iPods Episode #17: Favorite iPod touch Apps

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #17: Favorite iPod touch Apps was recorded live. It was supposed to be a call-in show, but no one called in. Fortunately, there were live listeners in the chat room who asked great questions.

Besides sharing some useful information about the App Store and installing apps, listen for information about the Google Moderator series designed for educators to vote for their favorite apps. You can find the series at tinyurl.com/edapps. Please contribute your own and please vote!

Tune in for all 16 minutes of Episode #17 to hear all about some of the great software the App Store has to offer. Note: This is an edited version of what was recorded using TalkShoe. If you want to listen to the entire live broadcast, go to this page.

Soft Reset #20: Netbooks in Fort Smith

It's a pet peeve of mine when podcasters note how long it's been since their last episode. Though, in this case, I think it is worth noting that after two years, there's finally a new episode of Soft Reset! Episode #20 is features a discussion with teachers who are putting the latest technology trend to work in their classrooms: netbooks. Netbooks are small and affordable notebook computers that have screens between 7 and 10 inches in size. While they don't have a CD drive, they do have Wi-Fi, USB ports, batteries, display ports--really everything you'd expect in a laptop.

Fort Smith Public Schools has nearly 20 classrooms using Eee PC netbooks. George Lieux, technology professional development specialist, gathered up nine classroom teachers to talk with me about their use of the mini laptops. I speak with these elementary, middle, and high school teachers who all share valuable classroom management tips as well as great curriculum integration ideas. If you are thinking about getting class sets of netbooks, you have got to listen to this episode!

Show Notes:

• These Fort Smith teachers are all using class sets of Eee PC 1000HAs.
• Their netbooks have 6-cell batteries, which last for an entire school day.
• Instead of purchasing Microsoft Office, they are using OpenOffice, free software.
• Besides OpenOffice, a Web browser was the most used application by students.
• Third graders had to pass tests about Internet safety and copyright before using the netbooks.
• It's useful to have all students face their desks in the same direction so the teacher can see everyone's computer screens at once.
• Headphones get all tangled when stored each day. One teacher finally placed numbered hooks on the wall, one for each headset. No more tangles!
• Where the netbooks are being used by more than one student it is help to create a Windows XP account for each of those students.
• The greatest challenge for these teachers is managing a classroom with so many different computer skill levels.
• We used GoToMeeting to connect and record. Unfortunately there are some audio issues, but you should be able to hear most everything just fine.

Enjoy the show! Click an icon below to listen or subscribe.

NASA's Do-It-Yourself Podcast

NASA is providing some raw digital materials for students that they can combine to make videos, audio recordings, and slide shows about selected science topics. They are calling this a Do-It-Yourself Podcast.

Currently there are three topics: Lab Safety, Newton's Laws, and Spacesuits. For each topic, NASA provides video clips, audio clips, images, and information. Students can edit together what NASA provides with their own video, voice, and/or images. Software like iMovie, MovieMaker, GarageBand, Audacity, and PowerPoint could be used for the do-it-yourself podcast.

I think it's exciting to see the final products with a project like this. Although students have access to the same digital materials, each and every project will turn out differently. NASA encourages teachers to share students' products online in the form of a podcast. If it's a movie I think a great place to share it online is TeacherTube.

NASA has a blog dedicated to giving teachers guidance for the Do-It-Yourself Podcast. In addition, the blog will let the world know when new topics are added.

Ranking of Favorite iPod touch/iPhone Apps

iPod touch and iPhone Apps in Education is a Google Moderator series where educators are encouraged to vote on suggestions for educational apps and to submit their own suggestions. The apps suggestions are ranked so when you visit the list, the apps that netted the most votes are listed first.

With over 15,000 apps currently in the App Store, there are lots for teachers to sort through. Perhaps this list can help us find apps that would otherwise be lumped in with the hundreds of apps in the Education category of the App Store.

When submitting, please list the name of the app, a short description of how it could be used in education, and the price (if it isn't free). In order to vote or submit, you'll need to sign-in with your Google account information (or sign up for a free account). Unfortunately Google Moderator doesn't allow for linking to the apps. So, if you read about an app you might want to download, search for it in the App Store.

Kick YouTube

YouTube does not provide a way to directly download videos from their site. That's probably because they want you to visit their ad-supported webpages.

Why would you want to download videos from YouTube? Well, there are lots of great educational videos there. YouTube is blocked in most schools, so teachers who want to use these videos in their classrooms have to download them from home and bring them to school. Also, in order to view a YouTube video on an iPod or other portable player, you'll need to have it downloaded.

