Has the iPad revolutionized anything (or everything) about your homeschool?

[Terabith]

Yes! Ds has dyslexia and we use an app for spelling. We use progressive phonics and I now open the books in iBooks so I save on paper and ink.

 

What app do you use for spelling?

[Tea 4 Three]

It has become indispensable for my dd (4th grade) who has a reading (and spelling) disability! Her level of independence has increased substantially and has allowed her to work on grade level. It has given me 2 hours of my day back! The best approach I have found to help her is to try to separate the necessary skills required for a task and use the iPad to simplify the task. So for example, if she is working on Vocabulary, I try to eliminate the actual reading and have her rely on her auditory skills which are very strong. If she is working on composition, we try to eliminate having to spell. We isolate spelling and work on that for a minimum of 40 min daily. We also isolate reading. She listens (and reads along) with Story of the World.

 

I don't what we would do without it at this point! Siri is her new best friend. There are other voices in each app, but she has figured out how to get Siri to read everything to her. If she needs help spelling a word, she can speak it and Siri will spell it for her. I am still looking for a dictionary app that works like a Franklin Speller. I import her WWE assignments into Speak It and it will read it to her. She does her narration by dictating it on the Notes app (to help with her spelling) and then copies it. We take a photo of anything on a page that she needs to read (for example the last assignment of every Wordly Wise lesson is a lengthy excerpt which she needs to read) and the Prizmo app will scan it and then read it aloud to her. Wordly Wise also has an audio file to introduce the vocab for each lesson online. I downloaded them all and put them in itunes. She will listen to it multiple times (and read along) in the course of each weekly lesson. Her visual memory is very compromised and she practices spelling high frequency words daily on Spelling City. One of the best purchases we have made (other than the iPad itself) is a membership to Learning Ally. She listens to books read aloud and we are working on building on her reading frequency by having her read while she listens. With the Learning Ally app, we can slow down the speech if she is working on reading fluency or speed it up past normal speech when we are working on auditory skills. Story of the World is available on Learning Ally. So far anything I have wanted is there. She had exhausted all of the options at our local library. This is a much cheaper option over purchasing audio books. We also use Audiobooks. Quizlet has also relieved some of her dependence on me. We also use GoodReader and Dropbox extensively for our pdfs. Eventually, I plan to train her to use it for notetaking and I have looked at AudioNote. I am working on organization skills with her and we put her assignments in the Reminder app. For fun she is enjoying Stack the States. Khan Academy has been great for my jr high and high school students.

[PeterPan]

We use Anki for our memory work. I put all our memory work in it for review. The link is in my sig.

 

I don't use Anki to introduce new memory work. That is done during our regular lessons, morning meeting, and our co-op.

 

I think I had heard of this, but I sure didn't remember! Thanks!! :)

[CatholicMom]

The other thing is that it's quicker and more cuddly for us than the computer. I don't mean the processing speed, but more that if we're sitting and reading something aloud or learning something, pulling out the laptop to look up a picture or a quick video just takes longer and is less conducive to the curled up on the sofa thing. We have SO many moments like this with the iPad where a famous place is mentioned in a book and the kids want to know what it is. The iPad is there, I pull up an image, then we go back to the book. It's less disruptive and distracting than the whole computer.

 

Very interesting point! I never thought about that. It is kind of a pain, especially when teaching multiple kids, to get everyone into the other room to see a visual on the desktop of whatever it is we are reading about and then get back to the couch. Hmm!!

[Alte Veste Academy]

It has become indispensable for my dd (4th grade) who has a reading (and spelling) disability! Her level of independence has increased substantially and has allowed her to work on grade level. It has given me 2 hours of my day back! The best approach I have found to help her is to try to separate the necessary skills required for a task and use the iPad to simplify the task. So for example, if she is working on Vocabulary, I try to eliminate the actual reading and have her rely on her auditory skills which are very strong. If she is working on composition, we try to eliminate having to spell. We isolate spelling and work on that for a minimum of 40 min daily. We also isolate reading. She listens (and reads along) with Story of the World.

 

