Using your Mobile Phone in Teaching - Discussion Group 19th August 2013

We had a small group  meet on Broome and Derby Campuses via Video Conference - unfortunately our colleagues at Kununurra were left out of the loop by a destroyed VC camera.  Hopefully they will read this and catch up with some of the information

Brad Durack, one of KTI's trade lecturers, is not only a carpenter by trade but he is also a professional photographer.  Brad shared some of his tricks using his mobile phone in every day work.  Two ways he uses his phone are:

1. To record evidence using still photographs, video footage and audio recording.
2. Relaying information from his mobile phone to a screen in a classroom

Recording Evidence

Brad went through the basics of photography with us - with an iPhone or smart phone it is mainly just point and shoot, but he warned us to be mindful of lighting.  If we have a subject in a room we wish to video or photograph, make sure we have light coming in from a window or door, and/or plenty of artificial light from electric lights, and that the subject is facing into the light, not against the light.

In addition, Brad shared some apps that will help us to have more options with our photography.  One such app for the iPhone is Camera+  which provides additional options for shooting photographs that may not come with your basic iPhone package - features such as different shooting modes and touch exposure and focus that extend what is already on the phone.  It is $1.99 in the App store.  

Editing Photos - on your device

Once you have taken your photos, it is necessary to make sure the size and quality are correct for the purpose.  For example if you intend inserting the photo into a page on Blackboard or a blog, it is best to keep the size medium to small, or it will take ages for it to load on the page.  Likewise, if you want to send the image by SMS or email, it needs to be a small size.  You may also wish to crop the photo, or add effects.

Brad demonstrated how to do this very simply on your device once you have taken the shot.  On an iPhone, go to Camera Roll, select the photo, and you will see options for cropping, enhancing and sharing.  If you decides to share by email or upload to a social networking site, it will give you the option to resize to a suitable size.  There is a similar process on your smart phone.

As well as this simple, immediate way of editing your photos, you have access to many apps for iPad, iPhones, smart phones and tablets in their respective app stores. to use in editing and enhancing your photos. 

One useful app is Collage for iPhone (there are heaps of collage apps out there for both iPhone and other smart phones - it's a question of exploring and finding what you like).  This app enables you to create interesting collages from your photographs, free for "Lite" and 99c for the full version

Two other apps for adding effects and editing your photos are Photoshop Express which is free (although apparently in the latest version you have to make "in app purchases" of the good stuff such as different effects) and Art Studio which is 99c and is excellent for digital drawing, painting and editing images.  Art Studio allows you to re-size photos, crop, add text, draw on and many other functions with images.  An app for iPhones that allows you to draw on or add text to photographs is Phonto  which is free, or 99c for the ad free version.

Some Android apps that are similar to above are Image Editor and Photo Studio - two free apps that have a range of editing and enhancement tools, including re-size and crop.

Editing Photos - on a Windows 7 desktop

Often you may want to upload your photos to your desktop for further editing, or you may have downloaded an image from the internet to use in your teaching materials.  Windows has a basic image editing program called Paint that is easy to use.  I have created a document about this and Windows Picture Manager (good for a quick re-size to predefined dimensions).  You can find this document on Google Docs here

In this document there are also suggestions for other free programs for desktop photo editing.

Storing and sharing and using your images

 

File types and sizes

 Images can be very large files, so it helps to understand a little about different file types and how much they compress the size of the image.  The larger the image, the longer it will take to load on a  web page (for example Blackboard LMS or a blog) and the less likely your email will accept it as an attachment.

There is a handy web page that sets out all the different image file types and what their different purposes are, here - this page is part of a website about digital photography for beginners which seems very good and easy to understand.  I have summarised the main points about image file types in a Word document you can locate at Google Docs here

The other reason it is important to understand different image file types is that if you share an image that is saved as a file type other than the commonly used jpeg (or jpg) file, or possibly a png file, the person you share it with will be unlikely to have a program to open it with.

Storage and sharing of images

Even when compressed, image files can take up a lot of space when there are many of them and there is a limit to our space on our personal and shared drives within KTI.  So it is worth considering other options for storage.

