The best thing about the New iPad for education may be the $100 off the iPad 2.

Well, after spending a day with the New iPad,  I am finding some pro's and con's to Apples latest offering.  The step from the original iPad to the iPad 2 was huge in my mind, but the step from the iPad 2 to the "New iPad" (What's up with that name!) is much less...especially for education. There are some nice new features, and depending on your needs may be critical but I don't see it for educational needs.

The better rear camera is great, and for a consumer will be a welcome update, but for education do we really need a better camera with larger files? Is HD video necessary for class projects given the extra problems associated with larger files? My conclusion is no.

The display is nice, but so was the iPad 2's display.  I can see a few differences, but to be honest... they are slight for what I am doing with my iPad.  I even have a few apps updated for the new Retina display, and still no wow factor for me. I really do not see the need for our classroom uses at the current time.  Yes, it will stream video at 1080p, but most of our videos we use in school are not high quality and very few will have the new Apple TV to accommodate the 1080p let alone a big flat screen TV with 1080p.

The faster processor may be needed in a few years, but right now each app I used side-by-side with my "old" iPad2" showed no speed difference. By the time any of us need the speed, there will be another new iPad on the market. (Not to mention the extra heat given off by this increase in processor speed.)

The hot spot sharing and  4G LTE could be a killer feature for the consumer or mobile warrior, but for most of our educational needs we are just ordering wifi only models.

It was a welcome surprise that Apple kept it's same pricing structure for the New iPad including it's similar battery life. (That's especially impressive with the 4G LTE models.)

What do I think is the best thing about the New iPad for education?  It's that the price on the iPad 2 16 gig units were rolled back $100 to $399. That's a bargain for what may be the best iPad for schools at the moment. I do wish they would still produce the 32 gig iPad 2 units as well, but it looks like that is not going to be the case.  Don't get me wrong, the New iPad is now the best tablet on the market and continues to push the boundaries, but I think the best news was that the iPad 2 just got more affordable for schools and kids.

Your thoughts...........????

Just a few misc. resources for staff and check out Lucid Charts too!

Working in education and technology is awesome and seeing all of the great resources that are available to teachers and students is one of the more compelling aspects of this job.  Each week I share numerous resources with our staff via staff emails and my Twitter feed, but sometimes I like to share a few in the blog as well.  Here it goes... 

Top 10 Sites for Creating a Chart or Graph http://goo.gl/Dg068  (Notice Lucid Charts is one mentioned.  We already have that installed in our Google Apps, and you will read a little more about it later in this entry.) 

PBS has a great site with videos and a ton of other resources.  You can sign up for a free account too.   http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/  

Free iPad Math App- Elem.

Addition UnderSea Adventures: This colorful and visually stimulating app will dazzle your child as he explores the under water world with math. Children reveal puzzles of underwater scenes by solving simple addition problems. Puzzles increase in difficulty, each with a new scene to reveal. (FREE)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/addition-undersea-adventures/id386107435?mt=8

Free iPad Math Game App- Elem.
Island Chase Subtraction is free in the App Store for the month of March. Go get it if you haven't done so already!  (Courtesy of Barb Bentzinger  Thanks Barb!) 

10 Recommended YouTube Edu-tainment Channels. This is a nice list for starting your YouTube subscriptions. Check out the list here.

Google Apps

I love this product, and all of the companies that tie into Google apps.  

This week, Google just added the ability to label and/or star your email messages before you send them.  What a nice feature to be able to remember to followup on those important messages you send.  Read more about it here. 

We just added Lucid Charts to our Google apps this week, and this product is awesome!  This is a great product and this company offers their product free for school to use.  Thanks Lucid Charts for not only making a great product, but they allow us to use it with our students at a cost we can afford! 

iPad not connecting to wireless?

Here are just a few quick notes we share with our staff:

If you are having trouble with wireless, you can simply turn it off, and then turn it back on again. This often fixes the issues. 

http://its.uiowa.edu/apps2/support/article/1468

When you close an app on the IOS devices, it really does not close.  Normally that's OK, but sometimes you will want to close all of your apps if one is giving you a problem.

http://www.simplehelp.net/2010/11/29/how-to-close-open-apps-on-your-ipad-iphone-or-ipod-touch/

Many teachers do not realize, that hitting the sleep button does not really shut the iPad down. 

http://ipod.about.com/od/ipad/qt/turn-off-ipad.htm

Reset device. (Does not cause loss of data.)  This will solve many problems!

http://ipod.about.com/od/ipad/qt/restart-ipad.htm

Some new Facebook features that teachers need to be aware of, before it's to late.

