Best Apps For Academics

Transcript

BEST APPS FOR ACADEMICS A guide to the best apps for education and research Nicole Hennig Pam Nicholas Best Apps for Academics: A Guide to the Best Apps for Education and Research by Nicole Hennig and Pam Nicholas Version 1, April 2014 © 2014, Nicole Hennig and Pam Nicholas BestAppsforAcademics.com Table of Contents 6 Introduction 26 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Who this book is for Reading and annotating documents The authors Reading ebooks How this book came to be Managing citations Subject areas and examples Reading news via RSS A word about platforms Reading news with smart recommendations Resource guide Saving web pages to read later Companion website Feedback 11 Chapter 1 – Productivity Managing files in the cloud Managing and generating secure passwords To-do lists Calendars Journaling Other useful productivity apps BestAppsforAcademics.com 49 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Specialized search engines Wikipedia client Dictionary Private search engine Unit conversions Subscription database content provided by your library Finding open access articles and publications Special exhibit apps from libraries and archives Table of Contents 68 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying 104 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Best full-featured notes app Full-featured social media app Taking notes by handwriting and sketching Shared whiteboard Recording audio notes Collaborate with mapping tools Speech recognition Distance meetings and presentations Scanning documents Text editor for Dropbox Microsoft Office editor Create beautifully formatted documents and work with Microsoft Office documents Flashcards for studying 121 Chapter 6 - Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Edit and present slide decks Create simple, beautiful presentations Mind mapping Wirelessly mirror the display of an iPad with projector or large display More useful apps for note-taking, writing, or studying Create interactive ebooks Recommended accessories BestAppsforAcademics.com Table of Contents 136 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides 145 Further Resources Books Examples: Apps and websites about apps Language and literature Blogs Digital humanities Other books and courses by Nicole Hennig Art Journalism Social science research Biology Geology Medicine Computer science and engineering Math App guides: Art, Engineering, Geology, Journalism, Language-learning, Math, Medicine, Multiple subjects, Science, Social sciences BestAppsforAcademics.com 155 Updates & Feedback Introduction Welcome to Best Apps for Academics! Introduction – Welcome to Best Apps for Academics! Who this book is for This book is for students and professors who would like to make best use of smartphones and tablets in their academic work. If you already use preinstalled apps on your device, but haven’t had time to explore the other useful apps, then this book is for you. We’ll point you to the best apps by category so you won’t have to wade through the millions of apps available on your device’s app store (some of poor quality). The Authors Nicole Hennig is an independent user experience professional, teaching and inspiring educators and librarians about mobile technologies. She worked as webmaster and head of user experience for the MIT Libraries for over a decade. She is a winner of multiple awards, including the MIT Excellence Award for Innovative Solutions, and the MIT Libraries Infinite Mile Award for Innovation & Creativity. Pam Nicholas enjoys helping people navigate the technological landscape as an IT professional for the MIT Libraries, where she received an Infinite Mile Award for results, outcome, and productivity. In addition, she spends her time writing, making music, and taking photographs. BestAppsforAcademics.com 7 Introduction – Welcome to Best Apps for Academics! How this book came to be The idea for the book grew out of a series of well-attended workshops for the MIT community about mobile apps. See: libguides.mit.edu/apps. Nicole created and offered these workshops together with Remlee Green, user experience librarian at MIT. They have been offering these popular workshops since the iPhone was first released, and in 2013 Nicole decided to begin work on an ebook version, with the help of coauthor Pam Nicholas. Acknowledgements We would like to thank our friends and colleagues in the MIT Libraries for supporting our work with mobile apps and our workshops for the MIT community. Subject areas and examples We’ll cover apps that could be used by academics and scholars in any subject area. We won’t go into depth about apps for specific fields, such as architecture or chemistry – those may be the topic of future books. We will, however, give a few specific examples of how academics are using these apps in their individual disciplines. BestAppsforAcademics.com 8 Introduction – Welcome to Best Apps for Academics! A word about platforms We’ll be focusing on apps primarily for Apple’s iOS platform, and secondarily for Google’s Android platform. Many apps are available on both platforms, and for those that are for iOS only, we’ll recommend alternatives for Android users. Our own experience is primarily on Apple’s platform, and the majority of users we supported at MIT during the early years of mobile apps used iOS. We know that many users have both Apple and Android devices, and we’re happy that different alternatives are available. For each app, we tell you what platforms it runs on. For example: • Android – Google’s mobile platform (we don’t list details about versions) • iOS – Apple’s mobile platform for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch • iOS (universal) – Apple’s term for apps that are optimized for all screen sizes, including iPad • iOS (iPad only) – Apps that are designed only for the iPad. Some iOS apps are offered with different versions for iPhone and iPad (usually with different prices). Some iOS apps are not universal, but they can run on iPads in a small window, which you can tap on to double the size. BestAppsforAcademics.com 9 Introduction – Welcome to Best Apps for Academics! Since apps are updated frequently, we listed the version number for each app at the time of publication. Most apps keep the same core features over time, and with updates, the developers fix bugs or add new features. Depending on when you’re reading this, a newer version of the app may exist with more features. Resource guide At the end of this book, we’ve included a list of discipline-specific app guides that are freely available on the web. We’ve also included a list of resources, including books, blogs, and a few apps that contain app reviews. Companion website For updates to the information in this book, visit our website at smallwow.com/apps. We plan to create an updated version of this book when there is enough new information for a second edition. Feedback We hope you enjoy this guide! If you’d like to send feedback, use this contact form. We’d love to hear from you. BestAppsforAcademics.com 10 Chapter 1 Productivity Chapter 1 – Productivity Manage files in the cloud Dropbox Dropbox allows you to easily access your files from multiple devices, including your phone or tablet. No need to drag around external drives, just sign up for an account and your files are always available, even while using a shared computer at a conference or in a hotel lobby. Do you want to collaborate with a colleague on a paper, share your music composition with a friend, or use that photo you took with your iPhone on your office computer? If you can open a web browser, you can get to your data via Dropbox. Sign up for a free account and receive 2 GB of storage. For increased space purchase a Pro account (prices start at $9.99/month for 100 GB). Dropbox employs standard encryption methods to transfer and store data, keeping your personal data secure. Read more about Dropbox’s security policy. If you’re at an organization that needs FERPA or HIPAA compliance, Dropbox currently doesn’t offer that, so try Box instead. Its features are very similar to Dropbox, with the added ability to support HIPAA and HITECH standards. Many universities have set up a campus-wide service using Box. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Dropbox, Inc. Version: 3.0.2 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free for up to 2GB of storage Developer’s website: dropbox.com 12 Chapter 1 – Productivity Examples Instructors can manage online project submissions easily with Dropbox. Dropbox is great for sending files that are too large for email. Similar apps worth trying Box – iOS (universal), Android Google Drive – iOS (universal), Android SkyDrive – iOS (universal), Android Dropbox for iPhone. SugarSync – iOS (universal), Android BestAppsforAcademics.com 13 Chapter 1 – Productivity Managing and generating secure passwords 1Password We all know it’s not safe to use the same password on multiple sites – a security breach at one site makes them all vulnerable – but creating different, secure passwords of fifteen characters or more is time consuming. Plus, remembering all of these passwords is nearly impossible. 1Password takes the hassle out of password management by generating secure passwords based on the requirements of the sites you visit. It then stores and fills in these secure passwords for each site, so you only need to remember one master password to unlock the app. Your passwords (and other information, such as secure notes) are stored in an encrypted file, accessible from all your computers and mobile devices. Browser extensions allow you to easily paste addresses, credit cards, and other information into websites. Your information is encrypted and secure. See “How secure is 1Password?” for more details. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: AgileBits, Inc. Version: 4.3.2 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: $17.99 Developer’s website: agilebits.com/onepassword 14 Chapter 1 – Productivity Example Academic Technology at The College of William & Mary recommends 1Password for their community. They also discuss how it works in your desktop web browser: The browser add-ons are awesome, and it’s how I most often use 1Password. It works similarly in Chrome and Firefox (and I’m guessing Safari also).  If you come across a place on the Web where you have to log in, you click on the 1Password key button, enter your main password, and then select which site you’re trying to access. If you haven’t yet saved the password in 1Password, it will ask you if you want to save it.  Once saved, anytime you go to that particular site, you can have 1Password fill in your info and you’re in. 1Password’s lock screen. Similar apps worth trying LastPass – Free for Android, iOS, and other platforms. Similar to 1Password. Premium version also available. 1Password’s category screen. BestAppsforAcademics.com 15 Chapter 1 – Productivity Individual entry in 1Password for iPhone. 1Password for iPad. BestAppsforAcademics.com 16 Chapter 1 – Productivity To-do lists Todo Todo provides a balance between ease-of-use and multiple features, without being overwhelming. You can put items into categories and under contexts such as home, work, or vacation. Todo allows you to integrate the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology for task organization, or use your own. You can keep tasks synchronized across all your computers and mobile devices using Dropbox, iCloud, Todo Cloud 7, or Toodledo (free web app). Example MIT Libraries recommends Todo to their students in their guide, “Apps for Academics: Mobile websites and apps.” Developer: Appigo, Inc. Version: 6.2.1 Runs on: Android, iOS Price: $4.99 for iPhone, $4.99 for iPad Developer’s website: appigo.com/todo BestAppsforAcademics.com 17 Chapter 1 – Productivity Todo lists & contexts. BestAppsforAcademics.com Todo list view. 18 Chapter 1 – Productivity To-do lists Paperless We like to-do lists so much, we couldn’t pick just one app! Paperless boasts a clean, intuitive design. Each list item can be expanded to a full page, giving you plenty of room to elaborate on tasks. You can sync with Dropbox or iCloud and access on multiple devices. You can use Paperless for short-term checklists, such as grocery shopping or packing lists, and for long-term life and productivity planning. For example, life-planning categories might include money, food, exercise, or learning a language. Work, study, or project categories could include courses you’re taking, presentations you’re going to give, or book writing projects. You can create sub-lists of items to accomplish in each area to keep yourself moving forward on your goals. Developer: Crush Apps, Inc. One charming feature of Paperless is that you can assign a different icon to each list, selecting from hundreds of icons that are included, allowing you to quickly identify a particular list. Developer’s website: crushapps.com/paperless BestAppsforAcademics.com Version: 2.2 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $2.99 19 Chapter 1 – Productivity The free version (limited to thirty total list items) does not include automatic backup and syncing, backup via email, or importing previously exported lists via email. We recommend the full version. Example Paperless is useful for keeping track of items where due dates aren't useful. Similar apps worth trying Wunderlist – iOS (universal), Android Paperless lists. Clear – iOS, see Koalcat’s Clear for an Android copycat version. Paperless icons – select one for each list. BestAppsforAcademics.com 20 Chapter 1 – Productivity Calendars Fantastical 2 Fantastical has a beautiful and intuitive calendar interface that plugs into the calendars you already use and recognizes natural language. For example, entering “study break each Thursday at 7” adds the recurring appointment into your calendar on the proper days. DayTicker view provides a sleek, alternative way to see what’s coming up in your schedule. If your device supports dictation, you can speak the details of your event and it will turn into a calendar entry. It also integrates with iOS Reminders, so you add, edit, and manage them from the app. Events with addresses will display in a map, and you can open directions in Google Maps. You can customize the font sizes and choose between light and dark themes. Fantastical is a pleasure to use and a vast improvement over the standard calendar interfaces. