App Hunting

By Kris Walsh

From time to time, I get asked by teachers about apps that they can put on their iPad for their students (or children) to use. That is often a difficult question to answer. There are over a million apps in the iTunes app store, many are great and many are not-so great. I don’t fully know what a particular teacher is doing in their classroom and am often not sure about what need they are trying to meet with a particular app. I can sometimes give general suggestions, but my suggestions are often missing great apps that may be more suited to specific concepts or needs in their rooms.

I would like to share a few good ways that I learn about good apps:

1. The main way that I find out about new apps is to browse the app store. Most of us know how to do this in general, but there are a couple of tricks that you can use to help you in your search. Recently, Apple has added an area for educational apps that you can use to browse for apps that may be useful. This is now located near the top of the right-hand column on the app store on itunes. You can click on the all categories link and change the category to education.

On the App Store on an iDevice, tap the explore button at the bottom of the screen to change to a desired category.

New apps come out on a daily basis, but the featured apps change every Thursday for both iPad and iPhone. This is a great time to check for new apps in general.

2. The use of sites that feature and give reviews on apps for education. There are more, but my favorite is www.appitic.com This site breaks down available apps down by subject areas and skills. This is a great place to start your search for apps
   
   
   

   

   
   
   
3. I recently learned about a new email subscription list that I have been using to find out about apps. It has been a great resource that I have used to download several new apps in the 2 weeks that I have been a subscriber. The website is called www.smartappsforkids.com . They have a long list of apps with reviews. Enter your email to subscribe to an email that will alert you when apps go on sale or even free. Though the site skews more towards apps for younger students, I have gotten several new apps that are for students in junior high or high school as well.

If anyone has questions, I would be willing to sit down with you and help you look for apps and help you decide on apps that may be a good fit for you and your classroom! There are lots of great apps out there!

Getting out of the way for magic By Jamie Guillaume

Passion-based learning, 20% time, Genius Hour, Google Time, Maker Space, whatever you call it, the goal is the same, give students the opportunity to discover and pursue their interests and talents! There are books that can guide a teacher when starting this initiative in the classroom such as The Passion-Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and a book I recently discovered, Pure Genius by Don Wettrick, but at some point you have to be brave and just dive in!

After reading, researching, and consulting with other teachers and even the author of Pure Genius, I finally went for it-I started what I am calling Genius Hour!  I began our first lesson by introducing my passions outside of my family and school.  I brought in homemade strawberry jam made with strawberries from my strawberry patch, salsa, made with tomatoes and peppers from my garden as well as biscuits and chips.  After all, you have to have something to go with salsa and jam, right?  While they made their plates, I had Sara Bareilles’ song, “Brave” playing in the background.  While they ate, I read them entries from my blog, Many Titles of Chic.  The students were shocked, mostly I think because I am an actual person, not just Mrs. Guillaume the crazy lady that teaches them math and social studies. 

The second week, I gave the students a graphic organizer and we toured the entire corporation and looked at the signs the teachers made describing their passions.  They were surprised by some teacher interests and questioned many too.  This week we used kidblog to journal our experience so far and created folders to hold items we come across that lead us to our passion.  In the weeks to come we are going to visit the STEAM classroom, take personal inventories, and then-I am going to get out of their way!

I am by no means an expert at beginning Genius Hour in a classroom, but I am learning. Although I understand that after we finish laying the groundwork,  I am going to have to turn them loose and let them make their own discoveries, I am most nervous about this because I will be releasing control but I also know that this is where the magic will happen!

Google Glass

By Hayden Hilgnhold

            Google Glass is probably one of the most important devices that has been created since the smartphone. There are a lot of people who would disagree. They’d say there’s not a lot it can do yet; it needs your smartphone to work, making it little more than a Bluetooth headset plus visual.  They’d say it takes a toll on your phone battery and it has to be charged separately as well, making it a hassle.  They’d say that there is absolutely no point in having your display put up in front of your field of vision; that it is extremely disorienting.  While all of this may be somewhat true they are forgetting one thing; the potential that Google Glass, and technology like it, has.   

