Real VNC, HTML 5 and Differentiation

After Mr Jamiesons post about using AirDisplay I used that idea and gave a pupil my iPad with the presentation running on VNC to my desktop machine (I have extended desktop turned on) so one pupil had the slide they needed the rest of the class could see their task. So the iPad allows effective differentiation.

Real VNC is rather nifty in that it allows you to left click and other functions that other VNC clients do not.

HTML 5 - It's the bees knees if you listen to Steve Jobs! But it will do everything that Flash currently does and more. Flash has never been and will probably never be supported by IOS devices but with this announcement by Adobe the answer might just be around the corner!

Another point about HTML 5 is that you need to use Firefox, Safari or IE 9 (Beta). It's just so new! Here is a nice example of what it can do.

How I have been using the iPad

I have downloaded DropBox onto the iPad and my laptop. I prepare my lesson plans elctronically and save them in 'DropBox' on my laptop.

With the wireless connection, they are synchronised immediately with the iPad, so I can view and use them straight away.

Using the VNC app, I can control the main PC. I did struggle initally with moving the mouse (if you drag your finger, it moves the screen on the iPad, rather than move the mouse on screen). However, I discovered that if you double-click the 'window' icon (bottom RHS) it locks the screen so as you drag your finger, the mouse moves.

Video science

The iPad app of video science is proper good. Not only do you get videos of experiments and textbook descriptions, but it is FREE and simple to use. Definitely one for you Barry.

Great video app

OPlayer HD lite is free and can play all video types (including .wmv).  It even allows you to copy video files to your ipad over wifi.

Simple but effective

If you double tap the space bar when typing, it inserts a full stop and a space. Imagine the time you will save from now on!
Also, I couldn't type into the blog text box from the link so I downloaded Blogwriter lite for iPhone for free and it works fine for text. Any suggestions for one that works with images?

VLE Link

I have developed the mobile VLE site here
www.moorsidecollege.org.uk/ipod

If anyone has any further ideas or developments that they would like to see on the site, just let me know

Live drawing from shall | WebPad

Live drawing from shall | WebPad

More apps...

Air display is a really useful app. It's £5.99 but allows you to use your iPad as an extended desktop. That means you can drag things from your whiteboard onto the iPad screen. The first way I'm going to use it is for pupils with visual impairment; anything written on the board can be slid across to the iPad and handed to the pupil.

Another good free app is photo mess. It allows you to slide photos around the screen and make collages with them. You can then save/share the collage as a new picture- great for making wallpapers.

List of APPs

At tonights meeting, I asked quite a few people what their favourite/most useful APPs were. I am sure that I have missed quite a few, but here is the list that I made ...

Dropbox
Simple mind (mind map)
Uyh
Tango (install on iPod too)
Airsketch
Dragon dictate
Plaintext
Bump
Teaching uk
iCard sort
Free thinking
Brainstorming
Infinote
Nightstand
Airsketch
Mathstool
iBooks
Wifi HD free
VLC
VNC
QuickGraph
Schoolbook

Minutes from the iPad meeting

You tube - Use the web based version. Smoothwall blocks the app within school.

VNC Mocha - Use on all IWB.

Bump - Sending information between iPad, iPhone and iPod.

First iPad group meeting!

Setting up the Calendar

I use Google Calendars to organise my life and when I first tried to set up my iPad to sync. it would only recognise one calendar. You need to use google sync https://m.google.com to complete the set up. Once this is done, the iPad calendar is fantastic. Way better than the iPod calendar and shows more infor than Google Calendar on the PC.

Also, dropbox is proving to be invaluable.