As promised - ipad Screencasts

In my blog "We Got ipads!" I promised to post some of the instructional videos I made for the teachers at my school. The purpose of these videos was to help teachers who had never used ipads before to learn some essential ipad skills. I have decided to share three of these instructional videos with you here.

I used the tool "Screencast -O- Matic" to create my videos. This tool allows you to create up to 15 minute videos for free using your browser. There is no software to download and install. I have included a link to promotional video that shows how easy Screencast-O-Matic is to use. Screencast-O-Matic Video

The first instructional ipad video that I am going to share with you shows teachers how to set up their ipad to allow their ECSD emails to download to their ipad. Allowing teachers the flexibility of receiving their email by computer or ipad is of great importance. It also allows teachers to take their ipad home to work and still helps them remain connected to their email. The email is downloaded to the ipad but a copy still remains in the web server for access through other devices. The light "ping" that occurs when an email arrives can be exciting as you know that you are connected; however, teachers need to be careful that they do not become a slave to the "ping". If you are eating dinner with the family or working on a household project, the email will be there waiting for you at a later more convenient time. :)

The second instructional video that I have decided to share shows "green" users of the ipad how to download "apps" - the short version of applications. These mini (and sometimes not so mini) programs are what make the ipad function. There are many different categories of apps including professional tools, games, gadgets for camera, web 2.0 tools, news feeds, and so much more.

The final instructional video that I have included in this blog shows users how to download the Pages app and how it can be used. Pages is the word processing program for the ipad. Teachers will benefit from the use of this app and I would encourage teachers to buy the app (it does cost $9.99). The app is useful and without it ipad's capability to be a tool for note taking and document processing is limited.