Hungry Fish

tagged

lectures | in

Teacher Tool

Thursday

Jan122012

Many educators use Twitter as a staple for their own professional development, but this week The MacReach Show took a look at how the Twitter app can be used as a tool in the classroom for students. While there are a plethora of Twitter apps available, we chose to look at the actual Twitter Twitter app. Here are a few ideas that we came up with:

Online bulletin board: share classroom news/events/updates/HW/PR Tool for your classroom. If you’re not telling your story somebody else is!
Take notes
Connect with other classrooms globally
Locate resources
Follow a historical figure (Charles Darwin is a good one)
Tweet as a historical figure
Tweet a historical event (Continental Congress)
Tweet a Book (War and Peace)
Live feed of sporting events... and other school events; effective tool for reaching out to the community
How would YOU use Twitter in the classroom? How are YOU using Twitter in the classroom? We can't wait to hear your ideas!

Meg Wilson |

Professional Development,

tagged

App of the Week,

student app | in

App of the Week

Wednesday

Jan112012

Hungry Fish by Applicable2U

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 7:20PM

Hungry Fish

by Motion Math

Come swim along the shores of Wave Reef as you test out your addition skills. From the developers of Motion Math and Motion Math Zoom, young mathematicians will not be disappointed with their recent addition – Motion Math Hungry Fish. Designed for all Apple devices running iOS 4.0 or later, this initially free educational app will get your gills wet as your student or child ages 4-12+ feeds their very hungry fish with numbers. For those educators or parents whose state is now or soon will be following the Common Core Standards, it is important to note that Motion Math games are designed with such standards in mind. Hungry Fish is applicable to children just learning the concepts of numbers and addition to adults looking to brush up on their brain stimulation. With wonderful graphics, easy to navigate tutorials and playful modes of creativity, users will want to unlock more. Additional levels can be added to your device through an in app purchase of $3.99 for each of the following: Subtraction and Negatives or purchase the whole fish tank for $6.99. Luckily, these fish won’t die as quickly as those from the pet store.

Upon entering the application users will want to observe their “fish tank.” In the bottom right hand corner, users will see four icons: a fish, musical note, trophy and a question mark. Each of these icons will support and guide the user as they go fishing. If this is your first time playing, users will want to tap the fish icon. Upon tapping this icon, it would appear that an unlimited amount of fish “users” can be added to the application. Through exploration and gaming, users will be able to associate a creatively designed fish of their own to their account. If at any time, the sound effects or music becomes a distraction for students, simply return home and tap the music icon to off. Based on your successes, the trophy icon will store your high score as it relates to other fish in the sea. Within the question mark icon, users and parents will find a great deal of resources. With a how to play, a parent guide, and options, each users experience can be customized for them. In addition, this home tank provides positive reinforcement to those playing, in the bottom left hand corner a very basic reporting system of your points, a multiplier, the number of colors you have unlocked, and how many fins styles your fish can have. Once your fish has been dropped into the tank, it is time to play. Play can begin in two ways: tapping the play arrow in the top right hand corner or interactively. With your fine motor skills, tap and drag your fish across the screen and watch it follow your finger tip. After a little playtime, it is time to get academically playing, drag your fish up to the play arrow.

Your first experience with Hungry Fish will require you to begin with the introduction. Here narrators will explain how to play. Feeding occurs through number recognition and combining numbers to make new sums so as to feed their fish. Hungry Fish is visually explaining the concept of mental arithmetic as it shows multiple ways to make the same number. With this free version of Hungry Fish, users will have access to 18 levels of difficulty as they explore the Wave Reef. Levels of difficulty can range from simple number matching, to faster gameplay, to even challenging for the most math savvy individual. Regardless of which level you choose to play, your goal is to feed your starving fish. In the tank, you will see your fish will have a number on it, it is your goal to drag and drop a floating bubble of that same number into your fishes mouth. At times, there are no bubbles with the exact number and it is now time to do a little combining. If combining is required, then you must overlap bubbles to form a new numbered bubble. It is important to note that your fish only likes to eat one bubble at a time, it’s matching number on its stomach. As you strategize combinations, don’t panic if you accidentally combine the wrong number, the surrounding sea life will blow out new bubbles so that you can fix your mistake. Luckily no time will be eliminated from your score, however, with every mistake or lack of feeding, your fish will get smaller. No person or even fish likes to starve.

Overall, Applicable2U would give Hungry Fish two thumbs up! From the standpoint of a teacher, knowing that my students can actively be meeting the Common Core Standards in math at a variety of grade levels in one app is worth the download. Yes, there is an added expense to extend the learning with subtraction and negatives, but for $6.99, it seems rather minimal. Seeing my own addiction to it, I can only imagine how my students might feel. If you would like to learn more about Motion Math, please visit their website here. To begin feeding your virtual fish today, access Hungry Fish in your iTunes library by simply click here. You will not be disappointed!

