Garage Band... the missing link

Garage Band on the iPad is really quite spectacular, and certainly a shining example of what the iPad can be used for. I have talked a bit about Garage Band before, but as usual the trick is working out how to move files in the school context. Turns out it is not too much of a problem, though it does mean each student's song file will have to be moved by a teacher (I imagine) one at a time, so this is not ideal.

I thought I knew how to do this... but I was wrong. I was missing a whole extra step that Apple have thrown in. Lets get started!

1) Create your song on the iPad. This will stay on the iPad until someone deletes it, so you can keep on editing the parts or adding new parts.
2) You can see all the songs on the iPad listed if you select My Songs. Swipe the songs left and right to locate the one you want. You can now delete it if required, start a new song (or duplicate an old song) or move it in one of two formats. The email option will not work at school as it assumes it can find your personal email in the email app. This does mean that a school could set up a common email or two for everyone to use to extract material, but I shudder to think at the management of that account in a larger school.
3) The choice of interest is "Send to iTunes". You are asked to select whether to do this as an AAC or a Garage Band file. If you choose the latter, you can import the file into a Mac version of Garage Band. The one we want is "AAC".
4) The iPad will then take a moment to process the file.
5) now connect the iPad to iTunes. What is important is that you do NOT have to sync it... and usually of coure you would not sync a school iPad to a teacher or student's machine.
6) Select the "Apps" tab, and scroll down the bottom. You will see a list of apps that can transfer data between the iPad and the computer. Select Garage Band
7) The song you chose to "send to iTunes" will be listed. Select it then selct "save to...". To add it to iTunes you would normally pop it in the iTunes folder on your computer.


So far so good. You have an audio file you can use in iTunes. How can you make an mp3 to use elsewhere? Simply right click on the file which should be in your song list, and choose convert to MP3 (or copy, then convert). You can then literally drag the file out of iTunes on to the desk top and copy it any way you like. Andrew Lack

MadPad: Delight

Some apps are attempts to emulate PC programs and concepts. Some apps are sad, some apps are exciting... MadPad is absolutely delightful.

For those who don't know me, I am unrepentantly a former high school music teacher. As I walk around and work each day I am always very conscious of the sounds that surround me. I often whistle, hum or tap to the beat of my footsteps or the pulse of the photocopy machine. I'll stop whatever I am doing if an accidental movement produces a resonant or interesting sound. I dream of going around the school recording the bell chimes of long veranda railings and down pipes.

And now... MadPad makes this a right and proper thing to do, not an embarrassing oddity, gives me the tools to do it with, and makes me part of a global social network of ambient sound recordists! As I said, what a delight!

This is a beautifully crafted app. One is presented with a matrix of twelve rectangles. Each contains a "record" button. You set up a simple "noise trigger" and you trigger the recording with a sound. The goal is to capture twelve small videos to a set, each with its own sound. The total video length is only a second or two.

When you have your grid full of sounds, you can tap any sound and it will play. Tap again at any time and it will play (even if the video has not finished). Tap two sounds at the same time. Tap a little rhythm, and you start to understand what you have in your hand. There are thus two distinct stages: putting together a set of sounds, then deciding how to play them to create a tune or soundscape.

There are some simple tools available for editing your sound/video samples. Each can have the volume adjusted, or can be played faster or slower (thus changing the pitch). I missed not being able to trim the clip to ensure that a sound component I wanted started right at the beginning. Sound sets are saved to the iPad, and can be shared via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Performance can be live, but you can also record a performance and either save this to the iPad Photo drive, or share to YouTube. For a more complex live performance you can set up a loop and play over this, or record a performance then play it back and play over this.

I showed one current music teacher at school and her response was immediate... "oh, I'd love that for my Year Eights". It was great fun making my first "sounds of the OLRC" set and I had positive reactions from both colleagues and some young students standing nearby.

