Our school district pays for a subscription to Discovery Education for all teachers. Discovery Education contains thousands of videos, images, audio files, articles and interactives that you can use with your students in class.
Here are just a few things you can do with Discovery Education -
1. Download videos and video clips to use in your lessons.
2. Download and use images.
3. Download and use audio files.
4. Access lesson plans, an interactive calendar and other professional development resources (Teacher Center).
5. Create and manage classes and assign videos and projects to your students.
6. Create writing prompts, assignments, quizzes and boards for your students.
7. Give access to students so they can get to all the content too.
If you are interested in using Discovery Education, you just need an account. Contact me at techtraining@saisd.org and I'll give you a campus code to get you started. If you want your students to have accounts, just let me know and we'll get them set up.
Canva is a website (and an app) that helps you create beautiful graphics to use in social media, slide shows, blog posts (my graphic was made with Canva), documents and more.
You can also log in with your Google account so that makes it easy to remember your user information. :)
From the website, just select the type of graphic you want to create - it's ok if you don't see the exact thing you are looking for, you can do a custom size graphic as well. Also remember, just because it says social media as the graphic type don't let if fool you. You can still use that graphic for many things. Click the + sign to see more graphics options. Finally, there are free tools and paid tools. I've never paid for a graphic, but if I need to, they are very inexpensive. I encourage you to take a look at this site - you won't be sorry.
Moving Videos from the iPad
to the Computer
Creating video content using an iPad is fairly simple and make classroom lessons more engaging, but what happens with the video after it's created? How can we share it with others in our class, campus and community?
The video could be posted to our class blog, website or YouTube channel. It could also be inserted into a presentation or kept in a video library on the teacher computer so it could be shared during Open House.
So how to we move it from the mobile device to the computer?
Here are 5 simple steps to make that happen.
1. Use the iPad power cable to connect the iPad (charging port) to the computer (USB port).
2. Give the computer a few minutes to install drivers and recognize the device. Once it does, you will see a window on the screen. Double click Open Device to View Files.
3. Make sure you click Trust on the iPad so it knows to trust the computer.
4. Double Click Internal Storage > DCIM > Apple Folder (names will be different on each device).
5. Find the video you want to move and click and drag it to a folder on the computer.
Here's a quick video to walk you through the process - http://somup.com/cDVub9ZZt
Let's face it, there is no shortage of photo apps for the iPhone or iPad. I think I have at least ten installed on my iPad.
So why did I pick Phonto?
1. it's easy to use. The interface has only three options when you open the program - menu, insert picture and save.
2. I just insert a photo and then double tap anywhere to insert text.
3. After the text is inserted, all of my options for editing show up in one place. I can quickly resize, change the color, rotate, edit my text, etc.
4. When my photo is complete I can save it to the camera roll or any number of apps on my device.
In just a few minutes I have a brand new graphic I can use in any number of apps, in my blog or on social media. Students can also use phonto to label pictures and then insert them in to a video creator, photo collage or slide show.
The app is free, but does have in app purchases. I've only used the free version and it's worked great for me.
Finding good quality photos that are free to use online or in a project isn't easy - until now. I just came across a great website called unsplash.com. It provides users with 10 new photos every 10 days - and they are all free! These photos are beautiful, high quality images with a Creative Commons Zero license.
Take a look at their website and get inspired!
