iOS Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you find yourself typing the same long word or phrase into your iPhone or iPad over and over (ex: your e-mail address)? If so, it might be time to create some keyboard shortcuts! Click here to watch a 6-second video that illustrates how iOS keyboard shortcuts can save you time or watch the clip below:

Pretty handy, huh?  You can create keyboard shortcuts for anything you want, but it's obviously most helpful to create shortcuts for things you type fairly often. 
On personal devices, that might mean you create shortcuts for various e-mail addresses you have, a long word or phrase you use often, your full name {to be used as a signature or when filling out forms}, etc. 
On student devices, it might look a little different. For instance, if you use utilize Read Naturally, you may have noticed that the latest update doesn't save the 8-digit access code students have to use to get in the program. If you're okay with students seeing {and potentially memorizing} that number and you want to save a little time during the login process, you may consider creating a keyboard shortcut for that 8-digit access code. Or if, for instance, your very young learners {who tend to take several minutes to type one word} all have the same password, maybe you want to create a keyboard shortcut for that password. 
{Note: I don't recommend using keyboard shortcuts for passwords for anyone other than very young learners. Even then, it is purely in the interest of time so that you regain as many instructional minutes as possible!}
If you're interested in setting up your own shortcuts on iOS devices, follow the directions in the screenshots below:

The previously-existing shortcuts on that device will be listed on this screen in alphabetical order. You can see that, on my school iPad, I have 3 keyboard shortcuts already entered. If I wanted to edit any of them, I could just tap the entry I want to edit on this screen. 

After you click "save" in the upper right corner, you'll be free to use your iOS keyboard shortcut.

To test it, go into the "Notes" app and type the shortcut you specified earlier. The phrase should automatically pop up, as it did in my example video. 

Happy typing! 

Note: iOS keyboard shortcuts work in almost any app and in almost any web form, but please be aware that there are a select few applications the shortcuts are not compatible with.

3D Map Tours with Apple Maps

With today's academic and scheduling demands, actual field trips aren't always possible. Luckily for today's teacher, virtual field trip opportunities are abundant! A quick and easy "go to" tool is typically Google Earth, as you can zoom in, "stand" on the roads, and turn in a complete circle to see everything around you. 

Until recently, I didn't know that the default Apple Maps app has virtual field trip opportunities, as well -- in the form of "tours." 

Although there is not a tour for every city [yet, anyway!], the tours that are offered provide plenty of classroom fun.

How to access city tours in Apple Maps:

1. Launch the default Maps app, whose icon looks like this:

2. Navigate the map to a large city of your choice by sliding your finger across the screen. {In honor of being in Austin, Texas this week for the TCEA conference, the examples in this post are all about Austin!} 

Any city that has a little black and white bubble next to it that says "3D" has a tour available. For instance, when I look at Texas, I see the "3D" bubble next to Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. If you tap a bubble that says "3D," you should see the name of the city on the right and a blue box that says "Tour" on the left, as shown below:

As soon as you click "Tour," the map zooms in to the city, and you start an up-close flyover. Captions at the bottom show you what you're looking at. The tours I saw took you through the city and showed off local landmarks. Here are a few screenshots from my Austin, Texas tour {click any of the pictures to enlarge them}:

 

 

Pros

• Free.
• The app comes pre-downloaded onto iPhones and iPads, so you're ready to tour right out of the box. 
• If you mirror your device to your laptop, you can then display the tour on your Promethean board for all students to see.
• The tours take just a minute or two, so students get a good look at the city without taking up lots of precious instructional time.

Cons

• The flyover goes fairly quickly, so it's easy to miss things if you're not watching carefully every second!
• The only way I could figure out to pause the tour is just to tap the screen {which can be annoying for long periods of time}. I couldn't find a way to rewind or fast-forward at all. 
• Tours aren't available for every city.

Assuming a 3D tour is available for the particular location you need, I could see this feature being used during reading {to help students understand the setting of the book}, social studies {to make geography come to life}, and science {to show land forms and examples of scientific concepts}. 

If you're interested in more virtual field trip opportunities, consider visiting this Pinterest board:

       Follow Candice's board Virtual Field Trips on Pinterest.    

Create a QR Code from an iThing

Do you feel proficient about scanning the code above but are now ready to start making your own? Here's a tutorial.

