Split screen and Slide over on iPad

Split Screen and Slide over on the iPad is one of those hidden gems that most people don't know about. I had a teacher tell me today that she had one child who completes 95% of his work on the iPad because of his dysgraphia condition. But he also needs to use 2 devices particularly if he is researching as he finds it difficult to switch back and forth between apps, so he uses the iPad for his recording of information and a Chromebook for his researching. I showed them today how they could use 'Slide Over' and 'Split Screen' and only use one device.

The Slide over works on most apps
but allows only a slim view of the other app

The Split Screen works on only some apps and gives 2 apps
half the screen each 

Swipe left from the right hand side of the screen and this will show the 'Slide Over', tap and hold on the handle in the middle and drag to the middle of the screen and this will be the Split Screen. You can see both screens and work independently in each screen at the same time. If you want to choose a different app, swipe down from the top 
You can't do this in all apps but there are loads you can split screen like... Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Safari, Chrome, iBooks, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Photos, Drive, Explain Everything, Dropbox, Calendar, Canva, Classroom, Edpuzzle, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Inspiration, iTranslate, Mail, Maps, Notability, Notes, Padlet, Google translate, Twitter, Youtube and many more.

I was disappointed you couldn't use Split Screen with Kindle but what you can do is open the Kindle app, do the Slide over and open Docs, Slides, Word etc. If you want to copy some text, do the highlight - copy on the Kindle (the Slide over will disappear) and then do the Slide over and paste into the Doc.
I can see so many applications for this functionality. Be aware though that Slide View works on iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and up and the Split Screen works for the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4 and up.

Do all students need to present their work in the same way?

Do students need to all present their work in the same way?
I constantly hear 'Your task is to make a PowerPoint!'
So everybody does the same type of PowerPoint.

Title................................................Text.........................................Picture

And yes there are lots of online options for teachers and students but there are still a lot of teachers who are not ready or not able to make the leap into online publishing. So if we are going to 'Do' PowerPoint (or Keynote) then let's give them choices within that programme.
The slideshow below is an example I made for a school when they said that the students assessment was to make a PowerPoint about what they know about Dinosaurs, this slideshow gives students different ways to publish within PowerPoint or Keynote.

Dinosaurs And The Modern Day Hunters Guide To Presentation from Jacqui Sharp

So when you are setting up publishing options, use some of the different ways to publish within PowerPoint or Keynote. Give them these options

• Pictures tell the story (a series of pictures with the odd slide summing up  the pictures so far)

• Pictures with no text, (telling the story with pictures only and setting the slide speed to 0 or 1 so it makes an animation)

• Visual Diorama (Insert a background picture, then add clip art on top to tell the story, another idea is to duplicate a slide then move the dinosaurs one step, then duplicate that slide and move the dinosaurs again etc. Add speech bubbles and narrative boxes)

• Voice over slides (Photos and diagrams with voice over giving the information)

• POV of Character (Photos, diagrams, clipart. slides with no text but a voice over that talks from the 'Point of View' of the main character)

• Create a Quiz (make a quiz that hyperlinks slides with right and wrong slides and information that answers the questions)

• Sing a song (record your voice singing a song that has your presentation information in it, it could be to the tune of a familiar song or create your own. Insert the song so it will play over several slides

For those teachers and students who have the equipment and the access there are many other ways to present and publish work

• http://publishingideas.wikispaces.com/home
• http://101digitalcameraideas.wikispaces.com/Online+Slideshows
• http://sharpjacqui.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/student-digital-toolkit.html

PowerPoint Presentations can be great

Given the choice of presenting digitally, PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation tool in classrooms. This is because a lot of teachers are not ready to let go of it and experiment with online media or free downloadable software. Consequently it is also a tool that it is used in limited ways

• most of the time it is used as a Text and Picture slideshow with animations and sound effects
• the presentation is more than likely linear
• and it is a regurgitation of facts
  

But PowerPoint presentations can be made exciting, informative and interesting just by deciding on the delivery of the information.
The following slideshow can be used to demonstrate to students the different ways PowerPoint can be used present information.

Dinosaurs And The Modern Day Hunters Guide To Presentation

View more documents from Jacqui Sharp.

Zoho: Online Free Office Package

Zoho allows you to create WordProcessing documents, Slideshow Presentations, Spreadsheets, Databases, email, calendar, blog sites and more. And it is free. Which means if your students have internet connection at home but no suitable WordProcessing packages on their computer then they can use this suite of applications for their homework. Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents can be uploaded to Zoho, and vice versa you can download your Zoho documents into Word, PowerPoint or Excel or even in PDF file format.
There is a limit to what you can do regarding extra tools but the basics are there. You can insert photos, type text, insert tables, change fonts, size and colour, align text, print and save.





It also has an easy to use Database Creator so students could create their own surveys or databases

Education version of Glogster

Glogster has been around for a while but now they do an education version. You can create school accounts and keep Glogs private. They will be adding more features as time goes by. You do need to make sure you have the latest versions of Adobe flash for everything to work well.
Its catch phrase is 'Poster Yourself!' Insert photos, graphics, text boxes, speech bubbles, podcasts, movies (Youtube, webcam), hyperlinks to other files and sounds so that it becomes interactive. This is wonderful way for children to present their work and publish it to a blog, wiki or website. So instead of making a poster displaying children's knowledge, get them to make an interactive poster that links to the places they found their research i.e. online encyclopedias, movies etc



Examples of how to use Glogster

• book reports
• book trailers (advertising a book in the same way a movie trailer advertises a movie)
• character analysis (picture of a character and labels)
  
• publishing their writing (recounts, explanations, argument etc)
• Inquiry learning presentation on a topic
• posters for health (all about me, how to keep safe)
  
• science (steps of an experiment, findings from an experiment)
• comparison statements, insert photos or graphics and make comparisons
• insert a glog that has different elements hyperlinked into the home page of a Wiki so it becomes the 'launcher' page that links to other pages

Scribd - Presentation Software

Scribd is my new favourite online presentation tool. It is very simple to upload documents, and accepts many types of files (PowerPoint, Word, PDF and picture file formats jpeg etc). This is a wonderful way to showcase children's published work online as it embeds into Blogs and Wikis. Below is an example of a Word document.

Where the Wild Things Are Activities - Upload a Document to Scribd