I learned some other important things today:

1. Before purchasing an app, we need to consider the capabilities, the cost, potential time saving, and the value of the learning experience.

2. We also need to consider if there are alternative ways of doing the same thing for free.

Working my way down my list I found that iTeachPhysics app is pretty much useless. No quizzes, tutorials, or anything that would engage a student in learning. So the value of the learning experience is negligible as are the capabilities.

I downloaded iExploriments: Electricity-Simple Electric Circuits. It was fun to play around with, and I found myself thinking that it’s a grade school app that high school students could also gain some benefit from. Then I had a wonderful insight:

There are far better free circuit simulations available on websites. For example:

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/research

http://www.compadre.org/osp/

http://www.theuniverseandmore.com/

http://selene.cet.edu/

http://www.falstad.com/ripple/

Why spend money on simulation apps? Now I can cross off all of the simulation apps from my list.

The only problem is that the iPad does not support Flash or Java and cannot access any of these wonderful simulations YET. Let’s hope that these wonderful people who created these simulations will move them to HTML 5. In the meantime I will need to reserve the computer lab instead of the iPad cart when we do simulations.

I learned some important things today:

1. Before purchasing an app, we need to consider the capabilities, the cost, potential time saving, and the value of the learning experience.

2. We also need to consider if there are alternative ways of doing the same thing for free.

Video analysis is a $4.99 app by Vernier available for the iPad. I used my iPad today to record a ping pong ball rolling across the carpet in my living room and coming to a stop.

Below you see the screen shot of the Graphical Analysis on the iPad:

Below you see the screen shots of the Logger Pro analysis on the computer:

It only took a few moments to connect the iPad to my computer and then do the video analysis on Logger Pro.

The analysis capabilities in Logger Pro are far more robust than Graphical Analysis on the iPad. You may not agree, but I think it also delivers more educational value.

Everyone has a different situation, but for me I could not justify the cost of the Graphical Analysis package for the iPad (even with Vernier's wonderful educational discount package) because we already have Logger Pro installed on all of my students' computers and on all of the analysis computers at our school.

I learned some important things today:

1. Before purchasing an app, we need to consider the capabilities, the cost, potential time saving, and the value of the learning experience.

2. We also need to consider if there are alternative ways of doing the same thing for free.
Tomorrow I want to develop this theme a little more.

So long for now.

 

I have convinced myself that the iPad is a tool that can improve my productivity and teaching.

Now I want to explore how/if it can improve my students understanding of physics. There are two categories that I'm going to explore:

1. Can the iPad do as well or better in what we presently do with computers? NO
2. Can the iPad enhance what we are doing by providing new capabilities? YES

I'll start with the first question:

1. Can the iPad do as well or better in what we presently do with computers? NO

In physics students use the computer to aquire data from sensors or input manual data, analyze data (Logger Pro), create charts and graphs (Excel or Logger Pro), develop mathematical and graphical representations of their findings, and write lab reports (MS Word). Graphs from Logger Pro are cut and pasted into MS Word, and the student use the wordwrap function to move text around the charts to produce professional reports. I can now grade them electronically using iAnnotate. 

Students use their cell phones to photograph their raw date and lab set-up, merge these into the report, and submit it electronically via the school website. We sometimes make videos and do video analysis with Logger Pro.

 

A comparison of iPad apps and computer apps might look like:

 

Pages vs. MS Word

Graphical Analysis vs. Logger Pro

Video Analysis vs. Logger Pro

Numbers vs. Excel

Keynote vs. Power Point (for presentations)

 

I am not going down the path to install the iPad apps and spend time trying to make them do what we presently do with computers UNLESS someone can convince me that the iPad can do what we presently do with computers. I may be wrong, but when I look at the iPad apps I just don't think they are robust enough YET to do what we are presently doing with computers.

 

2. Can the iPad enhance what we are doing by providing new capabilities? YES

 

Apps that I have already investigated:

 

1. Clinometer - for measuring angles. Many students have this on their smartphones already, and we use this on a regular basis in physics. Probably useful in other courses (math, architecture, art, etc.).

 

2. FreqGen - for generating tones of specified frequencies. There are several sound and vibration experiments that can be done with this. This would eliminate the need to purchase electronic sound generators. Another physics teacher told me that this produces "gorgeous" results.

 

3. speedClock - measures the speed of moving objects. It works, but I need to spend more time with it.

 

4. Video Physics - Vernier's iPad app. It works, but not as robust as the Logger Pro version. Students can use the iPad to make videos and upload them to Logger Pro.