Of course if your goal is melody making you can record notes from voice or a keyboard, or edit pitched recordings to tune them to specific notes you want in your set. This would work well in a school iPad set context with one proviso. We currently have our iPad cameras turned off to get past issues of distraction and students leaving self portraits as wallpaper. This app would certainly justify the time required to flick a set back on for a music class.

Because it is so easy to share, the thought of an entire room of amplified iPads all playing along together to create a giant soundscape sends chills up my spine. Anyone for "cereal swampcalls"?

Andrew Lack

I borrowed my first book on the iPad

Wait...what?

I don't mean "I bought my first digital book" no no no, I mean I went to my local library (virtually) and borrowed a book (digital) which downloaded to my iPad and which in a few days I will return.

The library is Castle Hill Library, and they have simply paid for access to the Overdrive system. This is an American digital library system, which is now available from Softlink in Australia. I tried this a little while ago on the computer, and was a little dismayed at the complexity to set it up. The iPad app that is now available makes it all work rather well.

To get started, you need to download the free Overdrive app. You then need to register with an Adobe ID. This is because the back system is based on "Adobe Digital Editions" which is NOT simply another name for Acrobat and pdfs. It is a fully fledged digital book management system. Books or magazines that are downloaded are time bombed... that is, they become inaccessible after a set number of days, and thus are deemed to have been returned.

In the Overdrive system, all this backroom tech is integrated into a full on-line library system. All the host library has to do is decide on the number of books they are prepared to pay for, choose the books and provide links to the Overdrive site. I would love to do that at Pacific Hills but the costs are quite prohibitive at the moment.

Back to the iPad. Once the Overdrive app is installed, and you have registered with your free Adobe account, you then search for your local library. It is interesting to see the lists of school and public libraries available... not that anyone can go and  use them: you need a library membership number to do that. Once you have identified a library you do belong to you enter your membership number and pin and start browsing.

Given how used we are to purchasing digital books (infinite supply) and obtaining copies of pdfs and free digital books (infinite supply) its a shock to find that the book you want is not available. How can that be? Under the Overdrive licence you purchase the right to loan a title as though it were a real physical book. Purchase two copies, and two copies are available to the clients. Purchase one copy, and if somebody borrows it, the title is unavailable till it is returned.

To assuage the anxious, there is an option to queue for titles, and I imagine an email is sent when the title is available.

The book downloads quickly, though the one I got was text only and the reality may be different with a graphical heavy work. The reader is adequate without being full featured. You can change to "night view", pick between sepia and white background, change the brightness and font size. I did find the page turning to be a bit "hair trigger". I prefer other readers that require a little "push" rather than just a tap.

So there it is, a really nice experience once the set up is done... and you can borrow a book from your local library from anywhere in the world and at any time day or night.

This is not a feature that I would think could specially help our school laptops, as it is predicated on the iPad being a personal device... even if your school actually has been able to provide the Overdrive system. It is worth talking about, especially as, unlike some, I find the iPad quite nice as an eBook reader.

Andrew Lack

Blogging on the iPad

This should be a no brainer but I guess I am going to have to wait a bit. I use Blogspot, and nothing much has worked on the iPad up to now. Safari cannot run some of the script required for the normal browser interface, and still can't even after the upgrade to the browser interface that just arrived. Two different apps that claim to be able to do it don't, or at least not well.

Now Google has released their own Blogger app. Unfortunately it is designed for the iPhone, with no formatting options. It is fine for blogging on the run, will include photos, but that is about it. At least it can navigate you set of blog titles and show you your post.

How would all this work for students? Blogs are not naturally a student's area of play, and I always hope to encourage students as much as possible when they hit new areas by having interfaces or programs that work well and are full featured. So far if I wanted to introduce blogging to students I would not do it on the iPad!

I must point out however that I am only reflecting on what works (or does not work) for the Google blog site (http://www.blogger.com/). Word Press does seem to have better support on the iPad. What would I expect in the future? An app that....

