Digital Bytes - September 21, 2015

This week's digital bytes includes articles about a free ebook on capturing digital stories, 11 quotes by famous writers and accompanying writing lessons, and using technology to help students read faster and with better comprehension.

Talk nerdy to me... using Siri, Dictation, Speak Text, and Google Voice Search

As I was prepping for a recent demo-slam event, I took some time to explore and rediscover some cool voice features on your Mac and iOS device. In this post, I'm going to highlight six cool things with you can do just by talking nerdy to your computer.

System requirements: Mac with Mountain Lion 10.8.x; iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch device with iOS 5; internet

Dictation on iOS devices -  Dictation came along with iOS5 and is available on our new iPad 3s. Whenever the keyboard is visible, the dictation button will be just to the left of the spacebar. Press it and speak and whatever you say will be translated into text. Dictation gets to know your speech (and you'll adjust as well) so that the more you use it, the better it gets at transcribing what you say.

1. Write in Google Docs: using dictation on your iOS device, you can open and edit Google docs. Open the Google doc you wish to edit and press the "edit" button. Then, place the cursor where you'd like to write and press the dictation button. Speak what you'd like to write and it will appear as text in the Google doc. 

Dictation on your Mac - Dictation comes to your Mac running OS 10.8.x "Mountain Lion." By default, it is activated when you press the "fn" key twice. I'm actually writing the rest of this post by speaking directly to the computer. To use dictation on your Mac, you need to put the cursor in the document in the place where you'd like the text to appear. The next, you press the function key twice and speak. Your speech is transcribed as text.

2. Comment on a Google doc: use dictation to speak your comments. In the Google doc, highlight the word(s) that you'd like to refer to in your comment. Select the "Insert" menu and choose "comment." Then press the "fn" key twice and speak your comment. Press enter when you're finished an your comment is transcribed. 

Siri - OK, so Siri, Apple's voice activated personal assistant is not exactly new, but I really don't see people using it around campus. (Maybe it's because she can't understand their accents?) Siri is functional on our iPad 3s we have available for check-out. What you can do:

3. Open applications: ask Siri to "Open Brushes" and the brushes app will open automatically. This is great when working with younger children who would have difficulty navigating and finding the right app or searching using the keyboard.

4. Find answers: when you ask Siri a question that is part of Wolfram Alpha's vast database, (see examples) she'll return the answer to the question and valuable background information related to the topic. 

Speak Text on your Mac - allows you to select text from anywhere on your mac and have it read back to your. See this guide on how to set it up.

5. Give your eyes a rest: reading on screen (or in print for that matter) is not recommended for extended periods of time. Optometrists recommend following the "20-20" rule - take a twenty second break to focus your eyes on something distant every twenty minutes. Open up the web-page text you'd like to have spoken, highlight it, right-click and press "speech" and "start speaking".

6. Proof listen: by using text to speech, you can listen to your written work and sometimes catch mistakes that your visual processing centers would not have caught. 

Speak Text on your iOS device - works similarly to the way it works on the Mac. Enable it following this guide, highlight the text you wish to have spoken tap on it and select "speak".

Voice search in Google - this feature doesn't work from every localization of Google (google.com.sg for example) so you need to first type in the URL for the non-localized search http://www.google.com/ncr

Happy searching!




What wonderful ways can you think of to use voice tools on your Mac or iOS device?  I'm thinking a conversation between Siri, Dictation and Speech to Text is in order.

Four assessment tools you'll flip over.

"White Men by David Reeves"

The "flipped classroom" is a way of describing instructional methods that invert the traditional model of learning where the teacher dispenses content to her or his students during lessons and then sends them on their way to complete problems and meaning-making at home.

In flipped instruction, students front-load the content outside of lessons, typically using technology like video or interactive modules prepared by their teachers, and then participate in problem-solving and other consolidation activities during face-to-face time with the teacher.

The topic has been written about a lot lately as the lightning rod for the movement, Khan Academy, have certainly raised the profile of this style of learning some people think for the better, others for worse. No matter what you think about flipped instruction, the movement has resulted in a new crop of assessment tools for teachers so that they can collect data (which is critical in a flipped classroom) on student's understanding as they are learning and I'll highlight a few here.

Quizlet is a flash-card based tool that lets teachers and students create sets of cards and then quiz in a variety of ways. Teachers can set up groups where they can keep track of the progress of students. The site also has social media features where members of Quizlet can upload their sets of cards and find those uploaded by others.

