ITunes U is similar to ebackpack in many ways. Soon, iTunes U will release a few new updates to improve it. New updates allow entire units to be developed at once and organized better than ebackpack allows teachers to do. On previous versions, students were not able to turn in assignments, which is why ebackpack and Google Classroom was a better option.

Collaboration with other teachers is also possible, as teachers are able to publish their lesson plans for other educators to use. This is a great way to explore new units, or even look for similar units for ideas of how to change yours.

This session discussed how using YouTube viral videos can be beneficial in class. Watching these videos can inspire students and allow creativity to flourish.

Examples:

Teachers can use vine (7 second clips) to demonstrate what an idiom is through the clip. (Video of a person kicking a bucket, he kicked the bucket)!

Dear Me: have students make a video blog to themselves. This would be cool to do with incoming freshmen and then have them look back at the videos when they are seniors.

This is the program used to create this presentation. It is simple to create. If you can create a Keynote presentation, you can create this. It is literally adding images and text. It will automatically put the scrolling and transitions on the final product.

Adobe also released Adobe voice in the spring. This is another tool that makes telling digital stories very easy, and users can add video clips and voice to the story.

Tell About or Write About: Two apps that allow teachers to choose preexisting prompts to either write or speak about.

Crowdflick: Anyone with this app can help others make a video. Users will use a tag to join the video. Then, events recorded will be combined to create a video.

The goal of using visuals in lesson plans is threefold: First, it is to help the student understand the concept. Second,it is to help the student remember the concept. Lastly, images should help the students retell information to other students.

PSE stands for Pictorial Superiority Effect. Studies show that students retain information at higher rates when images are included in the lesson plan opposed to just seeing or hearing text on the board.