Swift Playgrounds is a coding app from Apple designed to teach kids how to code. Expect to see it available when iOS 10 is released in September 2016. It allows students to complete in-built lessons and write code to control a character named “Byte”, giving him movement and direction commands such as moveForward() or turnLeft() or jump(), to guide him through a series of puzzles to be solved in a 3D graphical world.
With Swift Playground’s split screen on the iPad as seen above, the coder can create and run the code in the left hand section, then preview it straight away on the right hand side Swift Playground’s “world view”. When you start coding the app also gives you suggested commands.
only available on iPads running iOS 10 and above (iPad Air or iPad Mini 2 are minimum)
you can share your Swift Playground’s code with others using Mail, Messages or Airdrop
record and share video of your code in action
expect new challenges to be added with app updates
code templates enable you to begin using iPad features (accelerometer, gyroscope, multi-touch) quickly and easily
Swift Playground’s code can be transferred directly to X-Code, Apple’s programming software for MacOS, WatchOS, tvOS and iOS
free app once released, available now to users on the Apple Developer program testing iOS 10 beta.
Watch a short video from Macworld introducing Swift Playgrounds (2min47)
From Apple –
“Interactive puzzles teach key programming concepts in a way that is both fun and challenging building confidence and skill. Starting with the “Fundamentals of Swift” lesson, you’ll tackle goals using the same code professional developers use every day. As you move along, more advanced concepts come into play. You’ll continually build on what you’ve learnt and create even more complex code.”
It’s an app which should be popular in iPad schools particularly because learning and writing code is so popular in education at the moment. Code writing involves students in planning, problem solving, design thinking, creativity and collaboration – core 21st Century skills schools want to see their students develop.
Blogging refers to publishing in a website on the WWW – usually a single person or small group of people would contribute posts to a Blog which would be a collection of articles around a particular topic or no topic at all. Posts are organised into categories or displayed chronologically as they are posted by the Blog Author.
This site could be classified as a blog. Blogs can give someone a voice on the internet – Bill Gates has a blog and so can you!
Video Introducing Blogs and Blogging (2:58)
Key Words:
Blog – the website where your Posts and other material or links is stored on the World Wide Web
Blogger – someone who contributes posts to a blog
Posts – series of articles making up a Blog, usually displayed in categories or chronological order
Categories – how you group your Blog Posts
Comments – messages people can leave behind after your Posts if you enable them to
Theme – the template which gives your blog it’s look and feel
Subscribers – people who subscribe to your posts receive notice when you make a new post
What can I use Blogging for?
Blogging is a great way to share your ideas or interests with others. Think about your Google search results – how often when you are searching for help on something do you end up on someone’s blog where they are answering your question?
Blogs exist for probably any topic you can think of and it can be surprising what you can find online
First place to start is to have a blogging platform to use. Once you have the platform you can customise the look and feel of it and then start adding blog posts.
There are some free blogging platforms you can look at which usually just require a signup email address before you can rock’n’roll.
Check out some of these free ones:
WordPress – WordPress sites make up a massive number of the blogs and websites on the web. Sign up at WordPress.com for a freebie and get started. This site is based on WordPress and WordPress would still be my recommended starting platform for a keen, serious, likely to continue blogger!
Tumblr – not as feature rich as WordPress but useful for simple quick updates
Blogger – a Google product which is easy to sign up for with your Google account but you never know when Google pull the plug on its products.
Google sites – similar to WordPress, Google sites are free and fairly customisable.
Weebly – WordPress like, use to build websites or blog style website
Edublogs – WordPress based but intended for use by Teachers and Educators
One of the advantages of starting with a free hosted website is that if after some time you decide you want more control with your own hosting, web domain and email addresses you can pay for your own web hosting and setup a WordPress site there.