See more videos from Quizlet on Vimeo or check out the teacher page.


Brain Genie is an environment that contain video learning modules for Math and Science. Teachers can set-up their classes and set goals for the students. After each module, students can check their progress by answering questions related to the content. Their progress is tracked and is then monitored by the teacher so they can pinpoint areas requiring further support for their students.

Class Dojo is a little different than all the rest of these as this site allows a teacher to easily leave formative feedback on behaviors for each student they set-up in their class. Each student is displayed as an avatar and you can set-up a customized list of behavioral criteria in two categories, positive (participating in discussion, helpful, organized, on task, etc) and negative (late, homework not done, disruptive, off task, etc).


From your laptop or any mobile device, you can see your class, and simply tap on a student avatar to leave some feedback. All the feedback is logged for the students and kept as an "overall performance" rating based on how many positive VS negative ratings they get.

Reports are easily generated and stored as PDF or emailed direct to parents.

Socrative allows you to set-up instant feedback from your students on questions that you present orally, write on the board, or present to them via the electronic quizzing function. The students log in to the teacher's online "room" using their secret number and once there wait for the teacher to ask a question. They can respond on any device with an internet connection such as a smartphone, iPod, tablet, or laptop computer. The teacher's interface displays a live record of the responses and with the quiz function, keeps a report that the teacher can use as an assessment grade.


Socrative introduction video (new) from Socrative Inc. on Vimeo

Quizzes are available from sources already made like these from the Times Educational Supplement for GCSE Science. Quizzes can also be set up by a teacher either in Socrative or using an Excel template.
Once created quizzes are easily shared between people simply by using a code that goes along with the quiz.

Socrative also has a "space race" game where individuals or teams of students can race against each other as they answer questions correctly. Another nice feature is the "Exit Ticket" that asks students to reflect on their learning for the day. The teacher can see the report and get a sense on how the students are feeling after the lesson so they can plan to follow up with those who are less confident about their learning.

So, whether you decide the "flip" is for you, these tools can make it easier for you to provide meaningful feedback to students more frequently and with less effort grading allowing you to target students for support.

Making Learning Visible - Mobile Video in PE

How do you know what you look like when performing a physical skill?

This is a question I ask myself again and again on the golf course when the round ends up going south.  Was it my elbow, my grip, am I shifting my feet, not keeping my head down?

For anybody who's watched an instructor demonstrate a skill I'm sure you know the feeling...  'Am I doing it correctly?'

Video on mobile devices has great potential to provide visual examples to learn from and feedback on performance.
We are fortunate to have a very progressive, committed team of Physical Education teachers who participated in an INSET day lead by the three digital literacy coaches. Here's what happened...

using mobile video to reinforce teaching
Here, we produced some short videos with teaching points included so that students could refer to the videos during the lesson on an iPod Touch when they may not have constant access to the teacher. These videos can be made quite quickly once you've got one set the way you like it, simply duplicate the project in iMovie and swap out the video segments and change the text.

using mobile video for peer feedback
A peer can be a really good coach when learning a new skill. The great thing about using peer feedback is that a lot of learning
can take place for the person giving the feedback as well, not just for the person performing. We talked a lot about being mindfully active and that's really what we're practicing here. Students shoot short segments of video (10 secs or less) on an iPod Touch, capturing only the action, and use it to help give feedback.
Having a video to "back-up" what you're trying to say can really help you make your point and we find that it also breaks down barriers that students may have. If they're shy, having the video immediately shifts the focus off of them and on to the person performing the skill.
A member of the PE department also brought up that video is great for capturing non-skill based
behaviors like cooperation, team-work, leadership, and focus.

using mobile video for self-analysis & goal setting
We shifted devices to the iPad 2 here so that teachers could get experience with shooting and doing simple edits using iMovie on one device on the spot.
The idea here is that students could have a peer record them performing a skill early on and then do a self-analysis by using the voice-over feature of iMovie. They can edit the clips, split the clips and even capture stills at particular points in the video simultaneously pressing the home
button & power button while the movie is
paused in full screen.

 using mobile video for assessing progress
Students can go further with the video they capture of their performances and take video at different intervals during a unit. These videos can be exported to their MacBooks to take full advantage of the editing tools available in iMovie for OSX. Using slow motion, reversing the video direction, and using picture-in-picture we can get a detailed view of different aspects of performing a skill.
The aim here is to show progress in specific aspects of a skill. The product is a video that can be a central part of a student portfolio for P.E. These portfolios can be shared with parents and could be used as assessment evidence. But mostly, it's really nice for students to be able to see how far they've come, especially if they feel like they're not being successful at all. The video can often reveal the progress they've made individually instead of what may be the tendency to compare yourself to the best person in the class. 

