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10 Awesome Handwriting Apps for Your iPad

Digital immigrants are still trying to come to grips with all the digital innovations that are unfolding in today's world. And even for those who have succeeded in making the digital transition, they still have an urge for the old days of pen and paper practices. That is probably why even with the prevalence of touch screen devices, some people still prefer to use a stylus when working on their tablets. While stylus does satisfy the craving for holding a pen in your hand, it still does not function as expected.
So if you are one of those people who like to use their fingers to take notes on iPad, the list below will be of great help to you. I have curated several useful apps that will allow you to experiement with your handwriting right on your iPad screen.

1- Smart Writing Tool


Smart Writing Tool - 7notes HD Premium is a smart writing tool optimized for iPad.
With this app, mixing your handwriting with digital texts is easier than ever before

2- Penultimate

The original and most popular handwriting app for iPad. Penultimate gives you the natural experience of writing on paper, with the added power and availability of Evernote. Take notes, keep sketches, or share your next breakthrough idea -- in the office, on the go, or at home on the sofa.
3- Notability

Notability powerfully integrates handwriting, PDF annotation, typing, recording, and organizing so you can take notes your way! Discover the freedom to capture ideas, share insights, and present information in one perfect place on iPad.

4- Ghostwriter Notes

Ghostwriter Notes for the iPad gives you the power to take notes, collect & store information, and take it with you wherever you go! Download this ultra-useful app & experience the future of note-taking today! Want to know more? Click “More” & discover Ghostwriter Notes right now!

5- Remarks by Readdle

Write down your thoughts, capture ideas and information, annotate documents and outline notes anywhere from university class to sofa at home.

6- Paper by fifty three

Paper is where ideas begin. It’s the easiest and most beautiful way to create on iPad. Capture your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings and share them across the web. Try it free—buy additional tools from the in-App Store.

7- Note Taker HD

Note Taker HD is a powerful app for writing and organizing handwritten notes, diagrams, etc., on the iPad. It can also be used to annotate PDF files. It can shrink your writing so you can easily fit a lot of text on a page. You can read the reduced-size "ink" as if you had written those letters with a very fine pen. It gives you solid functionality and control to produce the pages you need.

8- Notes Plus

Notes Plus is a powerful note-taking tool that supports handwriting, typing, audio recording and PDF annotation. It offers close-up writing mode, stroke smoothing, vector shape auto-detection, palm handling, complete folder structure, images, PDF exporting and emailing, automatic backup to Dropbox and more.

9- Noteshelf

The most beautiful note-taking app ever designed for the iPad. Noteshelf is the handwriting note taker that features super natural digital ink, a stunning UI and a comprehensive toolset that will increase the benefits of owning an iPad by leaps and bounds.

10- Goodnotes

GoodNotes lets you take handwritten notes, sketch diagrams, mark-up PDFs and organize them on a beautiful bookshelf. Turn pages with a swipe, highlight or add notes to any page, and share your notes with anyone. GoodNotes will automatically save your notes and has full backup function to prevent data loss.

6 Useful iPad Apps for Creating Tutorials and Screencasts


By definition, a screencast is a recording of your computer screen accompanied by audio narration.In the past, screencasting tools used to cost a fortune and only tech savvy people were able to use them but thanks to web 2.0 technologies, there are now dozens of easy to use and simple platforms to record your screencast. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already featured several of these tools in previous posts. Today, however, I am going to share with you some of the best iPad apps to create screencasts and tutorials. Check them out below and let us know what you think of them. Enjoy

1- Explain Everything


Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.

2- Teach

Knowmia Teach is a new free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers. It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on Knowmia.com so your students and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life.

3- Show Me

ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s an amazingly simple app that anyone can use, no matter how young or old!

4- Educreations Interactive Whiteboard

Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. Explain a math formula... Create an animated lesson... Add commentary to your photos... Diagram a sports play..
5- Doodlecast Pro


Doodlecast Pro is the easiest way to create presentations on your iPad. The app records your voice as you draw to create quick presentations. Doodlecast Pro saves videos to the camera roll making it easy to import them into popular video editors or presentation tools such as iMovie, Keynote, or iBooks Author. Perfect for teachers, students, business people and anyone needing an elegant way to share ideas.

