Thursday, January 26, 2012

iPad2 tricks and tips


iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and more.   Pushes them to all your devices and automatically keeping everything up to date. 

iCloud features:  http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

  •  iTunes in the Cloud- music purchased in iTunes appears automatically on all devices.
  • Photo Stream- take a photo on one device, automatically appears on all devices.
  • Documents in the Cloud- iCloud enabled apps on more than on device, iCloud will automatically keep your documents up to date across all devices. 
  • Apps, Books, and Backup- make sure all devices have the same apps and books.  Also backs up your information.
  • Calendar, Mail, and Contacts- stores calendar, mail, and contacts and automatically pushes them to all your devices. 
  • Find My iPhone- sign into icloud.com or use the app from another device to find your missing device.

User guide- view on iPad

  • Bookmark icon
    From Safari- tap the Bookmarks icon , and tap the iPad User Guide from the list.
  • Arrow icon
  •  Add icon for user guide to Home Screen- tap the arrow pointing to the right , and then tap Add to Home Screen.  
Or...
  • From iBooks- open iBooks and tap Store.  Search for iPad User Guide, select IO S 5 (latest) and tap Get Book.  This will open the iPad User Guide within iBooks. 

Organizing w/folders

Folders can be used to organize icons on the Home screen.  You can put up to 20 icons in a folder. 
  • Create a folder- press and hold an icon until the icons begin to jiggle, drag the icon onto another icon.  You can tap the name field to re-name the folder. 
  • When finished organizing your Home screen, click the Home button to save the changes. 
Access all running apps
Double-click the Home button will display all the apps that are running on your iPad in the bar at the boom of the  screen.  To switch to a running app, tap on it from the bar.  

Lock screen
Lock the screen orientation or use music controls- double-click the Home button, flick along the bottom of the screen.  The screen orientation lock, brightness slider, and music controls will appear. 

iPad2 gestures
  • Use four or five fingers, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, pinch to return to the Home screen.
  • Swipe left or right to switch between apps.
Notifications


The Notification Center displays all your alerts in one place.  Swipe down from the top of the screen to show the Notification Center.

  • Respond to an alert- tap the alert from the Notification Center or swipe the alert from left to right to respond to an alert on the lock screen.
  • Remove an alert- Tap the and tap Clear.
  • Set up options for notifications- Settings> Notifications.

Typing

  • Quickly type a period– double tap the Space bar.
  • Shift key
  • Turn caps lock on – Double-tap the Shift key.


  • Find a definition or alternative words – tap a word to select it, tap Dictionary or Suggest.  


    Dictionary or Suggest




  •  Shake iPad, or tap undo on the keyboard.

Shake iPad to undo
  • Cut, Copy, Paste- touch a word and hold it until the magnifying glass comes out.  Left go and the will with be highlighted including two pull bars on both ends.  Tap the "Copy" bubble or drag the handles to highlight more words.  Tap the location you want to past onto, touch and hold and the "Paste" icon comes out.  If using the keyboard bring up the "Select" and "Select All" command.  
Where is the Undo or Redo keys on the iPad keyboard?

  1. Press ".?123" key, a another set of virtual keyboard buttons including the "undo " button.
  2. Press "#+=" key, a another set of virtual keyboard buttons including the "redo" button.
Keyboard Layouts

  • Split keyboard- touch and hold the Keyboard button , slide finger to Split and release.   
  • Move keyboard-touch and hold the Keyboard button , slide finger to Undock to move the keyboard to the middle of the screen and release.   Return to full keyboard-touch and hold the Keyboard button , slide finger to Dock and Merge and release.
Split iPad keyboard image

How can I take a screen shot from my iPad?  Yes

It takes two button presses!  First, hold the power button on the upper right hand side of the iPad and then pre the "Home" button. (main button on the middle lower part of the iPad screen)

My iPad keeps freezing, what do I do?
In most cases, a "hard reset" fixes most issues.  It takes two button presses to do a hard reset.

Press and hold the Power/Sleep/Wake button on the upper right of your iPad along with the Home button on the middle lower part of the iPad screen.  After 10 seconds, you should see the Apple logo.  That is the sign that you've successfully completed a hard reset. 


Protecting you data is always a good idea!

A passcode is a security feature to help protect the information on the iPad from being accessed by others.
  • Set a passcode- Settings> General> Passcode Lock> Turn Passcode On, enter a 4-digit passcode and verify.   More information on Auto-Lock page 123 of iPad User Guide.

