Fun, Organizational Tips for Faculty (5/5) - Freebie Friday - Post-It PopNotes App

Readers,

Today's item for Freebie Friday is focused on the new Post-It note app from the 3M company. Personally, I am a fan of geo-tagging (reading the comments and reviews, not posting comments) when it comes to traveling in my city and outside of the state.

It would be interesting to see if geo-tagging would work outside of the retail environment and would make its way to college and university campuses across the United States (perhaps even the world). It would be great to visit a university like Harvard and to read the tags for each of the different buildings. It would create a personalized, virtual tour for campus visitors! 

Just a thought! Enjoy!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Take a Virtual Vacation - My 5 Favorite iPad/iPod Games

Readers,

This summer has been filled with student interactions and organizing my home for the fall semester. Between those two very important (and time consuming) items, I have developed a virtual affair with my iPad games. I play 10 minutes of an iPad game when I need to refocus on an activity, when I am in the doctor's waiting room, or when I simply need to take a virtual mini vacation. Here are the games that I have been enjoying this summer!


1 - Scrabble HD



2 - Angry Birds - Rio





3 - Wedding Dash



4 - The Price is Right (My mom LOVES this one)



5 - Boggle



Wonderful iPad/iPod games! Do you have any games to contribute to the list? 


Sincerely,


J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

New Apps to Adopt for the Fall 2011 Semester - 8 Tech Tools for College Students (USA Today)

Readers,

I know that many of you are preparing for the fall semester and you are looking for some new productivity apps to add to your mobile device. 

Yesterday, USA Today published an article titled, "8 Tech Tools for College Students". These FREE tech tools are:


1 - Skype (Android, BlackBerry, iOS)



2 - Evernote Peek (Apple iPad)

3 - Grades 2 (iOS)



4 - Snoozerr Recordings (iOS)



5 - Wunderlist (Android and iOS)



6 - TED (iOS)



7 - Instagram (iOS)



8 - Aroundme (Android and iOS)

Enjoy!


J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

iPad2 - The Sequel (Communication Technology at Its Best!)

Readers,

I have to tell all of you about my wonderful husband! On iPad Friday, my husband was determined to purchase an iPad2 for my birthday! After working all day teaching at a local high school, he stood outside of the Apple Store for two hours! Amazing man!



However, his efforts were in vain because these new devices sold out within a 30 minute time frame! So, on Saturday, we spent SIX hours driving around the DFW area to find a 3G iPad2. Best Buy decided to capitalize on the high demand and low supply of the iPad2 and they implemented the reservation program! For $100.00, customers could reserve an iPad2 and the company would call you when a product arrived. Yes, this sounded like a great idea at the time so we went for it!

On the way back to the car, I had a bright idea to call the AT&T Stores in the area and each of the stores in Dallas and Fort Worth were completely sold out! On a whim, I decided to call the AT&T Store in the town in which my university is housed (which is an hour an a half outside of the DFW area) and they had FOUR iPads left! I wish that I would have known this very important fact before I left work on Friday! :) I was very excited to drive to that AT&T Store to purchase my iPad2! It is amazing!



Five Features that I LOVE about the iPad2:

1 - It is available in white! I think this looks a little more professional than the black.
2 - It has a camera and a video camera!
3 - It has FACETIME! - This will be great for videoconferencing or virtual office hours on the go!
4 - It is slender and lighter than the original.
5 - I LOVE the new cover!

I really think that the iPad is the ultimate communication technology tool!

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

My Academic Life is Organized By My iPad....

Readers,

It appears that iPads are here to stay! The iPad2 will be released in a few weeks and I am ready to get my hands on the NEW ONE! I use my iPad for EVERYTHING! Here's my top ten uses of the iPad (in no particular order).