Reviewers website: www.applicable2u.wordpress.com

Andrea Gardner |

tagged

operations | in

Tuesday

Jan102012

eSkills Learning: Parts of Speech and Compound Words by Applicable2U

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:53PM

Parts of Speech and Compound Words

Over the past several months, eSkills Learning has been hard at work to expand their collection of educational apps. The eSkills Learning team have designed BINGO like apps that relate to core curriculum standards in the areas of: Language Arts, Reading Comprehension, Math and Algebra Video apps. Both Parts of Speech and Compound Words can be played on any Apple device running iOS 3.2 or later. The applications may be pricey compared to other educational apps out on the market, however, the eSkills Learning team is devised of members with over 30 years of educational experiences. Their goal is to motivate and challenge those using their applications. The academic end results that a parent or teacher will see in their child or student after having played will be worth the download. Through this game format, students won’t even realize that they are learning, reinforcing and reviewing for their next language arts lesson or even a state preparation exam.

What truly amazes Applicable2U about the integration of the eSkills Learning apps is how the use of a mobile device can change an educational setting while meeting a variety of standards. In their About section of their website, they clearly indicate that the design of these two apps and all others were built with the Common Core Standards in mind. When visiting the Common Core State Standards website, I came across a general key point under Language “the standards expect that students will grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversations, direct instruction, and reading. The standards will help students determine word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their repertoire of words and phrases.” At each grade level, this key point will be met and will be developed upon over time. Through the use of various levels of difficulty and multiple ways of playing (single and multi-player and practice mode), each return BINGO experience can be different, without a sense of feeling that there is no reason to return. With a brief set of directions on each question, users will read a sentence and fill in the blank with one of three choices as they practice parts of speech and compounds words. Both applications will challenge the user as they game for a reason. Below are some highlights of each application:

Parts of Speech

Levels of Play – Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Pronouns, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections
A collection of real world images that students can make connections too
Improve their visual discrimination skills as they locate pieces on a board
It is important to note that there will need to be pre-teaching/direct instruction done prior to using this application on definitions of the various parts of speech that the app will focus in on
Games are not timed during the single and practice mode to alleviate undue stress on the user(s)
Integration of multiple devices as they safely connect with one another via the devices Bluetooth
Practice mode gives the user control over how many questions they will need to answer. There is no BINGO board in this mode of play.
Parts of Speech Lite version has 200 questions
Parts of Speech Full Classroom Version has 400 questions
Developer support is provided for parents and teacher in a Teacher’s Guide

Compound Words

Levels of Play - Locating the 2nd Half of the Compound Word – Easy Vocabulary, Locating the 1st Half of the Compound Word – Easy Vocabulary, Locating the 2nd Half of the Compound Word – Harder Vocabulary, Locating the 1st Half of the Compound Word – Harder Vocabulary
Through game play, users will be increasing their word recognition skills, the ability to look at words in many parts and the development of vocabulary as they listen, speak and write.
Compound Words Lite version has 100 compound word questions in total
Compound Words Full Classroom version has 400 compound word questions in total
Developer support is provided for parents and teacher in a Teacher’s Guide

Overall, Applicable2U continues to be pleased with the educational apps that eSkills Learning has to offer. Depending on your child or students level of need in learning or reinforcing either of these two topics will determine the academic approach that will be taken. For some it may be challenging, so working alongside a higher level partner might be useful so as to differentiate when needed. A note to the developers, in a future update, might it be possible to include an option for the device to read sentences when necessary. Although direct instruction will be provided, could users tap on an unknown part of speech, causing a help window to pop up for further support. Finally, within the practice mode, has your team thought about generating a short report which shows how that student did during that session.

If you would like to learn more about eSkills Learning, please visit their website here. As mentioned in the brief overview of each application, there are two available versions. When making this decision, do not look at the dollar value, look at how it will support and guide your child academically. To begin adding Parts of Speech Full Class version to your iTunes library, simply click here. To add Compound Words Full Classroom version to your iTunes library, simply click here.

Reviewers website: www.applicable2u.wordpress.com

Andrea Gardner |

tagged

Game,

parts of speech | in

Sunday

Jan082012

Creating Custom Digital Content for iPad: Educators Have Options

Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 1:09PM

One of the things I've been looking into lately has been mobile content creation. With the rise of the tablet, I'm finding k12 and adult students are eager for opportunities to learn just-in-time with their device of choice. From an instructional design perspective, this means that to deliver to any & all devices, you've got to be looking towards HTML5.