• allows you to move between your different blogs
• displays the blog itself fully formatted (though you can use Safari for this)
• allows reasonable HTML style formatting
• allows picture insertion with basic formatting
• supports link creation
• gives access to the HTML code but also shows a WYSIWYG editor
• spell checking

I don't really expect to get access to the quite complex CSS and template editing available on the Blogger site, but hey, Google, surprise me!

Andrew Lack

Now with added iPhone

There are at least two reasons to be thinking about iPhones when you investigate iPads. One is Keynote and the other is Scrabble.

Keynote is the Apple version of PowerPoint. It is certainly worth having on a personal iPad (for teachers at least) or will be when iOS 5 arrives in a short time. You may not have known there is a low cost "Keynote controller" app for the iPhone. Once installed, it will look for iPads (or Macs) on the same wireless network running Keynote, and provide an option to link to and control these. Linking is done via a four digit pin so that feels like adequate but not great security.

The iPhone can then show either current slide plus notes, or current and next slide side by side. Walk around, do your presentation, swipe on your iPad to progress slides. A colleague found it highly effective for a recent presentation.

Scrabble (the official version) has an even more appealing app. Scrabble on the iPad is quite nice, but when you do a multiplayer game, any player with an iPhone can download a free Scrabble Tile Rack app. This is just splendid, as it interacts with the game board on the iPad, and the tiles that are generated for your hand appear on your own iPhone, and then can be "flicked" onto the iPad game board!

What awaits to be developed by someone realising that a set of iPads could be used for things like...

• simultaneous collaborative work
• students rehearsing parts or revision with each other
• interactive games based on multiple iPads.

Andrew Lack

Meta iPad thinking

Whether you actually have a set of iPads in students hands or not, most are well aware of what an iPad is. It is an interesting exercise to ask students to think about apps they would like to see created. Of course odds are a percentage of them will become competent programmers and actually consider making apps in the future.

What is the buzz about apps? We don't seem to talk about new programs on the PC very much. Here are some clues...

• low cost or free
• safely sourced (ignoring jail breaking)
• designed for a machine with a vast array of sensors built in
• designed for a machine with a totally new interface (touch screen)

I think the third point about the sensors is quite critical... Apple have put at least the following in the iPad to my knowledge.

• touch screen
• GPS
• compass
• accelerometer (reads impact on the unit)
• accelerometer (reads angle and orientation of the unit)
• light sensor (though this may be rather limited)
• camera (actually 2)
• microphone

There is no end to the novel apps that are being created because of the access programmers have to this sensor rich device. You can download a seismograph (iSeismometer) that uses the accelerometer, or the beautifully realised Star Chart (GPS, compass PLUS angle and orientation all used to good effect).

It is also fun to suggest facile or nonsensical apps to provoke student thinking. My current favourite is to say at meal times "hey, I wish there was a plate app... maybe after the meal a button would start a wash cyle, and if you forgot to do that then after a day or so maggots and blowflies would start appearing".

Hmm, maybe I should contact Apple with that idea...

Andrew Lack

Well, I knew THAT would happen...

We turned on some of the cameras for a senior class to experiment with video work, and then forgot to turn them off. Within a few days they photo folders were full of happy snaps and several wallpapers had been modfied to show student faces.

Fortunately none of this was nasty, but it does put us on notice. Schools who want to keep control in this area will need to...

• turn cameras off (possible under General...Restricitons)
• Check the photo folder regularly (or re-image to a known empty result).
• Alert staff to the general issue

I don't believe it is possible at the moment to lock away access to "Screen Cap" (hold home button, click power button) or the option to "create wallpaper". This problem bedevilled us for ages on PCs, though most modern systems restrict access to that area as well.

There is much more to discuss when it comes to ways students could leave unpleasant material for other students to find. In general of course ill intentioned students can do this with pen and paper (or texta and desk tops) so it is not a uniquely iPad question... but it is a matter to be diligent about.

Andrew Lack

Google Docs on the iPad

Following the last post, I thought I had better have a look at Google Docs on the iPad. Curious. You have two choices, use the "mobile" view or use the "desktop" view. Google Docs I think will automatically detect that you are browsing from an iPad and put you in the mobile view.

