iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

GAFE

Change Your Google Slides Themes and Layouts in the Latest iOS App

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Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 8.28.40 AM The Google Slides iPad app received a nice little update this week. Now you can change your presentation theme and template in the Google Slides iOS app. Previously, you could only do that in your web browser or in the Android app. Make sure you run the update in order to take advantage of this new feature.

This update brings the Google Slides iOS app to closer alignment with the experience of using Google Slides on an Android device or in the web browser on a laptop or desktop. This is good news for teacher working in BYOD or BYOT environments. Speaking of which, one of my summer workshops is focused on teaching in BYOD settings. You can learn more about the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Workshop here.

A Helpful New Feature Coming to the Google Drive iPad App

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Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 8.28.40 AM In a week full of Google Apps updates, here comes another one. According to the Google Apps update blog, over the next week the Google Drive iOS app will add the option to select multiple files for offline use. Enhanced file organization functions will be added to the app too.

This might not seem like a huge update to the app, but it will be helpful to students who don’t have regular access to the Internet at home. Likewise, it could be a good back-up plan for those times when your school’s network bogs down or crashes entirely. Just make sure that you remind students to select files for offline access before they go offline.

Click here to learn more about the Google Drive iOS app.

Google – The iPad Medium

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Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 8.28.40 AMThis is a guest post from Jennifer Carey of EdTechTeacher.org an advertiser on this site.

iPads can be powerful devices in education – they are mobile, they are personalized, and they are intuitive. At the same time, sharing content between apps or devices can be a challenge. Fortunately, iPads in conjunction with Google Apps can create a powerful medium by which to input, edit, share, and publish multimedia content.

Google Drive for Privacy and Security

There are many different types of cloud computing solutions. However, the power of Google Drive with Google Apps for Education allows educators to protect the privacy of their students and comply with Federal statutes and mandates. Additionally, its price point (zero dollars) helps those working in a world of tight budgets and limited funds.

Google as a Repository of Content

Because Google Drive exists in the cloud, you can access and add content from anywhere. Students can easily take photos, record video, and import content from a variety of sources to their Google Drive accounts. In fact, students can even collaborate with a shared Google Drive folder; using it as joint storage for group projects. Because Google Drive provides a ton of storage (5GB for single users, 30GB for GAFE), space is never a concern. Using the Google Drive App on iPad, students have access to their material anywhere. Additionally, Google auto-backups content and materials without having to hit save. In fact, with some apps, such as Notability, it’s even possible to have your iPad automatically back-up to Google Drive. The video below walks through this process.

With Drive as a back-up, if a student loses or damages their device, the content is safe in the cloud.

Google as the Go Between in App Smashing!

iPads are not a single app device. In fact, the most powerful projects are created through a medium known as “app-smashing.” When using apps, two of the necessary features for developing sophisticated projects are “export to” and “open with.” For example, students can write a document in Google Docs, open it in an app like Explain Everything, create a video reflection on a portion of their writing, and then export the finished product (in this case a video) back to Google Drive to share with their teacher.

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Even if two apps don’t talk to one another, so long as they talk to Google (and most do), you have a powerful go between to help build sophisticated, higher order thinking projects such as Electronic Books, Videos, and more.

Google for Collaborating on iPads

By incorporating Google Apps, students can readily collaborate without sharing the device itself. They can work jointly and simultaneously on a Google Doc, Google Sheet, and now Google Presentation (just like its web-based counterpart). In addition to collaborating through these Google products, students can use Drive’s cloud storage and sharing abilities to collaborate on images, screencasts, eBooks, and more while working on iPads. For example, students can create a document on Google Docs and share with a classmate for feedback and peer editing. Students who are collaborating on a video project can create a shared folder where they deposit content (images, videos, text, etc) that serves as a repository of material for their final project. Finally, apps that share project files, like Explain Everything and Book Creator, can be shared via Drive and then combined on a single iPad to make a group creation.

Google for Submitting/Publishing Content from an iPad

Users of iPads often struggle with “getting content off the iPad.” Google solves this issue. By uploading a finished project to Google Drive, students can “share” with their teacher to submit an assignment. Explain Everything and Book Creator even export directly to Drive for collaboration, publishing, and assessment. Teachers can even publish student work to the web with a link that allows anyone (whether they have a Google accounts or not) to view content and/or folders.

iPads are powerful, multi-media creation devices. Coupled with Google Drive, users can collaborate on sophisticated projects, submit work, and published sophisticated projects.

Looking to learn more about Google and iPads? EdTechTeacher will be hosting a FREE Google Classroom webinar on Tuesday, September 23rd, at 8:00pm EST. They also have a Google Apps & iPads Pre-Conference Workshop at their upcoming November 12-14 iPad Summit in Boston where I will be a Featured Speaker.