Course Requirements
EDUC 439/639: iPad Apps for Educators
This course teaches you how to use the iPad to help people learn. You begin with yourself by really learning how to use your iPad. Then you learn how to apply iPad strategies to create learning enviroments in which people can improve their performance and achieve more effective results across a broad range of disciplines and industries.
Many people who have an iPad use it primarily to consume content such as movies, music, games, and news, or they spend most of their time online in social networking. Such consumers never discover the more creative side of the iPad, which enables you to create instead of merely consume multimedia content on the Internet. That is why this course begins by immersing you in a multimedia tutorial that uses the iPad as a tool to demonstrate how you can create this kind of multimedia learning environment. The tutorial is delivered in an eBook entitled iPad Primer with Embedded Video Tutorials. Never has it been more true that the medium is the message: by taking advantage of the iPad's ability to embed videos in an eBook, the iPad Primer enables you to experience the kind of multimedia learning environment you will be able to create after working through these tutorials.
A logical place to begin is iBooks, because iBooks is the eBook reader with which you will work through the iPad Primer. In Chapter 1 you learn how to use the iPad’s onscreen keyboard to take notes, and you practice using the bookmarking and highlighting tools that can help you study. In Chapter 2, you use the Camera to take photos, and you learn how the Camera stores these images on the Camera Roll. Chapter 3 teaches you how to surf the Web and save to your Camera Roll images you find on Web pages. In Chapter 4, you learn to use Wikipanion to save to your Camera Roll images found in Wikipedia. Chapter 5 teaches you how to write on the iPad using the best-selling Penultimate app for freehand drawing and note-taking. In Chapter 6, you learn how to make screen shots that enable you to capture to your Camera Roll any screen from any app on your iPad. Sometimes a screen shot will be turned the wrong way; Chapter 7 shows you how to rotate images using Adobe Photoshop Express.
The next part of the book is devoted to digital storytelling. When planning to make a movie, it helps to create a plan called a storyboard to organize your thoughts and plan how your movie will unfold. Chapter 8 shows how to use iCardSort to storyboard your movies and plan the flow of concepts in your stories. In Chapter 9, you learn how to insert any image from your Camera Roll into digital stories that you make with iMovie, which is the app used in making all of the Primer's show-me movies.
If you do a lot of writing, an app that can save time is Dragon Dictation. Chapter 10 teaches you how to use Dragon to transcribe into text anything you speak into the iPad’s microphone. Through the multitasking tool taught in Chapter 11, you can quickly paste your dictations into any app on your iPad.
Having gotten you started, the Primer points you to resources you can use to find more exciting content and apps for your iPad. Chapter 12 gives you tips for finding the best apps, and Chapter 13 shows how to find freely available content at iTunes U. In Chapter 14, you learn how to get free eBooks from Apple’s iBookstore.
If you want to create your own eBooks, Chapter 15 shows how to use Pages to create eBooks such as the iPad Primer, which was totally authored in Pages, and Chapter 16 shows how to move these kinds of files to and from your iPad via iTunes. In Chapter 17 you learn to manage files with a cloud-based solution called Dropbox, and Chapter 18 introduces the GoodReader app for managing files and annotating PDFs. In Chapter 19, you learn how to create folders to keep your iPad organized as your library grows. Chapter 20 shows you how to configure your iPad for email, calendaring, and contacts. To prevent unauthorized access, Chapter 21 has you secure your iPad. Chapter 22 teaches you how to search your iPad to find things you may be looking for. In case you ever need to make a presentation, Chapter 23 shows how to project your iPad. If you run into problems, Chapter 24 gives troubleshooting tips and advice. The final chapter concludes the Primer by providing you with resources for learning more about the iPad. At the end of the book is a movie index of links to the show-me movies that are embedded throughout the Primer.
Participants will be expected to spend at least twelve hours per week studying articles and tutorials, practicing iPad authoring techniques, and working on projects.