My developer colleagues at the University of Akron's Center for Literacy cringe every time we talk about HTML5 and designing apps for iOS and Android. To them, HTML5 is a giant step backwards in terms of the complexity and richness of web apps that could be developed with other tools (RIP Flash).

They feel that in the HTML5 arena, animations are stripped down and much less interactivity is available. They are mostly right here. HTML5 has limited the types of instructional interactions we can offer all ages of students in the online environment. As we begin to design web-based user experiences in HTML5, we are essentially creating a duel interface that can be run through a desktop or laptop browser AND a mobile browser. Until mobile devices have processors equal to their desktop/laptop brothers, we'll never be able to offer as rich of a learning environment on any type of mobile device, yet we are still going to develop custom digital content for mobile...

So what can the average educator do?

Not being a real coder, I've been looking for a WYSIWYG type of UI to use to create my own custom "apps." In my IDEAL scenario, students would be able to download and install the apps I create on their iOS or Android tablets & smartphones. The apps would be able to include text, images, audio, video and interactive games/puzzles. It would also be great if they could include some sort of assessment features so I could get student data back for review. Remember, I said IDEAL:)

Not surprisingly, I haven't found that IDEAL digital author tool just yet.

However, I have come across a number of development tools that look promising. I'm still not decided on the end format that I want to use to deliver custom created digital content. Part of me is saying some type of ePub, while the other part is telling me stand alone apps are the way to go. In any event, I'm starting to explore what's out there and see what I can come up with. The plan is to try out a number of applications, desktop, web-based and iPad apps, using the same "legacy" curriculum unit. I'll build whatever type of digital content I can and see how they compare.

To get started, I have been using a second grade Rocks & Fossils unit that my wife and a colleague originally developed in 2005. It contains a collection of resources ranging from a section of a science textbook, videos, digital photos and a couple PPT presentations.

I have all the various source files stored on my Dropbox account and in my iTunes/iPhoto alums so I can access them as needed across devices. Here's a list of some of the applications I hope to try to develop content with. Just a disclaimer, I haven't had the opportunity to try them all myself, so I'm in no way recommending one over another. Check back on Raised Digital as I hope to add posts about each of the applications and share my digital content creations.

Book Creator for iPad - $7.49

The simple way to create beautiful books on your iPad. Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to Apple’s iBookstore. http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8

eBook Creator - $3.99

'eBook Creator' is the simplest and easiest ebook creation application. Its interface is designed for all ages and skill levels so that young kids are able to make ebooks using the app. You can make good quality ebooks using the functions such as image brightness and contrast adjustment, voice recording, background musics, etc. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ebook-creator/id448273828?mt=8

Creative Book Builder - $3.99

Creative Book Builder enables everyone to create, edit and publish ebooks in minutes. Creative Book Builder can import document from Google Docs and parse HTML output into chapter. Create unlimited number of chapters add title, description, images, videos, audio recording, music, links, and lists. CBB lets you sort your content's ordering within a chapter and customize your cover image. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/creative-book-builder-create/id451041428?mt=8

Touch App Creator - $3.99

TouchAppCreator enables everyone to create touch-optimized, and content-centric mobile web apps for both iPhone and iPad in a few minutes on the go. No sign up is required. You can edit your app ONCE and generated app supports both iPhone and iPad automatically. TouchAppCreator provides the easiest way to publish your apps to Dropbox (for public access). You can also host your apps in your own web hosting services and upload web apps via FTP. People can add your apps to their home screen easily by using Safari's Add to Home Screen function. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touchappcreator-create-touch/id447590667?mt=8

Scribble Press - Free

Imagine. Create. Publish. Scribble Press for iPad is a book creation platform that allows kids to imagine, create and share their own stories with great drawing and writing tools. Scribble Press for iPad makes it easy to create an ebook – either write your own or use one of over 50 story templates. How about “My Babysitter is a Zombie” or “The Dog Ate my Homework”? From serious to seriously fun, you can make a book about any topic and instantly publish to the gallery or share with friends anywhere in the world. Once you’re done, you can upload your book to the Scribble Press server and share it via Facebook, Twitter or email, or add your story to the Scribble Press gallery of stories from around the world. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribble-press/id487300076?mt=8

Tumult Hype - $29.99

Using Tumult Hype, you can create beautiful HTML5 web content. Animations and interactive content made with Tumult Hype works on desktops, smartphones and iPads. No coding required.

Ext Designer - $299.00

Ext Designer is a desktop application that helps you create interfaces faster than ever in an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop environment.

Adobe® Edge - In Development - Trial only

Edge is an intuitive tool for creating motion content that runs beautifully on mobile devices and desktop browsers. It features an easy to use interface, with a properties-based timeline for impeccable accuracy and control. Create new compositions, import and animate existing web graphics, or add motion to existing HTML files without compromising integrity.

Jeremy Brueck |