Teachers learn to use iPad to enhance lessons - Sat, 23 Feb 2013 PST

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Students might not notice the difference a teacher’s iPad makes in the classroom, but West Valley School District educators do.

Nearly 30 elementary, middle and high school teachers took a Tech Academy this week to learn how the Apple tablet can supplement their lesson plans.

The instructor, English teacher Kamiel Youseph, said organization is one of the biggest benefits the tool makes in the classroom. But teachers need to gain confidence and mold the technology to their own style.

“There’s a lot of anxiety. Suddenly they’re in charge of a $500 piece of equipment and a lot …

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Students might not notice the difference a teacher’s iPad makes in the classroom, but West Valley School District educators do.

Nearly 30 elementary, middle and high school teachers took a Tech Academy this week to learn how the Apple tablet can supplement their lesson plans.

The instructor, English teacher Kamiel Youseph, said organization is one of the biggest benefits the tool makes in the classroom. But teachers need to gain confidence and mold the technology to their own style.

“There’s a lot of anxiety. Suddenly they’re in charge of a $500 piece of equipment and a lot of people think there’s a button that says self-destruct,” Youseph said. “There’s no way to mess this up – unless you dip it in water.”

The program is funded through the district’s technology levy. .

Voters have been approving the levy in two- or three-year increments since 1998, giving the district $500,000 a year. The Tech Academy originally started with courses on Microsoft Office products, district spokeswoman Sue Shields said.

The new class starts with the basics: connecting to wireless Internet, taking photos, video and how to share, and what apps work well for teaching a class. The foundation is helping teachers find their own way to adapt the tools to their own classroom.

For students learning English, teacher Lupe Austin records them reading selections from “The Kite Runner” out loud and compares their progress to audio recordings from earlier in the school year.

Austin quickly identified the keyboard languages on the iPad as potentially useful for her English Language Learners students who primarily speak either Russian or Spanish.

Head wrestling coach Bob McMurdo has already been using an iPad for his Centennial Middle School wrestlers to show new techniques on the mat. A bad move can be played back to the wrestler on video, McMurdo said, and show what they did wrong.

Tablets keep lesson tools in the teacher’s hand during a class instead of being tethered to a desk or book, Youseph explained. He stressed that students won’t realize in the moment they’re benefiting from the new technology, but teachers will.

Some apps like Stick Pick, Youseph said, keep track of a student’s comprehension of material defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy, a classification of learning objectives for critical thinking and writing.

“When I’m at home planning my lessons, I can see my class is not ready to go into rhetorical analysis because they’re still stuck,” Youseph said.

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News Corp.'s tablet to challenge iPad in schools

Devin Coldewey , NBC News  

A new effort from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. plans to provide not just content for education, but the hardware with which to view it. The company's Android-based Amplify tablet will take on the iPad, aiming to provide both classroom management and interactive lessons, for students and teachers alike.

News Corp. got into the education business in mid-2012 with a new division called Amplify, which has been developing content and tools to help bring technology to K-12 classrooms. Yet the decision to launch a tablet was a bit of a risk, as other well-heeled companies, from Apple to Amazon, are also eyeing the education space.

Amplify's approach is to provide an end-to-end solution. The team claims that a class equipped with Amplify tablets will not only have access to rich content and lessons, but will be easier to manage, thanks to built-in tools for tracking students and personalizing content.

Direct communication between teacher and student can make it easier to catch up with faltering kids, and a variety of games and Internet-era interactions (buttons and emoticons) make the platform engaging for students.

"Technology has been around a long time, but it hasn't changed the learning experience," the project's leader, former NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein, told NPR. "And if this does what I believe it will do — which is enhance the teaching and learning process — then it's going to be a home run."

The video below shows it in action, and it's clear that they've taken many of the common needs for teachers and students alike into account:

But it's not just an uphill battle for News Corp. to compete with larger hardware-focused challengers. Amplify also must deal with the same headwinds that those larger firms now face.

