloaded it and played a bit. This app gives me 100 Sounds to use. Quick sounds such as an evil laugh, a burp, a trumpet, a gavel, a guitar and more. Many more. It was fun to listen to many of them and I imagine I will be driving people crazy with the new sounds I discover. You can have the sounds play once or loop and play over and over and over again.

I didn't download this because I thought it might be good for school. I just thought it sounded fun. But as I was playing, I realized that it could be great for kids who are creating slideshows, podcasts, videos, etc. A great, easy way to get a variety of sound effects. I imagine the kids will drive me nuts as they have as much fun with these new sounds as I do, but when the novelty wears off, this could be a great application for students to use in their own creations. It was well worth the 99cents!

If you have any great app recommendations, I am very open to suggestions!