 

• Nuts & Bolts: using mobile video

Creating videos - Making a bank of teaching videos can be a collaborative effort and once they're done, you can reuse them again and again. Also, you may want to consider having students produce them (Digital Media Team or Techxperts possibly?). Once you've done one in iMovie it's a really simple work flow to just duplicate the project and then insert the new video clips and text.

Getting Video On - Uploading videos to your YouTube or Vimeo channel and then emailing the link to the device (MS/HS iPad iPod) is an easy solution but requires good access to wifi (which we found, could be a limitation in some teaching spaces). Alternately, you could ask the IT Dept. to upload a set of teaching videos to iTunes on the devices if you had enough lead time (1 week).

Shooting tips - Turn the device to landscape, keep it still by holding with two hands and bracing, think about the angle - side, back front...  what's best to see the action?, capture only the action - not before and after, shoot SHORT segments - less then 10 seconds is often sufficient for skills and several short segments are easier to deal with than one long continuous shot.

Getting Video Off - from the camera roll send email to individual email accounts if segments are short and there aren't too many.  Alternately, plug the device in to the laptop and import to iPhoto or iMovie. DO NOT upload to a personal Facebook or YouTube account as the account details you enter will stay on the device and the next person to use it will be able to also access your private accounts!

Deleting - Take time at the end of a lesson to make sure all media has been deleted from the camera roll.  Actually have the students show you the camera roll so you can verify that it's empty as you collect the devices back in.

Editing - Making a clip shorter can be done on the iPods, but that's about all you could comfortably do.  If you want to edit directly on the device, iMovie on the iPads is one option.  To do advanced edits (slow-mo, reverse, crop, p-in-p) you'll want to ramp up to iMovie on the MacBook.

Publishing - We have a college Vimeo account that could be used to publish exemplar videos as well as highlighting the best in the eDunia.  Individually, if students have their own personal YouTube or Vimeo accounts they can publish there or they can all use their college Picasa accounts.  Video loaded to these sites can be embeded in Mahara and become part of their ePortfolios.

G5 Photography with the iPod Touch

I had a blast with G5 AMC recently, showing them a couple of tips about Photography, together with some iPod Touch Apps for taking/editing pictures.

Talking to colleague (and photographer extraordinaire) David Caleb allowed me to share the following key tips:

1. Perspective - try different approaches to a shot. 'Bird's Eye View' and 'Worm's Eye View' give a different look/feel to your photos.
2. Stay Steady - lean on something, or lock your elbows in - whatever - to help keep your iPod Touch still when you take the photo. 

The apps we explored were:

Camera+ - 99c - the editing features of this app make it a complete bargain buy at 99c in my humble opinion. It makes photos taken in poor light that would otherwise be unusable, suddenly have value again. The scenes, effects & borders are my favourite features, and the G5s certainly enjoyed experimenting with them.

TiltShiftGenerator - $2.99 - The app description  explains, "By throwing out of focus things that ought to be in focus, scenes appear as if in miniature." This allows some wonderful effects, where a blur can be applied to the exterior of a line, or a circle in your image.

ProHDR - $1.99 - This app takes two images at different dynamic ranges, and merges them together to create an image with excellent exposure. It's great for shooting architecture, particularly where there are shaded sections contrasted with brighter light.

Adobe Photoshop Express - Free - this free app has some basic editing features (crop etc) and some neat effects you can apply to your photos.

Students spent 10 -15 minutes capturing pictures using these apps (sometimes in combination), and then came back to the class for 10 - 15 minutes editing and emailing them to themselves for use in class work later. I hope you enjoy the following examples of their work.

Alex used TiltShiftGen then imported the finished
product into Photoshop Express & changed the
saturation levels

Iris used Camera+ for this image, with an Emo effect
& vignette

Casper took this with ProHDR

Nikhita took this with TiltShiftGen

Florence used Camera+ for this shot
of our diablos

Jackson used Camera+ for this
picture of our wall

Dylan & Adhwaith used TiltShiftGen
to take this shot down our empty
hallway

Jackson used Camera+ with a vignette for this image