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.
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?
I use iAnnotate a lot, but I have yet to use it for grading. I will have to ponder that.
ReplyDeleteI have started using the app Educreations (free) and a free online account for me and my students. It allows me to make lessons, tutorials, etc... and upload them to their site where the students can watch.
I teach freshman science as well as upper level students and I began using ClassDojo (free app and web account) to assist in tracking classroom behavior. It has made a positive change in behavior type classroom issues.
Mahjong Chem (for smartphones, iPad, iPod, web-based and free) is great for chemistry students.
Dash Race is a fun game that is vector based.
Math Glossary is a very complete math glossary with Spanish and English definitions (good if you have ELL spanish speaking students).
Video physics (from Vernier). I have not played around with this too much. I have the original iPad with no camera, but I intend to try it with my physics kids now that I have an iPhone again.
~Meredith
Thanks, Meredith. I will look at all of these. Dash Race is especially intriguing since my students seem to struggle a lot with vectors. The game might make the struggle more fun.
ReplyDeleteI have vernier motion app on my iphone5 and it is great. I and many of my ap students used it on flying pigs and coffee filters. If you do not have too many groups you can film each groups lab, I am doing projectiles next, and email to the group Our whole school is on google and every student has an account. mitch johnson
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas. If you film the flying pig from below, you can measure constant velocity motion. If you film it from the side I suppose you could get sinusoidal (oscillatory) motion? I'll need to try this. Thanks. If my students had access to iPads, they could all perform this experiment. Thanks.
ReplyDelete