While Dragon Dication by Nuance is not the only dictation application on the market, in this educators opinion, it is the most polished and one of the most widely used. If you are not familiar with this type of program it is simple to explain: you say it and the program types it. For fellow special educators and general education teachers alike, this probably elicits a Scooby Doo-like... 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.
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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 →
It is here, the Common Core Learning Standards have officially taken over as THE focus. The writing is on the wall as many professional teaching books, pinterest pages, and professional development conferences have quickly switched their focus. With good reason. The standards are guiding all of our decisions as we educate our students to be college and career ready (not to mention that... More →
Sony Xperia Tablet and Second Language Learners from Keri Duncan on Vimeo.
The above video is an example of how the Sony Xperia tablet is used in a one-to-one situation with a second language learner. Each week a volunteer at the school comes and spends the day working with different students. For about 40 minutes she works with this particular student to help him in his fluency for sight words.... 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
As teachers we are always looking for ways to engage our students in learning so they don't even know they are learning, but rather, think they are just playing games. Mango Learning has done just that with their apps. This review concentrates on the Fractions Intro app, but having taken a cursory review of many of their other apps for Fractions and Decimals, they seem to really have hit... More →
In an earlier resource, I discussed how you could use your Xperia tablet as a wireless microphone in order to dictate to text with Dragon. This is still a fabulous speech-to-text program, but it has two distinct drawbacks. First, you can not dictate directly into the tablet, rather it remotely transmits to a desktop or laptop computer which has Dragon Dictation installed on it. Second, Dragon is... 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 →
Most all tablets and smartphones have cameras in them. In fact, many of them have nicer/better cameras than many of our regular digital cameras. With such a visual society, it is great to be able to snap a picture or quick video clip to post on-line or use in a class demonstration.
With the Sony Xperia S tablet, I was intrigued to find the time lapse feature of the... 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 →
I have always believed that educational technology has two main roles. It allows us to put more knowledge in our heads and it allows us to share it out. The tools work in tandem and once kids develop an understanding then we ask them to share it. When the time comes to share what they know, one of my go-to apps is Pic Collage.
I love Pic Collage for... More →
The other day, I visited the classroom of a friend of mine. She is an amazing teacher who is very creative and is constantly finding ways to create a sense of wonder and joy in her high school language arts classroom. Given her artistic talents, I am never surprised to see something new and unique in her room. Over the years, she has furnished her classroom with chairs and tables... More →