Cost, for instance. At $299 each, or $349 with a built-in 4G connection, these aren't the cheapest tablets on the market. Add on a $99-per-year content subscription fee (with a two-year contract required), and you end up at about $500 per device. With 30 kids in a classroom and a dozen or two classrooms in a school, those costs start adding up fast. Few school districts have half a million dollars burning a hole in their pocket, and not all can seek outside help in the form of grants or extra student fees.

In case you're wondering, News Corp. didn't go and design its own tablet from the ground up. In fact, it's a decent piece of hardware based on the Asus Transformer TF300TL.

The only foreseeable downside is a so-so screen: Considering how much reading one would expect to be done on this device, a high-resolution "Retina" screen like the iPad's or Nexus 10's would be far better.

But Amplify's Stephen Smyth points out that their own tablet does things iPads and others won't: for instance, automatically connect with others in the classroom, allowing instant feedback, questions to the teacher, and other critical functions.

"If you go to Best Buy or a retailer and buy a tablet off the shelf, it can't do this," he told NPR. "Really, what we're trying to solve here is actually how to have teachers use tablets in the classroom environment."

And as Apple and Google have perhaps foreseen, a smaller, cheaper device like the Nexus 7 or iPad Mini might serve better for small hands. But no single approach is perfect, and Amplify's is certainly valid.

It's clear that Amplify's heart is in the right place, though. Klein told the New York Times that having administrated the system for so long taught him that "if we didn't see a dramatic technological change, we were not going to be able to move this country forward." And he didn't see schools inventing new tech themselves — they had enough on their plate already.

In-classroom tests of the system began in November, but the tablet is not yet available for purchase. Curious teachers, administrators, and students can sign up for updates at Amplify's website.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

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iPad Video Lessons Teach People How To Use All Features Of The iPad To Go From A Beginner To Pro Fast!

The iPad is a very popular device. In fact according to About.com there have been over 84 million sold and those stats are only up to September 2012.

Part of the popularity of the iPad relies on the how powerful the tablet is and that everything can be accessed by simply tapping or moving the screen with your finger.

The problem is that although it is fairly easy to use, for people looking to use all of the features there is no manual included with the iPad.

The policy that the iPad is so easy to use anyone can do it is only half true. For most people that are not computer savvy they will have an enlarged iPhone and not access all of the features.

Tablet Mastered has launched and includes a step by step video course that will take users from the basics of using the iPad to advanced tricks and tactics within 24 hours. There are also free updates and the course gives users a lifetime membership.

Features of the iPad Video Course include:

1.    Intro to the iPad

2.    Browsing the web

3.    Using Email

4.    Reading Ebook And More

5.    Listening To Music

6.    Managing Photos

7.    Using Apps

8.    Advanced iPad techniques

9.    And lots more…

The iPad video course is presented in modules that give the user simple step by step videos to watch so they can actually see how to complete a task or use a feature.

With so many people using the iPad both young and old and most not being that technical minded this iPad video course looks like it could be very popular.

View the original article here

SOPHIA Launches iPad ® Training For Teachers

With more and more schools using iPads, tablets and 1:1 initiatives in the classroom, SOPHIA.org is offering a free certification program to train teachers to successfully integrate these devices into their teaching. SOPHIA, the open online education platform offering a unique Many Ways to Learn™ model with more than 30,000 free academic multimedia tutorials taught by over 6,000 teachers, developed the Tablet Certification program in collaboration with faculty from Capella University's School of Education.

"Technology has become a critical tool for teachers to more efficiently individualize instruction for each student, in and outside the classroom," said Allison Gage, Senior Vice President at SOPHIA. "We developed this program to help teachers more effectively use the devices while also keeping students engaged by meeting them where they are in this digital age."