            So it is true, as of now the Google Glass doesn't do too much.  It has a few apps, a couple of games, it can take calls, and also record/stream video.  Still nothing you can’t do with even the most basic of smartphones.  And look at the price tag of fifteen hundred dollars, no thank you. But let’s not dwell on where the Google Glass is at fault, but let’s look at how useful it can be.  It does voice commands better than most other devices.  It has been used as a convenient note taker by recording the teacher while they talk, and it does a fairly decent job with capturing audio and video, and it is always looking where you’re looking.  By opening up several windows of research and scrolling through them, it is very convenient for scanning through information for your latest project.  The commands are quite simple, as I learned firsthand at IU this summer when we were actually allowed to mess around with the Google Glass.  It’s very light; much less bulky than my favorite pair of sunglasses.  It is very durable for how lightweight it is and the Google Glass 2.0 while it may appear to be a little bulkier is even more durable meaning a simple accident doesn’t equal $1500 down the toilet.  Also coming with the consumer version, is a better price and hopefully a better battery life and ton of new features.  The estimate for the Glass’s price when it hits the consumer market is $500ish but it should come down quickly afterwards.  This is because the Glass itself is very inexpensive to make.  However all the research hours put into it have to be paid for, making the price astronomical for the time being. 

            So, in conclusion, Glass has massive potential.  Granted as of now it doesn’t do much, has a short battery life, and an ungodly price tag.  But this is like the first release of anything.  It will get better as time goes on and will most likely be worth purchasing before the end of the decade.  More than anything the Google Glass is something we should definitely keep an eye on, because it could become something really special.      

Wii-Purposing the WiiMote- A homemade whiteboard sketchpad

By Sean Bybee 

Since becoming a part of LEAF, I’ve gotten a few requests from others in need of my “talents.” Of course, most of these requests have been random people asking me to build them top of the line gaming computers for free, so I didn’t take them very seriously. Recently, however, I was approached with an actually reasonable request! During one of LEAF’s after school meetings, Mr. Risse just happened to walk through the Ag building. He pulled me aside, and told me about an interesting project that he wanted to try out with his classes.

            We’ve all heard of the Wii, a console (paper-weight) made by Nintendo. For most people, a Wii is good for exercise “games” and Mario kart. For Johnny Lee, however, the Wii, or rather its signature remote, have a much more useful application. Johnny Lee, using a Wii Remote, a pen that emits IR light, and a few lines of code, created a program that allows any projector screen to become an interactive sketchpad. A Wii remote typically operates by picking up short range radio waves from the Wii, but it can also pick up the Infrared light put off by special LEDs such as the one in the pen. By rigging up a mount for the remote and facing it towards the screen, you can use it as an input for your computer and project it onto the screen. The program written by Mr. Lee allows this input to be translated into lines on the screen. Essentially, this is like the sketchpads already used by many teachers, but more convenient, and certainly more cool!

            After a short Beta test with Mr. Risse, I have no doubt that more teachers would become interested in this for their own classrooms. There is already widespread use of the projectors in almost all classrooms, so this could be easily incorporated into the teaching style of most of our instructors. Once it has been proven to work, this could even become a cheap alternative to whiteboards. With a Wii remote costing roughly 10 dollars, and an IR pen costing slightly more, the cost for one of these units should range anywhere from 20 to 30 dollars, substantially cheaper than the sketchpads that we currently use. 

Applications of Technology- The Exosuit

By Nick Etienne

Carrying 100 pounds of stuff on your back is hard for a human, but for a robot? Not so much. Bearing this in mind, researchers at Harvard University are developing a robotic suit that makes carrying heavy loads easier for soldiers, who sometimes have to lug around more than 100 pounds of gear and equipment when on patrol. The robotic exosuit could also be modified to assist people with physical disabilities. The programmable suit acts in parallel with the body's muscles and tendons, mimicking the way these body parts move, according to Conor Walsh, an assistant professor at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. By mimicking muscle movements, the robotic suit serves to make the walking process even more efficient. Made from smart textile materials and sensors, the suit gives the wearer the extra support needed to carry heavy loads for extended periods of time.

          "While the idea of a wearable robot is not new, our design approach certainly is," Walsh said in a statement. Traditional exoskeleton systems are plagued by problems, such as power-hungry battery packs and rigid parts that interfered with natural joint movement, he added. In contrast, the Soft Exosuit is simply worn like a regular pair of pants under a soldier's uniform and gear. The current prototype of the suit is a web of straps that are positioned around the wearer's lower body. The straps feature a network of sensors that serve as the exosuit's "brain" or "nervous system," and are controlled by a low-power microprocessor. The suit's sensors continuously monitor the wearer's movements, communicating information about the amount of tension on certain parts of the leg and what position the wearer is. These details dictate how much force is needed in a particular joint area, as well as when exactly that force is most needed.

