Apple Macs in Education

Software

Pulpmotion Advanced is really worth a look at. It is a photostory style package and complements the original software called Pulpmotion which is mention in a previous post (sample outcome from PodKids). The company Aquafadas have created a number of packages that are worth downloading as demos.

Screen Capture Packages

iShowU works in OS 10.4 +

Thes next two packages only work in OS 10.5

ScreenFlow

Snapz Pro

Hardware

Easi-Speak Microphones

Excellent for capturing interviews around school and then placing mp3 files into Garageband for production. Please ensure that file name had .mp3 in lowercase!!!!

Korg Nano Key & Kord Nano Pad

If you are interested in finding out more about these, particularly if you are an Apple RTC, then please contact joemoretti@mac.com

I have just had a quick look at these and they look and feel really good. They won’t improve my musical ability but will mean that I can carry around a set of 6 keyboards and Macs to do projects without have to spend a week in hospital afterwards. The Key and Pad models plug straight into Garageband and are very simple to set up.

FlipVideo

There is only one way of describing this – Excellent, easy and an important feature is excellent sound quality.

What is Miro?

At the CLC we have recently come across the resource called Miro.  I have copied this introduction to the free package so that you an simply understand what it is.

Quite simply, Miro is a free application for channels of internet video (also known as ‘video podcasts and video rss). Miro is designed to be easy to use and to give you an elegant fullscreen viewing experience.

There are thousands of free internet video channels that you can watch. You’ll be able to download all the videos that each channel offers and when new ones are released, Miro will grab them automatically.

Unlike tiny videos on websites like YouTube, Miro videos are usually very high quality and look great when watched full screen. Since Miro downloads videos completely before you watch, your videos will never skip or stutter while they are playing.

The downloaded films can be taken into iMovie and used either to practice editing or to use the footage to change the outcome.  Please remember that the work is copyright and make sure that when you use it you remember to credit the film makers.

We think that this package is really worth working with, so please comment on ways that you can see yourself using it in the classroom.

Please check out this link and watch Episode 12.  The children have used one of the two live themes in Pulpmotion to help produce the episode.  The film is certainly worth downloading and is a challenge to other schools to produce  similar outcomes.  Well done PodKids.

MemoryMiner is a piece of software principally designed for tagging photos for recording family information.  At the Haringey CLC we are very interested in experimenting with this sofwtare to produce educational outcomes.  I feel that it lends itself to the Humanities and hope to publish a number of products over the next few weeks.  Please come back to this post and comment on the outcomes.

The software is available for both Mac and PC.

Please check out the software available from this company. It is so easy to use and the outcomes as really good. The Transformation Teachers Progamme in Haringey is currently working with PulpMotion and BannerZest Pro. There are downloadable demos of this software packages on their website and wel worth experimenting with.

Here’s a challenge for you….please follow this link  download the video clips and then use iMovie to produce a finished piece of work.  Could be fun and you will certainly learn a lot.  Please post finished pieces onto Google Video and then to your blogs.

I was delighted to see the video podcast produced by a class in Australia who have created a site called Podkids. The work they describe is both fun and creative and is worth viewing. I was interested in the software that they had used to create their programme and was thrilled when their teacher replied to my email and pointed me in this direction www.pulpmotion.com. I have downloaded the demo and think that this is an excellent package and one that we should be looking at for producing exhibitions of students work and the short news style video presentations that would work well in any curricular area. The software costs 27.50 EUR which is equivalent to 18.75 GBP so is not expensive and there are volume discounts. The live news theme is very good so please have a look at the site and possibly download the demo version. Please let me know what you think of it.

I am always on the look out for useful applications for my mac and want to share these two as ideal ones to consider adding to your macs. The first one is called iShowU which allows you to capture and record anything you can see on your screen, along with audio from a compatible source (like a microphone) as well as any audio from the mac itself. It is produced by a company called shineywhitebox.com and wait for it ….. the cost is only £10.41 – a real bargain. There is a 30 day demo version but it does put a watermark on the tutorial that you produce. This tutorial on jjakes.edublogs.org was produced using this software and although these copies were not produced to the highest spec for the blog they look great running on the mac.

The second piece of software is specifically for those people like me who are beginning to create websites with iWeb. One difficulty was managing a number of websites and this small application enables you to manage your sites and removes some of the confusion. I love iWeb and am really looking forward to the new release that is promised. This is how Chris Greg describes iWebsites:

iWeb normally stores a user’s websites in one folder (or package) called “Domains.sites,” in the user’s home library located at “~/Application Support/iWeb/”. It expects this package to be present, but if it isn’t, it will create it when launching iWeb. iWebSites manipulates “Domains.sites” to create more than one website package (a “.sites” file) in the Application Support/iWeb folder. Simply, iWeb opens up “Domains.sites” when it launches, and whatever website happens to be in that package is the website that iWeb uses while running. iWebSites renames “Domains.sites” when creating a new site, and it leaves the newly named “.sites” file in the Application Support/iWeb folder. iWebSites enables the user to switch between sites (by creating the appropriate “Domains.sites” package), delete sites, create new sites, and duplicate sites.

The software appears to be free but Chris is asking for donation/sponsorship for running the Boston Marathon. If you are into using iWeb this is a must.. try it out here.

One of the Transformation Teachers participants will soon be leaving to live in Australia, Perth to be exact. No prizes for guessing who ….. She has fallen in love with her Mac and is quickly working her way through the creative tools. I know that she is determined to complete the course and will be emailing and communicating with us through the MLE and possibly even SKYPE so I decided to search to see if I could find links with enthusiastic mac educators over the water. Well you’re in luck click here and see for yourself. Well Ruth we expect you to take Aus by storm and I certainly expect to read about the work that you do within other peoples blogs before the Summer is out… The challenge is set. How long will it take before they get to know about you.

I love my Mac!!! I remember using Macs in secondary school, and finding it a bit odd when I first changed to PCs. However, I soon got used to PCs, and for the next seven years or so I was completely PC based. This changed when my husband got a PowerBook … wow! It’s so easy to use, and I fell in love with its sleek, silver casing. We eventually got rid of the big, clunky desktop PC and have only used his Mac for the past couple of years. I’ve never enjoyed using my school laptop. And now to have my own MacBook … wonderful! One of the things I have been realising as I have discovered new software is that my Mac is so instinctive. That’s the word I have been using lots recently. It’s so straightforward and clear to use. I tried to begin using a PC piece of software last week, and I gave up, thinking that it would be so much clearer on a Mac! Of course, I still have to use a PC at school, but I agree that once you get used to both you can switch easily between them both. But for me, Macs rule!