The videos on YouTube are in Flash format (those are videos that end with the .flv extension). So, even if you manage to save the .flv movie file, you have to either convert it to a different format or find software that will play it. After a video is downloaded and converted to the proper format, you can sync it onto an iPod or put it in PowerPoint slide shows or edit/remix it using video editing software like iMovie or MovieMaker.

I often use Zamzar.com to download videos from YouTube and convert them into the MPEG-4 format that iPods and QuickTime love so much. In four easy steps you paste the YouTube URL into Zamzar.com, select the video format (likely .mp4), and input your email address. After clicking Convert, Zamzar will put your request in a queue. Once it has processed your request (usually between 15 minutes and 2 hours), Zamzar will email you with a link to download the converted movie.

Another way to download videos from YouTube is using software. Some are free and some are pay and you can find software for both Mac and Windows computers. There is freely available software that you might already have on your computer that can download YouTube videos and that's RealPlayer. You might already have RealPlayer installed--you'll need version 11 and it's free. RealPlayer 11 actually enables you to download videos from websites, including YouTube. Unfortunately, when used to download YouTube videos, RealPlayer does not convert it from the .flv format, so you'll need to convert the file if you want to use it in other places other than RealPlayer. (As a Mac user, I've installed Perian which enables QuickTime to play those Flash videos.)

Now there's a new site that is even simpler than Zamzar. It's called KickYouTube.com. You don't need to copy and paste the video's URL, install any software, or wait for an email. Here's how it works.

1. Find the video you want to download on YouTube. Many videos on YouTube are now in High Definition. If the video has a "watch in HD" link below it, click it so you'll be downloaded the larger video size.

2. In the address field, type kick in front of youtube.com and press Enter.

3. You are taken to the KickYouTube site, showing the video from YouTube. Across the top of the page are download options: FLV, MP4, HD, AVI, MPG, 3GP, iPhone, PSP, MP3, OGG, and GIF.

4. MP4 is almost always my choice, so I click it. Then I click the Go button where I get this message below. So I just right-click (or Mac users can Control-click) that green Go button and save the video file to wherever you want on your hard drive.

Now the video on is on the hard drive. It can be put on a flash drive, burned to a DVD, imported into move editing software, put it in a slide show, or whatever you like to do with video files.

Very similar to KickYouTube is PWNyoutube.com. Just add pwn in front of youtube.com when viewing a video and it will take you to a page where you can download that video.

With YouTube in their URLs, I'm guessing that Google (the company that owns YouTube) won't stand for their trademark being used in other web addresses, so KickYoutTube.com and PWNyoutube.com services may not be around for long.

YouTube may one day offer downloads directly from their site. In fact, a "Download this video" link can be found on pages for President Obama's videos. When clicked, the link will download an MPEG-4 video to your hard drive. If this becomes an option on all YouTube videos, services like Zamzar and KickYouTube or software like Real Player and TubeSock won't be necessary for downloading videos.

Please note that downloading videos from YouTube may go against YouTube's Terms of Service. Also, the video creator's copyright should be respected and acknowledged at all times.

Live Call-In Show 1-28-09: Favorite iPod touch App

I'm planning a call-in show for the next episode of Learning in Hands: iPods. The topics is Favorite iPod touch Educational Apps. These can be apps that teachers and/or students use for teaching and/or learning. With over 10,000 apps in the App Store, there are certainly lots to choose from. The show will be recorded live on Wednesday, January 28th at 8:00 PM Eastern time.

We'll be using TalkShoe, a free service that lets anyone record an audio program where listeners can call in by phone or by computer. On the 28th, you'll need to click here to listen live, call in, and join the chat room.

If you're not familiar with TalkShoe.com, I suggest heading on over there and checking out some of their programs that are currently live. You can join any live show without talking--just go in and have a look and listen so you are ready for our show on the 28th. I suggest you sign up for a free account and then download TalkShoe Pro so you can use your computer's microphone to call-in. (You can also call-in using Skype--TalkShoe will give you a VOIP number to call.)

I'm nervous that I'll host a call-in show and no one will call in. So please mark it on your calendar and consider participating. Even if you don't plan to speak, you can listen live and participate in the associated text chat. If you can't join us, please email me (tony@learninginhand.com) with your favorite apps and their uses and I'll talk about them during the show. Thanks!

Is 8GB Sufficient in an iPod?