 Walsh and his colleagues are developing the exosuit for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, which hopes to adapt the technology for its Warrior Web program. The goal of Warrior Web is to create technologies that will prevent and reduce musculoskeletal injuries in solders. The increased weight a soldier must bear when lugging around heavy equipment makes their joint areas, such as the ankles and knees, more susceptible to injury. In addition to its work with DARPA, the Harvard team is also working with partners in the medical industry to develop a version of the exosuit that could one day be used to help civilians. In particular, the researchers said the exosuit could help stroke patients regain the ability to walk.

Google Drive

By Lain Knieriem

Google Drive is a revolutionary document creator and database that will change your way of thinking about the classroom. Most compare it to its competitor, Microsoft Office, because both programs look and respond the same way, though Google docs has a lot more features.  Google Drive can seem confusing, but if you know how to use Microsoft Office, then you already know how to use Google Drive too!

Here at Perry Central, all of our students have a Google email, which is already linked to their personal Google Drive. The email and drive correspond to each other; one couldn’t work without the other. All of your saving, creating, and sharing is all internet based, and easy to do.

The five default apps that Google Drive has to offer are Documents, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Forms, and Drawing (You can get many more apps for free). The word document, presentation, and spreadsheet are just like Microsoft Office’s versions known as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Docs are more modern and easier to use. The Form is for making tests, or surveys, and the drawing is a design creator, that allows you to create sketches.

On Google docs you can share your work. This is not just emailing a copy to a friend, via google email, students or teachers can work on a document at the same time on their own computer. This can be very helpful and collaborative for group work in classes or meetings. All that you have to do is just use the share tab in Google Drive, type in the friend's email address, and you’re on your way. Along with making and sharing the documents, you have to save your work in Microsoft Office, but in Google Docs, it saves every word that you type to your drive, so when you are finished, just close the window. 

Another part of Google that is sometimes forgotten by the world is Google Calendar. This calendar by Google can make the experience in and out of the classroom at Perry central so much easier, more organized, and more fun. The calendar would make it to where the corporation could create a schedule of the sports games to which people can subscribe, and be alerted to when there is a basketball, or football game. Also teachers can subscribe to a created calendar, which would indicate who has parking lot duty or lunch and recess duty, and so on. Students could subscribe to the teacher's class calendar to see assignments and due dates.

          So with Google Drive already being used in the High School by some and by few in the elementary, we need to put the program back on the map. Also if you would need any help with this just email me at knierieml@pccommodores.org, and watch this video that explains the basics of drive. 

Introduction to Google Drive- 6 minutes long

More in-depth information about Drive- 17 minutes long

Windows 7 vs Windows XP: Say Goodbye to Windows XP

By Chris Bybee

            From the 4 weeks that I have been in the Tech Support class, I have been making runs around the school to pick up old windows XP machines. I would like to talk about the advantages of the windows 7 operating system in our school computers!

            Teachers have really had a problem with the windows XP operating systems because they are so outdated that they cannot ever keep up with the programs the teachers are using! The windows 7 operating systems is what the school should be using because of how easy the interface is and how up to date it really is! Windows 7 or windows 8 will easily be able to keep up and run at a fast pace with what the teachers need to do for everyday life in their classroom to teach their kids!

            To primary grade teachers, a windows 7 or 8 based operating system will help them because the windows XP operating system restricts you from using the latest version of Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome. Windows XP will not allow some of the features on websites that lower grade teachers require to run effectively in their classroom! Some of these features are needed by younger kids because the interactives and animations help them learn concepts on these websites. Using windows 7 or 8 has tons of advantages over windows XP because it is just up to date and it can keep up with all the new programs and technologies that we are bringing into the school to help the learning experiences of all ages of students. Last April, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP and releasing updates for it.

Screenshots are also a part of windows 7 or 8 and if teachers or students need website that has some questions for homework and they don’t have wifi at home than they can simply pull up the screenshot and have all of the problems that they need to get their work done!