Techie Tuesdays: iPad Training Session and Featured App Review: TourWrist

As many of you know, Dom and I invested in an iPad last Black Friday.  (We didn't open it until Christmas though... isn't THAT impressive?)  Since getting an iPad, I have been working on improving my understanding of its countless functions and capabilities.  I was fortunate enough to represent my school district for a second time at the eTech conference in Columbus back in February.  It was there that I learned a little more than I knew before.  Yet understandably, technology is an ongoing and ever-chaning process.  I have made it my goal to try to keep up with its changes, because if I don't I (like many other frustrated people) will get run over.  Therefore, I knew I wanted to schedule and attend regular trainings for my new gadget.

In the spring, I arranged for our staff to go through two voluntary after-school iPad trainings given by our NWOET representative. Both of these were big successes.  The teachers who attended one (or both) sessions walked away with a handful of new apps they could use in their lives and classrooms right away. In addition to learning a ton about the iPad, I loved the fact that the training was done by a person who is open to learning from his students as much as teaching them.  Technology allows students to become the teachers at times, and I believe that is a big step to engaging learners in today's classrooms, so I felt that our instructor modeling this was an excellent move on his part.

Below is the link to the presentation for the iPad training I hosted at school.  I promised a lot of people on Facebook that I would post it, so here it is. WARNING:  This is an "INTERMEDIATE" training.  If you are looking for the basics of iPads, then this is not where to look.  It is also not advanced, so don't expect that either!  Before you click on the link, here are some directions you will need once you get to that site:

- Click on the link to the training

- Look for the QR code on the right side of the screen

- Below that code there is a link that says, "iPad Intermediate Presentation" 

- Click on that to open the training session
- There you have it!  Read through at your own pace, some of this will be new and some will probably be review for you! 

- NOTE: You might even want to save it to your iBooks account so you will have it indefinitely!

- ok, NOW you can may begin here: Intermediate iPad Training 

I will be identifying some of my favorite apps in later "Tech Tuesday" blog posts, but I will leave you with one today.  I am really digging TourWrist right now because it takes your iPad or iPhone and turns it into a viewfinder.  You can search anything from the London Bridge to a cafe in San Fransisco where you would like to eat brunch.  Once you find what you are looking for (say a hotel in New York) you simply check the "tour" out by moving your iPad or iPhone up, down, and around like a pair of glasses and you can see a 360 degree image of the place!  Try looking off a cliff!!! It's so trippy!

This Techie Teacher Recommends TourWrist for:

• Teachers!  You can take kids ANYWHERE with technology. Our district cut field trips out of its budget YEARS ago, but even then we could never take a kid to the Great Wall of China!
• People who are about to go on a vacation and want to check out hot spots, resorts, clubs, diners, hotels, etc.
• People who are interested in geography and landmarks.
• People who want to look silly moving their iPads or iPhones up, down, and around while waiting in the doctor's office.

This Techie Teacher does NOT Recommend TourWrist for:

• People who get motion sickness.

Main Downfall of the App (if any):

• Like most apps, it is still fairly new, so there aren't as many "tours" as I would like to see.  Yet keep TourWrist on your radar;  I am fairly certain it is going to do some amazing things very soon.
  

Please feel free to share your favorite apps with me as well.  Like I said before, technology is amazing in that the students can actually become the teachers and then learning can become the circular activity that I believe it was always designed to be.  I love learning, so PLEASE ... teach me! :)