Mobile App Reviews for Educators

Each month we'll review a highlighted app for iPad/iPod/iPhone or Android devices. We also invite you to add your comments and share with other educators how you used the highlighted app in your school.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Tips and Tricks To Get More From Your iPad

I have been delivering a lot of training sessions lately related to the iPad and many of my participants seemed to really like having access to my Google Doc that I use in my sessions as a resource. Here is the first part of my Google Spreadsheet that I have been sharing out to workshop participants in my sessions on tips and tricks in using the iPads iOS 4.3.3 or higher. There are also sheets on iPad Resources, Digital Storytelling Resources and Apps, Apps for any Subject, Apps by Subject Area. If you want to access the actual Google Doc Workbook with each of these different sheets, you can find it here http://tinyurl.com/4ymkv5g.




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Lowton's List of Tips and Tricks for the iPad
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tip or trickDirectionsLvltopic
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taking screenshots on the iPad (click both power and home buttons)L IItool
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grab quotes without switching keyboard screenshold the question mark for 2 seconds and the quotations appearkeyboard
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grab apostrophe without switching keyboard screenshold the exclamation mark for 2 seconds and the quotations appearkeyboard
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extra charactersfor some keys on the keyboard, you can hold down and more options will appear such as letters with accent markskeyboard
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Quickly Insert a perioddouble tap space bar or tap the space bar with two fingerskeyboard
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Fast Way to Top of pagetap the status bar where the clock or current time is and it will auto scroll to the topweb browsing
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multi-taskto switch between programs you're working in, double tap home button to choose a different running programL IItool
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iPod controls when you need themwhen playing a song, you can double tap the Home button and swipe right to get the iPod controlstool
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Each folder can hold up to 20 appsHold down any app icon on any screen until they quiver and shake. Slide one app onto another and they end up in a folder that you are instantly asked to name.L ITool
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You can lock the rotation at any time Double tap the Home button and sweep right to iPod controls and click the rotation buttontool
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Force badly behaving apps to closepress and hold the SLEEP/AWAKE button until the "slide to power off" appears. Then hold down the HOME button for six seconds. This will close the open app and return you to the home screentool
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More than just .comhold down the .com button and the keyboard brings up other options such as .org, .net or .eduL IIkeyboard
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save an image in SafariTap an hold an image on a site and a menu appears with the option to "save image"L Iweb browsing
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Create an App icon for a favorite sitewhile on the website, click and hold the + button and choose "add to home screen"L Iweb browsing
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2-fingered scrollto scroll within a box on a site, use two fingers to move up and down within the box without sliding the entire websiteL Iweb browsing
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bookmarks barif you like to have quick access to your favorite websites, go to settings and Safari and turn on"always show bookmarks bar". Now each site is a quick click at the top of the browserweb browsing
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punctuate quicklytap and hold the button and then drag a finger to the number or punctuation mark desired and when you let go, the keyboard returns to the letters again.keyboard
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choosing a send from in the unified boxIn the unified mailbox, if you want to choose which account to send from, click the "Mailboxes" button and choose the account you wish to reply fromemail
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options beyond the dotif typing in email in the Mail app, hold down the period and additional options appearL IIemail
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highlight what you want to forward or reply toIf you want to reply to or forward a long email that has more in it than you wish to send, highlight the part that you want and when you hit reply/forward ipad pulls out just that selectionemail
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mobileMe and find your ipadIf you create a MobileMe account, you can enable a feature to "Find My Ipad" which will not only locate it on a map but also allows you to lock it, wipe all data or send it a message and make it play a persistent sound for up to two minutes to help you locate it.L Isecurity
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drop a pinwhen viewing maps, you can drop a pin to save a location by tapping the page curl at the bottom right and choosing "drop pin" this will save to the iPad's memory in case you lose your internet connection and want to remember an unfamiliar place or where you parked your carmaps
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clear cookiesIn Safari, data is stored as you surf called cookies, this can be handy to remember you next time you come to a website but you can clear this as well. Go to settings and Safari and choose "clear cookies". You can also clear history here if you want Safari to forget websites you have visited
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Customize Home buttonSettings-general-HomeShortcuts
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Street view in mapsDrop a red pin then click red and white icon
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Hexadecimal longer passwordsSettings-passcode turn off simple password and also choose amount of time before it locks
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Bluetooth keyboard more keyboard commandsYou can pair the regular Apple Bluetooth keyboard and most others which also allows for more keyboard shortcuts and commands most computer users are accustomed to.LIKeyboard
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Change number of preview lines in email and add CC BC address linesSettings-email, contactsLIEmail
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Turn of badgesSettings-notifications-choose each app and decide what types of notifications if any you would like to receive for eachLISettings
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More on the dockWith the newest iOS for iPads, you are not limited to the regular four icons on the dock, you can add2 moreLITool
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More screens and appsIn the new iOS you can now have 11 home screens and a total of 4460 appsLITip
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Zoom anywhere any screenSettings-general-accessibility-zoom. You tap with three fingers then slide up or down to zoom in or outSettings
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Make a custom web clip for your site or blogChoose a jpeg that's 72x72pixels and then put the following code into your site's HTML header. <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="http://www.example.com/apple-touch-icon.png" /> Change the value of the href attribute to reflect the URL to your site‘s icon. Be sure to change
example.com to your own domain name.
L IIWeb
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UndoIf editing, in some programs giving the iPad a quick shake will either bring up an undo option or automatically delete/undo what you just typed Tip
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Scrolling in a frame on a websiteTo scroll within a frame instead of the entire page, use a two finger dragTip
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turn off email (without deleting your account or settings!)Go to Settings app and Mail, click on the mail account that you wish to turn off when someone else is using your iPad/iPod (ex director@gmpdc.org GMAIL) and choose "Mail" and slide to offLIEmail
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Voice over "on-demand"go to settings app and choose "Accessibility" and then choose "Triple Click Home" button. Set the action to Voice Over and now if there is a book or other reading selection a student or user would like read to them they can just triple-click the Home button and then click the item they want read. To turn off, triple-click the button againLIItool
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projector stops projecting the iPadunplug the SVGA cord (dongle) from the projector cord and iPad and then plug back in. Sometimes you also have to hit "source" or computer on the projector or its remote as well but that usually does it.



If you have more great tips or ideas that I should add and share out, please comment below. I love finding new resources and ideas to share!

1 comment:

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