The editor in mobile view is very simple... so what I said about Google Docs having more features than gmail or hotmail is not true. It works fine but there is essentially no formatting.

When you try to go to the Desktop view, it semi loads and then comes up with an error message. I could not succeed in bringing it up, so clearly there are calls to funtions not supported in Safari.

I actually got into the Google Docs site by using the Google App. This app is both cool and also less than it seems. It is a nice minimalistic interface allowing you to search... essentially giving you another browser. However, there is a little button at the bottom that says "apps" and this simply gives you access to the plethora of Google on-line areas such as blogging, Picassa (photos) and Documents. The apps are not apps in the iPhone sense, just ways to click to websites.

Still, an interesting alternative approach to the world of "apps" and iPad.

Andrew Lack

And the solution is...

I thought of the solution to students taking notes the second I posted the last post. Both are dependent on being on-line.

Option 1: a student opens their own Hotmail/Gmail in Safari and types directly into the email... they then can press send.

Option 2: students with gmail (and I reccomend they all get a gmail account) can open a Google Doc document, and work directly into that. This actually gives better formatting options for note taking.

There are other on-line documents available... might be interesting to dig around and find out what is being made available.

Still, a fairly straight foward solution!

Andrew Lack

I'll just save that to the c: drive and mail it to myself... oh... wait...

Some Year Twelve students borrowed an iPad each to take notes. They were warned that this would not really be possible (taking notes is easy, getting them off the machine not so possible). They insisted they knew what to do.

I went to visit them in their seminar room and checked how they were going. They really had not thought it through. As the iPad is designed as a personal device, it assumes you will set up your own email in the mail app. Documents stored as part of a particular app (such as Evernote) can be synced off the ipad... but that won't work in the school context.

One student just shrugged and gave up... another very creative young lady got out her iPhone and literally took a photo of the screen!

I pointed out they could do a screen cap (hold down the home button, click the power button) then connect to a computer with the standard cable. The iPad will open as a USB device and give you access to the photo folder. You can copy off the screen cap.

Still, this is very klunky. Any other thoughts out there? Remember even though you can run Hotmail and gmail in the browser, you cannot attach a file that you cannot browse to... and you can't browse to files on the iPad. The in-app buttons that allow you to "send by email" all assume your personal email is set up in the built in email app.

I didn't buy the iPads for school thinking this would work...but now they are here I'm being asked to make it work anyway.

Andrew Lack

Along comes Glo Bible app

I was very excited about the Glo Bible software package when it was released (for PC). It promised a massive amount of audio-visual material, a great atlas and the NIV Bible. I struggled for days to get it installed on a school computer, and after hours of support from the company simply had to give up. They stated that they simple had never designed it to operate in a corporate environment (shortsighted).

I was gob smacked to then find that they have released a free Glo Bible app. You will find it if you search for "glo bible" in the App Store, but it has been named Bible + for some reason. As we are currently facing a steep bill for installing the NIV on each of our machines using the Olive Tree system, I was then even more astonished to find out they were giving the NIV away free.

How is this possible? I can only guess that the real clue is where the text resides. From watching how the content loads, I'm guessing that all of the content is actually downloaded "as needed" from the web. This means the product is not actually an installed Bible at all, but a portal to online resources. It then becomes no different to going to www.biblegateway.com where you can view a free NIV as well.

Still, the layout is fresh and fairly flexible, the atlas is really good, there are lots of linked pictures, and the outstanding interactive visual resources. I was struck by the re-creation of the tabernacle, allowing 360 degree viewing as though you were standing in the courtyard with information and closer views on most of the key features.

When iOS 5 launches (within the next month) all of this can be simply put up in a classroom from a teacher iPad using either a VGA adapter or Apple TV.

It is very hard to argue with free NIV and great resources, providing that you are 'net connected. At the least this will be installed alongside Olive Tree on our classroom set.

Andrew Lack

Some Early Success

Quotes from one of our JS teachers...