There are several websites I use to make QR codes from a browser on a laptop or desktop computer, but there are certainly times when I need to create a QR code on the fly from my iThing {iPhone, iPad, or even iPod Touch}. I created a tutorial to show you how I do that with my favorite QR code creating app -- QRReader.

Also included in the video are various ways in which I think you could use these QR codes in your classroom. Please watch the video below for more information, and let me know if you have any questions!

Guided Access for iPad

Are you lucky enough to have iPads or iPod Touches in your classroom? If so, you might be familiar with the frustration of asking students to go into one particular app...and then walking by later and seeing that they are not, in fact, doing what you'd asked them to do.

Feel free to reassure me that your little darlings sometimes do this, too. :)

Apple released a feature called "Guided Access" for their iOS devices with the release of iOS 6, so this has been out for awhile. However, I realize that not everyone knows about these "tricks," so I thought I'd share this little gem with you all.

Of course, all the newest devices have it automatically, but if yours doesn't, you might try updating your software to see if it makes a difference!

What is Guided Access?

Guided Access is a brilliant feature, IMHO! It allows you, the adult, to restrict access to only one particular app. On top of that, it allows you to disable any part of the screen you feel is irrelevant to the app's functionality.

So, for instance, lets say you wanted your students to look through and respond to e-mails {maybe they have a pen pal as part of their writing assignment or something}. You could enable the Guided Access to ensure that students only stay inside the e-mail app.

Furthermore, let's say you didn't want those students to be able to delete any e-mails. You could disable the trash can icon inside the mail app so that students would never be able to click it or delete anything.

Didn't I tell you this was brilliant?!

How to Enable Guided Access

First, go into your Settings app. Click on "General."

I had to scribble out our WiFi name, since our family's last name. ;)

Inside the "General" section, scroll down until you see the word "Accessibility." I think all iOS devices -- regardless of age or updates -- have this portion. {I could be wrong, though. It's happened before. ;) }

Now is the test: do you have it or do you not? Inside the "Accessibility" portion, scroll down until you find a section labeled "Learning." If you can't find the learning section, that means you either need to update your iOS version or upgrade your device {sorry!}. Check with an Apple Genius to figure out your options.

If you do see it, though, go ahead and click on the "Learning" tab.

You can see that mine is already enabled because it says "On."

Once inside, make sure that your Guided Access toggle is switched to "On." You can set a passcode that will be used every time from right here, or you can save that part for later. Toggle the "enable screen sleep" switch if you wish.

You're ready to rock 'n roll! Get started:

1. Go into any app of your choice and triple-click the home button. {I was unable to take any screenshots of this because Guided Access does not allow screenshots.} 
2. Use your finger to circle any parts of the app you don't want the student to have access to. 
3. Click "Start" in the top right corner. It may prompt you to enter a 4-digit passcode if you haven't already set one. Pick something challenging enough that the student won't guess it, but not so challenging that you'll forget! ;)
4. If the student clicks the home button in an attempt to exit, a pop-up will flash at the top of the screen that says, "Guided Acces is enabled. Triple-click the home button to exit." Your student will, of course, see it, but can only take guesses to the code. 
5. When you're ready to exit, triple-click the home button again and enter your passcode. Click "End" in the top left corner.

Done! 

This is a fantastic feature to use in classrooms with your little friends who are just toooo tempted by other apps to stay on task. ;)

Hope it helps!

Free Apps

Here's a word problem for you:

If Candice is super-cheap and never pays for apps, how does she acquire all kinds of apps on her iOS devices that cost anywhere from $0.99-$10.00 each?

Ready to check your answer?

Here it is: a little gem called Apps Gone Free. 

This app is free in The App Store.

I rarely enable push notifications on my device, but trust me: you'll want them enabled for this app.

Apps Gone Free scours The App Store daily, looking for temporarily free apps. When I first started using this app, I read somewhere that Apps Gone Free prides itself on featuring apps that are rarely or never free. {So you won't see the same apps featured every day, but you also won't see EVERY temporarily free app in The App Store.}

This thing has saved me a ton of money. I find educational apps, productivity apps, and everything in between.

There are lots of "free app finder" apps available, but right now, this is my favorite one. Try it if you'd like to get some free stuff for your Apple device!