I don't what we would do without it at this point! Siri is her new best friend. There are other voices in each app, but she has figured out how to get Siri to read everything to her. If she needs help spelling a word, she can speak it and Siri will spell it for her. I am still looking for a dictionary app that works like a Franklin Speller. I import her WWE assignments into Speak It and it will read it to her. She does her narration by dictating it on the Notes app (to help with her spelling) and then copies it. We take a photo of anything on a page that she needs to read (for example the last assignment of every Wordly Wise lesson is a lengthy excerpt which she needs to read) and the Prizmo app will scan it and then read it aloud to her. Wordly Wise also has an audio file to introduce the vocab for each lesson online. I downloaded them all and put them in itunes. She will listen to it multiple times (and read along) in the course of each weekly lesson. Her visual memory is very compromised and she practices spelling high frequency words daily on Spelling City. One of the best purchases we have made (other than the iPad itself) is a membership to Learning Ally. She listens to books read aloud and we are working on building on her reading frequency by having her read while she listens. With the Learning Ally app, we can slow down the speech if she is working on reading fluency or speed it up past normal speech when we are working on auditory skills. Story of the World is available on Learning Ally. So far anything I have wanted is there. She had exhausted all of the options at our local library. This is a much cheaper option over purchasing audio books. We also use Audiobooks. Quizlet has also relieved some of her dependence on me. We also use GoodReader and Dropbox extensively for our pdfs. Eventually, I plan to train her to use it for notetaking and I have looked at AudioNote. I am working on organization skills with her and we put her assignments in the Reminder app. For fun she is enjoying Stack the States. Khan Academy has been great for my jr high and high school students.

 

You just totally blew my mind! This is incredible! Thanks for sharing! Off to search and play...

 

ETA: Super appreciate that you bolded the apps too!!

[Alessandra]

 

I am also interested in how you store and use memory work.

 

We use NotesPlus for memory work. I use it to grab text from the internet or elsewhere and put it in NotesPlus. Then there is a recorder button, so dd records what she is learning. You can do one recording or multiple recordings per page. I usually make a note -- like recording #1is October 4, etc.

 

I also use Dragon Dictation if I need a text that I cannot find already typed. Instead of typing, I dictate and Dragon writes it down, including punctuation. At first, there was only gibberish, but then I learned to speak slowly. You can do poems and include line breaks too. Then copy and paste to Notes Plus for dd to record her part.

 

HTH

[PeterPan]

We use NotesPlus for memory work. I use it to grab text from the internet or elsewhere and put it in NotesPlus. Then there is a recorder button, so dd records what she is learning. You can do one recording or multiple recordings per page. I usually make a note -- like recording #1is October 4, etc.

 

I also use Dragon Dictation if I need a text that I cannot find already typed. Instead of typing, I dictate and Dragon writes it down, including punctuation. At first, there was only gibberish, but then I learned to speak slowly. You can do poems and include line breaks too. Then copy and paste to Notes Plus for dd to record her part.

 

HTH

 

Wow, I hadn't seen NotesPlus! That looks terrific! That would be off the charts handy for my dd, with that record function synced to the notepages, wowsers. I didn't realize DD had an ipad app. Makes sense, but I didn't realize that. Thanks for the info! Anything ELSE amazing you're doing? :)

[Alte Veste Academy]

We use NotesPlus for memory work. I use it to grab text from the internet or elsewhere and put it in NotesPlus. Then there is a recorder button, so dd records what she is learning. You can do one recording or multiple recordings per page. I usually make a note -- like recording #1is October 4, etc.

I also use Dragon Dictation if I need a text that I cannot find already typed. Instead of typing, I dictate and Dragon writes it down, including punctuation. At first, there was only gibberish, but then I learned to speak slowly. You can do poems and include line breaks too. Then copy and paste to Notes Plus for dd to record her part.

HTH

 

Love! Thanks for sharing!

[FairProspects]

I don't what we would do without it at this point! Siri is her new best friend. There are other voices in each app, but she has figured out how to get Siri to read everything to her. If she needs help spelling a word, she can speak it and Siri will spell it for her. I am still looking for a dictionary app that works like a Franklin Speller. I import her WWE assignments into Speak It and it will read it to her. She does her narration by dictating it on the Notes app (to help with her spelling) and then copies it. We take a photo of anything on a page that she needs to read (for example the last assignment of every Wordly Wise lesson is a lengthy excerpt which she needs to read) and the Prizmo app will scan it and then read it aloud to her. Wordly Wise also has an audio file to introduce the vocab for each lesson online. I downloaded them all and put them in itunes. She will listen to it multiple times (and read along) in the course of each weekly lesson. Her visual memory is very compromised and she practices spelling high frequency words daily on Spelling City. One of the best purchases we have made (other than the iPad itself) is a membership to Learning Ally. She listens to books read aloud and we are working on building on her reading frequency by having her read while she listens. With the Learning Ally app, we can slow down the speech if she is working on reading fluency or speed it up past normal speech when we are working on auditory skills. Story of the World is available on Learning Ally. So far anything I have wanted is there. She had exhausted all of the options at our local library. This is a much cheaper option over purchasing audio books. We also use Audiobooks.

 

How did she do this? We are headed this direction for my ds too, and he loves the Siri voice. Does Siri read to her in Learning Ally too?

