I have never had much success taking notes digitally. I see the appeal of Google docs for group notetaking, but for individual list making and notes in class, I prefer pen and paper, or post-it notes. Nevertheless, I gave Springpad a try. I liked playing around with it. I made a list of things to do and books I want to read (a shorter version of my Goodreads list). I found the user interface easy to use, and I like that I can cross things off my list when done, but honestly I don't see this being very useful in my personal life.
What I would like to play around with are note taking apps for students working on research papers. My school does not subscribe to Noodle Tools, but I know that many do. I see that they have an iPad app in Beta, and I think that would be interesting to try.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Thing 4: Keeping Up
I really love the Common Craft videos! The presenter did a great job of explaining RSS feeds. Instead of going out to all of the individual blogs and news sites you like to see if there is any new content, RSS feeds allow the new content to come to you via a reader. The analogy of going to a video store vs. movies being mailed from Netflix is really helpful.
Alas, their recommended Google Reader is no more. After it announced it would be discontinued last July, I decided to import my feeds to a reader called Feedly (www.feedly.com). It was really easy to switch everything over, and I have been very happy with Feedly. I have different categories set up and various blogs in each one. Adding subscriptions on Feedly is also easy as it will find most of their RSS feeds by name.
For this assignment, I downloaded Flipboard. I love it! I added my Facebook and Twitter pages and some of my favorite blogs. I really like how it displays the pages, like a magazine spread. I also like the "build your own magazine" feature. Just by clicking the + on individual stories or blog plots you can add them to any magazine that you've created, sort of like pinning on Pinterest, but with more content.
Personally, I really like the way this app lets me see all of the content I want to see easily, and I've put this app on my bottom user bar as well. In terms of classroom use, it might be an interesting assignment for students to create and share their own magazines.
Alas, their recommended Google Reader is no more. After it announced it would be discontinued last July, I decided to import my feeds to a reader called Feedly (www.feedly.com). It was really easy to switch everything over, and I have been very happy with Feedly. I have different categories set up and various blogs in each one. Adding subscriptions on Feedly is also easy as it will find most of their RSS feeds by name.
For this assignment, I downloaded Flipboard. I love it! I added my Facebook and Twitter pages and some of my favorite blogs. I really like how it displays the pages, like a magazine spread. I also like the "build your own magazine" feature. Just by clicking the + on individual stories or blog plots you can add them to any magazine that you've created, sort of like pinning on Pinterest, but with more content.
Personally, I really like the way this app lets me see all of the content I want to see easily, and I've put this app on my bottom user bar as well. In terms of classroom use, it might be an interesting assignment for students to create and share their own magazines.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Thing 3: Utilities
For this Mobile Thing, I chose to download Google Search on both my phone and iPad. I really like this app as many Google products that I use are on one screen. I prefer Google search over Safari, so I replaced the Safari icon on the bottom tab of my phone with the Google icon. I couldn't get my iPad to move Safari off of the bottom tab--not sure why?
I like that I can easily access my Drive, Maps, and this blog from the one screen. I also tried out Google Goggles and voice search. Although Goggles is cool (it could recognize various products around my house), I'm not sure when I would have the need for it, but I can see using the voice search while driving, or any time speaking is possible. I have just recently been using voice to send text messages; it's something that I sometimes forget about.
Another great feature of this app is the "cards" function which displays different pieces of information that may be helpful. On my screen right now, I have an alert about the Winter Storm Warning for tonight, the weather forecast for the week, nearby restaurants and events. I could turn on "Web History" so Google can see what I've been searching, but I chose not to. Though, I did give Google access to my location. Part of me worries that I'm giving away too much of my privacy to Google, another part figures Google already knows so much, what's one more thing?
I'm glad I discovered this app for my personal use. As for how this app might be helpful in a school setting, I could see that in a 1:1 iPad school, it would be helpful to have all of these features easily accessible for students on one screen.
I like that I can easily access my Drive, Maps, and this blog from the one screen. I also tried out Google Goggles and voice search. Although Goggles is cool (it could recognize various products around my house), I'm not sure when I would have the need for it, but I can see using the voice search while driving, or any time speaking is possible. I have just recently been using voice to send text messages; it's something that I sometimes forget about.
Another great feature of this app is the "cards" function which displays different pieces of information that may be helpful. On my screen right now, I have an alert about the Winter Storm Warning for tonight, the weather forecast for the week, nearby restaurants and events. I could turn on "Web History" so Google can see what I've been searching, but I chose not to. Though, I did give Google access to my location. Part of me worries that I'm giving away too much of my privacy to Google, another part figures Google already knows so much, what's one more thing?
I'm glad I discovered this app for my personal use. As for how this app might be helpful in a school setting, I could see that in a 1:1 iPad school, it would be helpful to have all of these features easily accessible for students on one screen.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Thing 2: Mobile Device Tips
Okay, so I definitely have a lot to learn about the features on my iPad and iPhone! Also, I have realized during this task that I am a very visual learner and do much better by watching videos than reading through text.
I'm sure there are many more tips and tricks that I don't know, but here are some of the top ones I discovered:
1. Tapping twice on the home button will allow you to see all of the pages that are open. Once you can see the pages, you can swipe them up to close them. I had no idea, and had lots and lots of pages open.
2. Under settings > general > accessibility, I changed my text to bold on both devices. It's not a huge difference, but I like the display better. I also put a dynamic wallpaper on my iPhone home screen.
3. I learned some Siri tricks. If you ask Siri to find images of things, she will. More impressively, Siri knows what people are saying on Twitter. If I ask her, "What is NPR saying?" she can access my NPR Twitter Feed and display the most recent tweets.
4. Other cool things: In the compass icon, there is a level. This will come in handy the next time I'm hanging a picture and cannot find my level! I also added the Emoji* Emoticon keyboard. settings > general > keyboard > add new keyboard > emoji. I can now find pictographs of pretty much anything.
*Interesting fact: "Emoji originated in Japan and is a set of pictographs such as smileys. The Emoji keyboard offers a wide variety of icons that can be read by any device that supports the Emoji character set." http://www.wikihow.com/Enable-the-Emoji-Emoticon-Keyboard-in-iOS
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Thing 1: My Goals
Hi, everyone. I have an iPhone and iPad and a few apps on each, so I thought I was doing okay in the mobile tech department. After hearing LeAnn Suchy talk to our LIS class tonight and looking through the list of 23 Mobile Things, however, I now realize how little I actually do know. Though I have heard of some of the Things, I have no experience with most of them. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I am excited to begin and grateful that I have to complete all of the Things for my class. As a high school English teacher and prospective school library media specialist, I will be thinking about how to use many of these apps to support curriculum in the classroom.
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