Got a smartphone or tablet? Then you could be drawing your own illustrations, clipart, and avatars! In Learning in Hand #32 I share examples and show techniques for creating your own artwork, even if you don't consider yourself an artist. My technique is based on tracing photos, so don't worry if you are embarrassed by your drawing skills. The video features the free Adobe Illustrator Draw app for iPad, iPhone, and Android, and the techniques can certainly be used in other drawing apps.
 
Go to learninignhand.com/draw for a transcript with links.

Draw Your Own Illustrations, Clipart & Avatars

Learning in Hand Show #31 is about giving your learning centers or stations a makeover. The collection of activities teachers provide their students at a center can be enhanced with technology, even if there’s only one computer or tablet available. Watch the video to learn about some of the websites and apps that can help you set the course of the center, provide content, support creativity, and capture responses. 
 
Visit http://learninginhand.com/30 for a transcript with links.

Spruce Up Your Centers with Technology

Learning in Hand Show #30 is about making infopics. An infopic is a photo with text layered on top that is designed to communicate a message. Watch the video to see examples and to learn about tools and techniques for making your own.
Visit http://learninginhand.com/30 for a transcript with links.
Apps metioned include Mextures, Over, Skitch, Pic Collage, PicLab, PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, Path on, Pixlr, Canva, and Rhonna Designes.

Producing Infopics

Learning in Hand Show #29 tells you about three websites that are great for finding clipart, photos, symbols, and icons. These sites feature images that you already have permission to use on your website, blog, poster, slideshow, video, animation, etc., etc. Also, get tips on how to download these images and advice for finding images to illustrate your ideas. 
Visit learninginhand.com/29 for a transcript with links.

Free Images for Your Projects

Learning in Hand #28 is about some of what's new in Apple's iOS 8. Instead of showing you the major features you might already know about, Tony Vincent demonstrates the lesser known additions that teachers, students, and parents will be interested in. These include additions to the Notes app, predictive typing, dictation enhancements, sharing options, zoom improvements, speak screen, time limits, and updates to the photo library.
Go to learninginhand.com/28 for a transcirpt of this episode.
Like Learning in Hand on Facebook at facebook.com/learninginhand.

New in iOS 8

Learning in Hand #27 is all about the Stick Around app for iPad. The idea behind Stick Around is simple: players move stickers onto the correct spots on a background. The thing is, you not only use Stick Around to play these sticker puzzles, but you use it to create them as well!
Watch to learn how to play Stick Around’s sorting, labeling, and matching puzzles. You’ll see that stickers can have notes, arrows, comments, web links, and audio. You’ll also see that stickers don’t have to be just text–your stickers can be images and drawings!
Then watch to see a puzzle created in five steps: design a background, add stickers, make an answer key, enter information, and test the puzzle.
Stick Around is $2.99 and available in the App Store and half price in Apple’s Volume Purchase Program.
When you make your own study aids, it aids in your own studying!
Transcript is available at: http://learninginhand.com/27

Stick Around: Make Your Own Learning Puzzles

Learning in Hand #26 is about Padlet and Lino. Padlet and Lino are the two best online sticky note services around. They are web-based and work great on iPads, PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets. Walls can be set up so that students can use them without logins or passwords, making them easy to infuse into lessons. And the sticky notes aren't limited to text–they can have images, videos, and hyperlinks. Discover how teachers are using these virtual message boards everyday to collect student products, power communication, and fuel productive collaboration.
Transcript is available at learninginhand.com/26.

Online Sticky Notes

Tony Vincent explains QR codes and shows examples of how they can be used inside and outside of the classroom. For a transcript with web links, go to http://learninginhand.com/qr.

QR Codes

Learn how iPod touch and iPad can be used for mobile learning and project based learning. Transcript is available at learninginhand.com/pbl.

Project Based Learning

Watch for how to sync voice memos from an iPod, iPod touch, or iPhone. Using Smart Playlists in iTunes, see how students and teachers can sync and automatically organize recordings. This process is essential in classrooms where teachers collect reading fluency samples, student reflections, and podcast segments. Transcript is available at learninginhand.com/23

Collecting & Organizing Voice Memos

This episode features lists of apps for Apple's handhelds. It also showcases apps that educators have shared on Twitter. Transcript is available at tonyv.me/22.

Learning in Hand #22: Educational Apps

Learn about recording an audio podcast and publishing it using only an iPod touch--no Mac or PC required. See how the free blogging service Posterous makes this possible. Transcript is available at http://learninginhand.com/21.

