Pub motioncomposer

Motion Composer for the Mac is a great application for your Mac that allows you to create engaging animations and interactive content for any platform in HTML 5 or Flash without writing any code.  The animations you create will work on desktops, phones or tablets. The animations you create have an ‘inner intelligence” that once created, detect if the device you are using has Flash. If it does, it uses it, and if it doesn’t it uses HTML5.  Pretty cool. 

What I like BEST about Motion Composer is that it allows to embed really cool animation in iBooks Author easily.  If you are working with iBooks Author I highly recommend this application. 

You can use objects, pictures, text, video, and sound with Motion Composer and it will wrap them all together. I really liked the ability to drop and drag content from iTunes. Once you content is dropped onto the initial slide you can move it around to the different state you want within the time frame. So, if I drop text onto the slide I have a starting position and then I move it to a secondary position. On playback Motion composer will show the progress from the first to second position. 

You can create a text box button for the user to click. You program this button to perform an animation or activate some action. 

You can test your animations out which is very handy.

Like advanced Keynote users, you can place elements off the viewing area of the slide and have them move into view on the animation.  There are lots of great features and some advanced functions.

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Boinx TV Updates

kcroy —  April 20, 2013 — 1 Comment

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Boinx Software has released an updated version of Boinx TV which is fully compatible with OS X Mountain Lion and OS X Lion.

Boinx TV was the winner of the Apple Design Award 2009 and is a revolutionary tool for the Mac in creating live to disk, live to internet, and live to stage video. With it you can create stunning studio shows, podcasts, sports events, concerts, interviews, sermons, lectures, seminars and more for your school.  It is one of Wired Educator’s favorite applications for the Mac.  It is powerful yet simple to use.

In short, Boinx TV transforms your Mac into a television studio with every bell and whistle you could ask for and more. Every school should employ this wonderful application with all of their video creations.  Wired Educator loves Boinx TV and the new update.

GoNow Case for iPad: A Review

kcroy —  April 7, 2013 — 1 Comment

GoNOW both AC

Carry, Protect and Enhance the sound of your iPad with the GoNow Case by Attainment.

The GoNOW Case for the iPad makes a great case for elementary students because of the built-in handle makes it easier to carry, and an acoustic sound channel boosts the sound of the iPad without batteries, all while providing a layer of protection.

The GoNOW case is a well designed plastic shell with an inner foam cushion. The bottom of the case has four rubber non-skid pads to keep the iPad from sliding off a desk.  Nice touch. The case has many forms and cuts to allow access to all of the needed  iPad’s controls, and even allows the Apple logo on the back to be seen with a circular cutaway.
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Ryan Orilio is a teacher, innovator, and Apple Distinguished Educator. Visit his blog at www.ryanorilio.com and follow him on twitter @ryanorilio.

Disclaimer: I started to write this review a few weeks ago; I had just gotten and started to use this app and thought it was great. However, I decided to put off the review until I had been using the app for longer than a few days in case my view of the app changed. I also wanted to get some student input about my use of the app in class.

Remind101 is an app for your iOS device. It allows teachers to send secure, free message reminders to students and parents. The message reminders can be in the form of text messages or emails. You can even receive both! The app is super easy to use, and setting it up literally takes 2 minutes.

Here’s how the app works:

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Nicholas Provenzano, also known as ‘The Nerdy Teacher’, has created a wonderful resource for educators with his eBook, The Complete Guide to Evernote in Education

This book contains many great examples of innovative and practical uses for any classroom, for any teacher. 

(One lucky reader that leaves a comment below will receive a free copy.)

The Complete Guide to Evernote in Education is an excellent resource for all educators. Provenzano makes the case for “Why Evernote?” in his introduction and documents excellent uses for teachers in any grade level in any field. Furthermore, he backs up his reasons for using Evernote in education with excellent, real-world examples that we can employ immediately upon reading. 

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Padcaster productshot1

The Padcaster is a unique product that allows you to mount your iPad to a tripod (and many other places) and attach external devices, such as microphones, while still allowing you to remove the device quickly without unhooking everything.

The Padcaster is a strong, lightweight aluminum frame that has a 1/4 and 3/3 threaded holes on each side, with an internal molded urethane insert to safely secure your iPad and allow a speedy removal. The threaded holes allow you to attach the framed iPad into any tripod or similar device.

