I've had the Pedlar Lady app on my iPads for ages and have long admired the beautiful line drawings and animations. Recently I bought another app from Moving Tales, The Unwanted Guest. The same line drawings are there and the angle you see the pictures from changes each time you open up the app in a very filmic way.Moving Tales apps are based on folk tales and this particular one is a story about a man who manages to overcome his 'elephant in the room' who is a character called Hunger. The narration is perfectly clear and at a good pace which makes it an enjoyable experience to have the story read to you. I can see this app being used in schools for PSHE, English, Art and in the library. I haven't yet purchased Moving Tales other apps, This Too Shall Pass & Twas the Night Before Christmas but I don't think I'll be holding out for long!

I've started using GoodReads more lately, if nothing else as a way of keeping a record of the books I read (memory failing, kept starting to read and then realising I knew what was going to happen next!) but I don't often write a review. I have more sympathy now for young people reluctant to write about the book they have just read, typical conversation:
"Miss that was a great book but it scared me so much I couldn't sleep last night!"
"Wow it's wonderful that it gripped you that much - would you write a review for me to go on the library page so that others can see how good it is?"
"Ah............well you see Miss it wasn't that good and I'm a bit busy this break......homework and stuff y'know.....maybe later......Oh is that the lesson bell? sorry Miss catch you later!!" 

I was always disappointed that I couldn't get the boys to write reviews so I had to get them to recommend books by stealth, here are some ideas I used/have thought of since:

Wordclouds - using a generator like Wordle or Tagxedo ask students to create a wordcloud with keywords from the book that can be used for display , either physical or online. If they don't mention the character names (as in the one I prepared earlier of my favourite book, above) you could use them as a competition to see if anyone can guess all of the titles.

Video - I have found that even the most shy kids love videoing themselves so getting them to do a piece to camera about their reading experiences is often not that hard a task. You could use an iDevice for this , or mini camcorder or you could let them use their own mobile phones (I know subversive isn't it?!). The videos can be used just as they are or the students could use Animoto or  Movie Maker  to polish them up. The films can then be shown on plasmas or whiteboards around the school. If the kids are shy and don't want to show their faces (Personally I hate seeing my double chins on screen!!) they could prepare an audio file instead perhaps using Audioboo or any other recorder you use.

Comic - Writing might not excite your pupils but perhaps they would be more enthusiastic if you asked them to create a review in the form of a comic? My generator of choice is ToonDoo but there are of course many others as well as great apps you could use (Toontastic, ComicBook).

Blogging - Yes ok blogging is still writing but somehow it seems to escape the ennui that most kids have towards putting views into words. A school or library book blog with reviews from students and staff could be a fantastic idea, if you could ask authors to write a quick guest blog or even comment occasionally even better. I would use Edublogs but it is just one of many - I wouldn't focus on using a blog facility on a VLE however because this limits your audience to just your school which I think makes the whole experience far too closed in.

Pinterest - Having a review board that you can advertise would be great, just a few lines of text needed with each book cover, genre boards would work well (perhaps a job for your pupil library assistants if you have any?)

Just a few ideas but I hope they might help get some peer recommendations going, very powerful to have friends rave about a book, I know it always influences me - although I don't always agree with them, it's good to break out of your own genre boundaries sometimes.

After my recent post about IOS apps for Dyslexic students I was asked if there was an Android version of them and found that sadly no there isn't. After some digging I've found some android apps that are good however, although I do find it difficult finding non IOS apps - such an Apple fangirl, guilty as charged! 
Meet Heckerty is a delightful story app that's great for students with learning difficulties. I love the way that in the 'Read to me' option the words are highlighted as they are read aloud, the ability to tap a word at any time and have it read out to you and the very easy navigation. (There is an IOS app of this one too)
Neon Tiki Tribe book apps are great fun, probably best for students up to the age of 11, older kids would find them too young I think. They focus on issues such as bullying and use a dyslexia friendly font , the accompanying song soon loses its charm but maybe not for younger readers! (+ IOS)
Moon+ Reader is good for reading ebooks, the scrolling line under text (you can change the speed of this) is very useful and there are a number of other adjustment you can make in the app such as changing the background theme, brightness etc. 
Just a few but I will add more if I find them.

I've been looking at apps specifically for Dyslexic students today and have found loads - some good, some not so good. Magnispies is fun - you have to use your magnifying glass and get rid of all the spies on the page by matching the secret code (which is the word's vowel and is on your secret spy folder). It helps with vowel recognition , thus improving reading fluency with practice. 
This is Dyslexia has been very well designed and is targeted at children with bags of information, a brilliant  video that describes what life is like for dyslexics in comic form and suggestions for parents and teachers. Huge bonus is the fact that it is UK made so the voices have English accents (loved the Geordie character in particular!). 
 iOverlayPlus is a very simple app but effective , it utilises the device's camera and puts a coloured overlay over the words in your book, in exactly the same way that plastic overlay sheets do but I think using an iphone would look much cooler! The £1.99 price tag is a little steep but it is very easy to use.
ClaroSpeak UK isn't cheap at £3.99 either but it is worth the money in my opinion. You can type directly into the app, paste in text from elsewhere or open a file from your Dropbox and the app will then read it back to you. There is a choice of 4 voices , 2 English, 1 French and 1 Spanish and you can change many things in the settings including the speaking rate and text colour etc. The ability to save the texts as audio files and email them to yourself is very useful. Yes the text to speech is a little disjointed but it's pretty good.
Of course many of the built in idevice facilities are very useful too, in particular VoiceOver (Settings/General/Accessibility/Vision) but it's a shame this will work in iBooks but not the kindle app, worth experimenting with even so.

