September 20th, 2013 - A Couple Tips and Tools

Welcome to the weekend!!

This week I have a few different tools for you - one to help you with your younger students and a tips for teachers on First Class and an online website for downloading videos.

First for those primary teachers who are using iPads in the classroom - a fun stylus which can help students build up their fine motor skills.  Chapters and staples are now carrying stylus’ which look like shorter versions of pencils and pens, and work the same as a tap or swipe on the iPad.  The ‘Touch Screen Stylus’ is made of electro-conductive rubber and is about $12.  It can be held exactly like a pencil and used to trace letters in apps such as ‘Alphabet Tracing’ and ‘Cursive Writing’.  They are much easier to hold than traditional thinner pencils and the rubberized feel allow for a comfortable grip.  A great find for younger students!

So, are you getting tired of searching all over First Class, the Cloud and your home email for all of your messages? Follow these simple instructions to have your first class messages forwarded to the cloud for ‘one stop shopping for all of your messages.’

First, sign on to your first class account.   Click on ‘Preferences’ in the menu on the left.  Next, click on the +  sign next to the ‘Messaging’ option on the lower part of the page - you should see a section on Mailbox rules with a two gear icon.  Scroll down a bit to “automatically forward” and select ‘Yes’ from the drop down menus for both 'local mail' and 'internet mail'.  Then in the box below where it asks where to ‘Forward to’ type in your UGCloud email address.  Your messages will automatically begin being forwarded and a copy will also remain on the First Class account for future viewing.  Don't forget to download the First Class app for your iPad or iPhone - its much easier than logging on in Safari or Chrome!

Finally, here is a website to help you download videos from the web.  It’s called Keepvid.  By entering www.keepvid.com in the address bar of your web browser, you will be directed to a very plain and basic looking website.  Here you can enter the URL or web address of the video you would like to download.  Then by clicking on the ‘Download button’ your video is processed and a pop up window tells you when your video is ready for downloading.  Also available is a ‘bookmarklet’ for easier downloading of the videos right when you are on the page.  You simply drag and drop the bookmarklet button into your toolbar and when you find a video you would like to download merely click on the button and it will automatically bring you to the website and offer the option to download or view the movie.

I hope these tools are helpful for you in your teaching…

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Stace

September 13, 2013 – All your favourites in your ‘Pocket’

Happy Friday the Thirteenth everyone!!

This week I have chosen to share with you a fun tool which can be used as an app on the iPad, with Twitter and accessed from your desktop computers.  ‘Pocket’ (formerly Read it Later) is a great way to bookmark and store all of those great articles you come across or have been recommended to you.  If you are like me, your computer is full of folders and the bookmark bar is jammed with online webpages you want to come back to when you have more time for reading.  Pocket is a great way to retain all of those articles in one place, and tag them with key words so you can easily find them later. 

iPad, iPhones and Twitter with Pocket:

The Pocket app can be purchased from the app store for free or you can go to the user website (http://getpocket.com) and create a user account (also free).  When you are surfing twitter and someone recommends a great article they have just read, simply click on the link in the tweet and the article will open in a new window.  Here you will see a box with an arrow emerging from it in the top right hand corner.  Tap on this icon and select ‘Mail Link’.  Next an email message will appear and you simply type in add@getpocket.com in the ‘To’ line of the message.  When you tap send, the article will be added to your list of saved articles.  This is the same procedure to use if you are surfing with an iPad and find useful material you would like to return to later.

Chrome Extension:

Pocket is available as a free extension from the Google Web store.  When you purchase it from the Web Store, the icon will appear in the top bar of your web browser next to the web address.  When you come across a page you would like to read at a later date, simply click on the pocket icon and a header will appear at the top of the page stating that the ‘page has been saved’.  You will also be offered the option of adding ‘tags’ to the page.  This allows you to include key words which describe the article or remind you of what the article is about so you can find it much easier later.  

Bookmarklet: 

Pocket is available as a bookmarklet (button on your tool bar) so that all you need to do is click on the button when you would like to save a webpage to your personal pocket of items.  To add the bookmarklet to the tool bar you may visit the following webpage (http://getpocket.com/welcome?b=Bookmarklet) for complete and simple instructions

Accessing your articles and marked pages:

When you find yourself with a little time on your hands (not likely for a teacher, I know) or when you would like to retrieve an item you have stored, simply open the pocket app on the iPad or iPhone and log into your account.  Here you can find all of your items, in one location.  By tapping on the desired article, Pocket will open the item and you can continue reading.  From your desktop computer simply go to the pocket website (http://getpocket.com) to sign into your account.  Here all of your articles, videos, and images will be listed for you; with a click a new window opens and you are able to read the item. 

I hope this helps get you organized a bit and will allow you to clear out some of the bookmarks you have stored on your computer.

Past Tech Tidbits posts can be found on the blog at http://techtidbitz.blogspot.ca and if you have an idea for a future blog topic, please feel free to pass it along to me.

Cheers,

Stace