Disruptive Technologies

Course site for Disruptive Technologies. Exploring identity, community, & design.

Category: iPad (page 2 of 4)

Kate’s iPad reflection

When I heard representatives from apple were coming I didn’t know what to expect. What would they add to this conversation? I was pleasantly surprised with with much of their visit. While much of their discussion on garage band was comprised of things I had already explored, it made me look at the app a second time and find a few new features that I had not yet tried. My main take always were the countless ways keynote can be transformed from just a basic presentation app to something that can be applied to many more dynamic projects. It even has some elements that will help me do mock ups of animations and websites. They also mentioned that keynote projects could be imported into the app “explain everything” and the presentation could be recorded I bought this app and love it. Its main down fall though is that it does not import slide transitions and there is no ability to add them in after importing. My only solution would be recording the presentation and then opening it in iMovie. I also liked the idea that iTunes U could be used to create a portfolio. I would like to explore more of these nontraditional uses for these apps and understand their fundamental capabilities so that I can repurpose them depending on my needs.

One of my biggest revelations was to break out of the notion that a single app has to do everything. I do a lot of animation work and not having an alternative to AfterEffects or something similar so I can do trial animations has been a big drawback. I am used to working with software that does everything but now I am seeing apps more as modules that I can move my work through. I have stopped searching for things like animation apps and instead looking for ones with specific tools such as apps that will cut out sections of images and give transparent areas to the images so I can layer them in another app. This has been successful and I am looking forward to developing a system of use with several free apps as well as Explain Everything, iMovie and GarageBand to animate some of my paintings.

Jay Loomis – Focused Collaboration via BaiBoard

I’ve been using an iPad for several semesters, mainly as an individual, personal organization tool that keeps my notes and research for many classes all in one place… but thanks to the visit from the Apple people I have a new appreciation for the iPad, specifically as a collaborative tool, by using the app called BaiBoard:

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 8.54.44 PM

We experimented with this app a bit in class and it facilitates interactive brainstorming and creative dialogue. I’d like to experiment with this app for some group projects in the near future to confirm my intuition that this can be a effective tool for improving effectivity in group projects and team work. There doesn’t seem to be that much of a learning curve in terms of the features that the app offers.

Hello, My Name is Apple

A couple of weeks ago when Apple came to visit our class, I was very excited to really jump into creating content on the iPad. I was disappointed, however, when much of the class was spent on “lecturing” about identity. I was personally taken aback by this as I must have been confused about the reason of their actual visit. It was occasionally disconcerting because of the inevitable Apple advertising.

Eventually we did get into creating some content–that being said, we did not do much creating, ourselves. For me, the most beneficial part of this presentation was the discussion about Keynote. I was surprised at how “perfected” this PowerPoint app really was. I was especially impressed at its ability to create a mock app. As a hyperlink-driven application, I see Keynote acting more as an interactive presentation rather than one say, for an actual keynote or other address. Another app that I would be curious to look at more for actual presentations is Quip. The representatives from Apple did not do a full walk-through, but did mention that it was a very effective app. I hope to eventually explore this one further.

Over all, the effectiveness of Keynote harkens that the iPad be considered further in terms of using it in education. I appreciate the fact that students can create an accessible overview of a project while on the go.

Technically Yours,

R.

P.S. Why yes, yes I did use the word “harkens,” and although Google does not accept it as a modern word and insisted on underlining it with that nasty, squiggly red line, it is the perfect word as it can be read into further.

Weekly iPad Reflection Chris W.

About two weeks  ago Apple came to visit our humble class. Here is a short summary of what I learned.

 

Keynote

If you are anything like me you grew up using Microsoft Word and its cousins Excel and PowerPoint. While Keynote cannot replace word or Excel, it does a whole lot more for you than PowerPoint ever could. Adding links to your presentation and accessing links is both easy and smooth.  Creating a dynamic and professional presentation is all at your finger tips. You can even use Keynote to design a UI for apps or make a mock Web page. You can do what you want but if there is ever an option between Keynote and PowerPoint, I’m picking Keynote.

 

Quip

Quip is an app our visitors asked us to use. I did not fall in love with it, but other people seemed to like. Quip made it easier for us to follow along with the lesson plan Apple had for us. Perhaps I need more experience with it to truly appreciate what the app can do.

 

GarageBand

GarageBand  on the iPad is very easy to use. I can see myself spending countless hours making a song for a video using the drum pad interface. I also never realized how easy it was to include a song made on GarageBand in a movie or trailer made in iMovie. In my future YouTube videos I’ll be sure to check out GarageBand before searching the Web for royalty free music.

 

There were other great apps Apple showed us but these are the free that stood out to me. If you have an iOS device give Keynote a try, make a song in GarageBand, make use of Quip. There are so many tutorials online!

Weekly Create Chris W

I’ve learned a whole lot about Apple’s native apps. I suggest you check them out. For more on my reaction to Apple’s visit to CDT 450 two weeks ago, check out my weekly iPad Reflection here.