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Flexibits, Inc. Version: 2.0.4 Runs on: iOS Price: $1.99 Developer’s website: flexibits.com/fantastical-iphone 21 Chapter 1 – Productivity Example Fantastical is recommended as part of the Macademic Ninja Kit by Aleh Cherp, professor of environmental sciences and policy at Central European University and associate professor at Lund University. Similar apps worth trying Calendars by Readdle – iOS (universal) Fantastical’s natural language interface. BestAppsforAcademics.com Fantastical’s monthly view. 22 Chapter 1 – Productivity Journaling Day One This beautiful, well-designed journal app is useful for students, professors, writers, and anyone who wants to track their experiences and accomplishments. Customize your journal with photos, include weather conditions, and use the geolocation feature to keep track of where you wrote a particular entry. Add a passcode to make your journal private, or share it with the world via social media (you can easily share your entries via Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare). One of the best features is the ability to set custom alerts that remind you to journal. Sync all your devices via Dropbox or iCloud. Examples Many academics use journaling as a reflective practice for student learning.  See this paper on learning journals and how they can be used in academic studies: “Learning Journals and Logs, Reflective Diaries,” by Jennifer Moon, University of Exeter, from the Centre for Teaching and Learning: Good Practices in Teaching and Learning, 2003. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Bloom Built, LLC Version: 1.12 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $4.99 Developer’s website: dayoneapp.com 23 Chapter 1 – Productivity Day One’s website has an interesting list of how people are using the app, including as a work journal, idea log and more. Similar apps worth trying Momento – iOS Journalized – iOS DayJournal – Android Moleskine – iOS (universal), Android Add a new entry or photo, view starred items, and more in Day One. BestAppsforAcademics.com Day One’s journal page, with photos and weather. 24 Chapter 1 – Productivity Other useful productivity apps IFTTT – iOS. Enables you to create “recipes” that fit the statement, “if this, then that.” It allows your various apps to perform useful actions by communicating with each other. Makes automation easy. For details, see, “Review: If you want an app to control your other apps, then try IFTTT.” Logmein – Android, iOS. Handy, free remote desktop app that works together with Logmein Free for Mac or Windows. Hojoki – Android, iOS (universal). Integrate Dropbox, Evernote, Box, Google Drive, and more. Provides a way to search across all your files that are located in different cloud services. Also good for managing the work of teams who work with files in cloud services. BestAppsforAcademics.com 25 Chapter 2 Reading & Annotating Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading and annotating documents GoodReader With GoodReader, you can read and annotate just about any type of file, such as: • • • • • • Plain text Word, Excel, PowerPoint files Images: JPG, PNG, etc. Video: QuickTime, MP4 Audio: MP3 HTML GoodReader easily handles massive PDF and TXT files. You can convert a PDF to plain text and make it wrap properly on small screens for ease of reading, and switch back and forth between graphical and text views if you need to see images. Its tabbed interface allows you to view multiple documents in different tabs and switch between them. Developer: Yuri Selukoff Version: 3.20.1 Runs on: iOS Price: $4.99 for iPhone, $4.99 for iPad Developer’s website: goodreader.com/goodreader.html GoodReader connects to Dropbox and other cloud storage (SkyDrive, SugarSync, Box, and any WebDAV, AFP, SMB, FTP, or SFTP server) for transferring files – or even entire directories – from your desktop BestAppsforAcademics.com 27 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating computer. Extensive annotation features are included – highlights, popup boxes for notes, arrows, freehand drawing, and more. Example Jonathan Messer, a PhD candidate at the College of William and Mary and academic technology consultant at the University of Richmond, describes his process for keeping journal articles organized, read and annotated. GoodReader converts PDF to plain text, wrapping properly on small screens. BestAppsforAcademics.com 28 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating GoodReader’s connection options. BestAppsforAcademics.com GoodReader’s annotation options. 29 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading and annotating documents iAnnotate PDF iAnnotate PDF is a very robust annotation app for PDFs, as well as DOC, PPT, and image files. Search, bookmark, add annotations, insert images, email, add sticky notes, make handwritten notes and signatures, and zoom text. You can also create PDF files. Both iAnnotate and GoodReader are used widely by academics. Example Dave Yearwood, an associate professor and chair of the technology department at the University of North Dakota, describes using iAnnotate for academic work. Developer: Branchfire, Inc. Version: 3.0.3 Runs on: Android, iOS (iPad only) Price: $9.99 Developer’s website: branchfire.com/iannotate BestAppsforAcademics.com 30 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Similar apps worth trying Documents by Readdle – iOS (universal) PDFPen – iOS (iPad only) PDF Expert – iOS (iPad only) PDF Connoisseur for iPad – iOS (iPad only) iAnnotate’s annotation features. Annotation charts and images in iAnnotate. BestAppsforAcademics.com 31 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading ebooks Kindle The Kindle app remains one of the best apps for reading ebooks, and it’s available free for multiple platforms and devices. The ebooks are usually cheaper than print versions, and free samples of every book available help you decide which books to purchase. Your titles are stored in Amazon's cloud, which gives you instant access to all your books from anywhere, and you can add or remove them from your device at anytime. Kindle syncs between devices, so if you own an iPhone and iPad, an Android device and a PC, or any other combination, it will remember where you left off reading when you switch devices. Font size and other layout aspects are adjustable, which makes for easy reading, even on small screens. You can view popular notes and highlights, and share your own on Facebook and Twitter. A built-in dictionary is included with the app, making it easy to look up any word as you read. When an author updates a title, you get notified and can freely download the updated edition – especially useful for subjects that are rapidly changing. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Amazon.com, Inc. Version: 4.1.2 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: amazon.com 32 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Example Kindle's "Whispercast" service can be useful in academic institutions for managing services centrally, as described in “Amazon Enhances Its Position in Academic Markets with Launch of Its Whispercast System”: The service allows administrators to register significant numbers of devices at once, or customize the device for each individual. Alternatively, existing owners of their own Kindles can register with the network and receive centrally managed services. Within an organization’s network, apps or content can be centrally managed as well as network access control. Kindle’s highlighting and dictionary lookup feature. Similar apps worth trying Megareader – iOS (universal), free and public domain books Nook – iOS (universal), Android Kobo – iOS (universal), Android Google Play Books – iOS (universal), Android Cover view in your Kindle library. BestAppsforAcademics.com 33 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Set up your own collections in the Kindle app. BestAppsforAcademics.com Dictionary lookup in Kindle for iPad. 34 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading ebooks iBooks Apple’s iBooks has a few useful features that are sometimes overlooked. The app allows you to sort your books into categories on your virtual bookshelf, and also allows for reading PDFs and EPUBformatted books from sources other than Apple. You can use it on your Mac as well as on your iOS devices. In addition, iBooks is designed to read multi-touch textbooks and other interactive books that have been created with Apple’s free program, iBooks Author. Examples The University of Minnesota recommends iBooks, and mentions useful features for students, such as the ability to add highlights and notes to a central repository. They also recommend iBooks’s study card features for creating flashcards from book glossaries. Developer: Apple, Inc. Version: 3.2 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: apple.com/ibooks/ See this video demo to see the study cards feature in action. BestAppsforAcademics.com 35 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating iBooks shelf – your library. BestAppsforAcademics.com Highlighting in iBooks. 36 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating An interactive book for iPad, created with iBooks Author. BestAppsforAcademics.com 37 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Managing citations Papers 3 for iOS Papers has a user-friendly interface for organizing and annotating your PDF articles. You can drag PDFs into your library (in the desktop version), and it looks for matching copies in online repositories in order to include relevant metadata (author, journal title, etc.). You can also search and download papers from within the app. It works with several library databases, such as PubMed, IEEE Explore, and Web of Science. It also searches Google Scholar. Developer: Mekentosj You can sync your library across devices if you are on the same Wi-Fi network. Full-screen reading mode is conducive to focusing on one article. You can group your papers into collections, and make smart collections based on metadata for each, similar to smart playlists in iTunes. You can highlight text (with different colors), and add notes. Runs on: iOS (universal) The "Magic Manuscript" feature in the desktop app (available for Mac or Windows) makes it easy to insert citations into your writing. It’s also simple to click “insert bibliography," and format the citations using the long list of built-in styles. Many video tutorials are available to help with every aspect of using this app. BestAppsforAcademics.com Version: 3.1.1 Price: $14.99 for mobile app, $79 for desktop version Developer’s website: www.papersapp.com/ios/ 38 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating You can also export your Papers library to other citation managers, such as EndNote (via EndNote XML format), RefWorks, Zotero (via RIS format), or BibTeX, and use one of those products to insert citations into your paper. For more information about choosing a citation management tool, see this useful guide from the MIT Libraries: Useful Citation Management Tools. Similar apps worth trying ZotPad (for Zotero) – iOS (universal) Papers for iPhone – search Google Scholar. Mendeley Reference Manager – iOS (universal) – for Android, see Scholarly (an unofficial Mendeley app) Sente – iOS (iPad only) EasyBib – iOS, Android See also MIT Libraries - Overview of citation software at MIT. Annotation features in Papers for iPad. BestAppsforAcademics.com 39 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Example Joachim Scholz, a PhD student in marketing at Queen's University in Canada, writes in detail about using Papers for citation management and annotation of PDFs in this article: Start loving to organize your PDFs, with Papers. Select a search database in Papers. Article metadata in Papers. BestAppsforAcademics.com 40 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading news via RSS Reeder 2 Reeder is a useful tool for people who have many RSS feeds. Before Google Reader closed, Reeder was a favorite app for many because it was used as a front end for it. Now it’s a front end for Feedbin, Feedly, Feed Wrangler, and Readability. It’s a useful app for reading your feeds on a small screen. You can change the font size, switch to the website view to see the original look of the article, or send it out to Safari to use your bookmarks or other sharing tools. Many sharing options are available from Reeder: Delicious, Instapaper, Readbility, Pocket, Evernote, Pinboard, Twitter, Facebook, Buffer, and more. This makes it handy for finding material for your social media feeds. It’s also easy to tweet or email articles directly from this app. Example Developer: Silvio Rizzi Version: 2.1.1 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $4.99 Developer’s website: reederapp.com Joachim Scholz writes in detail about using Reeder to keep up with news stories via RSS. BestAppsforAcademics.com 41 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Story view in Reeder. BestAppsforAcademics.com Reeder’s settings screen. Reeder’s stories in a feed. 42 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading news via RSS Feedly Feedly provides a fast, free, visual interface to your RSS feeds, with the images from each article showing prominently. It makes it easy to see your folders, browse for content that interests you, and switch between read and unread statuses for each article. It’s simple to save articles in Instapaper, and also send to email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Buffer (for scheduling social media posts at preselected times). Developer: DevHD, Inc. Version: 18.1 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: feedly.com Set up custom categories in Feedly. BestAppsforAcademics.com 43 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Feedly displays article images. Feedly for iPad. Images are prominent in Feedly. BestAppsforAcademics.com 44 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Reading news with smart recommendations Zite We love Zite! Why? Because it learns your reading preferences and shows you content related to your interests that you may not see otherwise. During set up, you pick from pre-defined categories, such as Arts & Culture, Photography, Technology, and Travel. Then, you mark the articles you receive as "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to personalize your content. It keeps track of articles you read and what you and your friends share on Twitter to further refine your content. You can set up a Zite profile and log into your account from multiple devices to get the same content.  