Learning in Hand #21: Podcast from iPod touch

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #20: Classroom Dos and Don'ts gives technical and management tips for teachers using iPod touches in their classrooms. Listen for some helpful dos and don'ts, including how to name iPods, charging solutions, cheap accessories, playlist use, transferring apps, and much more. You can see the entire list at tonyv.me/do.

iPods #20: Classroom Dos and Don'ts

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics shows you how to take a tour of Washington, D.C., take photos along the way, and use those photos in a comic strip--all on an iPod touch. The Maps app, the screenshot feature, Google Earth, and Strip Designer are used to create an informative comic strip.

iPods #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #18: iPod touch Basics shows the fundamentals that iPod touch and iPhones users should know. Items in this episode:iPod touch runs the iPhone Operating System that is currently at version 3.0, Sleep/Wake buttons, Slide to unlock, Touchscreen information, Home screen organization, Selection of text, Copy & paste, Setting up Wi-Fi internet access, Turning off keyboard clicks, and Apple's 100+ page iPod touch manual. Go to a web app user guide in iPod touch's Safari at help.apple.com/ipodtouch.

iPods #18: iPod touch Basics

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #17: Favorite iPod touch Apps was recorded live. It was supposed to be a call-in show, but no one called in. Fortunately, there were live listeners in the chatroom who asked great questions. Besides sharing some useful information about the App Store and installing apps, listen for information about the Google Moderator series designed for educators to vote for their favorite apps. You can find the series at tinyurl.com/edapps. Please contribute your own and please vote! 

Tune in for all 16 minutes of Episode #17 to hear all about some of the great software the App Store has to offer.

iPods #17: Favorite iPod touch Apps

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #16: iPod touch Tips shares some of my favorite tips and tricks for Safari, text entry, and the Home screen. In the video I do not attempt to show you the basics of using iPod touch. Mostly because Apple.com has a great iPod touch Guided Tour video and 116-page User Guide. Instead, I share tips that I hope are at least partly new to even experienced iPod touch and iPhone users. Go to learninginhand.com for show notes.

iPods #16: iPod touch Tips

This is the podcast's first video episode. In the video I show different ways to create hyperlinks to items within the iTunes Store, like podcasts and apps. The episode is particularly relevant for iPod touch and iPhone users, as the same hyperlinks that work with a desktop browser and iTunes also work with mobile Safari, mobile iTunes, and the mobile App Store on the device itself. Watch all 10 minutes of Episode #15 to learn how to link to media and apps in iTunes and see how those links work on an iPod touch.

iPods #15: Linking to iTunes

Episode #14: Voice Recording
This is Learning in Hand: iPods. My name is Tony Vincent and this is the show where I share tips, how-tos, and ideas for iPods in teaching and learning. Episode 14, “Voice Recording” recorded September 2008, happens now!
A popular student and teacher use of iPods is voice recording. While you can use a computer for recording, it’s handy to have a portable recording device for lectures, class discussions, announcements, interviews, and notes. 
Portable voice recorders can also be useful for recording podcasting segments. Sean Porter’s 4th graders in Lincoln, Nebraska have a segment in their Club 4Cast podcast called “Word of the Week.”  The students ask others in their school building what the word of the week means. One response is the correct one and it’s the listener’s job to figure out which one that is.  Let’s listen...
(Segment Plays)
Another great use for portable recording is to document field trips. These are sometimes called “Sound-Seeing Tours.” I like these because it makes students very aware of what they are seeing because they have to describe it with words. A couple years ago I used my iPod to record my trip through the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The museum is actually outside in the hot, hot desert. I rested under a tree because it had a light mist floating in the air. There were two docents under the tree, so I asked about the moisture I felt. Let’s listen to what I recorded...
(Segment Plays)
Note that that recording was made using an older iPod--an iPod that could only record in low quality. Today’s iPod’s record in CD-quality. In fact, I’m using an iPod nano right now to record this whole episode. Sounds pretty good, huh?
Unlike many other MP3 players, iPods do not have built-in microphones. You’ll have to purchase a microphone attachment. The good news is that iPods with click wheels have  the Voice Recording software onboard--attaching a microphone activates that software. This means you don’t have to worry about loading an application on the iPod to make the recorder work.
Voice recorder attachments connect to iPods using the dock connector at the bottom of the player. These attachments cost between $30 and $80. iPod nanos and classics released after September 2008 have the ability to record from the headphone jack. You can use earbuds with built-in microphones on the wires to record--headphones like the ones used by iPhones. Though, attachable microphones are better for recording more than one person and for capturing sounds that are far away, so I do prefer attachable microphones. Some of the dock connector attachments have a port to plug in your own microphone, like a lapel mic. They might also have a place to plug in a power supply so you can record longer without having to remove the attachment to charge the device.
iPod microphone attachments might offer other features too, like built-in speakers so you can listen your recording without earb

iPods #14: Voice Recording

Episode #13 is full of ways to extend battery life, care for batteries, and advice for charging. You know how important a battery is to an iPod. If an iPod's battery is completely drained, you can't use the device until you plug it into a power source. And, after a couple years of use, a battery's capacity to hold a charge diminishes. What you actually do with an iPod greatly affects how long one charge will last. This episode discusses some of the things that drain the battery the most. Additionally, listen for ways you can keep iPod batteries from premature aging. Listen to all 12 minutes of Episode #13 for the full scoop.

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