Taking the Coloring Book Trend to a Whole New Level!

Going back to your past and reliving your childhood can be a great way to spend time, and I suspect that's why adult coloring books are trending right now.  Recently, I purchased coloring books for the students here, and several have been used (I can tell from the ripped pages) but one idea I had that REALLY turned out great was taking pages and cutting them to bookmark size.  No need to buy more bookmarks and kids were asking for 3 or more.  It was a win all the way around!!

Then I started thinking about the pages of a coloring book and begin looking at coloring pages online.  There are several free sites where you can print pages out:

Beautiful Mandalas to color: http://www.printmandala.com/
Zen and Anti-Stress Coloring Pages for Adults: http://www.coloring-pages-adults.com/coloring-zen/
Art is Fun!  Free Adult Coloring Pages: http://www.art-is-fun.com/free-adult-coloring-pages/

Afterward, I began to think about the what ifs....what if I want to color while waiting in the airport?  How about while waiting on someone to meet me?  How about at night when I'm in bed and need a little de-stresser?  I think there's nothing more stressful than putting not only pages in a folder but having to keep up with all of the markers (or pencils, or colors or whatever!).  It's enough to send me over the edge of Happy Land into the depths of I'm-Going-Nutso Land!  And that brought me to my most used personal device, my iPad!

Bingo!  I hit the motherlode  of coloring pages!  Not only were they online, but they were also amazingly easy to color.  I do love me some technology, and these pages were editable and shareable.  But most of all?  They were relaxing for me!  So here are my top fav apps for adult coloring books, along with the lowdown on them and examples of artwork I colored. There are a TON out there, but I think five is more than enough to satisfy my craving to put color to screen :)






Magic Garden-
Five different books 
Colors: HUGE palette available to use
Menu options: delete, undo, draw any color, auto color fill
Settings: home button, favorites, share via message, email, or social media, save to "my works"
Review: This is by far the most colorful with tons of options!  There are options to purchase extra pages/designs but includes 40 free designs







Color Therapy:
Thirteen different books
Colors: SEVERAL different palettes to choose from.  Basic is free, others you need to unlock via use of social media.  Still others down the line are free to use (like the Fruity palette)
Menu Options: pinch to zoom in or out, undo, return button and share via email and social media.  Save to your photos
Review: Highly intricate, these designs will take a little longer to color.  I recently got a message to download new volumes, but haven't yet.  Saves your completed artwork into a folder on the app.  Another neat thing is that once you share your pic, you also have the option to add effects.  Nice touch! 






Adult Coloring Book:
Eleven different books
Colors: has one major palettes in primary colors, but others can be downloaded for free if you do certain things (like share four pieces of art etc).  There are also paid palettes as well.
Menu Options: A back button taking you to the front of the book, an undo button, ambience button will play certain ambient sounds while you color, a texture button with six options, a more button where you can animate your drawing to saving it on your camera roll to clearing the picture out, and lastly a share button for email and social media
Review: These are great genres and inside each book is chapters, where the first is free and the others you can purchase.  This app had the most unusual option with the ambient noises, but I can see how this would be great in busy places where ear phones are a must have.  The depth of coloring goes from simple to intricate for it will satisfy all types of online colorers.




Coloring Book for Adults:
Has 10 designs
Colors: this has sliding bar of colors
Menu Options: a trashcan to delete, an undo button and a share button for email, social media and to save on your camera roll
Review: This is by far the easiest of the apps and great for quick color.  Doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but very much satisfies your inner coloring obsession.  Seems like the easier options have more colors and this won't disappoint, although I did get a little aggravated having to slide through colors to get to the ones I used/needed








Colorfy:
Has 12 books with multiple volumes inside each
Colors: has a multitude of colors represented by pencils
Menu Options: three pentagons that hold your last three color chosen, an undo button, a share button to email and social media and a home button
Review: I really enjoyed this one.  Of course, its' a freemium, so some volumes will need to be purchased.  The only caution I would give is that each time you open a design, it asks if you'd like a free trial with a purchase, so be careful with your trigger finger!















 

Twinkle Tech! Four webtools that can transform the paperless classroom!

I was introduced to many of these sites via PLNs and colleagues and was intrigued with the possibilities and potential they had. These are one to definitely keep in mind as solid educational webtools! Includes a description and suggested curriculum tie-ins.

There is such a thing as a Freebie - 10 Great online storage sites

I don't know about you, but I have a drawer full of jump drives and little SD cards that I have saved anything and everything to.  The only way I know what's on a specific gadget is to insert and look at the files.  How tedious is that?

Not only that, but have you ever lost a storage device and FREAKED becaue it contained your whole life?  Yup....it's happened to me before as well.

And don't even get me started on having files that are too large and won't fit, corrupted gadgets, getting a nasty virus...you name it, it's happened or will eventually.

