Basics for Education

1.      I am choosing to compare Pages to Microsoft Office. On my personal computer I have both applications, however I prefer Microsoft Word. Word as been around longer, which has given me more experience using. I do not have a personal iPad, therefore I would prefer typing a large amount of text on a Macbook or desktop. If I were to get an iPad personally or for the classroom I would choose to download Pages or even Evernote, an app that can also be used for easy note taking sharing abilities. With mostly all technology there are similarities and differences of each. Some similarities between Pages and Word include:

•      Basic functions, typing, copying, pasting, cutting, etc.
•      They both have the ability of saving, sending, sharing, or methods of getting the document to other methods of media.
•      You would think with the iPad functions such as creating graphs, inserting pictures, and inserting other objects would be difficult or not possible, however Pages does allow for the insertion of these objects and with great ease, once you have been given the experience.

With all similarities there must be differences:

•      Quite possibly the most obvious is that for the most part typing on the iPad is done on the screen. However, there are computers with on screen typing abilities and keyboard extensions for the iPad, but for the most part everything done on the iPad is done on the screen. Selecting, dragging, pasting, and other functions are also taken into account of this. You must select words/characters by hand when using pages on the iPad. This is not necessarily a down fall or a negative, it just depends on preference. 
•      Pages takes a lot of practice knowing the shortcuts and links. Word is rather straight forward and easier to locate, in my personal opinion.

2.      I uploaded a picture to my new box.net account.

3.     iThoughts is a great app that I feel can be used for a variety of different activities in the classroom. A couple of uses consist of:

• Prewriting or brainstorming in the early stages of writing a paper or research project. With iThoughts, it is simple to construct thoughts in a simple, visually creative way. Students can easily map out ideas in a diagram, for what they think they might achieve in their paper. I really enjoy this app for me personally as a visual learner. It is important to include apps and technology to reach all of the learning styles and this app definitely appeals to the visual learner.
• Sometimes Venn Diagrams, flow charts, t-Graphs, and other graphic organizers are a great way of conveying information to the student and helping them learn through these methods. Instead of wasting paper, students can easily perform the same ideas of those organizers on the tablets.

4. Safari vs. Rover

     Personally, I did not really understand why the Rover app would be useful. I understand it might be more appealing to a younger student, but overall it does the same things as Safari, but not in an easier way. I feel like the only differences is the color scheme and recommendations on the Rover are intended clearly for children or younger students. Safari has the ability to show many miniature screens of your most viewed website. I enjoy that detail because it makes it fast and easy get where you are wanting to go. I use Safari on a regular basis and have discovered many of the ins and outs and have a good feel for it. I think if students have not used Safari before they might want to start on Rover, but the same thing is going to be accomplished if they search something on Safari.