iPads in the Classroom: Submitting Writing

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I spent the morning today with a 6th grade class in South Portland.  We were writing poetry as part of a Telling Room project.  The students had iPads, which they were not allowed to use.  I was fine with that. Paper is huge for spontaneous ideas and language - it's messy like creative minds.

When it came time for us to leave and for the students to get keyboarded finals to us, we stalled.  The students did have Pages for writing.  And all iPads come with Notes.  The keyboarding part was easy. But getting the files to us was problematic.  To do so would require a student email account created in the iPad Settings.  These are school-owned machines.  It is not legal for a child under 13 to create and use a web 2.0 account without specific parent permission - which the students did not have because the school had not created a system for this (easy to fix and should be in place in every school using web 2.0 tools).

Of course, several students had already figured out how to set up their personal gmail accounts (easy).  But from the point of view of the teacher, that was rule-breaking (good for him).

It so happens that this same issue is all over the EC Ning technology discussions this week.  There is no easy app for that!

Dropbox comes close.  I have written about its flexibility before, and have since learned more.

IF students can set up email (a free-for-schools Google gmail acct. is the best way to go), then following this set of directions for sending documents from Pages to Dropbox is handy.  Problem:  It only works for the teacher if the Dropbox folder is a 2-way street - so setting up means careful planning (e.g. Professional Development).

IF students can not set up email (or if you the teacher can not expect this),  it gets more complicated. 

There are three easy, but purchased, solutions that I have found.  It is too bad that school districts don't fully investigate the uses of the iPad for ELA before installing apps.

Here is a slimmed down version of my post to the EC Ning:

• Having students write and email you the file directly is easiest.  Apps that do this include Notes, Pages, Evernote.  Read 10 tips for teachers using Evernote. 
• Postereous connects to Facebook and Twitter and creates blog-posts (including media, which can be interesting...).  Students would need accounts for class use.  Facebook is an interesting idea, as Evernote also will post there.
• Dropbox - a free app that you can Admin from your laptop/desktop.  Students can access a folder (class or individual) that you create and share, then just upload their files into it FROM A FEW APPS ONLY.  You can open the files in the app used to create them (or GoodReader), comment, "flatten" (that makes your comments permanent), and send back to Dropbox.  Students will need to keep a clean original on the iPad.  
• DROPitTO.me accts. do not (yet) work on the iPad (along with many web-based upload sites. I would be concerned that wiki uploads would not work as well - check it out). [note: photos and URL's can be uploaded to Dropbox from within an iPad using free apps, so it is useful for submitting media to you] 
• For $.99, the newly update Notability app might be the best solution.  Like the apps that follow, it syncs to Dropbox.  What I like about this app is its integration of audio, handwriting, word processing, and now Photos.  What a great tool for recording a group learning session or a lit group discussion!
• The $1.99 app call My Memoir is perfect for submitting writing - sends directly to the Dropbox folder once the "connection" is created.  Students are also creating a writing workshop journal and a portfolio as they use it.  I wonder if a teacher can get a deal from the creator?  Read about it here.  
• Textforce is another great app, maybe the best for teacher use - it was created for using Dropbox to edit "in the cloud" - nice formatting features too that are not found in other iPad writing apps.  Read about it here.  Students create docs in Textforce and upload directly to DropBox (which again has to be linked to a teacher acct. - but it can link directly to a folder a teacher creates or a student creates in the Settings).  Unfortunately, it's $3.99. 
• Pages will send files to a WebDAV acct. - ask your Tech Guy if he can set this up for you on the server.  Also to an email address, but students will need to have one set up in their Settings - so we are in a loop below grade 8.  I wonder also if teachers could use a free iWork.com acct. to share Pages or other documents.  Students would need an AppleID - many probably have one if because of using iTunes for music.  

To be honest - it is surprising that in any school or district this important detail was not ironed out over the summer!  Professional Development should have happened, focused on classroom scenarios.

Every one of the solutions mentioned is expensive or time-consuming for the teacher.  I wonder if that all does not balance out printing costs...

Drop By: Dropbox and Connected Apps

I use Edublogs.org to host my other commentary blog, U & D, a holdover from experimenting with it as a host for individual student blogs (worked well and I recommend it).  Because it has a teacher-centered mission, Edublogs provides support and training beyond just hosting.  The Free Tools Challenge makes available step-by-step tutorials for online tools that support classroom learning, student creativity, and collaboration.  There are other tutorial sites and other tools - I like Richard Byrne's Google Tools collection at Free Technology for Teachers and Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch.

But I am especially excited about Free Tools Challenge #17.

DROPBox and DROPitTO.me are management tools  - specifically, tools for digital file submission, storing, and sharing.  Using them together is great for final drafts and big projects.  These are cloud tools, accessing a web-based storage and distribution system that synchronizes seamlessly with apps on digital devices.