To earn the certificate, teachers complete a series of tutorials on the following topics:

"What is a Personal Device Classroom""Building an Effective iPad Lesson""Increasing Student Learning with Technology""Personal Device Resources and Management"

The tutorials were developed by teachers who are experts at implementing and using this technology in their classrooms. The program features SOPHIA's Many Ways learning model where users can choose from a variety of different instructors and teaching styles. SOPHIA also offers the Many Ways model on each of its 200 learning pathways, which include a sequenced journey of tutorials with multiple lessons on each concept featuring screencasts, images, video, audio podcasts and text where students are quizzed along the way to determine mastery.  

Teachers may apply the Tablet Certificate toward their professional development by submitting their certificate to the appropriate person at their school. 

This is the second teacher certification program offered by SOPHIA. The organization introduced the Flipped Classroom Certificate in April 2012 and since then, 3,000 teachers have participated in the program. In the flipped classroom, students watch multimedia tutorials as homework and then use valuable class time to complete assignments when teachers are available to provide one-on-one assistance and delve deeper into a concept.

SOPHIA Offers Free Webinars for Teachers
SOPHIA regularly hosts webinars led by teachers who share their success using technology and the flipped classroom. Over 2,500 teachers have participated in these events, which focus on new and relevant teaching pedagogies that are part of the current paradigm shift happening in education.   

About SOPHIA
SOPHIA is a first-of-its-kind social education platform that offers students many ways to learn by making free, credible academic content available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The site offers more than 28,000 tutorials created by hundreds of teachers and experts taught in a variety of ways. The platform further enhances the learning process by offering quizzes, assessing learning preferences and providing learning paths that lead students from one topic to the next so students of all ages can learn the way they learn best. SOPHIA is owned by Capella Education Company. For more information, visit www.sophia.org.

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InfiniteSkills Release "Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Tutorial Video " A Hands-On Training Course That Allows You ...

InfiniteSkills Inc. released a 7 hour Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Training Video covering 86 lessons. This Premiere Elements tutorial is designed for beginning and experienced users of Adobe's consumer-level video editor.

 

Software training firm InfiniteSkills Inc. this week introduced its "Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Tutorial," a course designed for beginning and experienced users of Adobe's consumer-level video editor.

Adobe Premiere Elements is a scaled-down, and much more affordable, version of Adobe's professional video editor Adobe Premiere Pro. While offering many of the same, powerful, features and a similar work environment as its bigger brother, Premiere Elements is much simpler to use, and it isn't weighed down with expensive, pro-level features an amateur video editor would never use.

What Elements does offer is a streamlined, intuitive editing environment with the power to handle unlimited video and audio tracks. It includes advanced features like picture-in-picture, narration options, and a powerful organizer to keep all your personal video files at your fingertips.

With InfiniteSkills' Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Training Video students can master the fundamentals of Adobe Elements and start creating high-quality videos in a matter of hours.

Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Training Video

Course author and Adobe expert Andy Anderson is a career photographer, video expert, professor, and designer, with decades of commercial and artistic publications to his credit. He has authored 17 best-selling books on graphics and design. Focusing on the Adobe Creative Suite line, Anderson works and trains others in using Premiere Elements, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Dreamweaver.

Working with the insight and perspective of a stellar career, Anderson explains fundamentals like using the organizer and the basic workspace clearly and concisely, and simplifies complex topics such as color correction, exposure, effects, smart fixing, and more.

In addition to the basic workflow navigation and editing effects, Anderson explains advanced techniques such as adding narration, creating transitions, and using Elements in a workflow with Photoshop.

"My ultimate goal," Anderson says, "is that at the end of this course the student will have the basic skill set necessary to create first-rate home videos ready for export to DVDs or web publication."