 

5. Acceleration - It produces a 3-axis display of instantaneous acceleration. When the iPad is dropped, the freefall acceleration changes from - 1 g to 0 g's. It might not be wise to have students do this experiment. Not sure what else it's good for. Open to suggestions.

 

6. Accel Pro - It produces a cvc file of 3-axis acceleration data. This might be very valuable for various experiments with acceleration. I need to spend more time with this.

 

Apps that are on my list to investigate include:

 

1. iTeachPhysics/Patron Technosoft India Private Ltd.

2. Building Parallel Circuits (Lite)/Sebit LLC

3. Exploriments:  Electricitty-Simple Electrical Circuites in Seriies, Parallel

4. Exploriments:  Weight, Mass and Force of Gravity—Effect of Altitude

5. Finger Physics HD Free/Press OK Entertainment

6. Gas Laws HD Lite/T.J. Fletcher

7. Kinetic Balls 2/Motin 9 Studios

8. Mechanices/Reflare

9. Physics 2 HD/Hanz Meyer

10. 3D Solar System Planets/AcnodeLabs

11. Solar Walk: 3D Solar System Model

12. Converter: units converter

13. Force Effect

14. Force Effect Motio
15. Clock
16. Camera Awesome

 

Other apps that sound interesting include:

123DMake, Accel, AcceleMon, Acceleration, Accelgraph, Accelmeter 3D, accGauge, AMagicTrick, Axelerom, Beats, Brake Meter, EMF Meter, Explore, Formulas, Fourier Touch, FouierSynthesizer, SpectrumView, GraphCalcPro , Illusions, iSpeedMeter, ITestSounder, Kinematics, Max_db_Time, NASA, NASA HIAD, Oscillator Free, pUniverse, Paper Physics, Photo ID, Physics Pro, Physiculator, QuadMaster, R Finder, Refractive, Resistor CAL, Tone Gen, VectorMett, Xperica, Compass, Concrete, EasyMeasure, HandyTape, HeightRange, iAngle Meter, iHandy Tool, Level, Level +, Magnifier, Measure!, Metal / EMF, Roll Ruler, TriangleRuler, AirPrint or Printer Pro (for printing to wireless printers), The Elements (beautiful, but pricey), Quizzam (online quizzes/review), Quizlet (review), Physics Regents Buddy.

 

If you have some experience with these please help me prioitize my investigations.

 

Some thoughts for AP physics people:

 

What do you get if you cross a giraffe with an elephant?
Giraffe elephant sine theta.

What do you get if you cross a mosquito with a mountain climber?
You can't cross a vector with a scaler.

How is Christianity like a vector?
It's a cross product.

 

 

I spent the last couple of days exploring more apps for the iPad. I now have about 100 apps loaded. It was a struggle for me to accept that this can be a tool rather than a toy.

Some of the tools I have installed include the following:

1.  Google. The command "calculate" will be extremely useful for modeling problems at the board. For example, I simply whip out my iPod (or iPad) and say "calculate 135 times cosine of 40 degrees, and the answer is displayed immediately.

2. Dropbox. I already had it on my home computers and my school computer, but having it on the iPad allows me to transfer student files to iAnnotate for grading (or any file for marking it up). I also added SugarSync because that's where I store my video clips.

3. iAnnotate. Already discussed.  Outstanding tool for grading.

4. Noteability. Already discussed. Very good tool for notetaking.

5. Wolfram Calculus. Will easily do any calculus I'm likely to encounter in AP physics. For example Integrate: (x^2 - 15)^-1 quickly provides the indefinite integral plus graphical plots of the integral.

6. Adobe Reader. As they say, it's the gold standard for reliably viewing PDF documents on iPads. It also has its own set of annotation tools ... not as complete ad iAnnotate, but sufficient for reading a pdf and highliting important parts, adding typewritten, comments, etc. It also provides the connectivity needed for other apps such as iAnnotate.

7. Astrid. A great listmaking app.

8. AppPriceDrop and AppsGonefree. This is how I obtained most of the apps that I downloaded. Every day apps that you normally would pay for go on sale for free. I've found that the consumer ratings are a pretty reliable way to determine if the "free" app is worth it.

9. Other physics related tools. Tag readers, barcode reader, scientific calculator, iPhysics, NASA, Dictionary.com, the particle circus, PopSci, Cosmic, USB Disk Pro, YouTube, NOVA elements, Stopwattch, iSeismometer, Exoplanet, 3D Brain, HubbleSite, and some university lectures, audiobooks, podcasts, physics videos and physics books.

