Ed Tech Review » Mac Software

Apples iPad-Where does it fit?

MrYardley — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:54:04 +0000

With the announcement of Apples new iPad devise there is a lot of skepticism among the tech analysts on whether or not this devise really has a market. I personally am glad to see Apple’s judgment get questioned by the fan-boy media, however in this case I thing Apple has the potential to hit a home run. For me personally it answers a big need. I currently have an iPod Touch with a fair amount of money and time invested in apps for it. I am also in the market for a phone. So I should just get an iPhone and transfer all of that over, right? Wrong, AT&T has no coverage for my area. Besides that I no longer believe that the iPhone is the toughest kid on the block in the cell phone arena. Android based systems will quickly overtake the iPhones momentum, because they are open for developers, and open to all carriers. The iPad is the perfect answer for my problem, because the apps I use the most will still be available and even more useful on the iPad, and can easily switch to an android based mobile phone without giving up my Apps, or having to carry two pocket sized devises.
The implications on schools could be tremendous, if Apple can refocus it’s efforts on in the education market, and get a little more competitive pricing. This is a perfect student device because students can type, communicate, and have textbooks all in one relatively affordable device. There would be a need to disable some options such as itunes store, appstore, and there would need to be an easy method to image devices for a whole classroom. Whether Apple will work with these things and make it possible remains a question. If Apple doesn’t there will likely be a similar device that will soon. Either way Apple has created a class of devise that will eventually revolutionize our classrooms. The days of each student having a computer devise are not too far away.

Jing Screen Capture Utility

MrYardley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Jing Website

Jing is a product that can capture either a still image of anything on your screen or a recording of up to 5 minutes of your screen. Wouldn’t it be handy to show the students how to do something, rather than just trying to explain the steps. Once you start using screen capture you wonder what you did without it. It is great for taking a picture of a website, Google earth images, or application instructions.

Jing is made by Techsmith who makes the best and most widely used professional screen capture applications. This free version is easier to use and has most of the features that you would need as a teacher. Jing is also Mac or Windows compatible.

Finding a Mac Blogging Application

MrYardley — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:26:10 +0000

In a recent post I talked about Microsoft Live Writer on a PC. Needless to say I was pretty impressed. Prior to using Live Writer I always took the time to go to the admin and type it on the website. Because my primary computer is a Mac so after using Live Writer I started my search for a Mac Blogging client. I must say first that although I settled on a winner, it was settling. The Mac Clients don’t even come close to design, functionality, and ease of use to Live Writer. Although, there are a few outliers the two applications that stand out from the crowd are MarsEdit and Ecto. While my first inclination was to go with MarsEdit, and that is what I’m typing this on, Ecto has a little but more capability when it comes to formatting and adding things to the entry like keywords or ads. The media management however is not as strong. It’s not that MarsEdit doesn’t have some of the formatting features but they are buried and difficult to use.

Ecto is not as pretty as the rest, but it does what you need it to do. I would like to see a single window interface, and easier media management, but it is very easy to format your articles and text like you want. One feature that is either not there or difficult to find is the ability to add columns. It is not important for this blog, but it is a feature I use all the time on my classroom blog for spelling and vocabulary lists. Inserting ads, and links is very easy, and it is possible to create your own scripts to make repetitive tasks a breeze.

It’s not often that Mac software is blown out of the water by PC apps, but in the case of Blogging clients Mac software doesn’t even come close. But if you are on a Mac, your best option is Ecto.

iPod Now Ready for the Education Market

MrYardley — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:07:11 +0000

It did not take long, but the iPod Touch now has sufficient apps too make it a valuable tool for education. When the iPod first came out there were very limited apps in the area of education but that is rapidly changing. Although apple is critisized for being a clozed development format, the explosion of apps makes it clear that it is open enough to make it easy for just about any developer to get there app distibuted on the iPod and iPhone platform.

There are now many applications in the Education field, from apps that teach times tables, to colors. I use “Preschool Adventure” with my 3 year old son and he loves it. For teaching my daughter Multiplication I use miTables. There are now many more apps for that are equally helpfull. As of this writing there is a noticable gap in Grading software, as well as student managment, but we are only a few months into the development of apps. I suspect that it won’t be long before the gaps are filled.