Free demo videos and a full list of course contents can be found on the Video and Animation with Adobe Photoshop Tutorial training page of the InfiniteSkills website:

http://www.infiniteskills.com/training/learning-adobe-premiere-elements-11.html

InfiniteSkills offers its Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Tutorial either as a DVD or a direct download from the company website at a retail price of $49.95. All InfiniteSkills titles and formats are compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems. Shipping is available around the globe. Additionally, InfiniteSkills tutorials are supported by project files which correspond to examples in the videos, allowing users to work alongside experienced instructors right on their computer or iPad.

About InfiniteSkills Inc.

A leader in the field of software training, InfiniteSkills strives to offer the highest quality training available at an affordable cost. InfiniteSkills tutorials are task-oriented instructional videos, teaching complex skills by providing hands-on examples and guiding users as they carry out critical objectives. InfiniteSkills offers a comprehensive range of software titles available as DVDs, digital downloads, and in iPad editions, keeping with company aim of delivering professional training to customers anywhere they want to learn.

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iPad Video Lessons: Limited Time Price Cut Offer To End Soon, Reports ... - PR Web (press release)

iPad video lessons by an online expert, ‘The iPad Video Course’ reached the peak of its popularity around 2 months back when the company started selling an immense number of packages to people all over the world. Composed beautifully without jargon or technicalities, these iPad videos gave in-depth knowledge of the device while tapping a wide variety of completely unpublicized features. When the company gained enough clientele, it decided to offer an instant $50 price cut for everyone. The offer was termed to be limited and was announced to end soon. Citing inside sources, the renowned news website iNewsBucket.com has reported the offer to end within the next couple of days.

A large number of people has already benefited from this amazing offer on the whole iPad video lesson package. With numerous 11 minute exclusive learning videos, the price that the course is now on seems very low for what it has to offer. Furthermore, the offer currently involves a variety of different perks too including a lifetime membership to future updates.

Another major part of the offer was the 60 day money back guarantee that the maker of these iPad videos is offering. This implies that the customers are encouraged to make a purchase and then experience the iPad video lessons firsthand. In case if they do not find the videos great or they believe they haven’t learned enough from them, they can easily get their money back, no questions asked.

The offer attracted a large number of customers into the circle of the company, but as the clock ticks, time is running out for people that wish to save a hard earned $50.

iNewsBucket.com reports the ending to be about 3 days to a week around.

iNewsBucket.com is a renowned online news reporting platform, most known for its cutting edge and newsworthy material. The company excels in genuine, trustworthy pieces of information, solely for the education and information of the general public. With a team of researchers and reporters working around the clock, the expertise involved ensures the readers are provided with the best and honest pieces of news and reviews from across the internet.

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iPad Video Lessons Teach People How To Use All Features Of The iPad To Go ... - Virtual-Strategy Magazine (press release)

TabletMastered.com launches giving step by step iPad tuition, tips, tricks and tutorials to help users use all features of the iPad fast!

The iPad is a very popular device. In fact according to About.com there have been over 84 million sold and those stats are only up to September 2012.

Part of the popularity of the iPad relies on the how powerful the tablet is and that everything can be accessed by simply tapping or moving the screen with your finger.

The problem is that although it is fairly easy to use, for people looking to use all of the features there is no manual included with the iPad.
The policy that the iPad is so easy to use anyone can do it is only half true. For most people that are not computer savvy they will have an enlarged iPhone and not access all of the features.

Tablet Mastered has launched and includes a step by step video course that will take users from the basics of using the iPad to advanced tricks and tactics within 24 hours. There are also free updates and the course gives users a lifetime membership.

Features of the iPad Video Course include:
1.    Intro to the iPad
2.    Browsing the web
3.    Using Email
4.    Reading Ebook And More
5.    Listening To Music
6.    Managing Photos
7.    Using Apps
8.    Advanced iPad techniques
9.    And lots more…

The iPad video course is presented in modules that give the user simple step by step videos to watch so they can actually see how to complete a task or use a feature.

With so many people using the iPad both young and old and most not being that technical minded this iPad video course looks like it could be very popular.

View the original article here