When you are using Apple technology such as an iPad or iPhone, you can stream your photos directly to iCloud - how and when you do this depends on what you do to your iCloud and Photo settings - on your iPhone for example, you can have your Photo Stream and Dcouments and Data turned on, so that everything is streamed automatically from your iPhone to your iCloud account.  Or you can turn them off, and send individual files to iCloud.  Privacy settings allow you to share from iCloud to the people you want to share with, or to remain private.

A similar system can work with Android devices and Google Drive.  Google Drive is a Cloud based storage system where you can keep large files, and set your privacy to suit your needs - to share with the public, to selected people, or to remain private.

Drop Box is another free Cloud Based storage space for large files, and the sharing and privacy options are similar to the above.

It is now possible, with iPhones and iPads, to obtain a wifi SD card that can be put into any device and allow that device to synchronise with your iPad or iPhone.  So you can save your image files to your desktop for later if you wish.  The best part though, is that that you can connect your iPhone or iPad to a TV screen (and possibly a Smartboard - I would need to check this out)  in a classroom wirelessly, and display what is in your device to a class,whether it is an educational app, images, video clips or a document.

Next Group Discussion Meeting

Our next Peer Group Discussion for mobile technology is to be 2nd September at 3.30 pm and we are going to look at shooting video clips from our mobile devices, editing, storage and use.

Feel free to comment below, share your experiences and ask questions!

Discussion Group 5th August - Uses for mobile devices in teaching, main types of uses and apps

There was a very informative and productive meeting via video conference.  We had five Broome lecturers, two in Derby and one in Kununurra attend our latest group discussion.  Unfortunately Brad Durack, who was going to share his digital photography expertise, was unable to attend but is hopeful of attending the next session on the 19th August.

The discussion was around the use of mobile devices for administrative, reference, data collection and storage. 

Administration

Examples of mobile use are calendars, reminders, grading software, sign and send for forms, note taking, study guides, delivery of learning materials.

Gary Lienert uses Bento, which is an iPad data base app provided by Filemaker. Gary uses it for keeping track of student details. However please note Bento is to be decommissioned in September 2013. Filemaker will concentrate on their products related to Filemaker Pro after this. Filemaker Pro is an excellent data base desktop program that syncs with ipads via an app, however it is expensive and requires multiple licenses. Some lecturers in the trades and conservation areas have requested a trial and Gary Urquhart is involved with this. Jill will follow up and find out more about how they intend to use it, and the progress of having it implemented.



Gary Lienert and Dave Broun use Sign and Send for student documentation and forms - this is very useful for traineeships in remote communities - the document can be accessed on the device, or by email, signed by all parties, and sent, all using the one app on the phone or tablet.


Drop Box - Several of us use Drop Box to place large files, for example video clips, large size image files, large pdf's or data bases. Drop Box is a cloud-based site with privacy settings and security to match your needs. It is a good way to share materials with other lecturers and students and to store large files that take up space on your drives. It is possible to collaborate on documents with others, using a tool called "Shared Folders."


Dave Broun uses CamScanner to scan documents for signing, sending and saving when on the road. You can get CamScanner for Android and CamScanner for iPad


 Jill recommends DocstoGo - this is an app for smartphones or tablets that provide you with the ability to create Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on your device, and there is also a version for iPhone and iPad

Reference

This can include dictionaries, e-books and office applications. Some that are being used by members of this group are:

Anatomy for iPhone

Australian Birds

iBooks for pdf e-books

Google for definition searches in LLN

Reading Eggs

Targeting Maths

Fourpics

For the apps, such as Anatomy for iPhone or Four Pics and Targeting Maths, do a search in the App Store or Google Store.

Data Collection

We did not finish the discussion on using our devices for data collection but this is a major function for teachers - we can collect data or information for assessment evidence, for teaching purposes and for admin purposes.  Video and audio recording are possible from phones and tablets, and still photographs are another useful means of gathering evidence or other information.

Maureen Crowther's remote aged care  students  create stories using video or photographs and this serves the purpose of both assessment evidence, and shared learning with their peers as they pass the video clips and photographs around.

Gary Lienert and his conservation and land management students undergoing Indigenous Ranger training make extensive use of the camera for still shots and video footage in documenting their activities for both assessment and learning.