"They loved them. We explored various regions of Japan via G Earth. This was a great experience, the kids could see the general location and then virtually fly into the town and see how it looked. Very stimulating for the class. We called it our 'in-excursion' to Japan.

We also used the app Labyrinth where kids build the pathways for the ball to roll along. This links beautifully with my thinking skill lessons and the Simple Machines unit.

Overall a great success, I plan to get them out for the grandparents day and have my class teach their grandparents how to use them. I will also be using 'slate blackboards' in the same lesson to give a sense of the old and new."

Thanks Scott!

Andrew Lack

The First Audit

We have set up the iPads in their first trial version. I have listed all the apps, with some brief comments about the possible ways to use them, and some notes about issues allready apparent, in a document here. This is a Google Doc format, lets see how that works for you. It was a bit flakey for me. I can try a again with a PDF if there are problems.

Andrew Lack

Boggle... works a treat

Boggle is one of the games that will work on the iPad in a school context. A single student can enjoy a quick game at any time, and there is also a "pass and play" mode. The game is ideal for the ipad as you trace the letters of the words you are spelling on the screen directly. I have to admit I'm only scoring 20 or so out of 100 possible words at the moment.

There is a fairly whacky set of words in there. Unpleasant and swear words have been deleted, but a lot of obscure foreign sourced words are there. Ironically you can check any word in the list provided per game with an online dictionary... and more often than not if I don't know a word, the dictionary declines any knowledge it as well!

When students are playing against each other the only thing that counts is relative skill level, so this game can be easily used right down to early reading level in Primary School. At the same time, I have seen groups of Year 12 students have a hilarious time with it in the library, so it has appeal accross the board.

Andrew Lack

Puzzles and Games: they won't all work!

Even though there are a host of games and puzzles available for the iPad, they won't all work for a school context. I'll use just two to explain why.

Scrabble will work brilliantly.
Seven Little Words probably will not.

The problem is that as the iPad was devised as a personal device, many games are personal as well, in the sense that they are designed for one person to play them through, and don't have any way for multiple iPad users to all play.

Scrabble works fine. Each game is stand-alone, so nothing is lost by passing an iPad on to a student in another class. That student can simply start a new game. In addition there are some interesting ways to play with others such as pass-and-play or even by using an iPhone with what  I belive is  a free app to be the "tile rack" from which tiles can be flicked onto the iPad board to position!

Seven Little Words is a nice word puzzle. First problem is that it requires in-app purchases to get better content once the introductory puzzles are completed. Second and larger problem is that it has not way for multiple users to be involved. The puzzles are linear (so after completing the first one, you can only see and attempt the second one). Though it is a fine word game, I can't see how it could work in a school context.

Another game that comes close to failing for this reason is the excellent logic puzzle "Trainyard". This is largely linear, however has the saving grace that even though puzzles have been completed, another player can go back and re-do puzzles. This spoils the idea of the game guiding your progression through a sequence of growing difficulty, but does mean there is a way for it to be used. It is otherwise a fine game of quite devious complexity at the latter stages.

Andrew Lack

Google Earth

This one really goes without saying. What is not to like about a free app that can take you anywhere on earth and show you the trees and shops? Like Google Earth on your computer, this is an app you need to download, but it still requires web connection. As you will be doing this over wireless network, the most likely cause of frustration is slowness to download and refresh map pictures as you move and zoom.

One way to get past this is to have specific destinations in mind for your lesson, and test the simplest search string that will work. This means students type in the destination and search, then you can have another activity on the go while things load up.

From watching students in their own time, I can confidently say that many students simply like playing around with Google Earth. On the computers in the OLRC this often means going in to Flight Sim mode (not available on the iPad app). They also like finding their own houses and other things they know. Those who have travelled or come from other countries can use the app to tell their stories.

