iAnnotate PDF is an excellent, full-featured app for marking-up or making notations on PDF files on your iPad. The app handles PDF files in such a way that you will feel as if you are working on your desktop or notebook computer. iAnnotate is well designed, provides a wide range of tools that can be arranged in a customizable manner, and is loaded with editing options.

Indeed, there is little that you cannot accomplish in iAnnotate! Touch a blank area of a document and you are provided with a neat set of standard tools from note, pencil, signature, typewriter and other features. Touch a word and a different set of tools pop up that allows you to copy, highlight, strikeout, etc. One day, while experimenting I even came across an option that allowed me to make a brief recording. This added feature is a great option that provides audio notes to serve as a reminder. Uploading and/or synching iAnnotate documents with Dropbox or some other account is a cinch. Several of my colleagues use iAnnotate to evaluate students’ work which they then e-mail. I use the app to mark up articles or take notes on the agenda at departmental or other meetings. Features such as multiple undos, deleting all annotations made—the entire document or just those on a single page—and obtaining a summary of annotations really places iAnnotate high on my selected list of apps!

Here is a short listing of what you can do in iAnnotate: You can search, bookmark, add annotations, insert images, e-mail, or open an image of what you are working on in some other app. The latter is a nice touch but the rolodex to select where to open the image is a bit too small for large fingers. You can customize the tool bar (there are a lot of icons that provide many functions to choose from—think customizable tool bar like you have never seen before); and best of all, you can decide to flatten the changes or simply remove them all. A typed sticky-like note can be attached to handwritten notes and all notes are fully editable. One of the challenges for anyone new to the iPad is controlling the size of handwritten text. I wish iAnnotate had a zoom feature that allows handwritten text to appear more normal in size. A signature option can be used as a fix but it is just that. Zooming in to make your notation and then zoom out is really not a usable option. I find that the “note” function an easier way to make typed notations and this option still leaves plenty of room to make markups.

iAnnotate responds well to many of the gestures that you have come to appreciate when using the iPad. Tap and hold, single and double tap, swipe, and drag, just to list a few. iAnnotate is one well designed app and I think that you will find that it will handle just about anything you can throw at it!

(Click images to see full screen.)

Summary:
iAnnotate is a very robust app that you will come to appreciate every time you use it. I read a lot of PDF files from research articles, departmental documents, to students’ work and iAnnotate comes in handy as a good tool for anyone on the go or anyone wanting to go paperless. Some of iAnnotate competition includes: Notability ($0.99); Sundry Notes (free); Catch Notes (free); Note Taker HD ($4.99); Notebook for iPad ($8.99); and WhiteNote ($3.99). I like free apps but I really cannot complain about paying $9.99 for an app that just about does everything with a PDF file.

Now it’s your turn. What are some of the ways you work with PDF files and do you have a favorite app for doing so?

Dave Yearwood is an associate professor and chair of the technology department at the University of North Dakota.

After reading the Faculty Focus Special Report “Social Media Usage Trends Among Higher Education Faculty” I was spurred to share a best practice regarding the use of technology in the classroom.

The Sketch Pad program is a must for several reasons: it is very easy to use, has several features, and it is very nicely priced. All of the tools can be controlled from their home location at the bottom of the screen or be made to float and positioned anywhere they are convenient.

I use Sketch Pad as a sort of Whiteboard but I wish it had a selection feature for ‘an erase all’ function. There is, however, a workaround for fast erasing: pinch the image to the smallest size possible and a few passes with the eraser will clean up the board rather quickly.

Sketch Pad uses the standard pinch-in, pinch-out gesture for zooming in and out. There are four pen size options, a color swatch that is customized by simply double-tapping one of the primary colors, and there are lots of emoticons that can be added to your drawing. The program has a selectable palm rest that can be positioned on the bottom right or left, or it can be resized to your liking. There is also a track pad that can be used to position the image anywhere on the canvas.

Like all iPad apps, Sketch Pad allows you to e-mail and print your creation. You also can save your canvas as a photo to the photo library, or send it any of several other apps. The preference is chock full of options from Autosave, spell-check and Geotagging, to synching to the cloud with Dropbox, iCloud, Google Docs, Evernote, etc.

A free version of Sketch Pad called Sketch Pad 3 is available and it appears to pretty much do most of what its $.99 brother/sister will do with one exception: Sketch Pad 3 has an advertisement banner running at the top that some of you might find distracting. There are two ways to deal with this: 1. Turn off your Wi-Fi and the banner will disappear. 2. Place the floating tools on top of the ad banner to cover it up.

