app of the week

Pages – iPhone App of the Week

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Pages – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Pages.

Exclusively designed for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Pages lets you create, edit and view documents wherever you are. Every page looks stunning and clear on iPad — and also on iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch, thanks to the high-resolution Retina display. Pages uses Smart Zoom to automatically zoom in on text while you type, and zooms back out when you’ve finished, so it’s easy to write and edit on iPhone and iPod touch.

£5.99

I have reviewed Apple’s Pages before when it was only available for the iPad.

Since then Apple have made it an universal App and so it now works on the iPhone and the iPod touch. One of the reasons they have done this is that the new iCloud will allow you to work on the same document using Pages on the Mac, the iPad and the iPhone without needing to sync through iTunes or copy off through e-mail, iDisk or a WebDAV drive. With iCloud it will be possible to start a document off on your iPhone, work on it on your iPad before finishing it off on your Mac. Changes would be made automatically via the forthcoming iCloud service.

So can you use Pages on the iPhone as a word processor?

Well most of this article was written in Pages on my iPhone.

Virtually all the functionality in the iPad version can be found in the iPhone version. You can embed photographs, tables, charts and shapes.

As before where I think Pages falls down is on document management, specifically getting documents on and off the iPhone. For example in getting documents off the Iphone you have three quite limited options:

  • Send via Mail
  • Share via iWork.com
  • Export

You also need to remember to Export your document if you want to remove it via the file management part of iTunes! Sending via e-mail is often the easiest option, whilst iWork.com is really in my opinion still in beta. However as mentioned previously the new iCloud service should make it easier to edit documents between your iPhone and your Mac.

There are three Export options, Pages, PDF and Word, so if you have a Windows PC that you use with your iPhone then even though you use Pages on the iPhone, you will be able to import and edit your documents using Word on the Windows PC.

Once you have exported you can share that exported file via one of the file sharing Apps such as AirSharing. Alas one of the things I would love to see is Dropbox support, but there isn’t any. The new version does have better document management and rather than have all your files in one place, you can now organise them into folders.

Getting files into Pages is not that simple. Even if you copy files over through iTunes, you then still need to import them again into the Pages App, an extra process that in my opinion isn’t really needed and should be done automatically.

Disappointingly you can’t use Pages on the iPhone in landscape mode, so as a result you do need pretty good eyesight to edit the document or have the text shift from side to side as you write.

There are flaws in my opinion with Pages, but having said that, it is still an excellent word processor for the iPhone and as you would expect very stable on the iOS platform and I am pleased with my results the times I have used it.

From a learning perspective, learners would be able to use Pages to make notes, start writing their assignment, edit essays on the move and so on.

Get Pages for the iPhone in the iTunes Store.

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Life after Death by Powerpoint

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Don McMillan has released an updated version of his Life after Death by Powerpoint sketch which was originally an internet hit back a few years back.

If you haven’t seen it before, he does make some useful observations on how people use Powerpoint for presentations, oh and it’s quite funny too.


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100 ways to use a VLE – #75 Streaming live audio

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In the past if you wanted to “broadcast” live audio to learners you basically had to be the BBC or use a CB radio. The challenge was that the learner who was listening needed a receiver at their end.

The internet now makes it much easier to broadcast live audio using tools such as Nicecast.

Nicecast is the easiest way to broadcast music from your Mac. Broadcast to listeners around the world.

The thing about Nicecast is that the stream is a simple URL. For learners this is not always that simple, for example they may lose, delete or be unable to find the e-mail that contains the URL. If printed on a handout may contain an error, or the learner may type it into their browser wrong.

Putting the URL, or even better embedding the live audio feed into the VLE will ensure that learners can not only find the feed, but also listen to it whenever the practitioner broadcasts. To be honest you probably want to e-mail the URL anyhow and any other communication channels that the learners use, Twitter for example.

The VLE is only really one medium and reliance on any one medium is not good practice. However though if the VLE is used regularly for posting these kinds of feeds and links, then the learners will become familiar with going to the VLE to access them.

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Artify – iPad App of the Week

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Artify – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Artify.

Inspired by the great Impressionist painters Monet, Renoir, and Degas, Artify instantly transforms your favorite photos into masterpieces. Create gorgeous impressionistic interpretations of photos of friends, family, landscapes, or anything at all. Reveal and highlight any detail you want with just the touch of a finger.