In the sidebar is a list of the specific assignments and how much they count toward your grade in the course. You can think of these assignments as consisting of three major parts, each of which counts for a third of your grade. The design and implementation of an iPad project will constitute one-third of the final grade; online class participation will count another third; and your blogs will constitute the final third. All students must make effective use of the course discussion forum to communicate with your fellow classmates and your professor. Students will keep track of their projects by logging their progress in blogs that the instructor will visit periodically to review and comment.
Assignment #1: Goal Statement
Your first assignment is to state the reasons why you enrolled in this course and what you hope to accomplish by taking it. If you have only a general idea of why you chose to enroll in this course, go ahead and describe your goals in general terms. If you have more specific goals in mind, please enumerate them. I will use this information to help advise you and guide you through the appropriate course materials.
Assignment #2: E-mail Registration
In response to the e-mail registration assignment in your online course environment, you tell your course instructor what is your e-mail address. Yes, there is an e-mail address on file for you here at the University of Delaware, but just in case I need to contact you about something related to this course, I want to make sure I have a good working e-mail address. Being able to reach you when I need to is so important that I am giving you 5 points for telling me: What is your e-mail address?
Assignment #3: Discussion Forum
Every student in this class is required to participate actively in the course discussion forum. To enter the discussion forum, log on to the course and choose the Discussions option. One of the first messages you write in the forum should inform your fellow classmates about the nature of the project you are hoping to create. The forum is an excellent place to network with your fellow students and form teams in which you can work together to create your projects.
Assignment #4: Cool Tool Wiki
This course has a wiki that you can enter by following the link to Wiki after logging on to your online course. In this wiki, we want you to write a message in which you share with your fellow classmates the coolest tool you discovered while taking this course. On your page in the wiki, tell us the Web address of your cool tool, and describe the reasons why you think this tool is cool. In addition to creating new pages, the wiki also enables you to modify or add to submissions made by your classmates. If you have more information about a tool submitted by one of your classmates, for example, you can select the option to edit that page and add your own thoughts. Through this process of having every member of this course contributing to the wiki, we develop a shared knowledge base of cool tools and best practices for using them.
Assignment #5: Blog Checkpoint #1
This is your first checkpoint for submitting project logs to be reviewed by your instructor. You submit your logs by writing in the Blogger that you will find in your tools menu after logging on to your online course. In your blog, please write about the contributions you made so far toward accomplishing your project's goals. You may also write about problems your project encountered and tell how you plan to solve them. The deadline for submitting this log is flexible, but in general, you should try to submit it about one third of the way through the course.
Assignment #6: Blog Checkpoint #2
This is your second checkpoint for submitting project logs to be reviewed by your instructor. In your blog, write about the contributions you made toward accomplishing your project's goals, and describe any problems your project encountered and tell how you plan to solve them. The deadline for submitting this log is flexible, but in general, you should try to submit it about two thirds of the way through the course.
Assignment #7: Blog Checkpoint #3
This is your third and final checkpoint for submitting project logs to be reviewed by your instructor. In your blog, write about the contributions you made toward accomplishing your project's goals, and describe any problems your project encountered and tell how you plan to solve them. The deadline for submitting this log is flexible, but in general, you should try to submit it during the final third of the course.
Assignment #8: iPad Project
Final versions of iPad projects must be mounted on the Web for Dr. Hofstetter to review and grade. As mentioned in the course preamble, the purpose of your site is to demonstrate the manner in which you have decided to use the various iPad apps and tools.
Assignment #9: Course Evaluation
Your final assignment in this course is to evaluate it. Toward the end of the course, you will receive an email from the School of Education sent to your udel.edu email address. This email tells you when the course evaluation window is open. You must log on to the course evaluation system within this window of time. The Web address of the course evaluation system is www.udel.edu/course-evals. After you complete the course evaluation, your instructor will give you credit for completing it. The responses you give are completely anonymous. While your instructor will be able to see the ratings and comments, it is impossible for your instructor to identify the person who gave a certain rating or made a given comment. Once you complete the evaluation, your grade on this assignment will be an automatic A.
