iOS Podcasts App now out. Podcasts on Apple mobile devices have always been a bit hidden away. This separates them out into their own app. Another great educational tool (I know there are plenty of other alternatives too!).
Creating iPad Tutorials with Skitch & SnapGuide

Our 1:1 iPad trial is starting soon, more on that another time. I’m determined that devices will be self-managed by staff and students alike, and training time is at a premium. Our Digital Leaders will be doing lots of the work for me but I wanted a way to put together easy to follow tutorials and have found a nice solution.
Two apps free needed, Skitch and Snap Guide.
First job is to follow through whatever procedure you’re explaining on the iPad and snap a screenshot of every stage (press the power and home buttons at the same time). Then head over into Skitch and load up the pics from the Camera Roll, add any arrows, highlights etc that you want to, and export each finished image back to the Camera Roll.
Then fire up Snap Guide, add a step and select camera, select the camera roll and you can then tick each picture that you’ve created in Skitch. Get them in the right order and add a caption to each.
And that’s it! The guides look best in the free Snap Guide app which I’ll be getting everyone to install but they can also be viewed on the website. Here’s my first effort.
I think with any big change in tools in the classroom it’s important to model best practice, so I’ll be looking to provide examples of suitable iPad only solutions to all sorts of things as we go along.
Notes Plus iPad App:
I’ve been planning a presentation to an eLearning working party at school on the potential for iPads as a 1-2-1 solution (following on from my previous thoughts) - more to come on this when I have time to write it up properly.
Decided it was time to give my stylus a workout and came across the Notes Plus app in the top 40 apps list. I gave it a whirl and I’m most impressed. It has some great features including shape recognition, zoomed in writing (vital so you can write small), palm rest and more.
Very impressed - I’d thoroughly recommend it for £2.99.