Collection of information like this requires editing skills, an understanding of file types, skills to upload to various locations and share, and an understanding of different platforms from which to share or on which to store the files.  Some relevant apps are:

Art Studio - Jill has used this app (Art Studio Lite is free, and the full version is around $5) to successfully edit and resize photos on iPhone or iPad.
Pinnacle - David has tried this for editing video footage on the iPad ready for saving to a website or sharing with others.
TeacherTube is like YouTube but for education purposes only and allows you to create classes, groups and libraries of videos for your students, where you can store and share any class material tha you create - it will allow you to upload a video that is 300 mb or less, or up to 320 minutes.  The type of file is important.  Most editing apps such as iMovie or Pinnacle will convert the edited video clip to mp4 or some format that compresses the file size and is compatible with most websites.  We intend to explore these in our next session.

Areas for further discussion

Future discussion groups will be looking in more detail at file types for images and video clips, the "how to's" of converting file types, editing, and uploading files to a range of locations, including Blackboard.  We hope to have Brad Durack's digital photography expertise for this in future sessions.

Other areas of  mobile use that could be looked at in future sessions include:

 

Interactive 

Quizzes, chat, polling, sms and texting

Gaming

Simulations and games

Location

Augmented environments, QR codes, Google Earth, maps.

Collaborative

Pod/vodcastng, blogging, instant messaging, Wikis, online conferencing using mobile devices

Come along and join in on the 19th at 3.30 pm - all are welcome regardless of your use or non-use of mobile devices and phones in your teaching.  The idea is to share experience and ideas, at all levels.

 

Discussion Group 19th April 2013

Small but useful.....

We had a smaller than expected gathering this time round, but certainly enlightening and fun!  Chris Maher, Broome business man and political candidate extraordinaire,  came along armed with his iPhone and a heap of tips on how to use social networking for marketing.  Perhaps not directly relevant to the daily business of a KTI lecturer but definitely transferrable to some of our tasks, and also generally useful information for anyone wishing to promote either their private business, or their KTI business or class.  In addition, we all shared our favourite apps which I found useful.

Chris Maher's Tips and Tricks

Chris shared CatchNotes - a fabulous app for organising your ideas with notes, photos and voice recordings, all organised with different coloured tabs so they are easy to find and keep track of.  You can send web content to your notes via email and share and collaborate with others.  I found this the most useful app I have heard of in a long time.  I use the normal "Notes" app on iPhone but they are a hodge podge of notes with no real system or order.  CatchNotes allows you to organise your notes into topics or projects, and share with anyone you would like to collaborate with.  I'm sold on it!

Chris also gave us valuable insights into how he uses FaceBook and other social networking sites to promote his businesses and also how he used them in his campaign.  Basically he creates small cogs of promotion within Facebook, links them to other cogs in other social networking sites such as Pinterest, Instagram,  blogs, and uses Google+ as a tool to promote to his networks and beyond, creating lots of little cogs, then he uses paid advertising judiciously as the bigger wheels, and the whole thing meshes together into one powerful little publicity machine.  At least this is my picture of Chris's publicity dynamo.  I think we can all learn from his model not only in terms of promotion and marketing, but also for our work with our students, to get them engaged and active in our courses.

Another tip from Chris is to use Google Image Search if we are wondering who someone is when they turn up on our social networking sites.  Google Image will take you to the person's details, which can sometimes be useful - for example if you suspect there is some spamming happening, or if the person is a negative influence on the site, or in a more positive light, if you think the person might be useful for your promotional activites or a useful contact in some ways.

Monique Ellis Uses Face Time and CyberSmart

Monique Ellis uses FaceTime on her iPhone a lot for personal use and some of us were able to see that this could be a useful tool for communicating with distance students.  It is like Skype but simpler, and it can operate from wireless where wireless is available, lessening the impact on cellular data. 

Monique also informed us of a Federal website for internet safety called CyberSmart - a fantastic website full of resources to inform children and teens of everything needed to be safe on the internet.  This is an absolute must for any lecturer using open sites such as blogs or social networking, to engage their students.  Monique has a great blog called Fishbytes  and she has introduced all of her students to this CyberSmart site.

