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.

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.