As a teacher, I am often asked by parents and by other teachers about apps to use with their children. I always recommend ones that encourage children to be creative and allow them to express themselves in a positive way. These are several of my favorite Android apps for Preschool - adult. I have included a variety of types. I also like these because the product can be saved to... More →
Before you tell me that you don’t want me anywhere near your backpack or your TPACK, let me explain. TPACK is simply a framework and yet another acronym that we can use in education. Except this acronym really matters (like all the others). According to http://www.tpack.org, “The TPACK framework extends Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge.” Props to Dr. Matthew Koehler,... More →
Reading comes to life with interactive eBooks using the Storia app by Scholastic. Get five free books just for downloading the app. It's easy, just download and install the Storia app, launch, sign in and read. Teachers like that they get five free books and that they can use their Scholastic bonus points to buy eBooks. But what teachers really like about Storia, is the built-in book manager. Books... More →
In this video Sony Education Ambassador Andy Losik shows some of his fifth graders hard at work and having lots of fun learning seventeen different professional camera angles. Five groups of students are all handled a different device. The Sony Bloggie and Xperia tablet are among those in play. The overall goal is not to create Hollywood masterpieces but to gain tech literacy with many different devices and platforms. ... More →
I'm really excited to use the Sony Xperia Tablet with K-2 students. I'm sure that they will think of even more ways to use the apps than I will. The first 6 year old that I handed the Xperia Tablet to immediately tapped on an app to open it. It was intuitive. I did need to show her how to get back to the home screen and how... More →
The Idea One great way to use your Sony Xperia in the classroom is to create a class voting booth. This could be done in conjunction with an election unit or simply to instill a little bit of the democratic process into your classroom. While the act of voting via clicker or via webtools such as polleverywhere.com may be a quick way to gather class information, the act of... More →
I live in Minnesota where the weather can be extreme. Thank goodness there are weather apps so that I can stay inside. If I were planning a unit on weather in my classroom, the first thing I would do is round up resources that I have available, the resources online and the apps on my Sony Xperia Tablet. In my classroom I would have thermometers, a barometer and books. Then... More →
There are lots of ways to create eBooks these days, using lots of different tools. This post focuses on one way to create eBooks that is simple, free, and takes full advantage of the tools available on your Xperia tablet. The Idea Have your students author content for a book that can be turned into an eBook, read on digital devices, and shared with others. The content of the book... More →
Last year, I wrote a blog post titled “11 Things I Think I Know About 1:1 Classroom Management.” In that post, I approached teaching in a 1:1 environment from the perspective of what it takes to teach well in a media-rich environment. The conclusion I came to was that, really, the skills that it takes to be an effective teacher in the Digital Age are the same as the skills it... More →
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One app that comes with your machine is Movie Studio (please excuse my busy background). If you're looking for the Xperia equivalent of Premiere, this ain't it. That said, if you need a quick way to bring together a few clips, pictures, and music, Movie Studio can do the job. The app allows adding any of the items mentioned above, as well as taking pictures and video from... More →
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Ask a 6th grader how many different jobs there are, and you might get, "Well there's (what my mom does), (what my dad does), teacher, police officer, football player, movie star, and the president of the United States. Did I get them all?" Hopefully not, but more to the point, there are remarkably few opportunities in most curricula to explore lots of different careers in any kind of efficient... More →
Having a tablet or other mobile device that may well be handed among several students as part of an activity can cause problems if the students have multiple accounts they need to access. Imagine, for example, that three students in a group will use one device, and each has a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) account. How do they access their accounts without stepping into each others' mail, files, etc.? ... More →
Students love to tell stories. Students love to create stories. There are loads of great Android apps that allow students to capture images and video and do things like make movies, annotate what they capture, and add in their voice. Check out these great apps that allow students to create stories on the go: Skitch With the built-in front facing and rear facing cameras on your Xperia tablet,... More →
Newton’s laws of motion help us understand how objects in the world move around us. Through these apps students of all ages can understand the basics of physics and the comprehension skill of cause and effect. First I would allow students to time to explore and play with the apps. Several are listed below. Then I would introduce Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion. I... More →
By no stretch of the imagination, am I a professional photographer. I like taking pictures of my work with schools, teachers and students and I love taking pictures of school signs. I also believe in the need to document, in pictures, the fantastic things that are happening in our schools every day. Photos capture moments that will never, ever happen again. So in working with my Sony Xperia tablet,... More →
I love art. I love drawing, painting, and creating art of all kinds. My students usually cheered when I got out the art supplies. Students love art too. One of the wonderful features of the Sony Xperia Tablet is that it allows students to be artistically creative and to share their work. Illustration apps allow students to express themselves through drawing, to illustrate their stories, and to communicate. Their illustrations... More →
I recently came across a handy app on the Sony Xperia that was already there right out of the box. The app is called Scrapbook. If you don’t already see the Scrapbook app on your home screen, press Apps & Widgets in the top right corner to locate the Scrapbook app. To add an app to your home screen, just press and hold on it until you are... More →
So you're a teacher putting together a video or a slideshow, and you want to add some music. What's okay to use? The rules surrounding copyright are complex, but help is out there. You can find all kinds of good music you can use. Legally. For free. You just need to know where, and how, to look. Let's start by assuming that you want to be able... More →
As a former speech teacher, I can’t tell you how jealous I am that today’s teachers have the ability to provide their young rhetoricians with the tools that the big boys use. When I discovered that tablets like the Xperia can be used as teleprompters, I thought back to all of those student hours spent writing notecards and designing cue cards. I remembered with pain the... More →