6- Pixntell

Pixntell adds your voice to your pictures and creates a personalized video you can share on Dropbox, Facebook, YouTube, FocusTrain or email.

20 Tips to Protect Your Online Identity

Inline with what we have been discussing here about digital citizenship and digital footprints, The Guardian has recently published a great post featuring 20 ways to keep your internet identity safe from hackers.This is a really a great read to share with your students and colleagues and although the tips included in the list are meant for any internet user, students will benefit a great deal from knowing about them.

courtesy of:www.guardian.co.uk

I am sharing with you these 20 tips but you can refer back to the original article for more details on each element.
  1. Never click on a link you did not expect to receive 
  2. Use different passwords on different sites 
  3. Never reuse your main email password 
  4. Use anti-virus software
  5. If in doubt, block
  6. Think before you tweet and how you share information
  7. If you have a "wipe your phone" feature, you should set it up
  8. Only shop online on secure sites 
  9. Don't assume banks will pay you back
  10. Ignore pop-ups 
  11. Be wary of public Wi-Fi 
  12. Run more than one email account
  13. Macs are as vulnerable as PCs
  14. Don't store your card details on websites 
  15. Add a DNS service to protect other devices 
  16. Enable two-step verification
  17. Lock your phone and tablet devices 
  18. Be careful on auction sites 
  19. Lock down your Facebook account
  20. Remember you're human after all

5 Steps to Create Stunning Slideshows with Audio Using YouTube

The first thing that comes into your mind when you want to create a slideshow is using one of those popular web tools such as Google Presentations, Sliderocket...etc; there is, However,  a very easy, simple and quick way to create stunning slides from pictures and photos using just YouTube.

Since  its last upgrade, YouTube has introduced a set of very important tools that are integrated within users accounts and are completely free to use. These tools are meant to enhance users productivity by giving them access to all the services they might need while working on their videos. These services range  from the ability to record a video using a computer camera to providing an advanced video editor where you can  merge, add transitions and different interactive elements before finally uploading the final product to your channel.

Using YouTube to create photo slideshow is quite easy and students will definitely love to work on it. Here is how to create your photo presentation peppered with music and different transitions.

1- First you need to be logged in to your YouTube account. Now click on " Upload"


2- Select " create " under photo slideshow

3- Select the photos for your slideshow. If you have them stored on your computer then simply click on " upload photos" or use the drag and drop option

4- You can always add more photos by clicking on " add more photos "


3- Click on " next " then choose from the featured tracks to use with your photos or you can search for other tracks using the search panel provided there. To add a track to your photo slideshow, just click on it and it will automatically be added.



5- Customize the timing of your slides by clicking on " slide duration", you can also select " slide effects" to use with your slide  and choose your preferred transition .



6- If you are satisfied with your work, click on " upload ' and your photo slideshow will be broadcast on your channel and ready to share with others.

This is How to Password Protect your Spreadsheets

I just came across video tutorial on Lifehacker and want to share it with you. The video tutorial is about how to protect your spreadsheets using a password. The process  is pretty straightforward and simple to apply.

Applying the hacks learned from this tutorial , you will no longer have concerns as to the security of information embedded in your sheets. In case you want to learn more about how to use Google Spdreadsheet , read this guide to get you started. Enjoy

Teacher's Guide to Creating Facebook Group for Students

After posting about how to create a Google Plus community for your class one of my readers here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning  asked about whether there is a way to do the same on Facebook. Her question got me thinking : how come I have been blogging for all these years and never came into my mind to post a tutorial on how teachers can create a Facebook group for their students. Although it is not on my posting schedule for today, I am not letting the idea go because if if I postpone it I might probably forget about it.


Why create a Facebook page for your class ?

As a teacher, I would not want to add my students to my friend list on  Facebook not because of any considerations other than the fact that their feeds would not be relevant to mine. Believe me I tried it before and I ended up regretting it so I had to go back and unfriend all. This is where a Facebook page or group comes in handy. Both you and your students will be able to post to the group and all members will see it.
A Facebook Page for your class is an informal learning environment where you and your students get to extend and enrich the learning experiences started in the classroom.