1 - Presenting an electronic ticket when boarding a plane.
2 - Finding my way around a city via Google Maps.
3 - Constantly checking email.
4 - Presenting Groupon coupons at retail locations.
5 - Blogging and more blogging!
6 - Checking voicemail on Google Voice.
7 - Writing papers.
8 - Keeping myself accountable for completing tasks on Google Tasks.
9 - Grading papers on Blackboard.
10 - Conducting virtual office hours.

I use this wonderful device for MANY things! In addition to a professor's uses, several of my students use their iPads to play music on Pandora, check email, write reminders, and sometimes to take notes.

"iPads: A Bane or Boom to College Teaching?", an article by Josh Fischman in the Chronicle of Higher Education, explores a study highlighting students' usage of iPads in a college classroom. One interesting aspect of the study took place at the end of the course when students has the option of using iPads or a laptop on the Internet-based final examination in class. Only one student chose take their final examination on the iPad. Very interesting! I wonder did the study focus on the students' perceptions of the device as well. I wish that I was able to conduct such a study in my classroom! Here's the link to his article - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/author/jfischman

Very interesting! What do you think about using iPads in your academic life or in your classroom? Contribute a comment! :)

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Study: University Students Pick iPads Over Textbooks | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Readers,

A recent study conducted at the University of Notre Dame concluded that university undergraduate students pick iPads over textbooks. This study, titled the eReader project, took place in a project management class consisted of 40 students.

According to Jill Duffy a writer for PC Magazine, the students stated that "they learned more and enjoyed the class more". Here's the link to her article - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376165,00.asp

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

"Ask a Millennial Professor" Friday - "How Do You Grade on Blackboard Using the iPad?"

Readers,

Happy "Ask a Millennial Professor" Friday! Here's this week's question:

Hi Dr. Edwards,

I recently came across your experiences with the iPad in the college classroom.  I am a college professor as well and was very excited about not only the integration of the iPad in the higher education classroom but the usefulness for me personally. I must say, though, I  never purchased the iPad personally as I was not able to access and grade papers through Blackboard (my son has one).  I could get on Bb, but couldn't see all student submissions or open them.  However, I noticed you mention that you use the iPad to grade through Bb.  I was hoping you would enlighten me...I must be missing something obvious?

Thanks,

[Name of Professor], Ed. D

Sent from my iPhone

Here's my response:

Dr. [Name of Professor],

Thank you for your question! Currently, our university uses Blackboard (CE Enterprise License - Release 8.0). This particular version of blackboard is very compatible with the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch (which my students use before and after class). I am able to see their submissions (which emerge in another window) and I am able to grade their submissions in an additional window. Now, I know that my last statement may seem a little "window" heavy, but the iPad is the multitasking machine!

To help with the large number of attachments that can emerge from each of your online and hybrid classes, I recommend that you have your students create a Google Documents account and submit their papers via Google. This has helped my grading process become a little less time consuming since I can grade on the go!

Thank you for your e-mail!

Sincerely, 

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

TCU Career Services iPhone and iPad App!

TCU Career Services Website

Readers,

TCU's Career Services office created a Career App (https://careers.tcu.edu/resources/careerapp.aspx) that focused on Business Etiquette, Creating Your Personal Pitch, Dining Etiquette, Interview Preparation, Interview Questions, and After the Interview.

What are great resource for our students! Do you have any apps for your classroom OR student services?

Check this app out!

Let us know what you think!

Career-Services Department Jumps on App Bandwagon - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

Millennial Professor

iPad Pilots in Higher Education - iPad Pilots

http://fairfieldmirror.com/2010/02/03/an-ipad-a-day-gives-students-an-a/

Readers,

Tonight, I received a great e-mail from Mr. Jim Siegl (@jsiegl). He created and maintains a list titled "iPad Pilots in Higher Education". This list of more than 145 institutions is an EXCELLENT resource for higher education professors who research the effectiveness of iPads in secondary and post-secondary classrooms.

Here's the link - iPad Pilots in Higher Education - iPad Pilots

Several Texas institutions are featured on the list. I hope that our university is able to utilize iPads in my proposed course for Fall 2011 (Communication Technology and Social Media).

