1) - Streamlining my use of Wordle
Ahhhh....if only I'd had the iPad just two days earlier and a mythology lesson would have gone so much smoother. As a review of our hero unit, I had students compile list ofthe characteristics of each hero. After they finished with one hero's list, I frantically typed their list into Wordle while they created the list for the next hero. I'm a fast typer. And still the activity took far too long. If only I'd had the iPad and knew to use the "Dragon" voice recognition program. That way, students could just read aloud their lists and the computer would register and compile the list. Then all I'd have to do is copy and paste the list into Wordle - and voila! - soooo much faster. But of course I couldn't paste the list into Wordle - I instead used another free word cloud program - because Apple doesn't support flash. Grrrrr....which is also an issue with using Glogster, another free online program I use in my classroom. So while I like the convenience of a tablet, the iPad might not be for me simply because it doesn't support flash, and I happen to love and use many programs that do require flash.
2) - ScreenChomp
This is an easy-to-use program that allows you to upload a photo/document and record yourself annotating and narrating that you can then play back as a presentation. I immediately thought of using the program to model art analysis and to have students record their own art analysis presentations. I asked a couple of student volunteers to take a photo of their Catcher in the Rye symbol posters, upload it to the app, and record a brief presentation of themselves discussing their symbol and poster.
Can't wait until MACUL to see how else I can use the iPad in class!