Summary:
I like this program a lot and I think you will to! From drawing simple sketches, to doodling, or creating annotated drawings, I think you will agree that the program has just about everything you will ever want. Catalystwo Limited, the designers of Sketch Pad and Sketch Pad 3 also offer two other sketching programs: FastFinga ($1.99) and Fast Finga 3 ($2.99). Other similar available apps are: Drawing Pad ($1.99); Sketch Pad HP ($0.99); and SketchBook Pro for iPad ($4.99). One last thing: you will be productive with Sketch Pad in no time because using it is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Dave Yearwood is an associate professor and chair of the technology department at University of North Dakota.

Users of Apple’s Keynote should be right at home working in Pages, at least in the way it displays documents, creates or opens new documents, the location of menu items, the way folders are created and deleted, etc. And for good reason; Pages is part of the Apple’s iWork suite, which includes Keynote for presentations, Pages for documents, and Numbers for spreadsheets.

To get started in Pages, tap the “+” symbol or “Documents” in the menu area to either create a new document or to access documents. There are 16 templates to choose from when you create a new document and adding text is a breeze, although I prefer using an external keyboard. Tap anywhere in the text box to insert, add, or edit text and the typical ribbon display found in a desktop document creation program appears (font selection, size, character, etc.).

Tap the “X” on the upper right-most part of the screen and the ribbon display disappears for more screen real estate (tap the ruler just below the main menu and the ribbon reappears). The double arrows also allow users to toggle the menu display on/off. Word prompts appear to help with typing and you can even see the word count if desired (turn on from within “Settings”). Like Keynote, there are options for sharing and printing, find/search, document setup, and settings. As with most other apps, holding a document until it shakes provide options for deleting, duplicating, sharing or copying. One of the things you will appreciate in Pages is the ease with which you can make changes to the style of the document in terms of font, character attributes (bold, underline, etc.), text justification and headlines. You also can change the layout and insert various objects (photos, tables, charts, etc.) for graphic-rich reports or newsletters.

Naming a document or folder is as easy as Taping the title area.

I especially like the option of working in portrait or landscape mode. A good document app should have the feel and response of desktop word processors and that is what you will come to appreciate in Pages. It is intuitive and allows you to work seamlessly with MS Word and other document creation programs.

Summary:
You can do a lot with Pages and the export/import feature makes it a breeze to move documents. Some competitors to include: Office 2 HD—$7.99; Quickoffice—$14.99 or Quickoffice lite—free; Documents to go—premium $16.99; Documents to go suite $9.99; or Smart-Office—$9.99. I like the feel and functionality built into Pages—it just feels natural and works flawlessly. So what is there to not like? The price!

Dave Yearwood, associate professor and chair of the technology department, University of North Dakota.

Notes Plus is one neat program! In fact, it is one of the few iPad apps that I use frequently when I attend meetings or need to make notes to myself in either handwritten or typed format. What I really like about this app is that I can do a lot of things all without ever leaving the app. I can draw, insert diagrams and photos, paste, insert new pages at different places in a notebook, and best of all I can add a voice memo!

Use the erase swipe to delete text, or draw a circle around any object on the screen to: group, delete, convert to text (will need to purchase the handwriting module for $1.99), arrange items, copy or to change text styles. Another neat feature is the ‘palm pad,’ which allows your hand to rest comfortably without interacting with the screen. Without this “moveable a neutral zone “ I would have accidental pen marks all over my page because I have a hard time trying to write without putting the heel of my hand on the writing surface. The ability to edit PDF files is a handy option as well.

A really cool feature is the close-up writing mode. Hold one finger on the page and a box comes up (this is adjustable) that allows you to cram more notes on a single page while still writing normally!

You have to play with Notes Plus to really appreciate how much you can do with it. I would have preferred to access the pen and text style from the tool icon for obvious reasons—grouping of all tools. However, an argument can be made for ‘styles’ being in the ribbon area for quick accessibility. Either way, once you start using Notes Plus you will not have any trouble locating and using this feature-rich app.

Summary:
Notes Plus is one great app that should be on every iPad! It has numerous options that allow it to be a good notebook replacement and frankly, there is not much to dislike about the app. The tool features, the audio record option, the palm rest, and the close-up writing mode leaves me wishing that all apps were as multifunctional and easy to use. I cannot say for sure that I will ditch all paper notations but Notes Plus brings me closer to full electronic note-taking! Some of Notes Plus competition include: Notability ($0.99); Sundry Notes (free); Catch Notes (free); Note Taker HD ($4.99); Notebook for iPad ($8.99); and WhiteNote ($3.99); The only thing I dislike about this app is that I often forget how to access the ‘redo’ function—you need to hold the undo to get to the redo function—a bit awkward. Other than that, there is much to like about this app. I’ve tried a few similar products but always come back to Notes Plus.

