Technology and Learning

Our adaptive physical education teacher came to me yesterday asking about a Makey Makey !  She wondered if I have ever heard of it and I say YES YES:)!!! I gave one a few years ago to a neighbor boy who was interested in building things.  I asked him to bring it in for us to try!  Her plan was to use this device to act as a "switch" for a student to use with the Wii to bowl, bat, etc.. as the student is able to hit a button but not grasp a controller.  So, today, myself, Casey,  and three other students set out to get this bugger working.  It DOES NOT work with the Wii as the sensor control doesn't catch it - however - it DOES work perfectly with a computer!  See below: Basically, the Makey Makey is a control board that allows you to use the space bar or click on your computer by tapping an object you have alligator wired to the circuit.  In the picture above, for example, a student created a Pac Man joystick using the directions on th...

  I WISH I had a great answer for this - but I don't!!  Some kiddos have DONE the update and others have NOT as they don't have enough storage - which is OUR problem.  Each student only has a 16GB iPad, so with the iOS 9 taking up 1.2 of that, it doesn't leave much wiggle room for apps like Notion , GarageBand , Music Theory for Beginners , Cell and Cell Structure , and Frog Dissection .  Those are JUST a few.  AND if kiddos use Dropbox at all - that takes storage, too - UGH!!  That's not even counting other amazing apps for creation like iMovie and Explain Everything ...... so for now what do you do - if they CAN do it - they ARE doing it as wanted.  Then, if I have trouble doing updates or adding additional apps for electives, I end up deleting the iOS 9 update - nothing else to do I guess. With that being said, there are some REALLY neat features with iOS 9 - those being converting websites to PDF for kiddos without Internet and split screens - ...

 I am going to TOTALLY copy and past what my Apple guy sent along - ugh:)!! Hardware Highlights from Recent Announcement Apple iPad Pro 12.9 inch screen with Keyboard Option and Apple Pencil -  http://www.apple.com/ipad- pro/ All new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus - http://www.apple.com/iphone/ Apple TV with new TVos open to developers -  http://www.apple.com/tv/ iOS 9 * iOS 9 is a free upgrade and will ship on September 16th -  https://www.apple.com/ios/ whats-new/ * iOS 9 is supported on iPad 2 and greater. * iOS 9 will take much less free space to install than previous iOS updates. iOS 9 is full of new management capabilities that many of you have been asking for.  These include things like: * Assign and deploy a VPP purchased app to a device (not a person) using your MDM server  without the need for an Apple ID on the device. * Deploying apps to a device while keeping the App Store restricted so the end user can’t see it or use it. * Restrict users fro...