These are all tools that will (and have already) make me a more productive and better physics teacher.

Next I need to explore tools that will directly benefit my students. Please comment on what apps you would want on your students' iPads that will benefit their learning physics.

Thank you.

Geoff recommended Notability as a better alternative to Penultimate, which I was a dissapointment to me. So today I tried Notability.

I am very impressed. This app truely is a great note taking app. The following pdf is a physics lesson plan that I sketched up in a matter of minutes:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6417998/Note%20Dec%2027%2C%202012%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf

Notability & iAnnotate are my new killer apps!

12/26/12

Oops. I woke up this morning feeling guilty because I just realized that all the mark-ups I made on my students’ lab reports were in red. That was the default color of the iAnnotate pen. During my MAT studies I remember reading that the color red is like screaming at my students, and that I should use a more mellow color like blue or purple (which I do use when I grade paper papers). I hope they are not too traumatized by this. I need to set the default color to purple.

I took the time today to totally customize my toolbars in iAnnotate. Now I’m going to download some AP physics lab reports, and apply what I learned yesterday to grade these lab reports. I wonder if I can do this directly from my iPad?

I made a shortcut to my school website on my iPad homepage. From there I was able to download my students’ files to Dropbox; however, they came in as a zip file. The iAnnotate software was not able to open the zip file. I sent it to USB Disk Pro, which was able to open it; but it was unable to send it to Dropbox correctly. Also, iAnnotate would not download all of the files when the zip file was in the Dropbox folder: it stopped downloading when it got to the zip file. I had to take the zip file out of the folder and repeat the download to iAnnotate.

Bottom line … I can’t move student files from my school’s website to my iPad in a way that iAnnotate can access them.

Bottom, bottom line … iAnnotate worked great! I’m sold. My stamps made things more efficient. Once the files were in Dropbox, everything went smoothly. It’s better than I expected.

One of the really big deal tools for me is the feather icon. This blows up a section of the paper where you tap so that you have a lot more space to write your comments. Then it shrinks back down when you are done, yet you can still move it around to get it into the right place. This is a lot better than making squeezing and shrinking gestures with your fingers all the time.

The quality of the audio comments is much better than what I experienced with using Adobe Acrobat Pro. My colleagues tell me that students prefer written comments vs. audio comments. I was told by someone that the audio comments could be converted to text in iAnnotate, but I have not been able to figure out how. Any ideas?

Others feel that the audio comments lend a personal touch to the grading and help to build a rapport with students.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/grading-with-voice-on-an-ipad/40907

My feeling is that there is a place for the audio comments, but one should, perhaps, use this sparingly … perhaps only once as an overall summary statement next to the student’s grade, and perhaps only on papers where the student needs encouragement or reassurance. Any thoughts?

12/25/12

After our Christmas celebrations, I found some time in the afternoon to work on iAnnotate. I thought I was taking the right steps, but everything I tried resulted in my watching the little button spin and spin. After more frustrating time trying things, deleting things, searching the web, listening to youtube tutorials, etc. … none of which helped since I think these were made for earlier versions … I shoved at the screen in frustration, and there at the bottom of the screen like a bar of pure gold was the “allow” button that I hadn’t seen for two days. Pushing the “allow” button solved the problem.

The tutorials turned out to be helpful, since I avoided the mistake of syncing my entire Dropbox with iAnnotate. I created a folder in Dropbox, which I named “Labs_Not_Graded” and connected to that folder only. Students submit their lab reports electronically via our website, and I download them directly into my Dropbox folder. So I downloaded a dozen or so late lab reports to grade.

After downloading my students’ late lab reports to my dropbox folder, I downloaded them to iAnnotate. I used the app to grade the lab reports, uploaded them back to Dropbox, used our website systems to upload to the website, then used the website to send the graded reports to my students’ in-boxes.

The iAnnotate app seems very complex. It has more than enough tools for me to do the grading. The tools are of high quality, and I am pleased with the result. I will need a lot of time to optimize/customize it for my purposes. I did make a custom toolbar with the tools that I think I’ll be using most frequently. In reading how other teachers use it, I picked up many good tips. One issue I had was that I couldn’t figure out how to copy/paste my rubric on the lab reports. 

Duh! The simple solution is to have the students turn their reports in with the rubric as the last page.

Fourth impression: The iAnnotate app may make the iPad a very useful tool for grading lab reports. It may be the “killer app” that will make the iPad valuable to me.