Dave Yearwood, associate professor and chair of the technology department, University of North Dakota.

Idea Sketch, as the name implies, is a way to capture ideas and organize them in some hierarchical manner — such as in a concept map or flow chart. Idea Sketch is a no frills app, rather intuitive, and best of all it is free! There is an upgrade option for $3.99 but if all I am going to get are a few more shapes, colors, and fonts, I am not sure that I would opt for a paid version. The free version, which works on the iPhone and iPad, includes a check spell option when typing but the app does not include a way to spell check the entire work when completed.

Here are some of nice features you will find in this app:

• You can create a map with straight lines, curved lines, or right angles connecting lines with or without directional arrows. This option is available when you create a new map or after creating using the ‘i’ symbol in the menu bar.
• The displayed concept map can be re-arranged by using a two-finger swipe feature—up/down, right or left.
• To move individual shapes, simply press and hold and when the shape is enlarged, then move it to a desired area of the page. The entire map can be moved by holding a blank area of the screen and dragging to a new location.
• Tap the document symbol at the top right to switch from map display to outline format.
• Tap the ‘+’ sign to add shapes and the ‘Ideas’ (top left of menu) to add a new file. Importing and sharing is easy and so is the help section.

Summary:
Get Idea Sketch app if you are looking for a basic concept map that is easy to use when you need to brainstorm and if you like free apps. The undo feature is nice but there is no redo option. Idea Sketch has the basic action and decision symbols. Adding a new child (idea bubble or box), notes and shapes is easy, and switching between outline and map view is a breeze. Other similar available apps are: iThoughtsHD (mind mapping ($9.99); Maptini ($5.99); Simplemind (free) and Mindo ($6.99). Idea Sketch will do the job of organizing your thoughts into maps or an outline.

Dave Yearwood, associate professor and chair of the technology department, University of North Dakota.

I have always enjoyed watching YouTube videos and when I noticed that some of the videos dealt with serious literary topics and had re-enactments of Shakespeare plays, I began to wonder if I could incorporate them into my literature classes. Instead of students just reading a text version of Othello, why not have them also watch a live performance of Othello to get them more motivated to learn literature?

Digital Natives are all around us. They populate our college courses and use the newest mobile technologies to communicate, collaborate, create and share information on social media sites. There is, however, often a disconnection on their path to learning. Quite often we find Digital Native students taught by Digital Immigrant professors (Prensky, 2001) who fear, dismiss or are unaware of the potential learning power of Web 2.0 technologies.

I have never been truly impressed with text-to-speech software but I was mildly surprised with the Dragon Dictation app. Dragon Naturally Speaking software for the PC has been around for some time and I well remember spending a lot of time training the software to recognize my voice and speech patterns, something I do not care to do again.

In the case of this app, however, that was not necessary. I downloaded the app, started speaking and the translation to typed text was a fairly accurate representation of what I said. It was not 100% correct but close enough for me to continue using the app. The onboard microphone worked well but I had better performance using a USB microphone plugged into Apple’s iPad Camera Connection Kit (keep in mind that Apple does not support USB microphone connection to their dongle but other testers had the same result I did, the USB mic does work).

The app is really easy to use. Tap the app and you are presented with a ‘record’ button at the center of the screen. ‘Tap and dictate’ and Dragon starts recording your voice. Tap the same area to stop and, after processing your recording, Dragon spits out the text conversion. You can add to a recording, make a new recording, delete recordings, e-mail, copy, change settings or post to a couple social networks. Editing text is fairly simple, touch a word and Dragon offers suggestions or the option to delete the word. The interface is quite simple but you will have to put up with a Dragon banner at the bottom of your screen which cannot be covered up or turned off—something you have to live with for a neat free app. Oh, one last thing, Dragon will only run with Wi-Fi enabled.

Summary:
Dragon Dictation has a fairly clean interface and the app is very easy to use. No voice training is required. The app has a helpful set of tips for using Dragon Dictation—new paragraph, new line, equal sign, etc. Best of all, the app is free! Speak and Dragon Dictation converts your speech to text. There are language options for non-English speakers and I found that the app worked very well even with my accent! There are several text to speech apps and a number of voice recording apps. However, there appears to be few speech to text apps available.

Dave Yearwood, associate professor and chair of the technology department, University of North Dakota.