If you have any institutions to add to the list, please let Jim Siegl know!

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

iPad Pilots at U Houston and CDI College Take Off -- Campus Technology

Readers,

As all of you probably know by now, I am a technology junkie. However, I love integrating technology in my courses. Unfortunately, I have only seen two other iPads (aside from my own) on campus and they belonged to the Communication Department and to another department on campus. As of today, I have not seen ANY students with iPads OR e-readers. However, a large amount of the students and faculty have iPod Touch devices and/or an iPhone.

Today, I read an article titled, "iPad Pilots at U Houston and CDI College Take Off -- Campus Technology". This is an AMAZING venture from the University of Houston's College of Communication and the U of H Educational Technology department. They have a course titled "Information and Communication Technologies", in which they equipped their students with iPads for the next eight weeks. Here's some more information about the project.

Kudos to the University of Houston right now. I would LOVE

to provide my students with such an exciting experience! I wonder where the research will be published. :)

Here's some additional information about the project:

"At the University of Houston a joint project between the School of Communication and the Education Technology and University Outreach organization will research the impact of 'anytime, anywhere' learning over the final eight weeks of the current semester. A team of professors has created an iPad application for an Information and Communication Technologies course with 30 students. COMM 3353 iApp, which will be used in an elective class in the journalism program, contains learning modules with video lectures, textbook material, presentations, tutorials, and simulations"

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

iPads in the College Classroom - The iPad Pilot and Loaner Programs

This has been one of the most AMAZING summers (with the iPad). :) This wonderful piece of technology has enabled me to become a truly mobile professor. Now, I wish my students had access to this technology as well.



iPads in Scholarly Presentations - This summer, I delivered a poster presentation at the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) on Google Documents. It was a great experience and I bypassed the university network by using my AT&T 3G service <- which was VERY nice. Using the iPad, I demonstrated how to create a form on Google Docs and the faculty were in awe of Google's features! In addition, I demonstrated how my students wrote their research papers using the communication medium.





iPads in the Classroom (Faculty) - Faculty can use their iPad in their classrooms to make their lives easier. I plan to keep attendance on the iPad and demonstrate simple cloud computing concepts to small student groups during the fall semester. In addition to using the device to demonstrate simple concepts to small groups, when the computer system in the classroom is down, I plan to load my power points from Google Docs on the iPad and to display them via the document camera to deliver my lectures.



I still do not allow laptops in my classroom, but I would allow the iPad (generation one). This technology does not handle multitasking well. This is GREAT for classrooms! If the students are operating from an e-book, they cannot have their e-mail open at the same time. However, I have discovered that I can browse the internet or grade papers on blackboard AND receive messages from Yahoo Instant Messenger.

Today, I discovered an article on Wired focused on iPad pilot studies that will happen in the fall. I am VERY disappointed that our university was not selected. :( Here's the link, iPad Gets the University Treatment in the Fall. In addition to the universities selected for the pilot study, Texas A&M University is providing their faculty with an iPad loaner program for faculty to experience the iPad for one week: http://itsinfo.tamu.edu/news/iPad_Loaner_Program_Announced_for_Faculty.php.

The iPad is an incredible resource for the college classroom!

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

The iPad Millennial Professor: Happy Independence Day!

Readers,

I love teaching summer courses because I can experiment with new technologies before the fall semester arrives. This summer, I used Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentation with my online classes (embedded in Blackboard).

In addition to the Google resources, I've been using my iPad (with 3G) to update the two online courses, grade assignments, and hold virtual office hours via Yahoo Instant Messenger.

I really like the fact that I do not have to wait until arriving home to update a Blackboard assignment or to respond to a student's email (teaching presence). However, I tend to sleep less frequently than I did before the iPad. It IS very time consuming, but for $30.00 a month for unlimited access, who can complain?

I am writing this blog entry as my husband drives us back from our July 4th weekend in Tyler. Talk about productivity!

Millennial Professor

Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.