[Alessandra]

 

Wow, I hadn't seen NotesPlus! That looks terrific! That would be off the charts handy for my dd, with that record function synced to the notepages, wowsers. I didn't realize DD had an ipad app. Makes sense, but I didn't realize that. Thanks for the info! Anything ELSE amazing you're doing? :)

 

 

Nothing else amazing, I'm afraid. But I did compare NotesPlus with Evernote/Penultimate, and Paperport Notes. I found that NotesPlus was the best for what I needed

-- you can have multiple audio recordings per note (great for when the first recording is all giggles from dd)

-- NotesPlus exports easily to Dropbox, Notability, etc

-- you can use both typing and writing on same page

-- Evernote is available across platforms, but I didn't need that feature so much

 

For serious drawing, I like Sketchbook Express. For writing, Paper by 53 -- it doesn't do that much, but the pen strokes feel incredibly better than on other apps.

 

An app that I have but haven't used yet is AudioNotes. The videos I've seen show that it can be used to record a lecture and take notes at the same time. The notes are timestamped to coordinate with the audio recording. My dd is too young to need this feature, but it might be nice for older dc.

 

One of my favorite apps is iStudiez -- my ds who is in school uses it to track homework. It works on iPad, computer, iPhone; very customizable and flexible. A younger dc might like inClass or myHomework instead.

 

Dictionary.com is our favorite dictionary.com. Each day it has a hot word, a word of the day, and a question of the day. Much more fun than a dictionary should be!

 

Another app that has really helped us is Quizlet -- Quizlet is like flash cards, but with some extra features The computer and iPad apps are slightly different. For foreign language, I was amazed that French words are pronounced with a proper accent. There are LOADS of Quizlets that have already been uploaded, so you can usually find that someone has already done your typing for you. We use it for WordlyWise, ds in public school found that there are chapter by chapter quizlets for his French, science, and history textbooks. A real time saver!

 

Some favorite apps for us (YMMV) are Algebra Touch and Long Division from Regular Berry Software, Quick Graph, and Barefoot Atlas. Oh, and BrainPOP is nice on the iPad.

[PeterPan]

Ok, so here's another question to keep us going. Say we're typing all these notes into these apps. How do we BACK UP our stuff?

[Alessandra]

Ok, so here's another question to keep us going. Say we're typing all these notes into these apps. How do we BACK UP our stuff?

 

Good question!!!

 

In Notes Plus, I can export to iTunes, photos, email, Dropbox, Google Drive, or export as a pdf to Notability and a number of other apps.

 

I confess that I haven't backed up (!!!) anything from NotesPlus (yet), so I don't know how the sound part works. I have to go out now, but I'll put a sound file in Dropbox, move it to my computer and see what happens.

 

I keep most of my important stuff in Notability, backed up to my computers as pdfs.

 

I wonder, when you back up your iPad to a computer via iTunes -- it saves the files you make as well as the apps you bought, right????? Maybe someone can answer this.

[PeterPan]

I don't know. See I *sync* my ipad to my computer via iTunes, but I know nothing about backing it up. I saw some horror stories online of people doing something and losing important notes (accidentally deleting with no ability to recover?), so I thought that was a pretty serious issue to figure out before teaching my dd to put too much of her life into it, kwim?

[CyndiLJ]

We just started using iMatch to store all our old CD's, my 13 year old son set it up over the holidays and now we can all access it when online! There is an annual fee of 24.95 but worth it to get rid of all those old CD's being stored. Also uploaded our amazon MP3's.

 

We use the iPads for a lot of things. I have special needs and English language learners, so we have DIctionary.com open constantly. There are several speech therapy apps which have been very useful. We use a couple of atlas', all the kids have their own daytimer style organizer which we are learning how to use and that I use religiously to keep our lives in order. It is synched to my Google calendar so I have all the info anytime I need it. We use it for current events reading and sharing news stories each morning using apps from USA Today and CNN. I have learned a lot from the TED apps. The History Channel has a cool app out as well. We are going to all learn how to use Keynote this next month, then the kids can do video/slide show presentations of material learned, which helps my dysgraphic kiddo a lot. We use the Kindle app for downloadable books that we buy once, and share across all iPads saving us a fortune. I do my banking online from an app, meal planning, note taking though I haven't yet found the perfect app for that. We use Wikipanion all day long as well.

 

I have to second the comments about how using an iPad versus a laptop or computer is more intuitive, and less obtrusive as we learn. It is more like having a small handbook at your side rather than a large piece of equipment that is cumbersome, so I see we are all using our reference tools far more often than we used to.

[Alessandra]

We just started using iMatch to store all our old CD's, my 13 year old son set it up over the holidays and now we can all access it when online! There is an annual fee of 24.95 but worth it to get rid of all those old CD's being stored. Also uploaded our amazon MP3's.