It’s not a feed reader like Reeder and Feedly; it's a content discovery tool that gets smarter the more you use it, leading you to content from sources you may not have known about or followed. Zite includes sharing options for Twitter, Email, Facebook, Evernote, Instapaper, Pocket, Google+, and LinkedIn. It’s easy to open articles in Safari and you can adjust the text size for optimal viewing. You can set up multiple users within Zite (handy if you share your iPad with others). BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Zite, Inc. Version: 2.5 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: zite.com 45 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Example Dr. Clay Clark, professor of biochemistry at North Carolina State University, mentions Zite as convenient for finding news that he wouldn't find otherwise, in his post on NC State’s Biochem Blog: “Apps for the Academic: checking in with the iPad.” Similar apps worth trying Flipboard – Android, iOS (universal) Pulse – Android, iOS (universal) Stories in Zite’s Travel Photography category. Publication-specific news apps, such as BBC News – Android, iOS (universal), or NPR News – Android, iOS (separate versions for iPhone and iPad) Thumbs up if you like a story in Zite. BestAppsforAcademics.com 46 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Saving web pages to read later Instapaper Instapaper is a service for saving articles from the web to read on your mobile device or desktop, online or offline. Content is optimized for reading on small screens: font size, margins, screen color, etc. can be adjusted; text wraps properly, so there’s no scrolling right and left as you might on websites not designed for mobile. It also saves the images from articles, but skips the ads. It’s great for people with lots of saved articles, because you can make folders to store them all. Instapaper support is built into many apps, like Reeder, Zite, and Feedly, so it's easy to save from them. If you set up "friends," you can choose people from your contacts or Twitter and see the articles they are sharing. “The Feature” shows you articles and essays saved often across the web, hand-picked by Instapaper editors. Browse through and save articles you like for reading later. Special note: Instapaper works with articles from the open web, not articles behind paywalls. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Instapaper, LLC Version: 5.1.4 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: $3.99 Developer’s website: instapaper.com/iphone 47 Chapter 2 – Reading & Annotating Articles formatted for a small screen. Choose fonts, sizes, and background. List view of your saved stories in Instapaper. Similar apps worth trying Pocket – Android, iOS (universal) Readability – Android, iOS (universal) BestAppsforAcademics.com 48 Chapter 3 Research & Reference Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Specialized search engines Wolfram Alpha Wolfram Alpha uses a knowledge base of curated, structured data to provide direct answers to fact-based questions. Rather than returning a list of documents that might contain your answer, as traditional search engines do, Wolfram Alpha gives you some of the tools of a data scientist and makes it easy to work with data. Wolfram Alpha works best for scholars who need to quickly find contextual data. Topics covered include mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, earth sciences, life sciences, units & measures, dates & times, weather, places & geography, people & history, culture & media, music, words & linguistics, sports & games, colors, shopping, health & medicine, and more. Some highlights: • Uses natural language input. For example, you can enter phrases like "What is the population of Los Angeles, CA?" • Built on Wolfram's earlier product, Mathematica, so you can input mathematical equations and get answers. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Wolfram Alpha, LLC Version: 1.6.0 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free, Premium version $2.99 Developer’s website: products.wolframalpha.com/ iphone 50 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference • Includes hundreds of datasets, such as "all current and historical weather." • Searches data from external sources, such as the FAA for flight paths. • Integrates with Apple's Siri (and Iris for Android) to query when you ask a question. • Includes: currency converter, stock analysis, almanac, and high-end graphing calculator. Example: A musician can look up "C major 7th chord," and it shows the names of the notes, chord root, music notation, keyboard display, guitar chord voicings, intervals, and much more. Tap the "play" button next to the chord and hear what it sounds like. Tap the play button next to a chord to hear it. More examples of search terms: "characters in a Midsummer Night's Dream" "oscar for best actress 1958" "Harriet Tubman" compare things: "salary mathematician, physicist, chemist" The pro version launched in early 2012: For $4.95 per month ($2.95 for students), you can input your own data for analysis. It takes up to 60 different data formats, such as raw tabular data, images, XML, audio, and dozens of specialized formats. BestAppsforAcademics.com More information about the C Major 7th chord. 51 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Examples John Erickson, assistant professor of mathematics and computer sciences at Chicago State University, uses Wolfram Alpha in his math courses to illustrate real-world applications. He describes it in this YouTube video, “Teaching College Math With Wolfram Alpha”: I’ve been able to have my students download data and perform regressions and actually do various types of data-fitting, all inside Wolfram Alpha. And I was really pleasantly surprised that this was even possible. For many useful search tips, see Become a Wolfram Alpha Expert with These Useful Search Techniques.  Biographical information. If you’re a writer or an academic, I’m sure there are lots of times when you find yourself sitting there, stuck in your work simply because you don’t know some small, specific piece of information. Well, the Wolf can fetch that small fact in an instant. Things like the death rate in California, the birth rate in Canada, or the unemployment rate in Houston, Texas. Another useful resource is this slide deck by Josh Murdock, a.k.a “Professor Josh,” at Valencia College: Howl at Engagement with Wolfram Alpha. BestAppsforAcademics.com Comparing salary data. 52 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Many other apps use Wolfram Alpha to power their data. For more examples, see Course Assistant apps for Algebra, Calculus, or Music Theory. Math calculations. BestAppsforAcademics.com Tides. Statistical info. 53 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Specialized search engines PubGet PubGet is an easy-to-use search tool for PubMed, which focuses on getting quickly to full-text PDF articles. It covers life sciences journals, such as Cell, Current Biology, JAMA, Nature, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, PLOS Medicine, PLoS Biology, Science, and The Lancet. You can set up your institutional affiliation in the settings and get access to the journals your academic library subscribes to. It also includes a large number of open-access articles, which are searchable within the app. The simple, useful interface allows quick access to full-article PDFs. You can save PDFs in your library and open PDFs in apps like iBooks or iAnnotate PDF to annotate articles. You can do advanced searches using specific metadata, such as authors, description, ISSN, issue, journal title, or keywords. Tip: Search for open access articles with this tag: "open:access" Developer: Pubget, Inc. Version: 2.0.1 Runs on: iOS (iPad only) Price: Free Developer’s website: pubget.com See PubGet's website for useful tips and information. BestAppsforAcademics.com 54 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Example DePaul University and many other academic libraries recommend PubGet to their students and give instructions on how to set up the app with your local library’s database subscriptions. PubGet’s search screen. PubGet’s article view. BestAppsforAcademics.com 55 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Wikipedia client Articles Why use a Wikipedia client app instead of your mobile web browser? Lots of reasons! Articles includes a beautiful and intuitive interface, wraps text properly for your screen size, and has an orientation lock, which is handy for reading while reclined. Use the quick navigation table of contents, and easily skip to relevant sections of an article. Search for words within a page, bookmark your favorite articles, and keep a history of your searches. Get a closer view of images and save them to your mobile device. You can also save articles you want to read later into a queue. It also uses the geolocation feature of your mobile device enabling you to use the "nearby" feature to find Wikipedia articles about places near you. Developer: Sophiestication Software Examples Price: $1.99 If you have doubts about using Wikipedia in college classrooms, read this article by Jonathan Obar, PhD, of Michigan State University and University of Toronto: “Why Wikipedia Does Belong in the Classroom.” Developer’s website: sophiestication.com/articles BestAppsforAcademics.com Version: 2.6.1 Runs on: iOS (universal) 56 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference According to Obar: Wikipedia Education Program professors incorporate Wikipedia into courses by having students collaborate with the community of Wikipedia editors (“Wikipedians”) to write course-related Wikipedia articles, replacing traditional term papers. Student preference for the Wikipedia-way has been demonstrated, and the incentives are clear… Taken a step further, when we introduce Wikipedia into the classroom as a teaching tool, we provide students with a space to reflect and learn about the nature of knowledge and its evolution, about the normative ideals of participatory democracy and about the role of information in societal development. See also: Wikipedia Education Program Guide for university projects involving the editing of Wikipedia BestAppsforAcademics.com Search results panel in Articles. 57 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Similar apps worth trying Wikibot – Android, iOS. Tabbed browsing, fully customizable font sizes, syncs browsing history, bookmarks and reading queue with your other devices via iCloud. Saved screens in iPad version of Articles. BestAppsforAcademics.com 58 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Dictionary Merriam-Webster Dictionary It's handy to have a full dictionary and thesaurus on your mobile device (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus is included with its dictionary app). Includes Word of the Day, save your favorite words, and the ability to see a history of words you've looked up. Another helpful feature, although only available when online, is voice search: speak your word into the app without knowing how to spell it, and it will recognize the word and look it up. Voice search is powered by Nuance, makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which has been available for desktop computers for several years, so the technology is mature. The free version is supported by ads, while the premium version includes over 1,000 graphical illustrations and 20,000 additional entries covering people, places, and foreign terms. Developer: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Version: 3.0.1 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free, Premium edition $3.99 Developer’s website: merriam-webster.com/dictionaryapps/android-ipad-iphonewindows.htm Tip: Tap the small speaker icon to hear the word pronounced. BestAppsforAcademics.com 59 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Example This app makes sense for any student (it saves carrying a heavy dictionary). You can speak to the app and hear words spoken within the app. If you turn on the VoiceOver feature of your Apple device, you can have the entire definition read aloud. For details, see “How to make the most of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary App,” which discusses how useful it is for people with dyslexia. Similar apps worth trying WordBook English Dictionary – Android, iOS Speak a word, and Dictionary recognizes it. Dictionary.com Dictionary & Thesaurus – Android, iOS For each definition, tap the speaker icon to hear the word pronounced. BestAppsforAcademics.com 60 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Private search engine DuckDuckGo Search & Stories DuckDuckGo is a unique search engine that protects your privacy by not tracking your searches. Using it avoids the “filter bubble,” a problem with other search engines, such as Google, where results are tailored based on your search and click history. Read more about DuckDuckGo’s philosophy. Use DuckDuckGo when you want to do a quick, private search and keep your info separate from Google’s filtered search results. The app includes “goodies” – special search features, such as calculations, conversions, geography facts, music, etc. It connects to Wolfram Alpha (described in this chapter) for its fact-based search results. Developer: DuckDuckGo Version: 5.0.1 Runs on: Android, iOS Price: Free Useful features • Save bookmarks within the app. • Connect to Readability for saving articles. • Email or Tweet links. