Conference Materials: Apps that help students access curriculum:

As our experiment with technology continues, the focus remains student access to curriculum via a variety of tools.  Currently, students are familiar with cameras to capture events or projects and are able to upload this media to a variety of programs or applications and manipulate the media for project purposes.  With the introduction of the iPod Touch units and the iPad2 unit, the field opens up for some additional exploration.

QR readers and generators:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ (reader and generator)  There are tons of readers and generators out there!
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/  (this one I have used as it gives a variety of options).

This is a QR key to this blogspot.  I give this to my students or have them scan it with their smart phones. I created QR keys for their photo albums, class web pages, online surveys and assessments.














There are a number of apps available across platforms that will help students access curriculum in ways that fit their learning modalities.  We use Notability and Evernote for note taking and lecture captures.  Using the Livescribe Pulse or Echo pens will do the same thing but encourages the physical act of writing to help facilitate learning.  Notability Peek has been introduced to help with reviewing material for mastery.  The app is designed around the folding cover on the iPad2.  Lifting up one flap exposes a question.  Lifting up the second fold exposes the answer.  For students who need the kinesthetic manipulation of learning materials, here is a digital flash-card way to review.  All of these note taking apps have the option of notes being sent to a DropBox file for digital storage and universal access.  My students get a QR key to my DropBox file for their course so they have access to files (syllabus or article links) we will use throughout the course.

EasyBib is a quick way to capture citations.  However it needs a book's barcode.  If you have a few years on you, then you well know that most of the books you have collected for your research are older than this technology.

I am using this blog to share information with my students and with the participants in a variety of conference presentations I have conducted.  Blogs can be used in so many ways to help students learn complex material or to showcase their efforts.  Make of it what you will and what you have time for.  A note of caution:  if you allow comments - and you should if you are asking students to use the blog - you are looking at a content and time management commitment.  Comments should be audited to make sure they are appropriate before they are approved for posting.  You do need to check the comments often or they pile up and become a drudge to handle.  Think about this aspect while implementing this tool.

I will continue to add apps that seem to help students with learning as we test them out in our course.