Woot!

#23 The FINAL THING!

I made it to the end.....with time to spare! {Full disclosure: I'm sad it's over.}

This is, by far, some of the best PD I've had in a while.  I love that I was able to sit down and work on my 23 things whenever I had a chance, and I love that I got to learn about so many new things out there.  The app world is pretty saturated, and were it not for this, I may not have discovered some of my new favorites like Flipboard, Line Camera,  and Quickoffice.

The fact that I got to try out apps that I didn't like was also helpful. If a staff member comes to me asking about something that didn't work so well, I can look back to my blog and remember why.

I'm also glad that I finally read a book digitally (not that I loved it).  I started a second, which I didn't finish....but might.  I'm not a "digital reader", but it will be a handy back up when I travel and things like that.

The next time I have an opportunity like this for self-paced PD, I will definitely jump in with both feet.

Thanks Minnesota Multitypes.

#22 Discovering Apps

I don't spend a lot of time "discovering apps", as I usually just read or hear about them/read about them somewhere and then go research them & try them out. Either that, or teachers will come back to work after being at a conference or workshop saying something to the effect of, "I found the coolest app! We totally need it on the iPads".  If it's not a paid one, I usually will try it out and see if it looks "do-able".  If it's paid, I might buy one copy of it to test, but will be VERY critical as I assess it.

When looking for or "discovering" apps, I find the most helpful thing is a basic Google search (if anyone had told me, before becoming a media specialist, that Google would be the best tool in my professional life, I would have chuckled.....)  Once I find apps that come up in my results, I go right to the reviews.  Very few apps are "hard" to use, so I'll look at reviews before I actually try out the app. Customer reviews are honest and blunt, and I like that. { I'm the same way when shopping Amazon....reviews often make my decisions for me when shopping.}

For this "thing", I downloaded Apps Gone Free.  I love that there's an app to help get apps.

Speaking of reviews, it had five stars and nearly 4,000 of them....

Anyway, it works pretty simply.  A number of apps (10 today), along with descriptions and ratings are listed and free for a short period of time.  I was surprised at the deals on some of these...one had been $10.99!

If you find one you like, you click it, read more about it, and it sends you out to the app store to download.  I downloaded 100 Cameras in 1 and Comic Story.  I haven't had a chance to play with them yet...but as a free app, it's worth the purchase price.

One thing I thought was cool about this app was the "bump" feature.  If there is a paid app you like, you type in its name and "bump" it.  I suppose if certain apps get enough bumps, them they try to get the company to make it go free.  Kind of a cool way to get an app out there or get it to take off a bit.

I'll keep this app on my device.  Pretty easy to open it every day or every few days and see if there's anything amazing out there for free.

#21 Free-for-All

My FitnessPal!

I love this app.  It helped me lose some weight last year......then I stopped using it.  I started again a few months ago, and I have logged in every single day.

Here's what it does:

1. Helps me keep track of every single thing I put in my body. Has a GREAT UPC scanner.

2. Helps me keep track of my exercise (which lets me buy more calories to eat).

3. Can tell me the calorie and nutrition info for just about anything I can imagine...this is WAY important when in the drive-thru at Taco Bell or Arby's.

4. Helps me balance carbs, fats, and proteins....and all my vitamins and minerals each day.

5. Tells me how many calories per day I can have in order to lose whatever amount of weight I want to.

6. It has a social networking component, so I can "like" my friends' statuses when they log in, or burn calories exercising, or lose pounds, etc.

7. Helps me keep track of daily water intake.

8. It keeps me honest. Mostly.

On this go-round, I've lost 12 pounds with the help of this app....since I have a wedding in six months, I'm hoping it helps me do away with about 20 more!

#20 Games

For this "thing" I downloaded Word Abacus.

I was already addicted to Candy Crush (til I got stuck at Level 421 and quit), and have tried Temple Run and some word anagram games.  I've recently started playing Farm Heroes Saga...which is about the same as Candy Crush, and just as addicting.

Word Abacus was a nice change of pace......