Why would I want to put my iPad in a Padcaster? 

The reason is simple. Your iPad is an all-in-one solution to shoot, edit, and publish video without having to upload, render, and other time consuming misadventures when using digital cameras. People want to be able to do it all, well, from one device. Well, the Padcaster enhances that experience on the iPad by stabilizing the iPad, removing arm fatigue, and offering the opportunity to add and upgrade higher quality mice, lighting and more.  All with ought losing the ability to easily pop the iPad in and out of the Padcaster.  You can even attach amazing high-quality lenses.  (Check out the photos below.)

Padcaster Helping Physically Challenged:

I believe this is a new and undiscovered use of the Padcaster

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By Ryan Orilio, Apple Distinguished Educator.
Originally Posted at www.ryanorilio.com
Twitter @ryanorilio

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My school has interactive whiteboards installed in every classroom. This is a fairly recently upgrade. It was just in the last few years that this “initiative” was completed. Every classroom, K-12, has a interactive whiteboard and projector (unless the teacher asked to be excluded, and a few did)

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that as opposed to nothing, having a interactive whiteboard in your classroom is a great improvement. It helps teachers engage children, it jazzes up your lessons, it allows you to save what you write, and adds some interactivity to your classroom. These are all positive traits, and things that teachers are trying to do everyday.

My argument here is that if the school district is going to spend the money to install a interactive whiteboard, that money could instead be better spend on something else that does the job better… AppleTV & an iPad. I am speaking as someone who has used both tools in his classroom. In fact, at the first school that I taught at, I purchased an interactive whiteboard one year with my entire budget allocation. After I began to showcase the tool at professional development sessions, my school decided to put one in every classroom. Continue Reading…

As educators we set high standards for our students and we motivate them to become their best.  We share and encourage resources to improve the lives of our students. We care passionately about their current and future success.

I encourage my students to create resolutions for themselves each year, and I always set resolutions for myself. This year I want to encourage you to try on these ten professional resolutions:

1) Blog: I want you to create your own blog. It could be a personal blog, one for your students, or maybe one for you colleagues. Share the accomplishments you and your students are experiencing. Share with us what you have learned. Perhaps you can help us solve a problem. Archive your best work. I wrote an article awhile back on specifically why I want teachers to blog.

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Nice Update for FotoMagico

kcroy —  December 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

Boinx’s FotoMagico received a nice update today, and their newsletter hinted to some new products in the pipeline.

Not long ago, Wired Educator introduced you to Boinx’s FotoMagico the ‘gold standard’ in slideshow apps, made exclusively for the Mac. FotoMagico is used by thousands professional and amateur photographers around the world, allows you to create customized slideshows, mixing photos with movies and audio, for a storytelling effect like none other. FotoMagico brings your photos to life and keeps your audience at the edge of their seats.

Now it has been updated to version 4.1. The new upgrade includes media markers to easily manage used media files, export options to share work on Vimeo, and the ability to use FotoMagico in a ProRes-based workflow.

FotoMagico 4.1 Feature Highlights Include:

  • Media markers help users easily manage slideshows. Now, when image, movie or audio files are dragged into the slideshow document, a small green badge is displayed in the media browser in the sidebar to indicate that this media file is already included in the slideshow. This is useful when authoring large slideshows.
  • Sharing videos on Vimeo allows users with Vimeo accounts to keep all creative content on one channel (only available on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and newer).
  • Users can also now share slideshows in the ProRes video format for easy integration with professional video editing workflows such as Final Cut X. This option is only available if the Apple ProRes codec is installed.

FotoMagico 4 Pricing and Availability
FotoMagico 4 is now available both from the Mac App Store and the Boinx Website for 99.99 USD.

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Every now and then my iPhone pushes a notification to me announcing that I have made a sale. There’s nothing I need to ship; the transaction is complete. Someone just  purchased a PowerPoint, worksheet, study packet, or some other educational creation I listed long ago on my Teachers Paying Teachers (TPT) account. They receive the product immediately. The funds are sent to my Pay Pal account. As a matter of fact, I have sold the exact same product many, many times. There is nothing to restock or do.

Cool.

Teachers Paying Teachers is an amazing site that allows teachers to sell products to other teachers or give them away. All you need is a Continue Reading…