PicsArts for Kids (free in the Google Play store), has features that will appeal to all aspiring young artists. Students can draw freely on a blank canvas (which supports multi-finger touch), color a variety of different pre-made pages (your tablet can also be your coloring book!), and students can learn to draw more complex figures by combining different shapes. For a free app, it has a lot of nice... More →
With the Google Voice app you can easily put a new spin on formative assessment. By installing the app and then signing up for a free customizable number (I was even able to get my last name in mine.) teachers can create a feedback hotline for students and parents to leave comments, reflections, or questions. Here is an easy example. A teacher asks her class to read three poems by... More →
If you have spent any time at all in recent professional development sessions for teachers, you have almost certainly run across the term Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The term applies to reaching and engaging all types of learners through the use of innovative and a multi-sensory approach. It’s a great idea that I feel all educators should strive to achieve, but it can be a... More →
Many teachers love the collaborative nature of documents in the Google Drive system, but have difficulties keeping what is shared with them organized. I have some recommendations on how to handle that, and hope this will help you take advantage of all that collaborative documents make possible. Note that if you are brand new to Google Drive, this post may be confusing. I am assuming an understanding of... More →
I love challenges. Someone asked me if it was possible to get a Google Drive and a Box.net account to work together. I accepted this challenge and got to work figuring it out. I found that I can use both together. I already had Google Drive on my laptop and the Google Drive app on my Sony Xperia Tablet. I also had a Box.net account, Box sync... More →
This is an introductory activity to get to know the features of the Sony Xperia Tablet and a few of the apps. You can do the activities with a partner or by yourself. Tasks can be completed in any order. All answers should be written down on the Sony Xperia Tablet. What app would you use for that? Find the telephone number for the... More →
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It seems that many teachers in the 1:1 learning environment express frustration over getting materials both on an off of their students' devices. Box.com is a free and cloud-based solution that can greatly streamline these management issues and allow teachers to focus on fostering the 4 C's of 21st Century Learning: Collabortation, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Communication. Collaboration: When groups engaging in project or challenge based learning activities are... More →
Colleagues often ask me where I find new tools and ideas for enhancing learning with technology. Obviously, I always learn from and share the great resources available from my fellow Sony Education Ambassadors, but beyond that, with so much content available on the web and so few hours in the day, I try to be as efficient in my learning as possible. As a result, I’ve gradually assembled... More →
Thank you to all the teachers for your dedication, time and energy. Our learners need your passion and expertise to guide their learning. Your work is inspiring and much appreciated! As a teacher for over 35 years, I know that teachers love, and need, free stuff. So I was on a mission to find stuff for you. I haven't read all the fine print and haven't requested all of... More →
As educators, we are constantly making a difference in the lives of our students. Those differences may be small - seeds planted that flower into something important years later. Sometimes, though, the difference is powerfully immediate. This video is the story of The Apollos, a group of students from Oakland Technical High School who in 1979 were key in getting California to pass a law creating a holiday celebrating the life... More →
One of the great things about mobile technology generally and tablet technology specifically is that one device can perform so many functions. Tablets like the Xperia can be a library, a stereo, a computer, a camera, a movie theater, and so much more. One of my favorite uses for the Xperia tablet is as a video camera and production studio. With my Xperia, I have the ability to capture, edit... More →
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I spend a lot of time observing teachers helping students use technology. I've come to accept the reality of the situation; teachers end up spending a lot of time redirecting student attention and helping solve minor technical issues. It doesn't matter if a student is using a desktop, laptop, or Sony Xperia Z tablet- at some point, the student will raise his/her hand and signal the teacher... More →
So, you just got a new Android tablet (Hopefully, it was a Sony Xperia Z) and you have no idea which apps to load on it. The page linked below is a list of 102 (yeah, I added a few extra...) Android apps to get you started in your Android experience. This list doesn't delve much into specific content areas, but has more general purpose and content creation... More →
Wouldn't it be nice to share an insight that helps a child somewhere learn something new? Perhaps your way of looking at a given topic might help that child go from, "I'm no good at this," to, "I understand!" Wouldn't it be great if in making this happen, you developed some mad skills in the digital media department? You might learn that it's easier to make... More →
If you have read my post about the Cool Designs Video Contest, you may be thinking some ideas related to the rules could help get you and/or your students going. With any contest, a few hints can help. Below are a few for optimizing your chance to earn an Xperia S tablet as part of the Next Vista for Learning Cool Designs Contest. There are all kinds of details... More →
Digital storytelling projects can work at every grade level and across the content areas for students. There are many reasons why one might want students to create digital stories as a formative or summative assessment. OVERVIEW Jannette Ortega provides us with some of the benefits of digital storytelling in the classroom. It encourages collaborative learning as students problem-solve and bounce ideas off one another. Students get to share work for... More →
A few months ago, I was so excited to learn about the Chrome extension Movenote that is also available as an app on Google Play for my Xperia Z. If you have not seen Movenote before let me give you a brief introduction. Movenote is a screencasting tool that allows you to import documents, PDFs, presentations, and pictures. Teachers and students can create... More →
Comics Head is a comic-based storytelling app that is available for both Android and iOS tablets. It is full featured and easy to use, and the items can be shared almost anywhere! There is both a free lite version (which has a watermark) and and a $3.99 full version available in the Google Play Store. How it works Your first pick a blank panel template or templates that are already... More →