Update: Free 50GB cloud storage for android devices.

As promised, I mentioned I would take a closer look into Box.com. So far it has been quite fruitful and has potential for classroom use.

1) It mimics the sandbox(dropbox) feature in Angel. You can create folder and assign collaborators to each. The collaborators can be assigned different levels of use  from being editors to viewers etc.

Students can be invited to view documents , videos or links etc stored in a created folder. They would receive emails with a link to the folder or you could copy the link and send it manually by email etc. Permission, access and security can be set for files and folders.

2) If one has a heavy use of  youtube, videos, links etc in their course or would receive documents from students, Box.com does look like it can fulfill that niche with its free features. In essence, it could serve as a great collaborative base or a tranche of extra material for students to access outside of Angel/black board.

3) If WiFi or internet is limited or sketchy for the student or instructor, they could download the Box.com app to an Android device, or iphone, Ipad etc and through the app, be able to download specific documents for offline viewing.

4) Did I mention that you could also install a Box.com add.in (extension) to Office 2010. With it, you can directly create and save, share or open Office documents to folders in Box.com ( straight to cloud) without a browser. Screenshot: http://www.box.com/s/8nrf9btjn1qygslmci9s

I guess it is pretty obvious that on closer inspection I got bitten by the Box.com bug!

Ike Nwosu

WARNING: No wifi Ahead

When choosing apps, especially for the mobile classroom, apps that do not require wifi access 100% of the time are very valuable. Learning often happens outside the classroom. It happens in an outdoor lab, a class fieldtrip or just students reflecting on course material as they go about their day. Students may also want to digest some of the course material during some free time, but when they don’t have wifi access. The concept of apps started with smartphones, which are devices that are connected to the internet almost 100% of the time. However, 65% of tablets in general and 75% of iPads are wifi only. Apps specifically made for tablets seem to be aware of this and often provide “offline” content and functionality. The apple app store does a good job of separating iPad apps from iPhone apps so you can easily choose only apps designed for the tablet platform. However, the Android market does not make this distinction. This often makes it difficult to find apps that don’t require full time wifi access. We encountered this issue several times last semester, especially when using Google docs. However, a new update to the Android Google docs app now allows for offline editing. I’m sure this trend will continue as developers realize that users want to use their devices even when they don’t have wifi. Please respond to this post with any useful apps that you have found that don’t require wifi access.

Give an App!

You can buy apps and give them as a gift to other people. If you go into iTunes from a computer or the App Store on an iOS device and go to a particular app, one of the options it gives you is to "gift this app." You can give the same app to several people at one time by just typing in their email address. They will be sent an email with instructions on how to redeem the app. This is a great way to give students an app you want them to use in the classroom if it is not free. However, you will get charged for each email you send an app to, whether or not they actually redeem the app. Also, you cannot use iTunes credit to gift apps. You must use a "funding source," usually a credit card.

Ratings can be Misleading

When searching for an app on the iPad, I usually sort apps by “Customer Rating.” More often than not, if an app gets terrible customer ratings, it is not worth trying. However, some of the apps we are using in the classroom are bucking this trend. An example of this is the “Documents” app we have been using. This app allows you to view and edit many types of files including text files and spreadsheets. It can download and upload files to and from Google Docs and you can also attach a file to an email. Google Docs allows multiple users the ability to modify files in real time. This is great for some situations, but not for the classroom. First of all you always need internet access and second of all it is a pain to share documents with students because you have to create a separate document for each student or group. By using Google Docs to share files, we only have to create one document and share it with the entire class. This is easy to do once you have your students set up in a group in your contacts. Then the “Documents” app allows students to download their own version of the file and modify it without having internet access. Once they modify the file, they can email it to the instructor for grading. This is working well for our needs. However, this app gets terrible reviews in the app store. You can imagine why: what makes it useful for the classroom, makes it a pain to the individual user. In order to move documents from your desktop to the iPad, you need to first upload it to Google docs and then download it to the iPad. Then you need to reverse the process or email the document back to yourself to get it back on your computer. This process is not acceptable to the average user and thus it gets bad reviews.

Note: The “Documents” app does actually provide a pretty nice way to move files back and forth from the iPad. As long as you are connected to wifi the app will provide you with a URL to type into your browser that gives your direct access to the files on the app. You can upload or download files. This feature is not very intuitive so I imagine many users miss it.

Note2: There is a free version and a $0.99 version of the app. So far, one difference we have noticed between the two is that the free version limits a spreadsheet to 11 columns and 50 rows. The $0.99 version seems to be unlimited.