Can I change the name of my iPad?  Yes
  • From the Settings menu>General>About> Name

Additional App Resources:

Check out my review of the newest iPad (3) 
Free Math Apps By Grade Level, via Tutor House

 

Monday, January 23, 2012

Echo 360

Echo 360 at St. John Fisher college has recently been upgraded and additional appliances installed in the Wegmans School of Pharmacy bldg, School of Nursing and Victor E. Salerno School of Business. 

Lecture Capture will enable you to record the audio of your lecture, the content on the computer and video of the instructor at the podium.  Captures can be scheduled to begin and end automatically or an ad hoc recording can be made while in the room.

Scheduled Captures:

A course(s) can be setup to be automatically captured on a re-occurring basis. Scheduled captures are handled differently than Ad Hoc captures. 
  • A scheduled capture doesn’t require the instructor to login to the Echo 360 appliance.
  • Five minutes prior to the beginning of your class, instructors can log into Echo appliance (using desktop icon) to cancel a capture or begin immediately.
The captures can be published as Rich Media Flash files, as well as an MP3 podcast or M4V Video podcast, the default configuration captures video, display and audio. 

Can you change what is published? Yes

  1. Click on the title of the Echo and click on the blue Edit button at the bottom  of the screen. 
  2. Within the Product Group Information section, from the drop down menu select the product and click on Save.
  3. Within the properties of the session window, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Reprocess Media.  This will update the captured session.
  4. The updated echo will replace the original link.


Example:  The capture was created with the default configuration (video, display, and audio) and you would like to remove the video.  From the Product Group, select #3 Audio +Display - All Formats - High Quality.  Click on Save and Reprocess Media 

How do I make my echo available? 
By default all lecture captures are made unavailable. Within the user interface from the Echoes tab echoes can be made available for end users to view.  

  1. Select capture-check box to the left of the title. 
  2. Select Actions-from drop down arrow, select Make available.  



What is the Echo Center (course portal)?

The echo center is a web page that displays all processed lecture captures for each individual course.


  1. Click on the title of the capture, from the Echo Details page, select the URL for the EchoCenter Page and Copy the URL.
  2. From Blackboard, create an external link and paste the URL to the EchoCenter page.  
  3. From the Add External Link dialog box enter Name, paste URL, make Available to Users, and click on Submit
  4. All captures will be displayed for the course.  








How do I add External Media?
Although you probably use the EchoSystem primarily to record class lectures, you might also want to use it to preserve and distribute other materials. These may or may not be linked to a particular class or lecture.  You can upload any of these materials to the EchoSystem then edit and manage them as you would an Echo.

EchoSystem calls these materials "external media" because they are not captured by the EchoSystem. Instead, you upload them yourself. The process of uploading an external file is called "external media ingest" or EMI.
  • Upload multiple files to a specific class meeting, though you must upload them one at a time
  • Upload files that are not associated with any class or any meeting
  • Upload as many files as you like, though your System Administrator may limit the total amount of external media you can upload to a section
  • Edit files with the standard Echo editing tools
Supported file formats: AVI, FLV, M4V, MP4, and MOV

Add External Media:

     1.  Log into the User Interface and within the Echoes tab click on the Media Import link.


     2.  Specify the required settings:
  • Term- This setting helps to associate the external media file with a specific class meeting or event.
  • Course-This setting helps to associate the external media file with a specific class meeting or event.
  • Section- This setting helps to associate the external media file with a specific class meeting or event.
  • Start Date-You can use this setting to associate the external media file with a specific class meeting by specifying the day of the lecture.
  • Start Time- You can use this setting to associate the external media file with a specific class meeting by specifying the time of the lecture.
  • Title- A descriptive title helps viewers to understand what to expect in the media file.
  • Description- A description helps viewers to put the information in the media file in context.
  • Media Type- Specify the format of the recorded file.










     3.  Click the Upload File field, browse to the file location on your compute and click on Open.

The Echo System will verify that the file is in an appropriate format and may notify you of any      completed text fields.

    4.  Click on Next, select and confirm an appropriate product group.  The lower the quality, smaller the file download size will ensure faster download time for end users.

    5.  Click on Start Processing.  You will receive notification when the Echo System has reprocessed your file and email you a link to the podcast when it has been completed.

    6.  By default the echo will be listed as Unavailable.  Students will have to provide their SJFC network credentials to access the echo.