Video: Setup a WordPress.com Blog (30:52s)
Blogging Pro Tips:
#1 MOST OF ALL – Content is the key – if what you say is rubbish that’s where people will put it and they wont come back.Don’t hesitate – if you have things you want to share and have discussion about just start blogging. Once you’re up and running you can change platforms, copy and paste or import content. But just get started!
Don’t blog for the sake of it. Blog about what your really interested in or what you believe and think is worth sharing that way it will be easy to continue doing it!
Be yourself – write your blog posts using the same language you’d use if you were talking to someone in the flesh! People get to know you through your blog so don’t be someone you’re not!
Audience – know who you are writing to – this will shape what you blog about and how you do it
Choose your blog theme and colours (and fonts) well. Your blog will be more attractive to read and revisit if it looks modern and up to date. Don’t choose colours that clash and use a minimum number of fonts.
Engage in conversation with those who comment on your Posts – be polite.
Share you posts on social media – use Twitter and Facebook to share your blog posts with others
Use share buttons on your blog to make it easy for readers to share on their networks
Use on your phone or tablet to live chat with friends or send them short video, text or audio messages which expire after a short time
Key Words:
Snap – a short video or image shared between your Snapchat friends
Friends – people you have connected Snapchat with
Stories – a series of Snaps combined to tell your “story” over a 24 hour period
Filters – easy buttons you can modify your Snaps with (including overlays)
Memories – your collection of saved Snaps
Trophy Case – snapchat awrds trophies when you meet certain achievements like: “Sent 10 Snaps”
Snapcode – your Snapchat icon – looks like a yellow ghost.
Chat – you
What can I use Snapchat for?
Send short videos, photos and text to friends which expire after time
Live Video or audio call friends
Add overlaid text, clipart or drawing to photos and video
Send Snaps to a selection of followers or save to your Story so all can view
Your Story is a collection of Snaps saved in chronological order for 24 hours which all your friends can see
Snapchat also publishes Stories from some media companies and for some special events
You can choose to enable Memories, which now saves your Snaps
Snapchat will notify you if someone takes a screenshot of one of your Snaps
How do I use Snapchat?
Install on iPhone or Android
Create an account
Start following friends and contacts
Swipe down
Click the Add Friends button
Allow Snapchat to access your Contacts
Sending Photos
Start with sending someone a Photo
tap the capture button
Click the clock to set a duration
Tap the icons top right to add: clipart, Text or to draw on the photo
Click the Send button
Choose which of your friends to send it to
Click Send arrow
Sending Video
Hold the capture button in the red circle grows as the video length does
Swipe left or right to add filters (eg. location image, time, temperature, speed, image filters or to slowdown/speedup the video)
Tap the screen to add Text
Tap the Clipart or Draw icons to add effects
Tap the speaker to mute the audio
Click the Send button
Choose which of your friends to send it to
Click Send arrow
Adding face filters to video
Long press on the face in the video
Swipe through the available filters
send
Snapchat ProTips:
You can save your Snaps to Memories and keep them
Make your Snaps interesting – what would you tell your friends about if they were there?
When adding Text, type your text then tap the T icon again to select from additional text features
When taking selfie photos Snapchat uses the screen as a front facing flash. Tap the lightning icon in the top left corner to activate
Tap the screen twice to switch from front to rear camera
Tap the screen to quickly skip through Stories
To apply more than one Filter, choose the first, then tap and hold your finger on the screen while swiping to the second filter
Secure your account with two step authentication. This means a SMS code will be sent to you when you login and out (not when you open and close) the app
Add extra Text to Snaps by creating in Notes and copying/pasting into the text box in Snapchat
Turn on Travel Mode to save data – Swipe Down > Settings > Manage > Travel Mode – turn on
When adding Friends try “Add Nearby” – if everyone opens Add Nearby they will be visible
Also, take a photo of the persons Snapcode and use that to add them
Personalise your Snapcode. Swipe down, tap the Snapcode, tap the capture button and Snapchat will capture 5 images as an animation to use in your Snapcode
Security and Privacy:
Keep default settings of who can contact you as Friends
You can Block users
Third party apps can be used by others to save Snaps they’ve received – Snapcrack
Wunderlist is a great productivity app available to install on all your devices – iOS, Android, web browser, Apple Watch, OSX and Windows. Easily create a List then add To-dos. Lists sync via the cloud to all your devices and can be shared with other Wunderlist users, for example – create a Family Shopping list shared with everyone in the family instead of sticking a note on the fridge! Due dates can also be set in Wunderlist so you can be sure not to forget to get that To-do completed.