How to use your class Facebook page ?

Here some  of the tips to help you manage the Facebook group for your class :

  • From the start, set out clear and strict rules on what to post and share . Make it clear to them that this page is not for personal stuff, the page is for LEARNING.
  • Talk to them a bit about digital citizenship and explain to them what makes up a good netizen. Here is a detailed guide for teaching digital citizenship.
  • You also need to teach them about copyright issues and how to appropriately credit the sources they might want to cite. Here is a list of important resources to help students learn about copyright.
  • If you need permission from their parents, go ahead and ask for it. It might be a good idea to invite parents to join in and observe the learning that is taking place within the Facebook page you create for the class.


Benefits of engaging students in a Facebook page for class ?

First, most students love Facebook so they are already familiar with how it works. In trying to contribute to their Facebook page, students will be drawing on different skills: writing, searching, curating, and sharing.They will also get to learn collaboratively and sharpen their digital literacy skills. As a teacher, your rule is only to facilitate and direct the learning that is unfolding in the page.Additionally, when students participate in such informal learning platforms, they get to develop social and emotional intelligence  which is pivotal to their overall personality development.

Here is how to create a Facebook Page for your Class


1- Head over to Facebook/pages and click on " cause or community "



2- Type a name for your community, tick "I agree " then click on " get started "


3- Provide a short description of your community and if you have a website for your class you can link it there too.



4- Upload a photo for your community if you don't have one click on " skip"




5- To make it easy for students to remember the web address , you can choose a simple name or use the one provided by Facebook as is shown in the snapshot below



6- Click on skip  to skip advertising options



Congratulations, now your page is up and running. Here is what to do next

7- Send the web address of your newly created page to your students to like it. Or if you have their email addresses , invite them using the " invite by email " option.





8- Customize the settings of your page. To do this click on " edit page " and choose from the drop down menu " edit settings ".

Here is a preview of the settings you can work on



9- Customize admin roles and if you want you can allow multiple admins to manage the page. here are some links to help you learn how to do it :
If you have any problems creating your page, please contact me at med@educatorstechnology.com and I ll be happy to help you.

A Comprehensive Index to Educational Hashtags Teachers Must Know about

If you are still trying to figure out what educational hashtags  teachers are using then you do not need to go anywhere else, I got it covered here thanks to Chiew Pang document. Pang created an open document using Google Docs and named it " The Unofficial Index to Twitter Hashtags ". I have gone thorough the entire page and found it really helpful so I thought you might want to have a look as well.

See also : Teacher's Guide to The Use of Hashtags in Education

Here is the link for the entire document that Pang created and below are the hashtags it contains. Besides hashtags the document also features  several important tips on how and why to use educational hashtags .




New Handy Chart on The Difference Between Projects and Project-based Learning

I just received this chart on the difference between projects and project based learning and I am sharing it with you below.  I have already  posted here in Educational Technology and Mobile learning a similar chart on this topic but  the one below  looks neatier  and more pertinent so I am thinking you will find it more print-friendly.

Please for those of you who were having problems printing Bloom's Modern Technology Wheel, I have fixed the link and you can now print the entire wheel in a coloured format if you wish.

If you want to learn more on project based learning or are looking for resources on this topic please check out Project-based Learning Page .

project based learning source: teachbytes

A Great Wheel of All The Learning Theories Teachers Need to Know about

I really feel like there are no words that can ever give credit to the phenomenal work put into creating the wheel below. It just amazed me how much time invested in it.

Teaching is a hands-on activity ( unless you are a lecture-based type of teacher ) that is deeply grounded in learning theories. Being able to recognize and differentiate between the different learning theories together with the ability to understand the reasons why you opt for a certain theory to inform your teaching and not the other are  key to sound and successful teaching career.

The interactive graphic below will definitely help you clear out the cloud over any confusion resulting from misunderstanding a learning theory, it will also set out clear boundaries and demarcate territories for learning theory. Besides summarizing all the important learning theories together with their learning paradigms , this graphic is also hyperlinked and embeds links to several other equally important resources.

Here is a screenshot of the learning theory wheel . Click HERE to see the original full size