Today we watched a couple of videos showing Apple’s new iPad. It is like a big iPhone or iPod Touch combined with a laptop. There are lots of uses, we discussed the possibilities of it being used as a replacement for the textbook: You can see the video we watched here:

The two applications iChat and Skype were tested in the previous iTeam meeting. Both applications are intended to be used for to remotely contact each other. However, problems were encountered with both programs. iChat was tested first, but turned out to be unacceptable for use by students for whatever reason. It was an eternity before Mrs. Howard was called, who immediately rushed to the scene and an account was set up, after she unblocked the application for use by students. Only after this did we discover that we could IM, but not video conference with iChat.Unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain information from the MLTI Helpline, who would speak only to Mrs. Howard, not mere students, and iChat was scrapped.

The next video-conferencing application tested was Skype, which would not accept passwords,but finally after the umpteenth attempt we got through and the program worked. The I.M. and the video worked perfectly and beautifully. Overall the day was only a partial success.

This week for iTeam we looked at system preferences and learned some of it’s under used qualities today. Even with our high levels of intellect we learned a lot. Some of the things we learned consisted of using things like using universal access or 1 to 1 prefs. In universal access there were options for if someone were visually impaired that had a hard time seeing what windows or applications they’re on, and wherever you dragged your mouse it would verbally give you info on the window. Info like the app, what the window has on it, and what the window is for. Personally it annoyed me, but it would be very useful for some people. 

For 1 to 1 prefs. there was energy saver which allows you to choose if your laptop will go to sleep in 5 minutes to save energy if you want, but if you are showing a slideshow than you can choose highest performance making the laptop never go to sleep. It enables you to save your battery energy or have an uninterrupted slideshow.

All in all, we learned some really interesting things.

The first project this year for iTeam is a contest by Brainyflix. In this contest, the students are asked to create a digital flashcard that will explain the definition of an SAT or ACT vocabulary word. The student must understand the meaning of the word, and place it with a picture and a caption. Below is an example:

 If the student is a “Grand Prize Winner” they are able to win, $200. $100 of which will go to the actual student, and the other $100 will go to the school of the winning student. Also, iTunes gift cards will be given away. 
For more details click here.

We had our first meeting on Monday October 5th. We will continue to meet on Mondays unless otherwise noted. Since the internet was down, we discussed creating online tutorials as our first major project. I showed the students a tutorial called  Quick Tips: Zipping Your Files MLTI has placed in the iTunes U portion of  iTunes. We do not have the program they used, but there are a number of applications on the MacBooks that we can use to make our own. I showed them a tutorial I made using Keynote:

Making tables slideshow

I asked them to make a tutorial for staff or students, and they decided first they should come up with some sort of questionnaire to find out what help students and staff need and want. 

In addition to the tutorial, I am asking the iTeam to have an email address this year. For one, it will allow us to communicate online, but there are other reasons. I want the iTeam to experiment with using  Google Docs this year. This is an online program that is being used all over the world; it allows people to store documents online, and then share them and collaborate with others. In order to use Google Docs, they will need a Google account. You do not need a Google email account (gmail) to have Google account; any email will work, including a family email.

In addition to Google Docs, I would like iTeam members to be able to post to this blog. In order to do so, they will need to set up an account with Edublogs, and that requires an email address. I sent home permission slips, please have these signed by Monday 10/19.

The iTeam blog has a new look this year. Our old blog has been converted to a classroom blog, so I could give the iTeam it’s own url. 

Old posts are still located at mrbeeton.edublogs.org, but new ones will be here. Enjoy!