It started out pretty easy.  It's a simple little interface, and directions are straightforward.  You make words....they have to be at least three letters long.  At some point at each level, you "complete it" and move on.  Things get added.....green letters that are worth extra points, red letters that you have to use or the game is over. As you moe up the levels, you get more of the red ones that have to be used.

When I made it to level seven, I was limited to making just one three-letter word per game, which means I really needed to slow down and use some strategy.  And then those red letters started coming!  I barely got through the level, but I eventually passed it.....but then lost in level 8.

I'll keep it on my iPad, as it's pretty fun.  And now that I've played it, it should be easy to improve my past performance.

*Note: There were adds that rolled on the top as I played.  They were only slightly annoying.  I was asked once in eight levels to "upgrade" for $1.99....which I didn't.*

#19 Hobbies

I wasn't too excited about the app choices for this "thing"....except the Road Ninja, but I'm not currently traveling so I'll have to store that one away for the future...so I decided to see if there were any apps out there for one of my favorite hobbies: scrapbooking!

I created my first digital scrapbook last weekend, actually, but I did it on my computer, not an iPad or iPhone.  I thought I'd see if it's even possible to do one on an iPad.  I imagine it couldn't be as detailed as a computer one, but I bet it could still work.

For this "thing", I downloaded a few apps I came across when Google searching for "scrapbooking apps".  I got ScrapPad (I even paid actual money for it: $4.99!), Collect, and Phonto.


Phonto is pretty simple. I gave it access to my photos, and chose one to work on, after selecting a filter (TONS of choices).  As a photo editing app, it was actually similar to PS Express, Aviary, Line Camera, etc.  It was easy to use....I liked the simplicity.  It was also easy to save and share.  Here's what I did with a REALLY old picture of mine:

Collect looked like an interesting app...maybe not for me, but I have some friends with little kids who would get into it.  Basically, it encourages you to take pics daily, and then those can end up on a calendar.... with all sorts of collage options as well.  I went back to last August (we were on a trip) and made a retro album just to test it.  This would be easier if you were just building daily, rather than looking to go backwards. For a trip, or a new baby, or some great life event, this could be cool, because there are also options to make/buy more things and do some journaling and notetaking.

My very basic start (five days only) looked like this:

The last app I tried (and paid good $ for) was ScrapPad. Upon opening it, there was a nine slide demo.....this was helpful. I learned early on that I can, in fact, order actual albums from this app.  It looks like this app will be as easy as "Drag, Pinch, & Twist". The interface (in the demo) seems simple.  I also learned from this that there is a Mac app as well.

Let's play!

Okay, so I played.....and this is a VERY easy app to use.  Ordering books from it is simple.  Choosing themes, filters, stickers, embellishments, etc. is simple too.  I could totally make a scrapbook on here.....though I don't know if I will.  While I like things simple, I'm used to my scrapbooks being more complex, and I would be more likely to do this on the laptop instead of the iPad.  However, while on a trip, this would be a fun way to post stuff along the way to facebook or something.  Somehow, I'll get my $5 out of this app......

#18 Education

How in the world is a person supposed to choose ONE of these apps to blog about?  YIKES!

I'll mini-blog about a couple...then really dig into one I haven't tried before.

My Script Calculator: LOVE this app.  Someone showed it to me last year and we have it on the iPads of all the 8th graders.  It's AMAZING how well it works......and it's always right.  I think it also forces kids to understand mathematical symbols better.

Fooducate: Our FACS teacher uses this one at school as well, and it's pretty comprehensive.

Google Earth: EVERYONE loves playing on Google Earth....but the fact that everyone can see my patio furniture a firepit still creeps me out a bit.

Others we like at our school: Wikipedia (duh!), Khan Academy, 3D Brain, & Socrative (though Kahoot is sort of taking over Socrative's place right now.....)