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer’s website: duckduckgo.com/app 61 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference • Open results in Safari (useful if you have bookmarklets or other features in Safari that you want to use). • A section called “stories” lets you browse and save news stories from their list of sources. To learn more about the filter bubble effect, watch this video: “There are no ‘regular results’ on Google anymore.” DuckDuckGo’s search screen, with recent searches. “Goodies” screen. BestAppsforAcademics.com DuckDuckGo’s results screen includes Wikipedia links. 62 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Unit conversions Convertible Convertible’s well-designed interface makes it easy to convert many units of measurement and currency. When you choose currency, a list of regions and countries displays which can be marked as a favorites for easy access. It refreshes online with latest currency conversion rates. Along with traditional units of measurement, such as length, mass, currency, energy, and volume, it also includes playful non-standard units such as snail speed, Judy Garland as length of measurement, bamboo growth speed, etc. Writers might find it useful for generating clever analogies or comparisons. For example, 1 grain of rice = .039 of 1 banana, and Judy Garland = .89 Alfred Hitchcock. You can share your conversions with email, Twitter, and Facebook. Similar apps worth trying Developer: Efecto Pty, Ltd. Version: 2.1 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $.99 Developer’s website: convertible.efecto.com Convertbot – iOS Convertor Free - Android BestAppsforAcademics.com 63 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Select units. BestAppsforAcademics.com Convert currencies. Convert units of mass.. 64 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Apps that use subscription database content provided by your library Since access to subscription databases depends on whether you have access to a library that subscribes, check with your own library to see which subscription databases are available as mobile apps or mobile websites. For example, MIT Libraries has this list of apps for library research. Examples of apps for subscription databases: • ACS Mobile: American Chemical Society - Read articles in American Chemical Society publications on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Filter journals to see your favorite ACS publications quickly. Save favorite abstracts in a folder for offline reading. Share links via email, Facebook, and Twitter. Android and universal iOS app. • EBSCOhost - Search for and read journal and magazine articles on a variety of topics, including history, economics, and environmental science. Mobile site or iPhone/Touch app. BestAppsforAcademics.com 65 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference Apps for finding open access articles and publications • CORE Research Mobile – An app from the Open University for facilitating free access to scholarly publications. Android, iOS (universal) • BrowZine – Search, read and save articles from open access journals. Android, iOS (iPad only) • ArXiv – Browse and search the arXiv.org repository, hosted by Cornell University. Over half a million e-prints in physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. iOS. • arXiv Mobile – A similar app to ArXiv, for Android. Special exhibit apps from libraries and archives Some apps created by libraries and archives showcase exhibits and collections. Here’s a sampling. • NYPL Biblion: Frankenstein, and World’s Fair – by the New York Public Library – iOS (iPad only) BestAppsforAcademics.com 66 Chapter 3 – Research & Reference • NYPL Point: John Cage’s Prepared Piano (iBooks Author), and other Point publications by the New York Public Library – iOS (iPad only) • Library of Congress Virtual Tour - iOS • National Archives DocsTeach – iOS (iPad only) • To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missle Crisis - National Archives – iOS (iPad only) Biblion app by the New York Public Library features special collections. BestAppsforAcademics.com 67 Chapter 4 Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Best full-featured notes app Evernote Evernote is packed with features that make it appropriate for academic use, including the ability to easily sync your notes between all your computing devices: desktop and mobile. Not only can you access your information via the web, desktops and many mobile platforms, but you can also input data through a variety of methods, including by typing notes, taking photos, speaking voice memos, and emailing notes to your account. Developer: Evernote Corporation The storage limits for accounts are not based on how much data you store, but on a monthly upload bandwidth. Theoretically, you can store terabytes of data as long as you spread out your uploads over time. Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) A unique feature: if you send an image, Evernote scans it and performs optical character recognition, so you can search the text inside your images. The recognition feature is not instantaneous; it can take anywhere from one minute to 24 hours to process. If you upgrade to a premium account the images get processed more quickly. BestAppsforAcademics.com Version: 7.3.0 Price: Free, Premium account available $4.99/month or $45/year Developer’s website: evernote.com 69 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Evernote includes browser extensions, so you can clip web pages (whole or parts) to save into your account. You can create "notebooks" to organize your notes and set up shared notebooks for group projects (read-only for free accounts, editable for premium). You can also assign multiple tags to notes to increase search flexibility. Evernote also has a reminders feature, with in-app and optional email alarms, the ability to make to-do lists and pin notes to the top of each notebook. The Premium account includes: • Increased monthly upload allowance: Upload 1GB of data per month to your Evernote account. • Top priority support: Get answers to your questions even faster. • Editable shared notebooks: Allow others to edit the contents of your shared notebooks. • Searchable attachments: When you add PDFs and Microsoft Office files as attachments to notes, you can search inside them. • Note History: View previous versions of notes. • Offline notebooks: designate some or all of your notebooks for offline viewing. • Passcode lock your notes on mobile devices. BestAppsforAcademics.com Evernote’s organizational structure makes it easy to find your notes. The ability to store various items – images, notes, or lists – in one place make Evernote an indispensable app. 70 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Many other apps work together with Evernote. See the Evernote Trunk for examples. Similar apps worth trying Springpad – Android, iOS (universal) Examples Jennifer Carey, Director of Academic Technology at the Ransom Everglades School in Miami, writes about Using Evernote for Research in history courses as a way for students to collect all their sources. Set reminders in Evernote. Christopher Mayo has a collection of Evernote shared notebooks, showing the potential of using it in interesting ways. Michael Andrew West, a student, scans every paper that he is given in his classes and puts them in Evernote, making them searchable on all his devices. BestAppsforAcademics.com 71 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Kevin Eagan, on the blog, Critical Margins, writes about scanning handwritten notes to save in Evernote. The app can recognize and save the words in your image – if your handwriting is clear enough! For more examples, see Nicole’s Storify site: “How academics and scholars are using Evernote.” BestAppsforAcademics.com 72 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Taking notes by handwriting and sketching Penultimate Sometimes the best way to input data into your device is through good, old-fashioned handwriting. Penultimate is the go-to app to fulfill this need, and you can use it with your finger or stylus. Choose from different virtual paper backgrounds, including plain, lined, and graph paper. You can purchase other types of backgrounds, such as music notation staff paper, in their Paper Store. Penultimate includes simple tools for drawing, and allows you to insert photos and draw on them. The lines it draws are very smooth and you can adjust the pen size and save multiple notebooks. Send pages or notebooks by email or to your device’s camera roll, or open in other apps for different kinds of editing. Examples Developer: Evernote Corporation Version: 5.1 Runs on: iOS (iPad only) Price: Free Developer’s website: evernote.com/penultimate Michael Andrew West of Right Now in Tech describes his use of Penultimate to help him become paperless in “How iPad helped me become paperless in college.” BestAppsforAcademics.com 73 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Dr. Graham Basten, a teacher fellow at De Montfort University, describes using Penultimate to make live notes on his iPad connected to a projector during a biochemistry lecture. After the lecture, he saved the notes as a PDF document to add to class resources. Similar apps worth trying PenSupremacy - Android Bamboo Paper – Android, iOS (iPad only) Paper by FiftyThree - iOS (iPad only) Create notebooks for all your interests in Penultimate. Jot! The iPad Whiteboard - iOS (iPad only) Sketch and draw in Penultimate. BestAppsforAcademics.com 74 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Penultimate includes a variety of paper styles. BestAppsforAcademics.com 75 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Taking notes by handwriting and sketching Notability Notability is "note taking extreme." You can both draw and type to input data, and also import photos or PDFs to draw on top of them. Turn recording on while you type, and it will sync what you write with the audio. You can write with your finger or stylus, using a variety of pen and highlighter functions in the app. You can also change fonts, use different styles of paper, add sticky notes, or import web pages. Notability can back up to cloud services or import from them. For example, you can import a PDF from Dropbox to draw, annotate, and type on it. Upload it back to Dropbox (or email) and share with your collaborators. Developer: Ginger Labs, Inc. Version: 5.13 Runs on: iOS (iPad only) Price: $1.99 Developer’s website: gingerlabs.com BestAppsforAcademics.com 76 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Examples The instructional technology blog at the University of California Berkeley’s Law School recommends Notability for writing on PDFs or taking notes during class. They discuss using it as a whiteboard replacement, connected to a projector. This biology teacher at an independent school in the UK also discusses the use of Notability in the classroom: As a teacher I use it for general note taking but it really comes into its own when marking electronically submitted work on an iPad. Any Word/ Pages file can be saved as a PDF (using the Pages app in my case, though I am sure other conversion tools are readily available) and imported into Notability where it is straightforward to mark on to the PDF. You can the send the student their marked work back whilst retaining a copy for your records. Similar apps worth trying Enhance your notes with drawings and color in Notability. Soundnote - iOS (iPad only) Pear Note (see “Sync your meeting notes with audio with Pear Note”) – iOS (universal) BestAppsforAcademics.com 77 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Easily add text via the keyboard and draw on the same note in Notability. BestAppsforAcademics.com Notability’s file system makes it easy to keep your notes organized. 