Simple, elegant and instant:

• Take or import photos and transform them with a single touch of the “Artify!” button into impressionistic artwork
• Choose from three different styles to “Artify” with – each creates a unique look
• Reveal faces or other detail with a stroke of your finger, for a gorgeous mix of soft and sharp that will delight your friends and family
• Zoom in, Pan, Undo and Redo to get the exact effects you want, with fine detail control
• Customize and create your own unique version of a favorite pic by turning your fingertip into a small, medium or large brush
• Hit “Clear” to start again from a clean copy of the original photo
• Nothing to “learn” – Artify is instant and intuitive. One touch and your favorite photo is a masterpiece
• Share your artified pics in email, or post to Facebook or Twitter right from the app
• New photos and artified works are autosaved to camera roll for you to keep
• Create unlimited Artified versions of your pics. Each time you “Artify!” you create a unique interpretation of the image
• Artify now supports extra-large resolution images!

£1.19

Okay I like apps like this, I liked ToonPAINT for example that turns images into comics. This app turns photographs into artworks…

Well not quite…

It does certainly apply a filter to images on your iPad (or your iPhone) and make them look different.

Does it turn it into artwork?

I think not.

However the effect is quite pleasing and it’s something that might work as a presentation background.

You can partially remove the “effect” to emphasise a key part of the photo if you want to.

The real advantage of this app is that it is simple, and the one thing it does, it does quickly and easily.

Get Artify in the iTunes App Store.

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iPad Apps – RSC SW Turbo TEL

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Last week I attended the JISC RSC SW Turbo TEL event in Bristol. In a change to previous conferences that I have attended and delivered at, this one comprised short six minute presentations and an opportunity for delegates to talk about things they wanted to.

I did a few presentations, one was on using the VLE better, based on my series here on the blog of 100 ways to use a VLE and another on iPad apps.

I did prepare a presentation, but in the end I showed the apps live through the iPad. The presentation shows most of the apps I did demo.

You can read reviews of most of them through my app of the week feature.

Update

Here is a list of the Apps I covered in the session with links to the iOS App Store.

AudioNote – Notepad and Voice Recorder – Luminant Software, Inc

Snapseed for iPad – Nik Software, Inc.

Comic Life – plasq LLC

Dragon Dictation – Nuance Communications

Eureka Sports Science – Times Newspapers Limited

Flipboard – Flipboard Inc.

GarageBand – Apple®

Keynote – Apple®

iThoughtsHD (mindmapping) – CMS

Pocket Heart by Pocket Anatomy™ : The Interactive Human Body. – Pocket Anatomy

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LIFE for iPad – iPad App of the Week

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LIFE for iPad – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is LIFE for iPad.

LIFE for iPad is a spectacular experience: LIFE’s legendary photo collection at a never-before-seen resolution. Download the free app to explore LIFE’s vast archives, up-to-the-minute news photos, and special features not available anywhere else.

– View high definition (HD) photo galleries featuring this enormous collection of professional, endless fascinating, and historically significant photography.
-Immerse yourself in the map-based LIFE Explorer view that allows you to find photos based on where they were taken.
-“Email”, “Facebook”, and “Twitter” buttons allow you to easily send LIFE photos to friends or post them to your favorite social networks.
– Take millions of high-resolution photos with you everywhere you go.
– Travel through this app by swiping side-to-side or using the interactive filmstrip mode.

Free

I have a few photo galley apps like LIFE on my iPad, it’s a bit like having a coffee table book you can flick through.

There are some really good photographs to be found in the LIFE app and one aspect of the app I do like is the ability to easily share the images with others either through e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

For example, having found a great image of the Space Shuttle I can send the link to my social network or via e-mail.

The LIFE galleries cover a huge range of subjects, topics and countries.

The only downside is the odd advert which pops up, which I can accept as it is a free app, however it is somewhat discordant when going through a gallery on a delicate subject, such as war, for an advert to pop up about a celebrity magazine!

You do also need an internet connection so remember that too.

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e-Learning Stuff Podcast #077: I resign as mayor!

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GPS Status app - HTC Desire

So why has David Sugden resigned as mayor? Why do people use Foursquare and other geo-services? Is there any benefit to teaching and learning, if so what is it?

With David Sugden and James Clay

This is the seventy seventh e-Learning Stuff Podcast, I resign as mayor!

Download the podcast in mp3 format: I resign as mayor!

Shownotes

vle

Using the VLE better – RSC SW Turbo TEL

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Yesterday I attended the JISC RSC SW Turbo TEL event in Bristol. In a change to previous conferences that I have attended and delivered at, this one comprised short six minute presentations and an opportunity for delegates to talk about things they wanted to.

I did a few presentations, one though was on using the VLE better, based on my series here on the blog of 100 ways to use a VLE.

I delivered over fifty slides with over fifty ways in which the VLE can be used to support, enhance and enrich learning in just six minutes.

The idea behind the presentation was not about substance, can you really do substance in six minutes; it was about inspiring others to think about how they could work with practitioners (and learners) to use the VLE more effectively to support the learning process. The fifty odd ideas (and the 100 ways articles) are based on how practitioners at my college (and others) are using the VLE now with learners everyday.

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