Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges

are proud to be part of one of the biggest deployment of iPads in the the world!

Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges

are proud to be part of one of the biggest deployment of iPads in the the world!

Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges

are proud to be part of one of the biggest deployment of iPads in the the world!

Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges

are proud to be part of one of the biggest deployment of iPads in the the world!

Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges

are proud to be part of one of the biggest deployment of iPads in the the world!

Wednesday 3 October 2012

iNews 2 - Sheila Andon

Just when you thought you could escape any mention of iPads, we bring you one more newsletter before the holiday! Thanks to everyone who has contributed. We look forward to hearing from more experts and enthusiasts after the break.




Cloud storage by Noel Umapas

You might have heard a lot about ‘Cloud Computing’ already but in this article I’ll try to cover Cloud Storage from an iPad perspective. Cloud Storage is simply a place where you can save your data.

32GB of disk space from your iPad is probably not enough. This is where Cloud Storage comes in. There are many Cloud Storage services available but let me just cover four of them, which I believe are useful in our environment.

WebDAV is an open-standard protocol where most of the iPad apps are supported including iWorks (Pages, Numbers and Keynote). In our context, this is merely your access to our shared drives. I would recommend using this in saving your own files and/or for sharing files with your students or with other teachers and staff.

iCloud is a built-in function of your iPad. You’ll get 5GB of free space, which is more than enough for saving your iPad configurations and iWork files. However, please note that this will only work with Apple apps such as Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Also, you won’t be able to share your files with others.

DropBox is the most popular of them all, especially for those who don’t have access to a
WebDAV infrastructure. You will get 2GB of free disk space and will be able to save almost any file formats. You can also share your files with others very easily. However, you won’t be able to save your iWorks files directly.

Windows SkyDrive is becoming increasingly popular due to its integration with MS Office 365 and its e-Mail capability. You’ll get 7GB of free disk space from this service. As with DropBox, you can’t save your iWorks files directly.

Which one should we use? As we have access to WebDAV, it would make sense to use this over the other Cloud Storage services. Access to this service is much faster, more reliable and more secure as it is hosted on our premises and we have full control over it. However, you still need iCloud to back up your iPad configurations.

To learn more about Cloud Storage, please visit this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_storage.

Gail Smith's holiday tips & tricks

Safety first!!!
Before you fly, set your iPad to ‘airplane mode’ to turn off all wireless functions. Go to settings, top left corner, and slide Airplane Mode’ to ‘On’.

Apostrophes
No need to switch keyboards to insert an apostrophe. Simply hold the comma key and slide up slightly. The same motion on the period [full stop] key inserts quotation marks.

Save battery power
Your iPad multi-tasks automatically and apps do not close when they ‘disappear’. They remain running in the background using power, so turn off the ones you aren’t using. Double tap the Home button and a panel will appear at the bottom of the screen showing the apps that are currently running. Tap and hold any one of them until they start to wiggle and red minus signs appear in the top left corners. Tap the minus signs to close apps you don’t need. Don’t worry, they won’t be deleted.

Hide the keyboard
Does it frustrate you when you can’t make the keyboard get out of your way when you want it to? Solution: a quick tap on the keyboard button under the right shift means ‘Hide’. It also gives you the choice to split the keyboard if you type with your thumbs, or lock it for extended use.

Screen shots
Want a screen shot of something that catches your eye while surfing the web? Press the on/off button and the Home button at the same time. The screen shot will appear in your photos folder under ‘Camera Roll'.

A Brush with Art - Andrew Damerham

Several months ago, the students at Madinat Zayed Women’s College studying Art Appreciation were given iPads to use. Learning outcomes in the course require a hands-on approach and the group had already experimented with pencil, charcoal and acrylic paint.

The iPad art sessions followed study of slides of the artist David Hockney’s contemporary landscapes, which he ‘painted’ with an iPad, using the Brushes
app. The new technology was embraced with enthusiasm. You could have heard a pin drop in the room as the students brought a concentrated intensity to the creation of images on
their new-found tools.

Limited edition iPad prints will be the next step.

Watch this space!

Views and Reviews by Swapneela Koul - Paper by 53

For someone like me who’s typically a paper and pencil person, I was naturally thrilled to be able to use my iPad just like a notebook using Paper by 53. It allows me the satisfaction and ease of writing on a paper albeit digitally just like writing in my notebook or diary.

You can use your finger or the stylus to jot down quick notes and thoughts, draw sketches and diagrams or create lists on the go and wherever you are, whether in a meeting or a classroom without bothering to type and toggle between letters, numbers and symbols.

It’s very easy to learn as there are no complicated tools or fussy menu bars. It is not targeted at any particular audience or use, so it’s suitable for anyone and anywhere. The free plan comes with a pen, eraser and basic selection of colours. Additional tools will have to be purchased. You can share your notes, sketches or lists via email, Facebook or Twitter.

Read and watch:
http://www.148apps.com/reviews/paper-fiftythree-review/#ixzz1xNKYxGOQ
http://support.fiftythree.com/fiftythree/topics/paper_for_ipad_quick_how_to

Caesar’s PD for Pages

Over the past few weeks, Caesar has been taking the time to offer one-to-one PD for iPads. He is happy to continue, so just get in touch if you need his help. Meanwhile, here is his list of the must-knows for Pages, the word processing app.
  • The Pages interface
  • Copying and pasting
  • The virtual keyboard
  • Tabs and paragraphs
  • Document set up
  • Shapes and images
  • Headers and footers
  • Tables, charts
  • Selecting and styling text
  • Saving and sharing
http://help.apple.com/pages/ipad/1.6/

iNews from the HCT and the College

The iCelebrate Conference held at ADKC yesterday was a great success and gave us the chance to share teaching and learning ideas with colleagues from the HCT, ZU and UAE. More PD opportunities are planned for next semester.

We have continued our own PD, moving towards apps and pedagogy and software for device projection and management including reflections, Apple TV, nearpod and Blackboard. In August we will have hands-on workshops on using iBooks Author, nearpod and many other apps. For Foundations, we will have sessions in which we take learning outcomes and choose from a range of apps for different stages of a lesson, in order to optimize our learner-centred approach.

Something for the holiday!

Take your iPad on holiday, make a movie with the iMovie app and enter our Madinat Zayed and Ruwais iMovie competition. Use slides or video or a combination. Maximum length is one minute. Submissions by August 30th.

Friday 31 August 2012

iNews 1 - Sheila Andon

Welcome to the first issue of iNews, the newsletter dedicated to sharing all the latest iPad information in Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges.

The iPad Committee aims to bring to you as much as possible of all the news and developments as we receive them from the various teams and task forces we each serve on.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of the HCT iPad implementation project and the exciting collaboration between the HCT, ZU and UAEU.

Above all, we would like to provide a means of sharing ideas for teaching and for disseminating your views of the apps you find.

Thursday 30 August 2012

Just got your iPad?

SCOtutor for iPad is an excellent and easy to follow video tutorial, available to download free from the App Store. It will take you through the basics of tapping, swiping, and pinching, onto configuring and personalizing your iPad, and also explains the more advanced features.
The whole tutorial lasts two hours but you can pause it and resume whenever you want to continue.