Tuesday Tech Tidbit

Apple prides itself on including an impressive array of accessibility features that make the iPad user friendly to people of all abilities.  They are continually adding accessibility features, which can often be found under Settings > Accessibility but also in other places.   Accessibility settings allow users to adjust some of the following interfaces to make the iPad more universally usable: Vision VoiceOver Zoom Hover Text Display and text size Motion Spoken content Audio descriptions Physical and motor AssistiveTouch Touch accommodations Voice control Pointer control Hearing Live listen Sound recognition Background sounds Subtitles and captions Live captions General Guided Access Accessibility Shortcut I recently started to tinker with the Shortcuts app, which is included on all iPads and iPhones.  Shortcuts allow users to get tasks done quickly or through automating multi-step processes.  Apple offers an entire section of Accessibility shortcuts within...

Recently I stumbled upon a very handy website that contains step-by-step guides on how to use some of the most creative features of the iPad. Dr. Tolu Noah is an Apple Educator who creates iPad tutorials .  These help guides provide visual assistance on how to use some of the impressive multimedia features on the iPads.  Some of the guides include: Creating digital whiteboards using FreeForm Animating text and shapes in Keynote Using the Clips app to create engaging videos Using the Notes app for planning and preparation Personalizing lectures with Live Video in Keynote Screen recording Creating QR codes Although these iPad guides were created for higher education, they are definitely relevant for K-12 as well.  I hope you find some good pointers in here.  Please reach out to me if you get a burst of inspiration and wish to implement these features into a lesson or project.  Follow the link to view the iPad Guides: https://www.tolunoah.com/ipad-guides

Canva for Education has recently teamed up with OpenAI to introduce Magic Write , a writing assistant that uses artificial intelligence to help you generate ideas.  Magic Write is similar to ChatGPT in the sense that you can type a request and receive answers.   For example, you could type: " Write me a lesson plan about the Normandy invasion for 10th graders that aligns with Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies and includes a video project " OR " Compose a parent email that informs everyone that permission forms for the field trip to the McKinley Museum are due by May 20th. Discuss what students will learn at the McKinley Museum. " Follow the links above to see the results!  Pretty impressive. 🤓  You can easily tweak the text to customize it further.  But look at the time you saved because you didn't have to start completely from scratch. Magic Write is only available to teachers in the Canva for Education platform.  Don't worry; your stude...

Many teachers share slideshows with their students that demonstrate learning concepts.  These are particularly helpful when students want to access information from a past lecture or a tutorial.  Apple's amazing slideshow production app, Keynote, offers a simple way for you to add live video to a presentation. With Keynote's Live Video feature, teachers can insert themselves into a presentation so students can see and hear what they have to say about a presentation.  Instead of just reading text on a screen, students get to see and hear their teacher.  You can also use the rear camera on your iPad to record live footage of a concept you wish to demonstrate in your presentation.  This is a great way to bring students up to speed if they missed an important lab.   When used in conjunction with screen recording on your iPad, you can create movie presentations for your students or professional learning communities.  Quickly make tutorials that contai...

Today's tech tidbit comes from technology integration specialist (and edtech legend) Eric Curts from the Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium (SPARCC). Curts publishes an edtech blog called Control Alt Achieve , in which he explores many creative ways to integrate technology into key curriculum areas.   Earlier this year Curts explored some of the best kept secrets of our ubiquitous web browser, Chrome.  There are actually a lot of tricks under the hood in Chrome that you can tap into to improve your efficiency.  In his blog post Chrome Can Do That?! Curts demonstrates some of the following tips and tricks that you can use right away to improve your web browsing experience: Pinning tabs Icons and emojis for bookmarks Bookmark folders Reading lists Making QR codes Google Lens image search (way cool!) Live captions Keyboard shortcuts To see tutorials on how to do these and other Chrome tricks, visit https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2023/02/google-chrome-can-do-that...

Wordwall is an amazing website that allows teachers to create custom interactive activities for students.  In the free account, Wordwall includes 18 types of interactives.  These activities include: Match Up Quiz Group sort Random cards Random wheel Matching pairs Find the match Open the box Gameshow quiz Anagram flash cards Missing word Rearrange words Word search Maze chase Labelled diagram Crossword True & false Wordwall includes over 54 million activities already created and shared by other educators.  Activities can be shared with students as an assignment for the entire class to complete live. The free account allows you to create 5 resources.  Of course, subscription plans are offered that allow you to create even more resources.   To check out Wordwall, visit https://wordwall.net