The above is just exploring the possibilities- of the app Strip Designer - it has amazing functionality for the price (£1.79). Schools only have to buy one copy and sync to as many devices as they own. We have got to the point now where we think software is expensive if it’s more than £2.00!

This week the class are about to start a new project about the sea, habitats and  food chains. We have tried to support the existing scheme of work with the Touch. In some ways it is time consuming researching and accessing the appropriate content. iTunes can become a kind of mini teacher dashboard or VLE that can be customised. These are some of the things we’ve done.

• introduced video content the BBC Blue Planet for research - the pupils made the connection that they could screen shot the video content to collect “cool and awesome”  pictures ( their words not ours!).
• bookmarked all the websites that are in the scheme of work. These are set up in Safari on the host computer and then “mirrored” when synced to the iPods. For younger pupils this does save time enabling them to access the key sites without typing in complex urls
• explored some games that might help develop ideas about food chains King fish and Pocket Fish (the latter being a tamagotchi like virtual fish). There needs to be some kind of teacher database where apps especially games and their “lateral” use can be documented.

We also had to breakages this week that are worth mentioning. One iPod was dropped see picture above and the screen is cracked. It is still fully functional. It didn’t have a protective case. This is because the Parat sync device doesn’t have gaps wide enough to accept the Touches with cases on. This is a major design issue that needs to be thought through. Also the second breakage is that one of the charging connections in the Parat seems to have failed. We’ll update on how we get on with that. At £849.00 we are expecting it will be repaired for free.

That’s all for this week - this link shows a great tutorial by American handheld learning evangelist Tony Vincent.  Bear with the delivery, he does give a great multi app demo of creativity of on the Touch.

One final Link to Tony presenting at the HHL2009.