Locking the iPad Screen Orientation

There are two different ways to lock your screen in place.  This way worked well for me.

1.  Make certain your screen  is oriented the way you want it.
2.  Mute your sound.
3.  Swipe upward from the bottom of your screen to access controls.
4.  Press the lock screen icon.  It will change color to show that it is on.
5.  Now turn off your iPad, wait 30 seconds, and turn the iPad back on.
    Your screen orientation will be locked to the view you want.

Project Ignite: Vermont

This past Thursday, March 26, I went to Montpelier to bask in the warmth of recognition from Project Ignite, a program sponsored by Vita-Learn.

Vita-Learn (Vermont Information Technology Association for the Advancement of Learning) is a merge of two different professional information technology Vermont organizations, theVermont State Technology Council - VSTC and the Vermont Educational Telecommunications Consortium - VETC. 

While there I listened to fellow educators share their classroom technology projects and it was exciting.  Some of the projects included a robotics lab, creating an e-book to use for differention in music class lesson plans, maker classes, and whole class blogs. These are just a few accomplishments of teachers in Vermont this past year.

My accomplishments this past year that led to my nomination as an "Innovative and Transformative Educator" included coding in library classes as well as going paperless by using Google Drive and other apps Google has to offer. The next project I will be including in Middle School library classes with be a maker project - putting together a computer using the Raspberry Pi.

All in all it proved to be an invigorating day that helped cement plans for next year.

Resources:
https://sites.google.com/site/vermontprojectignite/details
http://www.vita-learn.org/?PN=AboutUs
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

The Other Side of the Story

When I think of the internet, I think of the educational purposes.  But, I am beginning to understand the dark side.  As a consequence, an understanding of Andrew Keene's negative comments about the digital revolution are forming in my views.

I remain positive about the sharing of education and commerce through the internet.  As I work my way into a more rounded view of social media, let's face it, the internet or chat rooms can be used to demoralize bully and brand people.  And... it happens at lightning fast speed.

Have you seen Monica Lewinsky's Ted Talk?  In that talk she tied her experiences with the use of social media, bullying, and loss of privacy.  And I felt her pain.  I saw her past through her eyes.  It was not pretty.  She said she made a mistake and it became public in such a way that her life become unbearable.  If internet did not exist would her shame and humiliation had been as widespread?

I highly recommend Lewinsky's Ted Talk.  You may develop a new viewpoint on loss of privacy and the internet.

Resources:
http://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame

Post tonight?  No - or least that was my first thought.  No matter what, I couldn't give up nightly tech news check and there on CNN an article caught my eye.

Front and center there is a photo of a beautiful woman with a headline of The cyber warrior 'princess' who guards Google.  And it is fascinating!  Women and girls, take notice.  Parisa Tabriz, 31 years old Information Security Engineer for Google, protects by stopping hackers from hijacking user's data.

For the most part she finds "what we suspect to be governments trying to intercept communications."
An example: "In one case, there were Iranian-region Gmail users whose connection was being intercepted. These incidents are especially scary since they seem to be carried out by large, well-funded organizations or governments," she added.

Tabriz is one of few women who work for Google.  And she has no answer to why that is so. For much more information on Tabriz and her thoughts, please check the article.  It is well worth the read!

CNN is making more and more difficult to pass on their Tech news.

Resources:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/tech/parisa-tabriz-security-princess-google-hack/index.html

History of .com

There is an article on CNN.com that is fascinating.  Michael Pearson reports on 30 years of .com.
The first .com was registered by Symbolics, a former computer manufacturer on March 15, 1985.

Now Symbolics is a website with unusual facts about businesses and internet history.  XF.com Investments purchased the domain in August, 2009.

Pearson goes on to mention Bryant Gumbel's remark about the internet on the Today show in 1994.
"What is the internet anyway?"

Oh my, how far we have come since then.  There are now around 275,000,000 registered domains.

Pearson conveys information about the history of .com's  in a very factual and lively manner in his post at CNN (30 years of .com).  He even notes the new company domain names being used -  .coach, .green and .money.  

He ends the post with a quote from Stephanie Ricker Schulte, a University of Arkansas communications professor and author of the 2013 book "Cached: Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture."  "I think .com will always be present at least in a residual way," she said. "History is important, even in places as seemingly ephemeral as the Internet."

Let's face it the internet has expanded our economy and increased the amount of knowledge we can acquire. Don't have a computer, nowadays you can go to a library for access.  The Internet is not just for businesses, it is useful in so many ways.

Resources:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/living/feat-30-years-dot-com/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolics
http://symbolics.com/about-symbolics/
http://nyupress.org/books/9780814708675/

Taking a Screenshot, Printing, and Tips to Use Photon Browser

This weekend has arrived and I have three tasks to complete - take a screenshot of iMovie. print from the iPad, and purchase Photon browser with Adobe's Flash Drive.  I have accomplished all three in remarkable little time.

Here is a screenshot of iNDiE, one of the trailer options, in IMovie on the iPad.  It was as easy as the directions given in my post titled "Taking a Screenshot on Your iPad."  I held down the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button (located a the top of your iPad) at the same time.  These screenshots give a idea of what Apple's app iMovie is about.

Screenshots

Screenshot of Trailer Template Selections

Storyboard/Outline with the iNDie Template

     

Printing from the iPad

Another easy task from the iPad is printing from Pages.  I created my document, exited out for a view of it in Pages, then tapped back in.  From there I tapped the tools icon in the top left of the document, tapped Print, tapped my printer and then tapped Print.  

Using the Photon Browser App

The Photon app cost $4.99 and downloaded with ease.  When complete I tapped into the browser and follow the tips to activae Flash so that Flash websites can be accessed on iPad.  The tutorial is the first thing that pops up and gives instructions through Tips.

Tip 1 - Tap on the lightning bolt in the upper left hand corner of the browser to activate Flash.

Tip 2 - Tap on the gear icon to change any of the settings including the Bandwidth setting for the best viewing for Flash websites.  (1 is the slowest and 6 is the highest speed which gives a higher speed with sharper images.)

Tip 3 -  Explores different navigation and keyboard options.

Tip 4 -  Suggests tapping the gear icon again to explore other setting.

I used the Photon browser to open Facebook which I chose because some of the games use Flash. Everything worked beautifully until I went to a game then the screen touch option to make moves in the game would not work.  

What you have to do to move in the game is tap the icon you want to move then tap the space you want it to go to.  I also lowered my bandwidth to 5.

Flash Player and iPad

Today I went to a district in-service with my iPad as online access was necessary for both the morning and afternoon trainings.  Everything went well until the second half of the afternoon training.  At that point Flash Player was needed for the applications we were using.  Then I was left floundering and unable to complete the work.

Tonight's question and research is about Flash and how to get it on the iPad.  And you can do that through browser apps.  They are Photon Browser, Puffin, Skyfire Browser, and iSwifter Browser.

According to MacWorld UK, the Photon Browser is the most popular.  The cost is $4.99.  But, there is a drawback - activating Flash Player on the browser makes it a little slow.  The slowness issue can be addressed by adjusting the settings on the browser.  The settings tab can be found in the top right corner of the broswer.

In an Apple Support Community a number of posts centered around how slow the browser apps were.
I will download the app this weekend and report back on the results.

So.... my resolve to give up the iPad (once the iPads for the Classroom is finished) is weakening again.

Resources:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/ipad/how-get-flash-ipad-3460979/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3513185?start=0&tstart=0