The DropBox app is fully cross-platform and cross-device: Mac, Windows, Linux, mobile (iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry).  You will need the app on each tool you will use to receive, upload, and download files sent to you by others (or that you want to send to yourself).  These are free downloads.

submission interface

DROPitTO.me is a web-based upload service.  Here is the big picture:

• you set up your DropBox app and account once - if you have not done so, do it online
• with that account open, you go to DROPitTO.me and set up a submission account with two passwords: one for your only (administration) and one for everyone else (submission)
• you get a unique URL for DROPitTO.me - this will use the login your specify (my login is eskymac: dropitto.me/eskymac is the URL)
• you send this URL and the submission password to students - or post them somewhere - you can even use QR code for this (put it on an assignment, website, or a poster in your classroom)
• students upload files into a folder called DROPitTOme within your DROPbox (this folder is created automatically) using the web submission interface (above)
• you access these files on all devices that have the DROPbox app
• there does not seem to be a limit to the types of files uploaded - but there is currently a 75MB file size limit (huge)

Get a great set of directions at Free Tools Challenge #17.

Caveats:

1. The capitals in the app names are really annoying - you don't need to use them to access the site or to locate the app in iTunes/AppStore.
2. Yes, you open up a file space for students to send you viruses and other nasty content. Since nothing comes with a "from" you will not know who put it there.
3. It is NOT yet possible to upload a file from an iPhone or iPad to DROPitTO.me, via Safari.  Apple locks the upload feature for the most part - works only for apps like Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Dropbox - and at times is limited to photos and images. In fact, it seems that unless you want to jailbreak Safari Mobile, students are stuck uploading from desktop devices.  I hope this will be changed in the future.  That means that students will still need to use e-mail or a different app (see below) if the files have been created on a mobile device. 
4. There are some concerns about the security of files - if you are concerned about this, use an in-network file transfer, which you can actually complete over wifi, or use email.
5. This is not a 2-way street.  You can not return corrected files through your Dropbox. 
6. However, you can share folders using controls in the computer app and online (not on mobile device though) versions of your Dropbox.  This creates a 2-way street. So, you can share the DROPitTOme folder with students, or share a folder within that folder (you will need to manage this a bit).
7. And there is no reason why you can not flip the ownership - students can install Dropbox on their own mobile devices, create and share folders with you. 
8. Students with iPhones and other mobile devices CAN upload photos/images and videos to their own Dropbox folders.  Once this has been done, students can email the photos to you or move them into a file folder that you have shared.  Or share their folders with you, in which case you see the folder in your Dropbox. Sounds complicated, but once you try it, it is very quick.  Does not work with other file formats yet (Pages or Keynote documents, for example).

Other solutions:  These apps work to send content to the specified Dropbox account - which would probably be yours.  So they are useful to you as a teacher when you share the folders they create.  Sharing subfolders will give you a measure of security.

• DropVox is an app that uses the built-in mic on the iPad and iPhone (probably also Android and Blackberry devices, but I can't check that) to create audio files that are automatically uploaded to the linked DropBox account - a DropVox folder is created.  This is another great way to receive and share audio within a class.
• Drop It is an app that uses the "Select - Save" touch controls on the iPhone or iPad to send URL's to the linked DropBox account, directly to a folder called URLs.
• Drop It! (confusing name choice) accesses your iPhone or iPad photo library and simplifies the process of uploading photos and images to the linked Dropbox account - or you can use the camera from directly within the app (Note: this is an iPhone app, but it works on the iPad too).
• Textforce is an app that uses DropBox for collaborative .txt (text) writing.  Read about its features here and also here.  It is possible to create a document on an iPad, continue it on an iPhone, and finish it on a laptop.  Textforce accepts copy/paste also, which makes it easy to share files for the purpose of editing or annotation.  Caveat: this is Plain Text - which is also the name of the folder it creates in your Dropbox.  There will be minimal text formatting. Some formatting is available using its onboard tools.  The nice aspect of Textforce is that a file is opened within Dropbox, so downloading is not necessary.  Students could easily submit writing this way!
• Videodropper is a web-based free tool for sending YouTube video to your Dropbox.  All you need is to allow access to your Dropbox acct, then copy/paste the YouTube URL.  This downloads the video, not the URL.
• GoodReader is an iPad app that sees your DropBox folder (on a Mac on the same wifi) as a server - you can upload directly into the .pdf reader, annotate text, and return the annotated version to the student while saving the original
• By the way, you CAN have two Dropbox accounts simultaneously on one Mac - but to do it, you need to tweak the command line code in Terminal.  Directions.  Try it if you dare. 
  
  If you want to try it: I suggest doing so with a few students, as trial runs.  A few experts and simple directions are all you will need to use Dropbox effectively in your classroom.