Kate’s identity and iPad reflection

Using the iPad to create this was an over all positive experience. I shot the footage using the native photo app as well as iMovie and a short segment using the “stop motion” app. I made slides using the Phoster app and compiled it in iMovie and added some of the stock music as well as voice recording done in the app. As someone who works with video editing and animation frequently I found several pros and con

pros-

-basic video capture and organization of the iMovie is good for general use. Cutting video was simple. When I think back to classes I’ve taken, I could see this being used to support assignments in most subjects.

-easy to import video and photos from other apps

-sound is decient and easy to record. I liked that I could have several tracks and though it took me a moment, they were simple to move around.

– being able to crop the image and videos

-uploading I will put under pros but at first it was not so simple. In order to up load to YouTube I had to Chang my settings in my YouTube account to allow interaction with “less secure” apps. Though this took some time to figure out and get past it constantly asking me to sign in I know I will not have this issue again and things will go smoothly.

cons

– as someone who works with video editing I wish there were more features such as better filters and lighting adjustments to make it look more professional. I would have liked more control over the text and title features since there was no ability to move them on the screen and change other aspects including the timing and duration of their appearance So I could have had a text overlay/captions. I would have liked more control over the transitions and audio transitions. I also wish it was possible to change how much a video is cropped over time- zoom in and out.

Over all though I think it’s a great app and it can be limited only by a lack of creativity however I would be even happier if those ther features existed.

iPad Reflection – Chris Williams

SwiftKey

Earlier on in the semester I mentioned how the iPad native keyboard needed some kind of swipe function. After doing some research I found SwiftKey. SwiftKey is a nice keyboard. It functions how it’s supposed to. It connects with your facebook to learn the words you use and learns from there. There have been times where I needed to delete words and reswipe them. Some things this app could improve on is the insisting autocorreit.

Overall. 8/10

If you want a swipe I keyboard on your iOS device SwiftKey could be the app for you.

iPad reflection – Shady

This week, Apple came to visit.  They showed us some advance features of the iPad as well as a couple of productivity apps.  I was most amazed by the capabilities of GarageBand and KeyNote.  We also reviewed iMovie, which I have used in the past and love it.

GarageBand was amazing, you could produce a real music piece on an iPad, with all sorts of instruments, tempo, partitures, etc.

KeyNote is a very powerful presentation tool.  As far as features go, certainly beyond Google Presentations, and easier to use than PowerPoint.  Very impressive.

I enjoyed seeing how far they’ve come with their collaborative suite, similar to Google Docs.  Editing documents and creating drawings, with multiple people at a time, on an iPad, worked great.

iPad Reflexion – Shady

Using the iPad to create a movie using the iMovie app was such a great experience.  I had used it before on a Mac, but never on an iPad.  It was easy to use, and loved the experience.

It was great having Apple in the class this week, their contribution and tips certainly made this a much easier experience.

I continue to be amazed at the possibilities of creating really good quality videos just using this device.  It does the sound, video capture, editing, and publishing.  To some extent, and when looking at these features and apps, one could argue, an iPad is really cheap for what it can offer.

Shady’s Identity – iMovie

Identifying Frustration

 

When I started working on this project I found that creating a movie with the mobile iMovie app was fairly simple. Of course there are things that I do not know how to do, but for the most part everything was straightforward. I have one issue however: I made my video (purposefully very simple), but each time I saved it the audio was messed up. For the first portion of my video I had two audio tracks playing at two different tempi. This only happened after saving…not before. After spending a couple hours on this, the best solution was to delete that entire portion of the video and start from scratch. Luckily, I was able to get it edited back down to the two-minute time limit with not much trouble!

Will I continue using the iMovie app for the iPad? Probably not, but as a student in the media arts, I have had the opportunity and access to learn professional grade software–at this point, I just choose to make videos that require a bit more precision than an app can give me. That being said, I found iMovie for iOS to quite fluid (as much as Apple can be with directory routing information) and think it is a great opportunity to get into video making or make quick and [attempted] easy videos like this.

Free iPads, With a Catch: They’ll Squeal if You Cut Class

I would love to hear what each of you has to say about this idea! I have my thoughts, but I will save them for the comments as you all comment. I’d be interested in trying this out.

Lynn University, a small institution in Boca Raton, Fla., started giving away iPads to all its new students about a year and a half ago. Now there is a catch: If those students cut class, their iPads might tattle on them.

via Free iPads, With a Catch: They’ll Squeal if You Cut Class – Wired Campus – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Printer Pro — Free this Week

Apple’s app of the week is something called, Printer Pro. It gives you the ability to print from your iPad to a printer that you own. Might be worth the free download.

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Getting the Reading

Paperless Expenses and Evernote Scannable – MacStories

I use Scannable every single day to make my life easier. I am a huge Evernote user, but I take a ton of handwritten notes — especially in meetings where I am given handouts. I used to take them back to my office and put them in a real scanner. Now I use my phone and Scannable.

My favorite feature of the app is that you don’t have to pay close attention to how you take pictures because Scannable will generally make them look better for you once they’ve become PDFs. Blurred text, unclear borders, slightly tilted perspective – in most cases, Scannable can adjust everything automatically, which makes for a solid user experience.

via Paperless Expenses and Evernote Scannable – MacStories.

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