Sunday, July 16, 2017

ScreenRecording from your iPad

Funny how you don't think of things that would be useful until you actually have a use for them. 

 


This week I have been getting ready to co-present with a Twitter colleague, Traci Piltz, who I've never met face to face.  It has been a fantastic experience in long distance collaboration. With just a mere 1,825 miles between us, we have planned and prepped an hour long presentation and gotten to know each other just a bit better through texts, emails, and the comment function on our slidedeck. I'll write more about this fantastic experience soon as our presentation is next week and we'll be meeting face to face for the first time on Monday- I am so excited!

 
So what does all of that have to do with screen-recording? Well, as we discussed our ideas, one of the things we talked about doing was creating a screen recording as an intro for how to use Seesaw for the gamified mission we created. I've used Screencastify and really love it, but the majority of our audience will be using iPads so I didn't want to provide a screencast of Seesaw's computer interface, but rather of the iOs interface. 

That led to a problem... how in the world do you screen-record your iPad? 


I've never done it and wasn't sure where to start, other than doing an internet search for *hopefully* an easy solution. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I found out it was easier than I had hoped. I simply had to use my lightning cable to connect my iPad to my MacBook and then used QuickTime to create the screencast. Oh my goodness, seriously? I am still pinching myself as I am thinking of how beneficial this new tool will be, especially as our elementary teachers will be switching to MacBook's this school year!

If you're interested in trying this out, check out this post, How to record your iPhone or iPads' Screen by Joseph Keller on the iMore site. It gives great directions and visuals.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Archiving your Seesaw class

So another year has gone by and you've had some time to unwind and hopefully enjoy the benefits of summer vacation....
maybe you found some time to do some personal or professional reading 

or taken some time to renew your exercise goals (I'm currently failing miserably in this department).

Hopefully though, you've found time to relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with your family....


but if you're like me, the middle of July usually brings with it the spinning wheels of all the things you still want to accomplish before school starts (that exercise goal is still going to happen!) in addition to starting all of your back to school projects and preparations.

One of things may simply be a loose end from last school year. Did you remember to archive your Seesaw class at the end of the year? This is something that you'll want to do so that connected parents are sent an email letting them know that they can download their child's entire year's worth of work. If you're not sure how to do this, watch my short video below for directions.