There are some interesting features, though not as many as on the computer based app. If you turn on "auto tilt" in the options section you can tilt the view (looking across the surface, not down) by tilting the iPad itself. There are also "layers" on which you can view some additional information. This usually takes the form of small icons that you can tap to see more information. This is far more limited than the offerings on the computer based program, but links to Panoramia (geo-tagged photos) and Wiki entries are useful.

Olive Tree Bible

When originally discussing the purchase of a set of iPads to use at Pacific Hills, I suggested that this app alone would be sufficient educational justification.

Olive Tree have been around for ages...  I remember getting an Olive Tree Bible on my Palm Pilot (woah.. who remembers that excellent little PDA?). Their depth of experience is evidenced in the sophisticate coding and features in their app, and also in the amazing depth of resources available from their in-app store.

The app itself is free. This is a little bit tricky as they offer several apps that appear to be the same. When you realise that the app itself is essentially a specialised eBook reader, this all starts to become clear. Each app on offer bundles different versions of the Bible, ranging from the King James version (free) to the more expensive NIV collection. Once you have the app installed, you then have the option of purchasing additional resources from the in-app store. There are many free resources, but for the serious Bible scholar a bewildering array of Bibles and Bible related resources. There editions of most versions, often with associated study notes. There are books of historical importance, concordances, map collections, devotional books and sermon collections. There are Hebrew and Greek editions as well.

As this app is designed to support serious Bible study and also to do most of the things you would want to do with a paper Bible, the list of features is extraordinary. It puts normal eBook readers and eBook reader apps to shame! For instance...

• split screen to compare versions or to include study footnotes... variable to any size
• variable font, font size, colours and background colours
• in landscape mode, show as two pages or one
• progress by vertical scrolling or page turn
• tap a verse or hold on a word to get a list of options including making notes, highlighting in multiple colours, bookmark or copy
• tap a verse footnote letter and get an in-screen popup of cross references. Tap a cross reference to see the passage in the popup window
• A sophisticated search window with predictive search
• move forward and back through recent pages selected
• locate a verse by using a pull down grid that moves from Bible book to chapter to verse
• a variety of Bible reading plans built in

The "pay for" Bibles are not as cheap as one might expect, with the NIV around $20 and other scholarly versions even higher. This is offset by the number of free versions (not just the King James) available. For a modern language version that is free consider the NET version (New English Translation). Still, schools will decide about authorised translations on reasons other than cost.

Why does this app get me so passionate? Because it means any teacher can take a set of Bibles into a classroom that will immediately put tools for deep and personal study of the scriptures into students hands. Of course you always have the option of using the excellent on-line service www.biblegateway.com. However, not every teacher can book a full lab when they need it, and using a web based Bible has some limitations in speed. The Olive Tree app does not require web connection at all (all Bibles and other resources are downloaded) so works at lighting speed.

The setup? For Pacific Hills I'm hoping to see the NIV (still our standard edition) installed, along with NIV study notes, plus the KJV and NET Bibles. If we can, I'd love to see The Message on this as well. I have not yet explored how to properly arrange purchases (and possible group discounts) so it would be great if others are ahead of me on this.

Andrew Lack

Puppet Pals HD

Puppet Pals is a truly wonderful app for Primary age students. They are asked to select from some "paper cutout" cartoons, then a background. A screen appears with the background in place and the cartoons lined up on the side. The student(s) then press "record" and move the puppet cutouts around. They can be rotated, slide over the background, and zoomed larger and smaller. While they do this, the students can speak any lines they want and make any sound effects. When done, the end the recording and immediately press "play" to see the whole  show played back.

Just to make things more interesting, the latest version allows you to bring a picture or photo (from the camera) into the program, then draw around it with your finger. It will then remove the background thus creating your own paper cutout puppet.

This app creates huge interest in the library at lunchtime and much hillarity. As with any audio recording you will need to monitor it for ill intentioned folks leaving nasty messages. The potential, however, for all sorts of learning activities is simply huge. Anyone for a scene from Hamlet?