I am not putting this out to scare anyone, but you need to be aware of some new features coming to Facebook. (A big thanks to Paul Bade for tuning me into this one!) Facebook is adding a new feature called timeline.  Staff need to be aware of the potential of old pictures, posts, etc... becoming public in this timeline that you may not want to be public. Here are a couple articles that will explain what you may need to know on this. 

Ready or not, you're getting Facebook Timeline - CNN  http://goo.gl/684Ro 

Prep for Facebook's Timeline Layout: 6 Must-Do Privacy Tweaks - PC World  http://goo.gl/HVxYE

This app rocks for managing your cloud storage right from your computer like a local hard drive.

In several of my articles, I have mentioned the Gladinet product and how you really need to look at it for managing many of your online free (or purchased) cloud storage services. In this short article, I will let you know a little bit about the product and how you can easily have over 30+ gig of storage on the cloud, all accessible by clicking on a drive letter from within your computer.

Once this product is installed, it maps a drive letter (default is Y drive) to your computer where you can click on the drive, just like it was a local drive on your computer, and get to many of your online services and manage them by just dragging and dropping files.

Online services that you will want to have that are free, and are supported by this product:

• Microsoft's Sky Drive. (25 Gig Free) See my January 17th 2012 article on this one: http://goo.gl/Q1JyE
• Amazon's Cloud drive.   (5 Gig Free) (If you have an Amazon account, you already have this and may not even know it.)  https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
• Box.net (5 Gig Free)  http://box.com/
• It will also connect to your Picasa site for pictures (1 Gig Free). (Works for regular Gmail accounts and Google Apps accounts.) 
• It will connect to your Google Docs. If you have Google Apps for Business or Schools, then it will only connect to that account if you buy the full version and not the free version.

These services are free, and offer their own sync software, etc... but are not supported by Gladinet. I wanted to mention these because they are great services that you will want to have for their service, mobile apps, software, etc...

• Dropbox (2 Gig free and more for friend recomendations.) https://www.dropbox.com/ 
• SugarSync (5 Gig free)  https://www.sugarsync.com/

I am using the free version of Gladinet and love it.  If you buy the product, you can connect to your Google Apps account as well as setup folders locally to automatically sync to your cloud services. (Similar to what the DropBox and SugarSync software packages do for you.) You are given all of the pro features for a few days, so you can try them out to see if you want to keep those services.

After the product is installed, you add your cloud storage services and then go to your Y drive and you see them all there! If you need to add more services or delete services you will start the Gladinet Cloud Desktop Console program found on your start menu. The install adds the Gladinet Cloud Desktop program to your start up, so when you reboot your computer it starts automatically.  (If you are in a school that controls your start up and start menu, you may need to start this program each time manually for your Y drive to show up.)


Enjoy, this is a great product and an easy way to manage all of your files on the cloud.

A Windows 7 Desktop and MS office all on the cloud, all free, with this cool app for your iPad!

• Imagine an app where you can run a Windows 7 desktop right from your iPad.  
• Imagine having Office 2010, media player and other apps on that desktop.  
• Imagine 2 gig of free storage on that virtual Windows 7 machine. 
• And one more thing... can it be free?

Wow, that's a long list, but that day has arrived!

onlive.com offers this and more.  I heard about this app a couple days ago, but did not get a chance to try it out, so this morning I took a few minutes, setup my account, downloaded the app, and kicked the tires on this baby. Being in the tech business, I keep current with technology and trends. I see a lot of things that would of given us cardiac arrest five years ago... but this app may just do that anyway.  It' amazing what can be done virtually anymore and all from the cloud... and the heart stopper.... the free plan has some great features.

A couple days ago, I tried the CloudOn product, which has a few similarities with it's own pro's and Con's.  Right now, that product is free, but they do not have their pricing structure and plans in place, so that scares me a little bit. There are some things I really like about this product too, so you will want to check it out on your own. (The online keyboard is much better.)

