TECH-iPad Basics

In iWorks I chose to focus on Pages, which can be compared to Microsoft Word. I have used Microsoft frequently growing up, so I am fairly familiar with it. Pages is similar to Word in many ways, although different in several as well. The format of each are decently similar; while the iPad's toolbar is set up slightly differently in order to save space, the options are basically the same. Both programs have templates which one can choose from, and you type on it just like any Word document. One positive of Pages is that it saves your work automatically; you never have to save. The biggest difference between the two programs, however, is that Pages was created specifically for the iPad; therefore, its touchscreen actually makes it, in my opinion, easier to use, especially for young users. There is no mouse to navigate. One drawback to this, however, is that there is no actual physical keyboard, so typing can be a challenge. I enjoyed working with Pages, although I am not sure I have a favorite program between the two.

Box.net is similar to dropbox in that it will save your work online in an organized fashion. You can make different folders into which you can import as well as search information, and it can be accessed from anywhere and on any device as long as internet is available. I was easily able to import a picture of myself from my iPad into my new Box.net account, although videos, documents, PDF files, and more can also be imported. Collaboration is also possible with this website, which is great for many kinds of people, especially in schools.

I had never used iThoughts before, and I absolutely love it! It is easy to use and fun to play with. I could see this being a great classroom tool for brainstorming and understanding stories and concepts. It would be great for young learners because of the hands-on, interactive features, especially because it is on and iPad, and therefore, a touch screen. There are tons of colors and ways to format your diagram, so each student can be creative and make their ideas unique. IThoughts is a great visual aid, which is important, especially in elementary school.

I have used Safari frequently in the past, but never Rover. Rover is a unique program which is geared toward education and allows students to surf the web with protection, which would be great especially for elementary schoolers. It enables Flash, which is needed for many programs and videos, but does not work on iPads, and so that is a definite bonus. When I experimented with Rover, however, as I chose a few things to search, articles and websites would come up in the search, but I could not find any that I could use; they were all blocked. I am not sure what the point of even having websites show up in the search that are blocked. Of course I want to protect my elementary school students, but they also need to have access to enough information to learn.