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

We got iPads!

The school site where I work just purchased iPad 2s for all staff members and a set of 30 that teachers can sign out to use in their classrooms. Needless to say I am so excited about this and have started to download many great apps. However, I seem to have forgotten the greatest lesson that Richardson suggested, “before you attempt to bring these technologies to your students, first be selfish about their use in your own learning practice” (2010). While this statement refers to teachers ability to learn the technology before extending the use to their students, I should have transposed the lesson to be role as tech mentor and used the technology before giving to my colleagues. In my excitement, I quickly activated all the teacher iPads assuming they all knew how to use iTunes and how to connect the iPads to their iTunes accounts. I quickly found myself creating Podcasts to show them how to create email accounts and how to download apps.