78 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Recording audio notes iTalk Recorder iTalk Recorder is simple: just hit the red button and you're recording. Record entire class lectures, create high-quality field recordings, and share them through email, Dropbox, and direct file sharing via iTunes. iTalk Recorder is capable of multitasking – it can record in the background while you type. Recordings are in AIFF format in your choice of three sample rates (11.025, 22.05, or 44.10 kHz), and the app has the ability to append to existing recordings. Developer: Griffin Technology Version: 4.6.7 Examples Runs on: iOS The University of New Hampshire recommends using iTalk Recorder to record lectures on their Disability Services for Students site. They also recommend many other useful apps for those with disabilities. Price: Free, Premium version $1.99 BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer’s website: store.griffintechnology.com/ italk-premium 79 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying The User Experience department of the MIT Libraries used iTalk Recorder for interviewing MIT students about how new technologies are impacting the way they work and study. Nicole led this study (Digital Scholarship at MIT), which helped the MIT Libraries design better services for their students and faculty. See some of the results in this slide deck: “Academic E-Reading: Themes from User Experience Studies.” Just click the big button to start and stop recording in iTalk. Easily search and access all your recordings. BestAppsforAcademics.com 80 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Speech recognition Dragon Dictation Dragon Dictation is based on Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a speech recognition technology first developed in 1997 by Nuance Communications. The app is easy to learn and use – tap the red button, talk into your device, and Dragon Dictation transcribes what you say. You can also speak punctuation – say “comma,” and it will insert a comma. You can immediately see and edit the transcription. When done, you can send it as a text, email, or save it to the clipboard. You can also use Dragon Dictation to speak your Facebook and Twitter updates, which is useful for users with disabilities, and for everyone. Many languages are included. Example Developer: Nuance Communications Version: 2.0.28 Runs on: iOS (universal), Android version is called Dragon Mobile Assistant. Price: Free The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity recommends Dragon Naturally Speaking (desktop versions) for students who have wordretrieval difficulties, grapho-motor weaknesses, or problems committing ideas to paper in a timely fashion. Developer’s website: nuancemobilelife.com Now that it's also an app, many schools recommend it as one of the best apps to get for your iPad. BestAppsforAcademics.com 81 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Click and speak, Dragon does the rest. BestAppsforAcademics.com Dragon Dictation’s uncluttered interface adds to usability. 82 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Scanning documents JotNot Scanner JotNot is a document scanner in your pocket. Use the camera in your mobile device to photograph articles, documents, receipts and more, and JotNot will save a clear copy. No need to bring whole books to class, just scan the few pages you need to use.  You can flatten out document wrinkles after scanning using JotNot's image-processing tools, which include image stabilization, white balance, and edge detection. Scan multiple pages into one document and save in different formats, including PDF or JPEG, email your scans, connect to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and other cloud services. It’s nice to have all your scans in one list, but even better to store in a cloud service, which is easily done. You could even save your scan to GoodReader (see entry in this book) and annotate your documents. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: MobiTech 3000 Version: 4.1.2 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: mobitech3000.com 83 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Examples In “Going Paperless With Your iPhone and Evernote,” Thanh Pham describes a step-by-step process for scanning documents and storing them in Evernote. He uses JotNot Scanner. In addition to the uses you can imagine by having a scanner in your pocket, music students can capture scores they want to study. Similar apps worth trying Scan2PDF Mobile – Android, iOS JotNot makes it easy to capture a flat image of your document. TurboScan - iOS Genius Scan – Android, iOS (universal) JotNot includes the ability to upload your scans to cloud services. BestAppsforAcademics.com 84 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Text editor for Dropbox Elements 2 A well-designed text editor app is handy when you want to quickly type and not worry about formatting. Elements links with and saves notes to Dropbox, so you can type notes during a class or meeting and keep them backed up, even if you lose or misplace your iPad. Even though you’re not saving the formatting, sometimes you want to adjust how the text looks while you’re typing it. For this, ten fonts are included. You can change the size and switch between light and dark themes. Also, you can add up to three widths for text, which gives you bigger margins. There is also a built-in spellchecker. Developer: Second Gear The app comes with a scratch pad for storing ideas or paragraphs you want to use repeatedly, and you can make folders to organize your files. You can email the document as it is, or export as HTML or PDF. If you choose HTML, Elements can save your note to Dropbox, iTunes, or email. A print button is available, so you can print directly if you have an AirPrint-enabled printer on your network. Price: $4.99 BestAppsforAcademics.com Version: 2.7 Runs on: iOS (universal) Developer’s website: secondgearsoftware.com/ elements 85 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Example Fiction writer John Brownlee describes how he uses Elements in his review: As a fiction tinkerer, I love it: Elements will slurp in any document in your Dropbox folder and allow you to easily edit it, versioning any changes every thirty seconds. It even gives you statistics on what you’re writing, like word and line count. The interface is just the way I like my text editors, devoid of any fancy rich text formatting. I’ve been using it in conjunction with my favorite OS X text editor, WriteRoom, and it’s like the two applications were umbilically entwined from birth. Use Markdown or plan text when writing in Elements. Similar apps worth trying Nebulous Notes - iOS (universal) IA Writer - iOS (universal) Drafts – iOS ($2.99 for iPhone, $3.99 for iPad) Create multiple folders within your Elements folder in Dropbox. BestAppsforAcademics.com 86 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Microsoft Office editor Quickoffice Quickoffice allows you to create and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on your mobile device. If someone sends you a Word document, you can open it with all the formatting intact and easily make changes. It has built-in spell check, find/replace, track changes, and the ability to add comments. You can also open and view PDFs and attach files to emails. With spreadsheets you can do basic editing and formatting, change fonts, alignment, borders, and view charts. Now that Quickoffice is owned by Google, you’ll need a Google account to use it on your mobile device. Use an existing account, or sign up for a new one. Then you can save files on your device or to Google Drive. For details on using Quickoffice with Google Drive, see “What’s The Difference Between Google Drive And Quickoffice, And Which Should You Use?”: And as far as being a competent document editor goes, Quickoffice is still the superior app. … Quickoffice simply offers more features. … Not only is the interface easier to handle, but since the editing takes BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Was Quickoffice, Inc., now owned by Google Version: 6.1.4 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: google.com/drive/apps.html 87 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying place offline, it’s going to provide a smoother experience. But Quickoffice has a serious drawback. It can load Microsoft Office files saved to Google Drive, but it displays Google Documents as PDFs – unless you have the Google Drive app installed, in which case it will load that instead. Quickoffice is a more capable option for people who need to do more intense work using their Android devices or want to work with documents saved to internal storage. Drive is good for people with solid internet connections who aren’t put off by saving data to Google’s servers. The latter app also has nice collaboration features that could make it worth using on its own. But at the end of the day, these two apps work better together than they do alone. Create and edit spreadsheets in Quickoffice. For a detailed comparison of Quickoffice with other document editing apps, see “Document Editing Shootout Part 2.” Work with presentations in Quickoffice. BestAppsforAcademics.com 88 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Similar apps worth trying Documents to Go – Android, iOS (universal) CloudOn - Android, iOS (universal) – Uses a back-end virtual server connection to present real Microsoft Office apps on your mobile device. hopTo – iOS (iPad only) QuickOffice includes feature-rich text editing, external keyboard support, and the ability to save as PDF. BestAppsforAcademics.com 89 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Create beautifully formatted documents and work with Microsoft Office documents Pages Pages is part of Apple’s iWork suite, which also includes Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations). It runs on both Mac OS X and iOS, and allows you to create beautiful letters, reports, flyers and other documents. It’s easy to share documents in multiple ways: email, print, copy to iTunes, open in other apps, and access your files on any device using iCloud. You can easily share with others who are using Microsoft Office on a Mac or PC. Just save as a Word, Excel or Powerpoint file. As of September 2013, Pages and the other iWork apps come free with new iOS devices. Developer: Apple, Inc. Version: 2.1 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $9.99 (free on new iOS devices) Developer’s website: apple.com/ios/pages/ BestAppsforAcademics.com 90 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Pages helps you create visually pleasing documents. BestAppsforAcademics.com Add charts and graphs in Pages. 91 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Customize fonts, styles, and graphics in Pages. BestAppsforAcademics.com 92 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Flashcards for studying Brainscape Brainscape is a flashcard app that you can use either to create your own cards or download pre-made cards. It’s useful for students who are studying a discreet body of knowledge that lends itself to flash cards. It has a unique feature compared to other flashcard apps – it uses confidence-based repetition. Rate your confidence on a five-point scale for each answer you give and it will show your lower-confidence terms more frequently. It also gives you stats on your progress, individually and collectively. Developer: Bold Learning Solutions, Inc. Version: 2.20 If you create a free Brainscape account on their servers, it syncs your progress on all your devices. You can make two-sided cards using the web version of the app on your computer. Runs on: iOS (universal) Categories of pre-made cards include Test Prep (GRE, MCAT, etc.), Languages, and Knowledge Junkie (music, sports, tech, food and drink, science, geography, etc.). Developer’s website: brainscape.com Price: Free Brainscape’s blog is worth following for its useful tips on learning. BestAppsforAcademics.com 93 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Example A student at Ashworth College describes how she uses Brainscape to create her own flashcard decks for studying. You can even share your decks on Brainscape's website: Since starting my program I have been making flashcards for each lesson as a way to help myself retain the information. I plan to use them to prepare myself for the semester exam. I recently found out that I can give out a URL that will link people directly to my flashcards and that they could use them as well so I have decided to publish the URL here in case anyone is interested. Similar apps worth trying Study subjects are grouped by category in Brainscape. The colored bar indicates your mastery of the topic based on how well you know the answers to the flashcards. Duolingo – language learning “gamified” – Android, iOS (universal) Google Translate – imperfect, but useful translator – Android, iOS (universal) Rate how well you know each answer. The lower your score, the more frequently the card will appear. BestAppsforAcademics.com 94 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Easily find new subjects to study from within Brainscape. BestAppsforAcademics.com The confidence breakdown gives you a visual representation of how well you know your subjects. 