Michelle Haber and her amazing LLN tools

Michelle Haber, LLN lecturer, uses a range of LLN iPad apps for her Access students in the Youth Engagement Project.  She says she follows an eclectic approach, picking apps that suit her students individually to encourage them into independent study.  Apps she uses include Money Smart, calculator, photo editing apps, Maths Party.

Gary Lienert - Apps to find your way

Gary Lienert likes Find my iPhone and says it has saved him on a number of occasions when he mislaid his iPhone.  He also uses navigation apps like Tom Tom and Google Earth with his rangers.

David Broun's Cam Scanner

David Broun explained further how he uses the Cam Scanner app which is a mobile phone pdf creation app,  to capture brainstorms that have been recorded on whiteboards or butchers paper, or documents that he wants to share.  It is available for iPhones as well as Android devices, and it is more than just a scanner, as it has smart cropping and auto-enhancing functions and advanced document search and management functions as well.

Jill's App Discoveries

I shared some apps I recently discovered that might be useful in an educational environment.  One of them is Tappestry, which on the site is described as "a mobile-first application that helps learners capture and track what they have learned and what they want to learn. Organizations can measure and track these informal learning events."  As an individual you can use Tappestry to document your learning as you go.  It seems to me it could be used for RPL evidence gathering as an e-Portfolio, and/or for reflection.  Definitely worth exploring.

Another app I learned about last week in the TCC online Emerging Technology Conference, is one called Nearpod.  Nearpod is a website that provides tools for teachers to create interactive multimedia presentations using a Cloud-based Nearpod content creation tool.  Students can download the content to their mobile devices and take part in interactive activities either in the class room, or at a distance, using their mobile devices or any web browser on a pc or laptop.

My latest personal app is Viber, an app that allows you to call or text anyone else in your contacts who also has Viber, for free, using wi fi.  This is especially great for international travel, where you can end up with large bills from your carrier if you don't disable your cellular data. 

I am wondering also, would this be a good app for lecturers to use (setting up a dedicated account that is different to their personal account) for staying in contact with groups of students?  Something maybe we can discuss further....

Google Hangouts

There was a discussion about Google Hangouts which provides free video conferencing for up to 10 people. This is definitely an area we all need to explore further - Skype does not allow this many simultaneous particpants (at least the free one doesn't) and it might be simpler for some purposes than Collaborate.  Google Hangouts is part of a suite of Google webtools in Google+, again something worth exploring to create circles or groups, and bigger communities, and communicate with them.

What did we learn?

As well as learning about a range of individual apps that may be useful, the main conclusions from our discussion were:

• The huge range of resources out there that can be used or adapted to an education and training environment to make our job easier and also to engage our participants
• That not one size fits all is a definite.  The range of apps is so huge that we can pick, mix and match a large range of apps to suit different purposed and target groups
• Regular research to update our knowledge is vital in the changing world of emerging technologies
• With social networking sites we need to consider privacy and security issues for our students, so with the range of great social networking sites available that allow us to share our thoughts, ideas and images, we just need to investigate each site's privacy and security settings, and inform our participants on how to protect their privacy, as well as the security of their information.

Join the discussion - comment below!

We would love you to join our discussion and your ideas and knowledge in the comments.  Ask questions, put your thoughts forward and let us know of anything you are using in your teaching or other life that you feel is useful or fun!

First meeting of Peer Support for Mobile Technology Group

Last Friday a group of Kimberley Training Institute lecturers and a guest from ABC Kimberley met via video conference to compare notes on how they are using, or could use, mobile technology to support their delivery of training.

David Broun described some projects he has completed with the Kimberley Ranger trainees using his smart phone and iPads for Language, Literacy and Numeracy training.  His "Smackdown" events enabled trainees to record stories using these devices, assisted by the ABC Open's Open Producer, Alex Smee, who is involved in a program which records local stories by ordinary people and publishes them to the ABC Open website.  David explains how he uses an app called Cam Scanner to capture whiteboards and other important written materials created in student activities, and convert to pdf documents, and discusses the Smackdown event and how the use of the iPads to create video clips helped the students gain skills in report writing and presentations.  