I'm often asked how much memory should an iPod for classroom use have. In the typical classroom, the 120GB iPod classic is overkill. Whenever I can, I ask to see classroom iPods to check how much storage is actually used. In most cases, it's one or two gigabytes. Now, in classrooms that are using iPods to store dozens of videos from TeacherTube, YouTube, and United Streaming, several gigabytes are used. In almost all cases, 8GB is going to be plenty. The 8GB iPod nano retails for $150.

What about the iPod touch? The lowest-priced touch is $230 with 8GB of storage. Besides storing audio and video, that 8GB also has to have room for all of those wonderful software applications from the App Store. I have my iPod touch loaded up with hundreds of songs (1.7 days worth), several podcasts, 1.9 hours of high quality video, and 571 photos. Besides all that media, I have 89 apps installed.

As you can see from the Capacity Graphs above, I still have plenty of room on my iPod touch. And surprising to me is that although I have it loaded with 7 screens of apps, they only take up 604MB. That's an average of 6.8MB per app. And since you can only load up to 9 screens of apps (for a total of 148), a touch full of apps only needs about 1GB (1,006MB) reserved for that. That leaves 6GB remaining for media, which I think is plenty for classroom use. For personal use, 6GB may not be enough to hold your entire music collection--but I'm talking school use.

Unlike many handhelds and MP3 players, iPods don't have an expansion slot. So when you purchase an iPod, you have to make sure you get the right amount of memory. If you don't get enough gigabytes, you will have to carefully manage what gets put on the iPod through iTunes. If you get too capacity, you end up overpaying (a 16GB iPod touch is $300 and 32GB is $400).

If you want to see how full your iPod is, connect it to your computer. In Tunes, click the iPod in the Devices sidebar. On the Summary tab, scroll down to the bottom of the screen. You'll see a Capacity Graph like mine above. Click the graph to change among number, size, and length of items.

Managing Podcast Creation in the Classroom

Peggy Hilleary in Georgia is a fifth grade teacher who attended a podcasting workshop I lead a couple months ago. She emailed me with her ideas for managing podcast creation and has some questions.

Dear Tony, I had a great workshop with you in the fall at Woodward Academy in Georgia. And now I am finally taking the plunge with my two fifth grade classes. But I need your help in working out the logistics. And let me say that I will be the first in my school to do such a big project with a whole class. So I don't have any help here. Hope you can help me. Just before our winter break I followed your model of having the students listen to some of your students' podcasts. They really enjoyed them, and they really began to see patterns and qualities important to a successful podcast. After winter break I am ready to put my students into teams of about 10. That will be 2 to a classroom, for a total of 4 episodes being written, then taped, then worked out on the computer with Audacity, adding music and organizing the podcast.

I really like how Peggy has thought this through. A key to successful student podcasting is clear organization. Like most classroom situations, if you don't think it through, the whole activity could become a disaster. Here are some of Peggy's questions and my answers to her:

Is this too much for me to handle--making 4 episodes at once? I do have a teaching assistant, and I do know iMovie very well, so I am familiar with the process of production with script, music, editing, etc.

Four episodes at a time is good because you have the whole class working on it at once. And if you've had movie-making experience, making an audio podcast is much easier, especially from a classroom management stand-point. Just be sure that each student has a specific role so they aren't left out of the process.

If this is something you think is doable, how much time do you think it will take from beginning to end? These 4 episodes will be a series on the theme of "Journeys and Quests." Each one of the podcasts will have almost the same segments, giving the 4-part series some unity along with the theme.

I like consistency you have planned in the series. It will take the most time to research and write and edit scripts. You'll want to give plenty of time for this since it's so important. I'd say a week of writing and then to record and edit, another week. And, with it being a podcast, don't feel you need to publish them all at once. In fact, having one published once a week would be good because then it would give listeners a reason to subscribe in iTunes.

If you do believe my process sounds ok, will I then need 4 computers, one for each team? What software will I need to load on it? iTunes? Audacity? Anything else?

Four computers would work best--especially if they can be laptops so students can go to quiet places to record. You'll want Audacity on them (or GarageBand is a great Mac alterative). iTunes is only necessary on the computer you'll plan to publish from--so as long as you have it on yours. Also, on one computer, have the free Levelator software. Levelator will even out the volume throughout the podcasts so that sounds aren't too faint or too loud. Follow my Podcasting booklet on how to use Levelator and then iTunes to give the audio file tags and export as an MP3.

What advice do you have for me in how to make this successful? I do hope to publish it on iTunes, and I hope it will actually be something other students might enjoy.

