Tuesday Tech Tidbit

If you have text on paper that you would like to scan and convert into digital text, then I recommend trying Adobe Scan.  This iPad app is available for staff and students in Self Service.   With Adobe Scan you can use your iPad to scan a piece of paper with text.  It will then use optical character recognition to convert the image into true text.  The text in the resulting PDF can then be highlighted, copied, and even read aloud.  (See last week's blog about Spoken Content on iPads .) The video below demonstrates Adobe Scan in action.  It's easy to use and does a great job of converting printed text into digital text.

In the days of Chromebooks I remember using an extension called Read&Write, which allowed users to highlight text and have the computer read it aloud.  The iPads have this feature built into its operating system, and it works great!  This feature is called Spoken Content . It is considered an Accessibility feature and is a great companion for students who benefit (or require) read-alouds for text. To activate Spoken Content, open Settings and then select Accessibility .  From there you can select Spoken Content .  You will want to toggle on Speak Selection and Speak Screen .  Speak Selection will activate a Speak button whenever text is selected.  Speak Screen allows the iPad to speak the entire screen whenever you swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. Spoken Content works with all text, be it a website, a word processing document, and many PDFs.  In the settings you can switch on a Speech Controller, which provides a floating to...

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a one-stop shop for converting files and editing PDFs?  Meet your new best friend, 123apps !  This website offers a bunch of free, web-based applications that allow you to edit a variety of media files as well as convert files from one format to another.  The interface is super easy, yet this resource is quite powerful. The biggest draw to 123apps in my opinion is its massive array of PDF editing functions .  You can split, merge, compress, and rotate PDFs.  If you have a couple of PDFs that you want to merge together, or if you want to snag a couple of pages from a giant PDF document, look no further than 123apps.  While you're at it, you can convert a wide variety of file types into PDF, or you can convert a PDF into an image file. 123apps also offers a wide range of video and audio editing tools. You can: Trim video Merge videos Add audio to video Rotate video Flip video Change video speed 123apps has a voice recorder as ...

Your iPad offers audio recording capabilities that are very simple and easy to share.  The easiest way to record audio is to use the Voice Memos app.  This app allows you to record and edit audio files.  After you finish recording, you can easily share your recordings via email. Google Drive, Google Classroom, and more.  The video below demonstrates how to record and share audio files using Voice Memos. If you want to get more advanced with your audio recordings, I recommend installing GarageBand.  This app allows you to record multiple audio tracks, including voice and music.