95 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Mind mapping Mindmeister Mindmeister is one of the best of the many mind mapping apps available because it’s so easy to learn and use. Set up a free account on their website, and make mind maps in your web browser or mobile device. Create, view and edit online or offline and sync later. Add images, colors, and icons. Organize your maps into folders. Export your maps in several formats, such as MindManager, Freemind, RTF, PDF, and PNG. Create up to three maps in the basic version, or upgrade to Pro, Personal, or Business for unlimited maps. Mindmeister offers standard and education pricing. Examples Developer: MeisterLabs Version: 5.3.4 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: mindmeister.com/mobile Kevin J. O'Shea at Purdue University has a detailed how-to guide for using Mindmeister in the classroom, including sample lesson plans. BestAppsforAcademics.com 96 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Mindmeister's blog has an education category, also with useful examples. Similar apps worth trying iThoughts HD - iOS (iPad only) Inkflow: Think Visually! - iOS (universal) Popplet - iOS (universal) Idea Sketch - iOS (universal) Mindmeister allows you to create complex mind maps with ease. iBrainstorm - iOS (iPad only) The included tools make it possible to create a visually rich mind map. BestAppsforAcademics.com 97 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying In Mindmeister, it’s easy to export your mind map to a variety of formats. BestAppsforAcademics.com 98 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying More useful apps for note-taking, writing, or studying • Text expanders, macros: TextExpander - iOS (universal), TypeIt4Me Touch - iOS (universal) • Print directly to all printers, not just AirPrint: Print N Share Android, iOS (universal) • Browse web and takes notes (split screen): Side by Side - iOS (iPad only) Taposé - iOS (iPad only) • Concentration aids: Coffitivity (ambient noise for creative thinking) iOS (universal), Focus at Will (neuroscience based music service to help you focus) - iOS (universal) • View or listen to course materials (video or audio): iTunesU - iOS (universal), Tunesviewer for viewing iTunesU content on Android. Khan Academy iOS, Khan Academy Android. Podcasts - iOS (universal), Instacast - iOS (universal), Downcast - iOS (universal) BestAppsforAcademics.com 99 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying • LMS (Learning management system) apps: Blackboard Mobile Learn iOS, Blackboard Mobile Learn Android, Moodle Mobile iOS, Moodle Mobile Android, Canvas iOS, Canvas Android. • MOOC apps: We hope to see more mobile apps being developed for platforms such as EdX, Coursera, and Udacity. Coursera has a mobile app, but other official apps were not available at the time of publication of this book. Some unofficial apps such as Coursistant are available, but none stand out as worth recommending at this time. Recommended Accessories The following accessories are our top recommendations for use with the iPad. For excellent in-depth reviews of all kinds of accessories for mobile devices, see iLounge's category search. Keyboards and cases • Apple Wireless Keyboard: The Bluetooth keyboard made by Apple is lightweight and works well with iPad and iPhone. BestAppsforAcademics.com Apple wireless keyboard. Apple wireless keyboard with smartphone. 100 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying • Adonit Writer Plus for iPad (3rd-Gen): This keyboard/case combo gets excellent reviews because it can hold the iPad at different angles, has an internal rechargeable battery that lasts two weeks between charges, and works well as a protective case.  Adonit Writer Plus for iPad keyboard/case combo. • Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac, iPad + iPhone: Logitech is known for their innovative peripheral designs (mice, keyboards, etc.), and the "easy-switch" keyboard is getting excellent reviews. With a tap of a button, you can switch between three different Bluetooth devices (after pairing). It's thinner and easier to pack than Apple's keyboard, uses Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard. rechargeable batteries, and has backlighting. BestAppsforAcademics.com 101 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying Stands • Standzfree Floor Stand for iPad: Good solution for using your iPad hands-free while sitting in a chair or lying in bed. Great for musicians (read music on your iPad). Styluses  Length extension available for use while standing. Standzfree floor stand. • Adonit Jot Pro: This unique stylus uses a clear plastic disk as its tip, which allows you to see the fine point of the line you're drawing. This makes it feel more like writing with a smooth pen than most styluses. It has a screw-on cap to protect the plastic disk and is magnetic, so it can latch on the side of most iPads. Adonit Jot Pro stylus. • Just Mobile AluPen Pro: This well-designed accessory is both a stylus and a pen. Both the rubber stylus tip and the pen can be replaced. Comes with leather carrying case and a spare stylus tip. BestAppsforAcademics.com Just Mobile AluPen Pro stylus. 102 Chapter 4 – Taking Notes, Writing & Studying • Sensu Artist Brush and Stylus: A brush and stylus in one, for use with touchscreen devices. It works particularly well with digital painting apps, such as ArtRage, Sketchbook Pro, Paper by Studio 53, and similar apps. Sensu Artist Brush and Stylus • Pencil by FiftyThree: A professional level tool with a unique flat shape (like a carpenter’s pencil) that comes in either walnut (wood) or graphite (brushed aluminum). The eraser tip allows you to erase without changing tools in the app. It connects via Bluetooth for many advanced features. It’s designed for use with their app, Paper, and also works with other drawing apps. Pencil Stylus by FiftyThree Where to find reviews of the best accessories • iLounge: In-depth reviews and ratings of accessories, such as cases, keyboards, stands, and speakers. Use their category search to find reviews, sorted by rating or price. • iPhone and iPad Styluses compared: Excellent review article from MacWorld, with extensive feature comparison chart. BestAppsforAcademics.com 103 Chapter 5 Collaboration & Sharing Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Full-featured social media app Hootsuite Hootsuite is a social media app for Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and LinkedIn. It’s one of the best apps for Twitter, especially if you use multiple Twitter accounts. You can set up tabs for each of your accounts and post under all of them. Create tabs for tweets, sent tweets, my tweets retweeted, mentions, direct messages and more. You can use Hootsuite to search Twitter, see trending topics, and view stats on your accounts. Easily save hashtag searches and display all related tweets, a handy feature when people are live tweeting events at conferences. You can choose from more than one retweet style, which is useful if you prefer the old way of retweeting. You can also use it to view, comment and “like” items on your Facebook news feed, view and comment on your Foursquare stream and check-in history, and view and post to your LinkedIn stream. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Hootsuite Media, Inc. Version: 2.5.3 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: hootsuite.com/features/mobileapps/iphone 105 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing The pro version allows for unlimited social networks, more push notifications, and is ad-free. The free version is so good that if you don’t mind ads, you may not need to upgrade. Examples HootSuite has a Campus Ambassador program for teaching and encouraging social media best practices. Jamyn Edis, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, uses HootSuite in a course he designed in 2009 to give students social media marketing skills. Edis has students complete a Codecademy track and become a HootSuiteCertified professional as part of the course requirements. Read more about his course: “How NYU’s Stern School of Business is Teaching Digital Skills With the Help of Codecademy and HootSuite University.” BestAppsforAcademics.com View Twitter streams from multiple accounts in Hootsuite. View mentions, direct messages, sent tweets, and searches. 106 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Also, At Syracuse University: HootSuite University was integrated into the curriculum as part of the graduate and undergraduate social media classes that I teach at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.  Students used Hootsuite Pro to learn how to manage multiple social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Video-based lessons, case studies and testing through HootSuite University were integrated throughout the course. Similar apps worth trying Scheduling tool for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn: Buffer - Android, iOS Other social media apps: Twitter - Android, iOS (universal); Facebook - Android, iOS (universal); LinkedIn - Android, iOS (universal); Pinterest - Android, iOS (universal); Google+ - Android, iOS (universal); Foursquare - Android, iOS; Flickr - Android, iOS Blog editing: Wordpress - Android, iOS; Blogpress - iOS (universal); Tumblr - Android, iOS; Blogsy for iPad - iOS (iPad only); BlogPad Pro - iOS (iPad only) BestAppsforAcademics.com Compose a tweet and select which accounts to send it to. Shrink links, add photos or location. 107 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Shared whiteboard SyncPad Take a whiteboard with you wherever you go! SyncPad is a shared whiteboard app which allows you to work with colleagues across the globe via a unique URL. After you choose a username for your account, you are asked to make up a room name, which becomes part of the link you send to collaborators or viewers. For example, if your username is “class101” and your room name is “lesson2,” the link becomes: http:// syncpadapp.com/class101/lesson2. Email the link to people anywhere in the world, and they can see what you draw on the screen in real time. You can annotate articles or photos, and import from or upload to Dropbox. Collaborators can view the whiteboard in a web browser, or in the SyncPad mobile app. For each person in the virtual room, you can set permissions to allow them to view only, or to join you in making edits to the screen. The app also implements password protection and encryption. Developer: Fifth Layer, Inc. Version: 2.1 Runs on: Android (Samsung only), iOS (universal) Price: Free for up to 3 users per whiteboard; Pro plans, $5/month for up to thirty users on a whiteboard Developer’s website: syncpadapp.com BestAppsforAcademics.com 108 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Example Alan Gandy, instructional technologist at Lone Star College writes: Your app is the perfect solution for instructors that want to present remotely over the campus network. Making the client app browser based means that this can be deployed without any approval or involvement by campus IT. SyncPad also works together with Google+ Hangouts. Similar apps worth trying Create your own whiteboard with the click of a button. Shared whiteboards: ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard – iOS (iPad only), Doceri – iOS (iPad only), BaiBoard – iOS (iPad only), Stage: Interactive Whiteboard & Document Camera – iOS (iPad only), SyncSpace – Android, iOS (universal) BestAppsforAcademics.com 109 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Everyone connected to your SyncPad whiteboard in real-time sees what you draw. BestAppsforAcademics.com Draw on a blank whiteboard or start with a graphic and draw on that. 110 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Collaborate with mapping tools Google Maps Google Maps includes turn-by-turn navigation, built-in Google local search, public transit directions, street view, and more. Quickly search for local places by selecting restaurants, cafes, or gas stations. Collaborative maps allow groups to create maps together. Build a custom map and share it, allowing others to add points and features to the map. See Google Maps for Educators and the Google Maps Education page. Examples At UC San Diego, academic computing & media services writes about their iPad pilot: Developer: Google, Inc. Version: 2.6.0 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: google.com/maps/about In Urban Studies & Planning, one professor uses her iPad to enhance student demonstrations in class. Students were given a project where they were to use Street View images from Google Maps to BestAppsforAcademics.com 111 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing discuss urban design principles. Students used Notability (an app that allows the user to write on top of PDFs) and a stylus to draw on their images to illustrate concepts in different colors. The annotated images were then saved and uploaded to Ted for later reference. The professor found that this allowed students to explain their work more fully than if they tried to use words alone. Google gives more examples of how to use the app on their tutorials page. BestAppsforAcademics.com Google Maps offers a variety of options for directions, including car, public transportation, bicycling, and walking. 112 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Collaborate with mapping tools Google Earth Google Earth allows you to explore the world without leaving home. Fly to your location, search by voice, view layers of information including roads, borders, panoramic photos and more. The interface makes use of intuitive, multi-touch gestures, allowing you to pan, zoom, and tilt. The app also includes virtual tours and fly-through 3D recreations of selected cities, such as San Francisco, Boston, and Rome. See the Google Earth Outreach YouTube channel for tutorials and examples of education and nonprofit use. See also the Google Earth for Educators community. Examples Glenn A. Richard, educational coordinator of the Mineral Physics Institute at Stony Brook University, has created "Teaching with Google Earth," a wonderful resource for using Google Earth in the geoscience classroom. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Google, Inc. Version: 7.1.1 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: google.com/intl/en/mobile/earth 113 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Indiana University has a project to explore innovative teaching and learning with the iPad. Here's an example using Google Earth in a lab exercise for an introductory geosciences class: Students compared a printed geologic map with a Google Earth satellite image to identify the specific stratigraphic unit that is quarried locally for limestone. The Air Sketch app enabled students to depict stratigraphic units, and helped them relate the extent of individual rock layers at the surface and in the subsurface via threedimensional representations. Brassell's class also used Clinometer for measurement of the dips of rock specimens, and Dropbox for file import and export via a shared class account. Fly around the world with Google Earth. Here is an interesting example of mapping novels for a literature class. Explore ancient ruins and historic locations. BestAppsforAcademics.com 114 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Use Google Earth to investigate the topography of an area. BestAppsforAcademics.com View the layers of information you’re interested in, from roads to 3D buildings. 