It is obvious that even with the recient price drop it is impractical to order a class set, but in my case I have three computers and groups of four students for centers. I now use my iPod Touch as an additional computer and the students switch which computer activity they use. I also use the calculator on my document projector because it is easier to see than the student calculators. My uses are quickly expanding, and I will likely purchase a seperate one with teacher funds to get even more use out of it.

iPod Touch In the Classroom

MrYardley — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:41:22 +0000

The iPod has already had an impact on the education community, but the advent of the iPod Touch shows particular promise as a tool that could significantly improve the classroom. iPods are a great way to deliver media contents to students to give extra review and practice to the students that need it. The iPod touch takes it beyond the basic viewing and listening of media to add applications. From using Internet resources, to communication applications it puts a vast amount of resources in the hands of teachers and students.
In June Apple will release another update for the iPod Touch that will allow you to add a wide variety of applications to your ipod touch. Although I can only speculate I would expect to see grade management, student management, and educational programs very soon after that. This new expansion makes the iPod Touch a viable and valuable classroom tool.

Mac Express! School Trends vs. Tech Trends!

MrYardley — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:16:22 +0000

In fourth Grade my elementary school got it’s first computers. They were the state of the art amazing Apple II Computers. These amazing machines allowed you to type and correct mistakes, without starting all over, and create cool looking banners with Print Shop. It seemed that Mac had a strong hold on the education market early on, especially in the elementary sector. This trend continued through my high school years, where I spent my time programming in basic and pascal on our Apple IIe’s. There was a crack in the dam, when our school purchased a PC lab for the CAD program my senior year. Soon high schools colleges, and businesses were dominated by the PC. But Apple despite inferior technology at the time held strong in the Elementary School market. Apple was nearly dead with a fledgling user base of dedicated fanatics that still swear up and down that pre-OSX operating systems were better than Windows XP. Based on the frequent crashes an multiple systems with my Macs I would respectfully disagree with these fanatics. Finally the Elementary Schools got some sense and realized that they were wasting money on Macs, and started making the shift to PC’s But Apple still had some fight left in them. The iPod was introduced and widely accepted as the music player of choice, and with this significant influx of cash they transformed the there sub par Hardware and Software into the Modern powerhouse of computing. Consumers are flocking to Mac in record numbers, and businesses are beginning to shift. But what about the strong base of Elementary schools, Well Mac labs continue to be replaced by PC’s. Finally Mac has the best product out there, and it the schools are dropping it like flies. In reality, I understand why. Schools have begun to realize that Apple does not have a competitive price. I can put together a computer that is component for component identical or superior to Mac technology for about half of what Apple charges. Software is much more available for PC than Mac, especially in regards to open source tools. It is easier and more affordable to find PC techs. You can save a lot of money going the PC route. But it does seem a little ironic that schools stuck with Apple until they produced a good product and then jumped ship.

Honest Truth about I Work 08

MrYardley — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:28:50 +0000

Unfortunately when it comes to Mac Products and software you get reviews from wither Mac Haters, or Mac Lovers, and the reviews are biased as such. Hopefully this review will be a little fairer, and approach it from one who jumps between Macs and PC’s with the grace of a ballet dancer. On my first impression I like the new I Work 08 suite. The suite is made up of three different applications to meet your office needs. The first is a presentation program that has been around for a few years. Keynote is a well polished application that has few rivals on the market. It is far more adept than Power Point in many aspects. If I were a Professional Presenter, or doing presentations was a major part of my workday this application is very powerful. Early versions of the program were a little more difficult to get going, but in the 08 version of the program it is just as easy to use as power point, except with keynote your end result looks a lot better and you have more options. Pages is a very good and intuitive word processor and layout application. I like that these two great tools are tied together seamlessly in this program. It is very easy to get the layout you want quickly. If you are putting the word processor alone head to head with Microsoft Word, Word wins out with expanded features and ease of finding advanced features. When you combine the layout capabilities with Pages 08 it becomes a very powerful product that most users will be very happy with. If you are a Microsoft Word, or even Apple Works power user, you will likely be disappointed Pages 08. The newest addition to the I Work family is Numbers. I personally like Numbers for laying out documents that need basic spreadsheets for presentations. It is easy to lay out a page that looks great and makes your data stand out. When it comes to serious calculation, or data processing though numbers falls short. In my opinion it is a totally different tool than Excell. Excell is a serious tool that assists you in tracking vast amounts of data and performing complex calculations. Numbers at this stage of development does not meet that need at all. When it comes time to taking that data and presenting it in a clear and good looking way Excell does not hold a candle to numbers. I personally keep all of my data in Excell and export the data I need to numbers to create documents to present to people.

For most people the Apple IWork 08 suite is a great tool that will meet your needs, and wants very well. You can create great looking documents with little effort. For power office application users, at this point this product is not for you. It simply does not have the advanced features needed, with the exception of Keynote, which in my opinion is the best product in it’s field.