The app I chose to download was iTranslate.  Upon opening it, and hitting a button, it wanted me to upgrade for $4.99.  It was easy to use, but because I have voice recognition on my iPad it was easier.  The app was designed so people have to type in the whole thing they want translated.  The app has 81 languages, and you can even try to get it to "detect languages" if you're not sure what to translate.  This could be helpful if I were traveling...AND if I had the premium edition.  With this free one, when I tried to "play" the Spanish translation of what I said, it looked like it was playing, but I heard nothing.  And the constant ads running from Google were annoying.  I use Google translate on my computer quite a bit, and this worked pretty much the same...how complicated can translation really be, right?  If I were fluent in another language, I guess I'd have a better idea if this were a strong app and it's consistently good.  It's rated 4.5, so I'm thinking it's pretty good.

Just for fun, I also downloaded the Eat This, Not That game.  It was educational....but fun?  Not so much.  I first played the lunch game (there are a limited number of games available...unless you want to share with social media to unlock things like Kids Food, Restaurant Edition, and Drinks Edition).  It pitted two fast food meals (from the same restaurant) against one another and you had to choose the healthier of the two....as time and points diminished.  It gave clues about the food, starting with calories, then fat, then saturated fat, then sodium (the only four factors they looked at).  If you answered early, you never got to see the facts.  You did get to read a thing that was in really small print and a few sentences long about the "good item".  One interesting thing I learned was that the tortilla used at Chipotle is 290 calories....so I'll definitely only be doing the bowls from now on!  This game took a LONG time...there were 26 questions, so if you really read the info after it, it would take some time.....many of the restaurants compared were not local chains, so it was a lot of guessing.  And again, answering too early didn't give you a chance to really see nutritional info.  I decided to try the snacks game next.  It had TWO questions.  Two.  Really?  Breakfast had seven....it was okay.  I didn't love this game, but since

#17 Connecting to Community

I tried two apps for this "thing". 

I downloaded the 104.7 KCLD app, mostly because that's the station my kids listen to, it's local to me, and I wondered what it would have....I was actually pretty impressed (after I got through the required 30 second ad watching I had to do to get into the app).  The live stream was flawless and the sound was great.  Each song playing had options to see artist info, lyrics, a way to buy the song (sends you out to iTunes), and "other media".  You could also "Favorite" the song by hitting the heart.  You could also see a history of what the station has been playing.  It looked like it went back about an hour.

Other features were links to their Twitter feed, Facebook feed, Facebook in general, Twitter in general, KCLDs home page, the Playhouse page, and links to their Pepsi VIP club and Mobile VIP club.  In all my jumping around from app to web and back, I never lost the live stream, or had it interrupted at all.  I listened for about 20 minutes (four songs).  Until the fourth song, all the app info for the songs was available.  Not sure why the song info for the last one didn't show up, as it was a well-known song....or at least one I've heard my kids sing before :)


Because I'd like to head "Up North" with the fam this summer, I downloaded the UpNorthExplorer app.  The first thing I noticed once I had the app going was that it had A LOT going on.....There were 11 buttons I could tap on the main screen, as well as a search tool, and five things I could tap on the bottom.  That seems like a LOT of things....which I assumed made this a pretty comprehensive app.

I chose to look at weather first, and allowed access to my location.....got my Sartell weather (25 degrees on April 1, really?) and made my city a favorite.  This is connected to The Weather Channel, which I trust.

There was a way to "register" with the app, but I chose not to do so.

The nine main buttons of the app offered things like dining, lodging, recipes (lots looked yummy!), shopping, services, etc.  Upon opening each of these nine things, an ad popped up, but just for a couple seconds before the appropriate list came up.  As I spent more time looking through the options, I saw that the lists were "a good start", but could be a lot longer.  I also notice what seemed like a lot of casino entries.  I wonder how people/business get in this app?

Okay, so this was the cutest part of the app (seriously, it was really cute).  There was a button that looked like a postcard...it allowed you to take a picture (or use one from your library), then it placed it onto a postcard, allowed you to add text, change the background, change the stamp on it, add effects to the photo, etc.  Then you could save it or post it to Twitter or Facebook...like a virtual postcard.  I thought it was pretty cool. 


This was a pretty interesting "thing"...because without this PD, I never would have looked at either of these....or known they existed.