Introductory Video from Wunderlist (1:16)
How I use Wunderlist:
I’ve been using the free version of Wunderlist to manage my tasks and to-do lists for various projects and work since 2011. Wunderlist is available for iOS, android, Windows and Mac and because its hosted in the cloud my Lists are also available in a web browser.
I usually create a List per project but have other Lists named: Things to Buy, Movies to Watch, House Jobs, Stuff Loaned, Stuff Borrowed as a really easy way to make notes. Wunderlist has a default To-do List called Inbox where you can just put To-dos without adding them to a separate List.
As a Family we share a List called Food Shopping. Everyone has the app so can add items to the Food Shopping list anytime and if one of us is at the supermarket we can always crack that list open and see if there’s anything to get.
For work I’m also using Wunderlist but have setup a separate account to help separate work/home.
What does Wunderlist do?
Wunderlist enables you to manage and organise all the tasks that you need to get done into Lists. A List is simply a collection of To-dos and each To-do can have extra information added to it such as: assign to, Due Date, Reminder, a subtask, Notes, Attached files, comments. See in the image below how a List – To-Do – more info are displayed. Lists can also be grouped into Folders – so for me as you can also see I use a Personal Folder, with a series of Lists, each with their own To-do items.
What I like most is that the Wunderlist interface is so easy to use and organise. With nothing complicated to think about it’s easy to get my head around what needs to be done.
Video: Short Wunderlist Tutorial (6:57)
Sharing Wunderlist to-Do Lists
Once you have a list created just tap the Share button and email the Link to your friend. They’ll need to have Wunderlist setup, but then they can just add the shared List to their app. Easy.
Wunderlist – difference between Free and Pro Versions?
So far I haven’t had a need to upgrade to the Pro version of Wunderlist as everything I need can be done without upgrading. Perhaps if I was in business and we were using it as a Team then the Pro version would become necessary. In 2015 Microsoft purchased Wunderlist so we may see it appear in the Office Suite in some form.
The premium or Pro version of Wunderlist basically offers you more of what you already get in the free version.
Wunderlist has a elegant and easy to drive interface which enables you to manage the things you need to get done alone or with others in an uncomplicated way. One of my favourite and busiest apps.
Australian company Canva.comis a website where you can create graphics and designs for web or print using a range of templates, graphics or your own uploaded images.
Images are created online, using Canva templates and you can upload your own images or use theirs for a fee. Non-Profits can apply for a free team account after submittingevidence of NP status.
How could I use Canva?
If you’re responsible to manage or contribute to various social media channels, Canva makes it really easy to create some of the social media headings and image posts that those sites need.
Images for brochures, flyers and general promotional material….
Images to use for adverts for Facebook, social media, website ads…..
What I like is that Canva templates gets you halfway there when it comes to creating these images. You dont need to look up what the best dimensions are for each type of image, just start with the template. It means your time can go more on creating than setting up.
I am a Learning and Collaboration technologies advisor living in Cairns, Australia. An educational technology leadership background and experience managing a globally located information technology team, has given me wide experience in the application of digital technologies to a variety of educational and workplace contexts.
Certified Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist
Microsoft eSports Leader
Microsoft Innovative Educator
Mountain Biker and Triathlete
Former Asia Pacific Information Services Manager MAFINT
1 Minute Introduction to Wunderlist