115 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Distance meetings and presentations Hangouts Google's app for one-on-one or group conversations includes several features that make it useful for collaborating: • • • • • • Use with any combination of phones, tablets, and computers. Make video calls for up to 10 people. Sync conversations across all your devices. Save your video call history. Enable screen sharing for collaboration. Integrate your Google Drive documents, so you can see them while chatting. • Stream your Hangouts live and in public to YouTube, and save a copy for those who want to watch later. Examples The London School of Economics and Political Science uses Hangouts for editors, reviewers, and academics in the social sciences to discuss tips for new reviewers in their book review publications: BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Google, Inc. Version: 1.3.2 Runs on: Android, iOS (universal) Price: Free Developer’s website: google.com/+/learnmore/ hangouts 116 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Launching fully later in the Spring, we’re planning a series of Google+ Hangouts with our editors, book reviewers, and authors and academics from across the social sciences. Each Hangout will be based around one of our most-read disciplines (e.g. economics, sociology, philosophy, etc.) and will offer tips for new reviewers in that discipline on how to make their contributions stand out. Each Hangout will be streamed live publicly on the LSE Review of Books site, and once we’re off the air, viewers can watch and share any time. Jeremy Floyd, a professor at Univ. of Tennessee, uses Google+ Hangouts for his digital media marketing class. He describes his process in detail here: “How to use Google+ Hangouts in higher education: distance learning with social media.” Participate in video calls with up to ten people. See also this Google+ community: Google Hangouts in Education. Finally, “Six ways to use Google Hangouts for academic productivity.” Create Hangouts for your colleagues and friends. BestAppsforAcademics.com 117 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing See all recent activity from groups and individuals. BestAppsforAcademics.com Message your Hangout groups and share photos. 118 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing Distance meetings and presentations Skype Skype features free video and voice calls and instant messaging to other Skype users on desktop computers or mobile devices. You can also send files, photos, and videos and share your screen. For a small fee you can call mobile phones and landlines worldwide, or make group video calls with up to ten people. With a premium account you can do group screen sharing with up to ten people. Examples Dr. Martin Sivula, in “Using Skype as an Academic Tool: Lessons Learned,” describes several use cases for Skype in academia, including using the text-base chat feature for student-to-professor questions, using a web conferencing tool with Skype for group presentations, and small group collaboration for students, including sharing documents with Skype. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Skype Communications Version: 4.17.1 Runs on: Android, iOS Price: Free Developer’s website: skype.com 119 Chapter 5 – Collaboration & Sharing John Boyer, professor of geography at Virginia Tech, uses Skype. For interesting details, see: “'Plaid Avenger' geography prof brings the world to his students - with the help of Skype”: Skype is one of the many tools Professor Boyer uses to teach a class of nearly 3,000 students! In fact last December Boyer sent a YouTube video request for a Skype interview to Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Nobel Peace Prize recipient graciously accepted! More on how Boyer uses Skype: “‘Supersizing’ the College Classroom: how one instructor teaches 2,670 students” Use Skype to place free video and voice calls. Audio of a talk Boyer gave at SXSW Use the keypad to dial phone numbers. For a small fee, you can call mobile and landlines worldwide. BestAppsforAcademics.com Quickly see which of your contacts are online. 120 Chapter 6 Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Edit and present slide decks Keynote Keynote is an easy-to-use presentation app similar to PowerPoint. It comes with a set of well-designed themes, and additional pro themes are available from several publishers. This makes it easy to design great-looking presentations. You can create presentations via the app, but it’s best to create on the desktop and then copy it to your iPad either via iTunes or iCloud. When presenting, use a VGA dongle to plug your iPad into the projector, or use Apple TV to wirelessly stream your presentation and be free to walk around the room. A variety of drawing and shape-generation tools are included, which makes it useful for designing prototypes for web and mobile interfaces, or similar projects. Developer: Apple, Inc. Version: 2.1 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: $9.99 Developer’s website: apple.com/ios/keynote/ You can open PowerPoint slides, and also export Keynote slides in PowerPoint or PDF formats. For more details, see Apple’s information about Keynote and PowerPoint compatibility. BestAppsforAcademics.com 122 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Example “5 Ways to Use Keynote for the iPad in Your Classroom” provides several ideas for using Keynote at any age level, including college education. For example, you can create a simulated mobile app using a slideshow that mimics what a native app can look and feel like. This works in a presentation by moving from screenshot to screenshot with occasional use of animations for transitions to simulate how the app would function. Perfect tool for mocking up apps that you might create in an app programming class. It’s easy to see and organize all your slides in Keynote. Include graphs, charts, and more in your Keynote slides. BestAppsforAcademics.com 123 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Include interactive links, soundtrack, and set up remote control. BestAppsforAcademics.com 124 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Edit and present slide decks SlideShark SlideShark is an app for presenting PowerPoint slides using the iPad. Create your slides on the desktop and import them from cloud services, such as Dropbox, Skydrive, or Box, or open email-attached PowerPoint files with the "open in..." command. You can also get a free cloud account on SlideShark for up to 100 MB, so you can upload your slide decks from your computer. Get more storage for referring friends. SlideShark preserves fonts and graphics without mangling them, which can happen in other apps. See your slide’s notes, timers, and next/ previous slides. You can show embedded videos, draw on your slides, and highlight content, all while presenting. Turn your iPhone into a remote control with the built-in virtual laser pointer.  It doesn’t work as a Keynote presenter (Keynote itself is better for that), but you can export Keynote slides as PowerPoint and work from there. SlideShark also allows you to broadcast your slides in real time to a remote audience using the Pro or Team version. For details, including pricing, see SlideShark’s website – free version for up to three people, or pay for more. A team edition is also available. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Brainshark, Inc. Version: 3.4.0 Runs on: iOS (universal) Price: Free; Pro accounts: $49/year for 500 MB, $95/year for 1 GB Developer’s website: slideshark.com 125 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Example The Chronicle of Higher Education explains how you can use SlideShark to go paperless at conferences and in the classroom. Use SlideShark for displaying your Powerpoint presentations, along with your presentation notes. Similar apps worth trying Prezi for iPad - iOS (iPad only) Upload your presentations to SlideShark, and download to make your presentation. 2Screens Presentation Expert - iOS (iPad only) QuickOffice Pro and Documents to Go Premium are also useful for presenting slides. BestAppsforAcademics.com SlideShark includes useful tools for presenters – view your notes and upcoming slides, and check that you’re staying on track for time. 126 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Log into SlideShark to access your slides. BestAppsforAcademics.com Present directly from your iPad, or connect to a projector or display. 127 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Create simple, beautiful presentations Haiku Deck Haiku Deck allows you to create presentations with an elegant, minimalist look. One unique and useful feature of Haiku Deck is its ability to search Creative Commons-licensed images to use in your slides. Built-in themes are included, with premium themes available. Haiku Deck includes a wide selection of fonts, image filters and layouts – all you need to make your slides look beautiful. It’s also easy to make charts and graphs for your slides. Share your decks via Facebook, Twitter, email, post to your blog, or export as PowerPoint, Keynote, or PDF. Haiku Deck also has a free web version, so you can create presentations in your web browser on your desktop or laptop. You can publish your slides on HaikuDeck.com with one of three options: public, restricted (only those who have the link can view it), or private (only you can view your deck). Developer: Haiku Deck, Inc. Version: 2.4.2 Runs on: iOS (iPad only) Price: Free Developer’s website: haikudeck.com View HaikuDeck.com's gallery for featured and popular decks. BestAppsforAcademics.com 128 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Examples Tanya T. Sasser, English Instructor at Jacksonville State University, describes how she used Haiku Deck for a "Research Slam" (part poster session, part poetry slam). See her slides: Embrace the Messiness: Lessons from a 21st Century Classroom. See more at Faculty E-Commons. Haiku Deck allows you to create beautiful presentations with ease. Education case studies using Haiku Deck. Similar apps worth trying Other presentation and content creation apps: Explain Everything - iOS (iPad only), Voice Thread - iOS (universal), Photo Slideshow Director HD, - iOS (universal), Book Creator for iPad - iOS (iPad only) Presentation timer: Presentation Clock - iOS (universal) BestAppsforAcademics.com Search Creative Commons-licensed images based on the search terms you enter in Haiku Deck. 129 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Add graphs and charts to your presentation. The included layout tools help you create a visuallyappealing presentation. Haiku Deck includes a variety of sharing and viewing options for your presentations. BestAppsforAcademics.com 130 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Wirelessly mirror an iPad’s display with a projector or large display Apple TV in the classroom Apple TV makes it possible for students and instructors to connect their iPads wirelessly to a projector or large monitor, enhancing collaboration in the classroom. Connecting this $99 box to your display system makes it simple to show student work and give classroom presentations from iPads, without wires to inhibit movement around the room. Apple TV also includes YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, and iTunes U, making it easy to project from those sources. In addition, you can use Photo Stream (Apple’s service for instantly syncing photos on all your devices) to display photos as they are taken, which provides interesting possibilities for classroom projects involving photography. Examples The University of Minnesota has a useful page of instructions for how to set this up. Here's a good description of why to use this setup. BestAppsforAcademics.com Apple TV allows you to wirelessly connect your iPad to a projector or display. 131 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing “AirPlay in the Classroom: Apple TV vs. Reflector App” – Josh Murdock, a.k.a “Professor Josh,” currently works at Valencia College as an instructional designer helping build online courses, train faculty on technology, and solve the Blackboard-related problems of the world. Reflector - app for mirroring an iPad or iPhone display on a Mac or Windows computer screen. More on how to mirror your iPad in the classroom. BestAppsforAcademics.com AirPlay makes connection between an iPad and Apple TV easy. 132 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing Create interactive ebooks iBooks Author Even though this is not a mobile app (it runs on Macs), iBooks Author is important to know about, because with it, you can creative interactive ebooks for Apple’s iBookstore with multimedia features for viewing on iPads. iBooks Author’s strengths are that it’s easy to learn and to use, and it’s free. It includes templates that can be used to create beautiful, interactive books. The program’s weakness is that these books only run on Apple’s platform. However, that’s not a deal-breaker because you can export a version of your book without the interactive content and make it available on other platforms, such as Kindle, Nook, or as a PDF available from your own website. iBooks Author was created with textbook design in mind. It’s perfect for setting up a curriculum of ordered course materials, with interactive charts and graphs, slideshows, embedded videos, and quizzes. It’s also useful for other types of books that benefit from interactive content, such as travel guides, cookbooks, museum catalogs and more. BestAppsforAcademics.com Developer: Apple, Inc. Version: 2.1.1 Runs on: Mac OS X Price: Free Developer’s website: apple.com/ibooks-author 133 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing You can make your book available for free in Apple’s iBookstore, or you can sell it, getting 70% of sales, while Apple gets 30% (the same as app developers). Having your books in Apple’s store makes them available to a large audience of iPad users. To browse through the catalog of books, open iTunes, click on “Books,” then look for a link (usually in quicklinks) called “made for iBooks.” That brings you to the section of books made with iBooks Author – books with interactive content. Embed interactive materials into your ebook using iBooks Author. Here are two recommended books made with iBooks Author: Paperless by David Sparks, $9.99 (excellent book about how to go paperless, with recommended technology, such as scanners and apps) NYPL Point: John Cage’s Prepared Piano – New York Public Library, free BestAppsforAcademics.com Readers can use multi-touch gestures to enlarge images you include. 