Tuesday Tech Tidbit

The iPad is a powerful PDF editor.  Using the Markup tool, you can add text, shapes, arrows, sketches, and signatures to a PDF.  Teachers can use the Markup features to make corrections or suggestions on student documents.  In the video below I demonstrate the PDF editing features on the iPad.  I throw in a few tricks, including a method for replacing existing text with new text. Please reach out if you have any questions about editing PDFs on the iPad.  

In this tech tidbit, I demonstrate some slick shortcuts that make the iPad much more efficient to use.  There are some swiping motions that will save you time, as well as split view and slide over , which improve multitasking.  Do you hate the Google Docs app on the iPad and wish you could bring back the full-featured editing experience of the Chromebook?  You actually can do this, and I will show you how.  Take a look at the video below to pick up some shortcuts to make your iPad experience more efficient and streamlined.

As students produce videos for class projects, one impressive feature they might explore is the ability for their iPads to create green screen (chroma key) effects.  Using green screen, students can insert themselves into a completely different scene.  For example, students can deliver a news report from Paris, or they can walk on the moon.   Using the green screen feature in iMovie is super easy.  Students are invited to come to the media center to record their videos.   The media center has a green screen available in the Digital Den.  After the video is recorded, students will use the green screen feature in iMovie to superimpose their video onto a completely different background image or video.  Apple offers an iMovie tutorial that demonstrates how to edit green screen video on the iPad.  The video below also takes you through the steps. I encourage you to advertise green screen video recording to your students.  I welcome stud...

Gmail provides some handy ways to organize your messages, which makes it easier to search through your emails down the road.  Using labels you can tag messages based on the sender.  This makes it easy to display all emails originating from a particular person.  Filters allow you to program Gmail to apply certain rules to messages.  For example, you can program Gmail to automatically apply the Andrew Robitaille label to all messages originating from me.  Labels and filters are easy to configure, and they make your emails much more organized and easy to sift through.  The video below demonstrates how to apply labels and filters to your Gmail.

Screencastify is a powerful screen capture extension for Chrome that allows you to record videos of your screen.  It is perfect for creating tutorials or demonstrations for your students.  Our district has an Unlimited plan, which opens powerful editing capabilities.  There's a lot you can do with your videos after you finish recording them, such as placing text, zooming, cropping, or burring out areas of the movies.  But I digress. Screencastify recently added the ability to create Interactive Questions to your videos.  Similar to Edpuzzle , the Interactive Questions in Screencastify allow you to place quiz questions at various points in your video.  When students watch your video, they will be prompted to answer questions before continuing.  This ensures that students are comprehending (ie, paying attention) the content.  When answering interactive questions, students will be prompted to sign in with Google.  You will get a record of your s...