Free books

Free books? That sounds alluring. Could this be a reason to use iPads in school? My current vote is a lukewarm "maybe". You may find the exact book you wanted to use in class, and then by all means, load it in to an eBook app like Stanza.

Don't get me wrong... free books are wonderful things, and we should be telling students about free books and the best sites to find them on. I just don't see the point, however, of filling up a generic school iPad with hundreds of books the students will never willingly open.

So with that reservation dealt with, here are some ways to access free books.

1. Web access: try www.feedbooks.com or www.gutenerg.org. Gutenberg was the first major free books site, and currently lists 36,000 books. Feedbooks has (probably) fewer books but is more atractively formatted, including showing book covers. Feedbooks does sell books as well as provide free books, so go to "Public Domain" first. When you select "download" you can choose to open in iBooks or in any other book readers that are on the iPad.
2. Via Stanza. Stanza is a highly rated and free book reading app (get the iPad version, of course). Look at the bottom icons when you are in the Library section and you will see another icon for "Get Books".  you may then need to click on "Catalog" at the top of the screen. You will see several sources listed under "Free Books" including Feedbooks and Gutenberg. You can just browse or search to your hearts content then click Download. Books should arrive very quickly.
3. Via iBooks. You can go to a web site like Feedbooks then download into iBooks. You have to go to Feedbooks by using the Safari browser. iBooks will not let you browse sites like this from within iBooks. iBooks will only take you to the iBooks store (part of iTunes). Select a category in the store, then click on the "Free" button to see what is available.
4. Apps that contain books. There are a very large number of apps that actually come with books built in. I mostly ignore those as I cannot see the point, with the tens of thousands of free books available, of locking myself into an app. The likely consequence of using these is that you will end up with multiple copies of the books everyone thinks we should have, such as Alice in Wonderland. The exception is apps that do something special with books such as make them interractive... however these are rarely free.

Two  categories I have not explored particularly well are audio books and apps that read to you. The premier audio book site is www.audible.com, but this is not free. There are quite large audio book sites around, especially supporting visually impaired students (and adults). I'm not aware of any that have their own apps at this stage. The Kindle eBook reader (but not the Kindle iPad app) will actually read any book you download with quite a reasonable computer voice, and I'm keen to hear of any apps that will do this.

Book Readers

The iPad is not universally preferred as an eBook reader. There are those who strongly prefer the Kindle, or any reader with a digital ink display. While the iPad can be bright, most readers allow you to dial down the brightness, and provide "white on black" nightime reader settings.

Where the iPad shines is that it can be all the readers! iBooks was not the first reader, and is not neccesarily the best. Apple now offers iBooks as a free App Store download, and it does have the advantage of linking to your iTunes account for purchases. However, in a classroom context you need to ensure it is NOT linked to an account or that the account is locked!

You can easily obtain the free Kindle app, and this will then sync all of your Kindle books (if you also have a Kindle). However it can be used as a reader in its own right, and will link directly to the Amazon Kindle store. Again, it is vital with classroom machines to ensure that students cannot simply order a book with one click against your account!

One of the best independant readers I have found is Stanza. This has a nice interface, and unlike the Kindle and iBooks, has a "pinch and spread" finger gesture to change font size. It will also link directly to genuinely free book sources such as Feedbooks and Gutenberg.

For a change of approach, the Kobo app is interesting. This is based on the Kobo eBook reader (device) that was being pushed by Borders. It has a "game playing" approach so each new achievement (such as opening your first book) is recorded with a small celebration and an award on your personal Kobo page. While this sounds tempting to use in a classroom, I don't see how this would work if the device had multiple users. Perhaps save this one up for the parent who wants to purchase a device to encourage a reluctant reader.

So....

Posts on the use of the iPad in the school context.

The blog was begun by Andrew Lack, Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre at Pacific Hills Christian School, and will feature contributions intially from staff of the Pacific Hills, Pacific Coast and Pacific Valley Schools. I'd be delighted to hear from staff at these schools who want to recieve invitations as authors. Others can join in the fun by posting comments or emailing me directly.

Andrew Lack