134 Chapter 6 – Presenting, Lecturing & Publishing For more information, see Nicole’s slide deck from a presentation about iBooks Author, given at MIT. BestAppsforAcademics.com 135 Chapter 7 Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides In this section, we look at examples of how apps are used in specific disciplines, such as art, foreign language learning, journalism, social science research, biology, geology, medicine, engineering and math. A. Language and literature “Chinese Language Classes Experiment With iPads,” Northwestern University Two Chinese language classes used iPads to supplement traditional methods of language study and found them a useful addition to their course material. Also at Northwestern: “The iPad as a Tool for Enhancing the Acquisition of Language, Literature, and Culture” B. Digital humanities  “Textal: a Free Smartphone App for Text Analysis,” The Chronicle of Higher Education Textal is an app “that allows you to analyze websites, tweet streams and documents, spitting out an intuitive word cloud from your search from which BestAppsforAcademics.com 137 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides you can see word frequency and collocates (words that often appear next to your selected words) at the tap of a finger.” C. Art “iPads, Illustration & Reflection,” Plymouth University (UK) Dan Owens and Rob Stillwell of Plymouth University conducted an experiment using iPads in a life-drawing class with an app that allows students to see a video of their drawing process.   D. Journalism “Mass Communications Students use iPads for Social Journalism Class,” Virginia Commonwealth University Marcus Messner, assistant professor of mass communications at Virgina Commonwealth University, describes how he uses iPads in the classroom: Students already understand that an iPad is a cool device but I wanted to show them how to adapt the journalism skills they’ve learned from other classes for social and mobile media using iPads. BestAppsforAcademics.com 138 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides E. Social science research “The research lab in your pocket: apps and the academy,” Times Higher Education Several professors weigh in on the apps they find useful in their scholarly work, including a few they’ve created themselves. The Mappiness Project   Mappiness was created by Dr. George MacKerron and Dr. Susana Mourato of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It was designed to collect data on how people’s happiness is affected by their environment. The researchers created an app that beeps to users once or more a day to check in on their happiness level and a ask few questions, then sends the data back anonymously, along with their GPS coordinates.  F. Biology “Yale Students Use iPads to View Live Microscope Images,” Yale Information Technology Services BestAppsforAcademics.com 139 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides Marta Martinez Wells, a senior lecturer at Yale, uses iPads in her biology classroom to encourage collaborative learning: Wells is currently employing the microscope-iPad setup in her entomology course, in which students spend time studying such things as the characteristics of dragonfly wings and the innards of a giant hissing cockroach. She plans in a future course to have students take their iPads into the field and use them to record and post observations, as well as to facilitate the collection of specimens.   G. Geology Mark Wilson, professor of geology, describes the apps he uses when conducting geological fieldwork in this faculty blog from the Department of Geology at the College of Wooster: “Using the iPad in Geologic Fieldwork,” part 1 “Using the iPad in Geologic Fieldwork,” part 2 BestAppsforAcademics.com 140 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides H. Medicine “UC Irvine medical students chronicle experiences working overseas,” Scope Brief article that discusses UC Irvine students working with health care providers in other countries to help them utilize iPads in their practices. I. Computer science and engineering “ASK Messaging: An iPad app with a special touch,” The University of Michigan Engineering students at the University of Michigan are working on an app that will make it easier for users with impaired motor skills to compose text on tablets and other mobile devices.   J. Math “How I use my iPhone and iPad as a College Math Teacher,” iMore Math instructor Leanna Lofte uses several apps to enhance her math teaching, and gives examples of each. BestAppsforAcademics.com 141 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides Discipline-specific app guides Art “Art and Drawing apps for your iPad” – Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “Art iPad Apps” – Apps in Education Engineering “An Interactive Engineering Apps Directory” – American Society of Mechanical Engineers Geology “48 iPad Apps for Teaching and Learning Geography / Earth Science” – Ideas Out There BestAppsforAcademics.com 142 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides Journalism “Recommended Apps for Journalists” – Journalist’s Toolbox: Society of Professional Journalists “Top road-tested iPhone apps for mobile journalists” - International Journalists' Network “Top 10 List Of Must-Have iPhone Apps For Journalists” – NABJDigital Blog (National Association of Black Journalists) Language learning “Language Learning on the Go” – The Wall Street Journal “What are the best apps for language learning?” – Quora.com Math “6 Best Android apps for mathematics/engineering students” – AndroidFlip “5 Awesome Math Solvers for iPad” – iPad Appfinders BestAppsforAcademics.com 143 Chapter 7 – Discipline-Specific Examples & Guides Medicine “Medical App Survey Results” – Penn Medical Student Government Multiple subjects “88 Best apps for mobile learning” – Edudemic Science “45 Outstanding iPad Apps for Science Learning” – Tripwire Magazine Social sciences “Handy mobile apps for social science” – Li Ka Shing Libraray, Singapore Management University BestAppsforAcademics.com 144 Further Resources Further Resources In this section, we point you to books, blogs, and websites about apps, other books and courses by the authors, and the companion website for this book. Books Best iPhone Apps - J.D. Biersdorfer Nicely designed book describing the best apps in several different categories. Best Android Apps - Mike Hendrickson and Brian Sawyer Well-organized book that leads you beyond the titles in Android Market's "Top Paid" and "Top Free" lists to showcase useful apps. iPad at Work - David Sparks Excellent recommendations, tutorials, workflows, and advice about using your iPad for work. BestAppsforAcademics.com 146 Further Resources Five-Star Apps: the best iPhone and iPad Apps for Work and Play – Glenn Fleishman Another good resource for reviews of the best apps, by category. Best iPad Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders – Peter Meyers Suggests best iPad apps in categories, such as "get work done," "manipulate photos," and "outline ideas." Discusses why the iPad is different from a smartphone or laptop and what unique role it can play in your life. Evernote Essentials – Brett Kelly Learn the best practices for using Evernote in useful and creative ways. Tips for beginners and for power users. Great book! Take Control of Working with Your iPad – Joe Kissell Focused on using the iPad for work. Covers creation of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, how to transfer files between devices, manage your calendars, take notes effectively, and print from your iPad. BestAppsforAcademics.com 147 Further Resources See also: “Take Control Live: Working with your iPad” - video presentations by Joe Kissell (available for purchase) with a document containing notes for each video. Includes apps for notes, documents, sharing and useful power tips. Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future – and Locked Us In – Brian X. Chen Chen discusses both the positive and negative effects of being "always on" with our mobile devices. Recommended. The Essential Guide to Studying with Your iPad – Pia Konig Tips and tricks for students who are new to the iPad. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps – Dan Marcolina Excellent and fun book about using your iPhone to capture and edit images. Shows artwork and discusses apps used to create each piece. BestAppsforAcademics.com 148 Further Resources Apps and websites about apps AppAdvice This app is a companion to the web site, AppAdvice.com. Contains iPhone/iPad news, reviews, and guides to the best apps by function, such as flight tracker, apps to replace your camera, personal databases, Google Docs managers, and more.  Appstart Free iPhone app for browsing selected apps by category. Best Android Apps – by Android Tapp Good source of Android app reviews. BestAppsforAcademics.com 149 Further Resources Android Appstorm - website Another source of app reviews for Android. h4ckademic A project to watch from the Harvard University Library. Still in progress, the project aims to crowdsource a useful list of apps for academic use. From the project description: h4ckademic is a dynamic website that will utilize social media like features to “student source” the identification of the best apps for academic use on mobile devices. The primary aim of h4ckademic is to provide a single virtual resource that will allow students to log-in, identify the mobile device they use, see a selection of top academic apps related to that device, vote on those apps accordingly.   BestAppsforAcademics.com 150 Further Resources Blogs AcademiPad  AcademiPad reviews apps and workflows for using apps in your academic life. It's edited by Joachim Scholz, a PhD student in marketing at Queens University in Canada.  Gradhacker A blog written by graduate students from a variety of universities. Offers tips and advice for all aspects of grad student life, including technology tips.   Beautiful Pixels  If you care about excellent user interface design, this is the blog to follow. They select and review apps with outstanding design features. Covers apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, web and more. BestAppsforAcademics.com 151 Further Resources Apptography The world of photography apps is huge. Since photography can be used in so many ways as part of an academic's life, this is a good blog to follow for keeping up with the best photography apps. Covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, camera add-ons, and more. Touch Press  Publisher of beautiful interactive book apps for iPad, such as The Elements, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and Leonardo da Vinci Anatomy. Follow them to keep up with their new titles.   Other books and courses by Nicole Hennig Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage, by Nicole Hennig. This book will be published in 2014 by Libraries Unlimited and is a guide to the best apps for librarians. Librarians need to know about a wide range of apps both for their own professional use and to recommend to users. It BestAppsforAcademics.com 152 Further Resources will cover categories such as reading, book apps, productivity, research and reference, multimedia, social media, content creation, and librarycreated apps. Online courses Apps for Librarians and Educators Available via Simmons GSLIS continuing education for six-week sessions online, or in a self-study version that you can purchase anytime and complete at your own pace. The Book as iPad App  Available via the American Library Association for four-week sessions online, or in a self-study version that you can purchase anytime and complete at your own pace. Useful for anyone who cares about the future of the book and the blurring boundaries between book and app. BestAppsforAcademics.com 153 Further Resources Updates For updates to the information in this book, see our companion website: smallwow.com/apps Sign up to get updates for this book and others by Nicole Hennig. We welcome your feedback! To offer your own comments and recommendations for future editions of the book, use this contact form. We’d love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this book, please add your ratings and reviews in the online store where you purchased this book. Thanks! BestAppsforAcademics.com 154 Updates & Feedback Spread the word If you enjoyed this book, please spread the word about it on your favorite social networks: iiiiiiiiii iiii iiiiiiiii Credits • • Cover photo by “spykster” on Flickr. Copyediting & book design by Kevin Eagan. BestAppsforAcademics.com 155