MACUL 2020: 25 Insanely Great Ways to Use Keynote

Watch this session virtually via Zoom. 

Whether on a Mac or on an iOS device, no app is more versatile than Keynote. This fast-paced session will detail 25 innovative ways Keynote can impact learning, ramp up student engagement, and add production value to anything you or your kids create. Whether it's creating professional-looking images, creating animated GIFs, high-end videos and a bunch of cool other stuff you'll never see Keynote as just Apple's version of PowerPoint ever again.

MACUL Conference session: Thursday, March 12, 2020, 1:00 PM - Vandenberg B
Follow-up time in up Amway lobby immediately following the session. 

MACUL 2020 Keynote Deck - iCloud

PDF version of session slides

Apple's New Homework Ad is Everything it Should Be

As part of Apple's launch of its new educationally focused iPad, the company debuted a new ad showcasing the way the device can be used to creatively transform homework.

Using a recitation of Jack Prelutsky's poem "Homework" as its background,  we follow home a group of kids from a boring old science class and watch how much fun they have completing their group project on gravity with their iPads.

Apple's tag line for the new iPad that retails at $299 for schools and $329 for the public is "The perfect computer for learning looks nothing like a computer."

What I find most intriguing is that Apple has tapped into the reality that in too many cases kids have far more fun learning at home on their own than they do in their classrooms.

In our STEM classes we are doing our best to make what you see the kids doing at home in this video, what our kids do at school.

#WWDC14 Family Sharing coming to iOS 8

The Apple World Wide Developer Conference keynote is classic Apple showmanship with the promise of many new features coming to OSX Yosemite and iOS 8.

There are some mind blowing features coming to the Mac that may be very helpful in the classroom like the annotation of photos without using Preview, easier search in Safari, and more ways to move content from iOS devices to Macs.

The feature most intriguing to me though is what Apple calls "Family Sharing" on iOS devices.  Up to six family members whose Apple IDs use the same credit card can now have shared access to each other's calendars, reminder lists, media like music and movies, as well as the "find my device" apps.

[caption id="attachment_640" align="alignleft" width="811"] Kids even have to ask permission before they may download apps with the family sharing feature.[/caption]

As families become increasingly more mobile and each member spends more time on his or her own device, the sharing of this information can help everyone know where the other one is, what is on the family agenda, and who needs to get what stuff at the store.  I know it will help mine.