In short, you have a  Windows 7 desktop on your iPad that has Microsoft Office, Media Player, and a few other tools all on the start menu for you to use.  (Make sure you try out the Microsoft Surface Collage program on this desktop as well, it pretty cool. ) You save your files to the "My Documents" folder, and then those files are also available on a website (Similar to DropBox and other cloud services) where you can upload or download files from. With the free plan, you have 2 give of free space.

Right now, tablets are awesome media consumption devices, but can be a little cumbersome with media creation.  (Maybe an external keyboard would help with this, but I do not lug one around.) Right now, this is the only downside to using the onlive.com product.  The problem is compounded a little because they do not use the iPad on-screen keyboard, but instead you have to use the on-screen pop-up Microsoft keyboard, that I find even more cumbersome. (Maybe an external Bluetooth keyboard would be a must for using this product all the time.)

It's not perfect.  Just like any tech guy, I have a wish list, but for now it's a short one:

• Offer a desktop app that will sync a folder locally from your computer to the onlive.com storage space on the cloud. (Similar to Dropbox's program.)
• Offer the capability to use the iPad's on-screen keyboard instead of the Microsoft one. 
• Keep it free for the 2 gig, so I can continue to promote the product. (Dropbox, Sugar Sync, and others have... so hopefully these guys will too.)

Visit this site to learn more.  Signup for your account, download the app, and get started. http://desktop.onlive.com/

Remember... Keep in mind, there are many Cloud products and services that are offering some great free features, but proceed with caution. This time in the tech world reminds me of the 90's and all of the free services and new tech innovations that we see coming out daily.  When I went to Comdex in the late 90's I saw a lot of cool tech start-up and a lot of great vaporware that never made it to market.  Wow did they give away the t-shirts, pens, and more, but the the Bubble burst.  So... what is my point? Some of these services are here to stay. (Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, etc...)  But some of these companies may not make it, so always keep backups of your files in another location when working with some of these "start-up" companies and products. Use them, they have great features that you can put to use today, but I would not create my only resume on one of these new services and never have a copy somewhere else. 

Techy note:  For those of you managing a network, you need Port 443 open as well as ports 16384-16640 for UDP traffic out.  

Over all... 4.5 stars for this one.  Amazing technology and amazing feature set in the free product.  Thanks onlive.com!

The SkyDrive IOS app and 25 Gig of free storage make this app a winner for everyone.

I have mentioned a lot of Cloud Services that offer free space, but sometimes it comes down to the convenience of the app and service.  Back in April, I talked about keeping all of your files in the cloud, and mentioned Microsoft's Sky Drive.  Today, I want to expand on that service, and tout it's 25 Gig of free storage (Yes, 25 Gig!) that comes with Microsoft's SkyDrive. There are no services or products that you must own, all you need is a free account.

With the release of Microsoft's IOS app for the iPhone (And you can use it on the iPad), the SkyDrive and it's 25 Gig of free storage just became that much more usable. This app allows you to easily upload and download files from your iPad or iPhone right from this 25 gig of storage in the cloud. The app itself is allows you to easily add a photo or video from your device to the SkyDrive.  You can also play any music or videos that you have on your SkyDrive right from your IOS device. I even clicked on a text file in my SkyDrive and it opened up on my iPad for viewing. I like the way DropBox integrates it's IOS app right from your camera, but with 25 gig of space and it's integration with the Gladinet program... the Microsoft SkyDrive product has it's benefits as well.

Many people do not realize, that if they already have a Microsoft Live account (If you have a HotMail account... you have one!) you already have a SkyDrive and your 25 Gig of space is waiting for you. I am hoping that they come out with an app specifically designed for the iPad, but the iPhone app running on my iPad is not bad either. If you really want to add more functionality from your computer, Gladinet has you covered.  If you have not used the Gladinet product http://gladinet.com/, it's worth looking at especially if you have a lot of Cloud storage services and want to access them easily from your computer.  (Look for an upcoming blog article about this program in the future.)

Learn more about Skydrive, and signup if you do not have an account: http://explore.live.com/skydrive-get-started
Get the IOS apps for SkyDrive here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skydrive/id477537958?mt=8