David Broun discusses using iPads and phones for LLN work

Alex Smee, Open Producer from ABC Open, Kimberley has contributed to the Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) programs in the Kimberley by assisting Aboriginal people to tell their stories in video and still images, and uploading them to ABC Open website.  Alex talked about what she does and how this assists the skills of particpants.  The video footage is not approved for sharing yet but if it is approved the link to this footage will appear below

Here are some links to some of the work the students did with Alex and David:

Smackdown Video Postcard Peter Thomas

Alphonse and the Lombardina Sprinklers

Nyul Nyul Rangers 'Water is....'

Jane Appleton teaches Language, Literacy and Numeracy, and ESL, and tried an iPad in her classroom for the first time last week.  Here she shares her experiences:

Jane Appleton discusses her first experience using iPad in an LLN class

Gary Lienert shared with the group how he has used his iPhone and iPad to do administrative and assessment tasks using an app called Sign and Send, and how he assesses his Kimberley Ranger trainees by having them record on the iPad the tasks they are doing on country.    Gary also gave an overview of how he used the app iBooks to create an e-learning guide for his learners for a particular unit in the Conservation and Land Management course.  The iBook that he created can be accessed on the iPads that have been supplied to the Kimberley ranger trainees by the Kimberley Land Council.  Gary may like to enlarge on his experience using mobile phone and iPads further in the comments.

Karen Dockrill explained how she might use mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in her hospitality and events management training.  Karen may like to outline some of her ideas further in the comments as I was unable to record her in Kununurra from Broome.

SUMMARY OF WHAT THE GROUP FOUND OUT

Mobile phones and tablets are being used by participants in the following ways:

• For administration and communication when on the road and in remote communites (accessing work emails, using pdf sign and send apps to forward enrolment and apprenticeship documentation to base, capturing documents using scanner apps)
• For teaching and learning in remote locations (students using maps and other apps on the iPads to complete learning and assessment tasks, documenting assessments through video and photos, accessing learning materials as needed on the job and on the road)
• For teaching and learning in classrooms, particularly with Language, Literacy and Numeracy students, making use of numerous LLN apps available for iPads (lecturers are intending to explore non-Apple tablet technology in coming months), using tablets loaded with appropriate apps and materials as teaching assistants in the classroom.
• Specific LLN uses such as students conducting their own video productions, with all the skills in writing, speaking, presenting and reporting that this requires.

WATCH THIS SPACE for further developments as we continue to have these informative sessions, hopefully with the occasional guest speaker.

How to use Blackboard Mobile?

How can we use Blackboard Mobile at KTI to maximise access to learning for our clients, particularly in remote Aboriginal communities?  Here is an interesting article I found on M Learning for developing countries, covering the problems and some solutions.  I think some of it might be quite relevant to remote Kimberley communities.  Recurring Issues Encountered by Distance Educators in Developing and Emerging Nations

WestOne's Senior Programs Officer (Staff Development) Chris Winter, has this to say:

"I just always try and think "task" and that's what the app developers have done well with Bb mobile.

 

Things that work well on a phone and in the app include:

Checking the calendar

Receiving announcements

Using the Blogs/Forums

Uploading photo/video

Taking a mobile test (steer away from questions with too much typing)

Checking my grades

 

Content "can" be viewed on a device but is pushed out to the browser. But as discussed, how much content would we expect people to read on a phone?

 

Tablet yes, but then most existing content would work with little alteration so long as it isn't flash based."

I think that at KTI we maybe need to be thinking of models of training that make alot of use of mobile technology - many people in remote communities have smart phones but not such good access to computers.

With the issue of download costs etc, it seems that you have to make sure you design your course to minimise this.  So for example with the Blackboard environment you base your course around activities like discussions, blogs, simple quizzes, use the announcements and calendar tools alot to remind people of tasks and get them to capture evidence of their learning with pictures, video etc on their phones - these can then either be uploaded to Blackboard, or using a local pc, put on the pc and accessed by each other and by a teacher, or shared on a Facebook page, for example.  They can journal by recording their thoughts out loud on their phones, too.

 

So the mobile device or phone is not the sole source of study in the course - it may include some face to face meetings, some computer work where computers areavailable and even hard copy course manuals.  The manuals with the phones plus an occasional face to face meeting would probably be a good formula for some of these communities.