To make the best podcast, you really need to read and edit the students' scripts--maybe even for two or three rounds of editing until they are just right. It's so much better to catch misinformation, confusing sentences, and poor planning before students start recording. Also important before recording is that students practice reading their scripts (perhaps in front of the class so the class can give constructive feedback). That way when they do record, they've have an awesome script and have had coaching on how to make it sound the best.

I'm sure Peggy's fifth graders will do a smashing job thanks to the thought she's putting into how she's managing the project!

A Powerful Commercial That Features Podcasts

Kaplan University has a great commercial that's been airing on television. The spot features a professor apologizing to students for a system that has failed them. I really like how about half-way through the 60-second commercial you can see the professor appearing on computer, phone, and iPod screens as a podcast.

The commercial has several great sound bites, including:

"It's time to use technology to rewrite the rules of education."

"It's time to learn how you learn so we can teach you better."

Help iPod touch Find Its Location

Unlike iPhone, iPod touch does not have a GPS chip. But, it can still estimate your location. Your current location is used in map apps, including Google Maps. If you've used an iPod touch, you've probably tapped the location icon in Google Maps to zoom right into your whereabouts on the map (well, at least within a couple hundred feet).

Instead of GPS or cell towers, iPod touch uses the Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System. Skyhook's location services work indoors, which can't be said for GPS, which usually needs line-of-sight with the sky. In fact, iPhone also uses Skyhook's services in combination with cell tower signals and GPS so that your device can locate you just about anywhere.

Skyhook has referenced over 50 million Wi-Fi access points in the United States and Canada. Currently that covers about 70% of population centers. Skyhook continues to add the locations of Wi-Fi access points to expand its reach and improve its precision.

You can add the locations of Wi-Fi access points to Skyhook's database to make it even more inclusive and accurate. Let's say that iPod touch doesn't accurately report your location when you are at home (or says that your location cannot be found). Go to Skyhook's Submit a Wi-Fi Access Point page and place a pin on the map with your home's precise location. You'll also have to provide your Wi-Fi router's MAC Address (this has nothing to do with Macintosh computers, by the way) and your email address. After up to 7 days, Skyhook's databases are updated so iPod touches and iPhones near your access point can triangular their current locations more precisely.

If it seems iPod touch isn't giving accurate locations when at other places, say at school or at favorite hotspot, you can submit other access points to Skyhook as well--you'll just have to be able to provide Skyhook with the MAC Addresses. Follow instructions on this page to determine an access point's MAC Address.

Even without a GPS chip, iPod touch can triangulate its current location thanks to those millions of Wi-Fi routers that are registered with Skyhook. Submitting your router and other routers improves Skyhook's positioning services for everyone.

12 Days of iPod touch and iPhone

Happy Holidays! Here's a listing of my 12 Days of iPod touch posts: Palm vs. iPod touch iPod touch and Comics iPod touch and Math Practice Installing iPod touch Apps iPod touch and Animations iPod touch and Podcasts iPod touch and Microphones iPod touch and Games Linking to iTunes and App Store iPod touch and Quizzes iPod touch and Homepages iPod touch Tips

iPods Episode #16: iPod touch Tips

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #16: iPod touch Tips is online. In this video podcast I share some of my favorite tips and tricks for Safari, text entry, and the Home screen.

In the video I do not attempt to show you the basics of using iPod touch. Mostly because Apple.com has a great iPod touch Guided Tour video and 116-page User Guide. Instead, I share tips that I hope are at least partly new to even experienced iPod touch and iPhone users. Here's a quick list:

Safari

• Tap the time to skip to the top of the page
• Double-tap a column or image to zoom in
• Save an image by tapping and holding
• Tap and hold a link to show its URL
• Add a bookmark icon to the Home screen
• Use bookmarklets to find text on a page, find similar pages, look up words, skip to the end of the page, and more
• Turn iPod touch horizontally before entering a web address or search to get a larger keyboard

Text Entry

• Double-tap Space for a period, space, and capitalization of the next word
• Type "im" and "cant" and let iPod touch autocorrect to "I'm" and "can't"
• Move the cursor by tapping, holding, and dragging
• Enter student names into Contacts to add them to the auto-correct keyboard dictionary
• Reset the keyboard dictionary in Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary

Home Screen

• You can have up to 9 pages of apps for a total of 148
• Tap the bottom right or left corners to move between pages
• Tap and hold one icon until they all jiggle to rearrange them
• Push the Home button to go to the first page of icons when on any other Home screen page
• Put commonly used icons on the first page
• Put most accessed icons in the dock
• Download Backgrounds free from the App Store for thousands of images to use for wallpaper

Watch all 18 minutes of Episode #16 to see these tips in action!