I've been enjoying the most wonderful animal app today, WWF Together , it has a beautiful origami design and includes, facts, photos and videos of several endangered animals with more to come soon. Personally my favourite animals are tigers and the video and images on this app are just fantastic. It's one that I know I will go back to again and again.
Being an animal lover I do have a weakness for creature based apps, both realistic and fantasy. Ultimate Sharks is great for anyone interested in these sleek killing machines of the deep and the graphics and interactive features are very engaging. If you have a copy of Guinness World of Records 2013 using the app that goes with it makes a shark almost leap out of your ipad at you - first time it happens I'm sure it will make you jump! There is also a far too realistic (for me) tarantula that will run over your screen.....if you really want it to. 
When my children were small I bought them the book Animalia which is a finding book in the same vein as Where's Wally but with beautifully detailed illustrations of animals by Graeme Base. The app has been very carefully thought out and features readings by the artist, games and animal sounds.
Games are not my strong point and I don't have that many that I play regularly but I must admit when I was introduced to Kinectimals (app of the popular XBox game) by my daughter I was charmed and spent a fair bit of time teaching my big cat cubs tricks, feeding them and keeping them exercised. My favourite is naturally the tiger cub but they are all extremely cute.

Ok I know it's not December until tomorrow but I thought I'd share some of my favourite Christmas sites/resources early enough to be of use! Here's my top ten:

Jibjab has some great holiday scenes that you can insert your family/yourself into, I particularly like the Holiday Rock and Classic Movie scenarios but don't think I would ever use the Twisted Holiday ones ....still each to their own.

Capture the Magic is a site that allows you to upload photos of your home and receive them back with Santa realistically added in - not a free service but it's a small price to pay for extending the magic a bit longer for those not quite believing children.

Portable North Pole is probably my absolute favourite festive site, I just love preparing personalised messages from Father Christmas for people, adding in details that make the video special for them.

If you're looking for a video to play , this reading of The Night Before Christmas read by the Chichester Festival Theatre Company is just delightful.

Another wonderful video offering here, The Digital Nativity , how would the Christmas story have played out on the internet?

The Northpole is a lovely site to use with primary age children, packed full of activities and resources.

Activity Village has some useful festive printables, including bookmarks, jokes and 3D snowmen.

Norad tracks Santa is very special, great fun to login on Christmas Eve and watch the big man's journey around the globe 

Last but not least TES 12 games of Christmas should keep young and old occupied whilst you get on with the shopping!

Hope you have found something here that you can use during December, hope your month is a happy one ;0) 

Like the proper Apple fan girl that I am, last night I was glued to the Apple event that was streamed live. The announcement I was hoping for was the launch of a new smaller iPad and of course I wasn't disappointed but the launch of a new full size iPad was a bit of a surprise, coming only 6 months after the 'new iPad'. Personally I'm happy with my iPad 2 so the fact that the new one has a faster processor didn't really have the wow factor for me but I imagine it must have been galling for other iPad users that had bought themselves a bright shiny new iPad earlier this year. The Mini announcement did come as expected and I was sadly very excited to see it. At 7.9 inches the Mini's screen is slightly larger than it's rivals but I am happy with that - wouldn't want it to be too small - after all I have an iPhone! Shame that there's not a Retina Display (screen resolution is 1024 x 768 pixels, same as the iPad 2) but I don't have any problems with the sharpness of my current iPad's screen so this won't put me off. It's a great size to use as an ereader but I would have liked to see a lower price than starting at £269 , although this is of course lower than the full size iPad. I would think the Mini will be popular with schools, thanks to the lower price , but it would have been fantastic if  Apple had announced a better integration package for education akin to Amazon's Whispercast. So some 'meh' moments to the launch but will I be queueing up at my local Apple Store on the 2nd November to purchase a wifi Ipad Mini.......yep without a doubt!!

This weekend was spent at the Lighting the Future joint School Library Association/School Libraries Group/Youth Libraries Group conference and what an exhausting and interesting weekend it was. One of the first highlights for me was listening to Prof. Stephen Heppell opening the conference and astounding us with all the possibilities there are out there for creating an exciting, personalised learning future for young people. I have heard Stephen speak on many occasions but there's always something new to hear. 
My own 'appearance' was later in the day and I was slightly nervous to be on a stage with Jonathan Douglas (NLT) and Dave Coplin (Microsoft) but it seemed to go well ......luckily I am rarely lost for words and the subject of new technologies is of course very close to my heart. 

Planned barbecue became an indoor one due to the inclement weather and after it we were treated to storytelling and poetry from Liz Weir, John Agard, Atinuke, Alec Williams and Tony Mitton. They were all fantastic but I have to say that Atinuke stood out for me, despite appearing last she had the audience in the palm of her hand.
The group session on Saturday morning chaired by Simon Mayo was very interesting with many a tallying call heard and I loved Aiden Chambers decision that a group of librarians should be called a liberation!  I attended a few workshops that day, Nicola McNee's on new media, Adam Lancaster's on the subject of tracking progress and Nikki Heath's on working with public libraries and enjoyed them all but the best thing about any conference like this is the chats that go on in between sessions I think. It's always great to be with like minded people and share ideas. Morris Gleitzman's after dinner speech told us about his life and ended with a wonderful quote about librarians being the storykeepers. 

All in all it was a learning and chatter packed weekend and I'm very much looking forward to next year's SLA conference in Belfast. (This is only  a brief blog post because I was tweeting most of the weekend so more detail can be found on the Storify stream for conference, produced by John Iona).