Chris Betcher

Over the years, one of the common questions I have regularly heard being asked by schools that are in the process of moving from one technology platform to another is about the choice of substitute apps. I’ve heard it when I’ve been in schools that made the switch from Microsoft to Google – “But the teaching program says we have to use PowerPoint! I can’t use Slides!” or “But I can’t use Docs, all my stuff is in Word!” I’ve heard it when people switched from one type of phone operating system to another – “I used to use iMessage on my iPhone, but there’s no iMessage on Android! Now what?!” I recently heard someone ask what Chromebook apps they could use to replace the apps they used to use with their iPads – “I need to know what apps to use on the Chromebook to teach robotics!” Asking what apps should be used on a new platform to replace the things that you used to do on the old platform seems like a valid question. Certainly if a school is moving from iPads to Chromebooks, or Google t...

Like many schools around the world, our school has used the Microsoft Office trio of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for many years. Most of us know Word, Excel and PowerPoint well enough for our daily tasks. Although some of us might be willing to admit we probably don't use it to its full capacity, we've been using it for so long that we don't stop to think much about what, if any, alternatives might be out there. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft Office is an amazing piece of software. Like you, I've grown up with it and watched it evolve over many versions and seen lots of features get added over the years. If you really know what you're doing with Word, PowerPoint or Excel, you can make documents that are quite amazing in their complexity. And then along comes GoogleDocs, or Drive as we now call it. From humble beginnings as an online word processor called Writely , the Google Drive system has also evolved and changed and grown over the years. Sure, it's not the...

With nearly two week down in the 365 Day Photography project I'm starting to get my head around some of the more useful tools for photography on the iPhone.  There are lots of interesting photography apps to choose from in  Apple's App Store, and I've had a good play with many of them - something I probably wouldn't have done if I didn't have a project to focus on.  That's one of the reasons I like doing "projects", and one the reasons that Project Based Learning works so incredibly well. When you have something to focus on, even something as innocuous as simply taking a photo each day, it opens up a whole range of new learning experiences. This blogpost outlines some of the more useful and interesting iPhone photography apps I've been using (or plan to use). Firstly, I should acknowledge that the camera in the iPhone 4 is pretty damn impressive to start with. It has its limtations, sure, but it really can take some pretty extraordinary photos if...