But there IS a solution!  Instead of paying money for a jump drive, SD card or other some such, try using the free accounts online to store and access.  Here are just a few:




http://drive.google.com  offers 15G 
http://hightail.com offers 2G
https://www.sugarsync.com/free/offers 5G
http://www.idrive.com/ offers 5G
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore offers 5G
http://www.4shared.com/ offers 10G
http://evernote.com no limit, but limits content uploaded monthly
http://dropbox.com  starts at 2G
https://skydrive.live.com offers 7G
http://bitcasa.com offers 10G
So overall, you could potentially have over 60G of storage for FREE!!

Additionally, most of these services are online applications, which means that you can store and save from any device (ie smartphone, table, desktop, laptop) and open it from any of these as well using an application that allows use over multiple devices and platforms.   

Ten Best Apps to Travel With

Right now I'm about to pack my bags to get ready for summer travel.  A top priority  is technology.  They can take a long car drive or bump in the road go by faster. I love my iPad, but unfortunately, I don't have a connection to it (unless there's free Wi-Fi).  My iPhone does connect, but who really wants to squint that long?  So, here are my top ten apps (in no particular order) you don't need to have a connection for to get me from the beginning to the end of any journey and they won't cost a penny:

1. iBooks - find books or documents online and load them before you go.  iBooks will allow you to read anything you place there without connection.  Search and download now before you go and you'll have a free library traveling with you. 

2. Paper 53 - feel the need to get creative?  Use this simple and easy app to doodle, draw, and paint in personal moleskins you create.  Your creativity can be personal or something you'd like to save and use in presentations or websites when you get a connection. 

3. ShowMe - if you'd like to create an online recorded presentation, this app is what you're looking for.  Upload photos from you album, write, draw and highlight and record.  Try this only when everyone has their earphones on and quiet reigns.

4. Videolicious - This handy app has so many possibilities.  Make a simple book trailer, stitch pics together to highlight your trip, or just be creative with what you can do.  The tutorial is also available offline as well

5. DaVinci Note -this app will create beautiful collages or notes you can create now and upload later.  Use the images on your iPad, type your own thoughts and create beautiful pages to share when connection is available

6. Fast Food - it's inevitable...while on the road you have to eat.  If you're watching your weight and trying to avoid eating unwanted calories, this app has most fast food restaurants listed along with what they serve and how many calories, fat, and carbs are in that item. 

7. Candy Crush - this popular and addictive game can be played offline!  That's all I have to say about that :)

8. Minion Rush - this is a new game based off of the Despicable Me movies.  Play with these cute minions anytime with a great graphic interface.  Perfect for children and adults alike (another great alternative would be Subway Surfers, which can also be played offline)

9. Snapseed - if you have pictures and want to make them pop, use this app to modify your images with different tools and filters. 

10. iDice4 - for the more traditional gamer, this is the equivalent of Yahtzee, where you can play by yourself or with others in the car just for the fun of it.

Like packing, make sure you download whatever you may need on your iPad before hitting the road, the ocean, the air or the tracks.  And always (and most important!) keep a charger handy - you'll need it.
Safe travels!!

Going down technology memory lane can be painful....

Yesterday, I was searching for a website I used last year to create an online button/logo and couldn't for the life of me remember what it was.  So I used the good ole standby website Delicious.  And I was virtually slapped in the face....

There used to be a time when I was excited about the newest and best out there, using the programs and huge creativity of people's minds to share web 2.0 content and how it could be utilized.  But then the inevitable happened - I began to focus on what could be used in the classroom and library and the edges got blurry.  No longer did I need to know more, I needed to use more of what I already knew!

And the pool of web content and tools for the classroom began to grow stagnant.  It was a slow and gradual process until I looked down one day and saw the green and realized I needed some chlorine....fast!  My Delicious pool is getting green!!

So, what are those websites I focused on to create that stagnancy?  You know them....Prezi, Animoto, Voicethread, Glogster, Wix, Weebly.  The bookends of excellent educational technology, as well they should be.  They've earned the right to be there.  But what do I have between those bookends that I can pull from and train, teach and expand student engagement and teacher knowledge? 

So I went  to get the best of the best for web tools, and here are some sites I'll be using that showcase those sites on the cusp of grandeur:

AASL Top Twenty Five Best Websites:
http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25

Larry Ferlazzo's Best Web Apps in 2012:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/07/10/the-best-web-2-0-applications-for-education-in-2012-%E2%80%94-so-far/

Digital Goonies: Creative, outside of the box thinkers on web tools:
http://digitalgoonies.com/

I need to fill in the bookends with new ideas and technologies to pull, learn and teach the campus I work with so I don't have to sit and watch the millionth Animoto or the two millionth Prezi....know what I mean?

And thank you Kristin Fontinchiaro for reminding me:  It's about focus and balance, not about creativity and a project done.  Educational technology should showcase the learning, not the product.

Sites I'm really enjoying right now?  Tripline, Symbaloo, Jux, Haiku Deck....:)
And yeah, I'm reading some good YA novels too!! 

Are you Web Literate? 21 slides to 21st century learning

Web Literacy: 21 Navigation Tools for 21st Century Learners on Prezi