 

We use the iPads for a lot of things. I have special needs and English language learners, so we have DIctionary.com open constantly. There are several speech therapy apps which have been very useful. We use a couple of atlas', all the kids have their own daytimer style organizer which we are learning how to use and that I use religiously to keep our lives in order. It is synched to my Google calendar so I have all the info anytime I need it. We use it for current events reading and sharing news stories each morning using apps from USA Today and CNN. I have learned a lot from the TED apps. The History Channel has a cool app out as well. We are going to all learn how to use Keynote this next month, then the kids can do video/slide show presentations of material learned, which helps my dysgraphic kiddo a lot. We use the Kindle app for downloadable books that we buy once, and share across all iPads saving us a fortune. I do my banking online from an app, meal planning, note taking though I haven't yet found the perfect app for that. We use Wikipanion all day long as well.

 

I have to second the comments about how using an iPad versus a laptop or computer is more intuitive, and less obtrusive as we learn. It is more like having a small handbook at your side rather than a large piece of equipment that is cumbersome, so I see we are all using our reference tools far more often than we used to.

 

Loved your post. Can you share a bit about your speech therapy apps? We could really use something like this.

 

Atlasses -- I love these on iPad. Dd likes Barefoot Atlas, and we just got Atlas by Colloins. Do you have any other recommendations? I see that your dc are older than mine, and I am needing to move into more MS?HS types of apps.

[Sarah CB]

I'm really enjoying using iPads in co-op. In the TOG dialectic class that I teach, all of the kids have iPads. They do most of their discussion preparation on their iPads plus we use it for assignments. We've used ToonTastic to do assignments on the fall of Rome, or the treatment of Christians in Rome. It allows the kids to make up a story to show what they know about history and add in their own dialogue. They end up being pretty funny. My favourite new app is Explain Everything. It's kind of like a ramped up powerpoint/video app. I had each of the kids take a different thinking or accountability question one week and demonstrate the answer fully in Explain Everything. My son did the Viking invasion of Normandy. He was able to bring in visuals of Viking ships, forts, people, and maps. He had moving arrows showing where the Vikings came from and where they landed. They're able to work on one slide at a time, but each slide can have different movements in it and a whole dialogue as you're recording your voice explaining what is happening on the screen. Then when you press "play" the whole thing plays - it's pretty cool.

 

The kids all have Minecraft on their iPads as well. We had a couple of weeks where they were each working on a historical place (the Hagia Sophia, a castle, etc.) while we did our discussion. I was a little worried that they'd get so into their Minecraft that the discussion suffered, but it actually turned out really well. We had great discussions and the kids really got a kick out of doing Minecraft at co-op.

 

My youngest guy has used Pages to do some of his co-op assignments. It's easier for him to type than it is for him to print and he likes playing with titles and fonts to make his work look nice. He's also figured out how to search for images and import them into his document so he's ended up with some lovely pages to share with his class.

 

Outside of co-op, I've used Evernote to record bits of violin lessons while taking notes in the app. I like that I can organize the notes in whatever way I like and that it's easy to go back to them later.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We just started using iMatch to store all our old CD's, my 13 year old son set it up over the holidays and now we can all access it when online! There is an annual fee of 24.95 but worth it to get rid of all those old CD's being stored. Also uploaded our amazon MP3's.

 

We use the iPads for a lot of things. I have special needs and English language learners, so we have DIctionary.com open constantly. There are several speech therapy apps which have been very useful. We use a couple of atlas', all the kids have their own daytimer style organizer which we are learning how to use and that I use religiously to keep our lives in order. It is synched to my Google calendar so I have all the info anytime I need it. We use it for current events reading and sharing news stories each morning using apps from USA Today and CNN. I have learned a lot from the TED apps. The History Channel has a cool app out as well. We are going to all learn how to use Keynote this next month, then the kids can do video/slide show presentations of material learned, which helps my dysgraphic kiddo a lot. We use the Kindle app for downloadable books that we buy once, and share across all iPads saving us a fortune. I do my banking online from an app, meal planning, note taking though I haven't yet found the perfect app for that. We use Wikipanion all day long as well.

 

I have to second the comments about how using an iPad versus a laptop or computer is more intuitive, and less obtrusive as we learn. It is more like having a small handbook at your side rather than a large piece of equipment that is cumbersome, so I see we are all using our reference tools far more often than we used to.

 

Thanks for posting! Can you share your favorite atlas? I am struggling to compare different ones. The preview is insufficient!

[Alte Veste Academy]

I'm really enjoying using iPads in co-op. In the TOG dialectic class that I teach, all of the kids have iPads. They do most of their discussion preparation on their iPads plus we use it for assignments. We've used ToonTastic to do assignments on the fall of Rome, or the treatment of Christians in Rome. It allows the kids to make up a story to show what they know about history and add in their own dialogue. They end up being pretty funny. My favourite new app is Explain Everything. It's kind of like a ramped up powerpoint/video app. I had each of the kids take a different thinking or accountability question one week and demonstrate the answer fully in Explain Everything. My son did the Viking invasion of Normandy. He was able to bring in visuals of Viking ships, forts, people, and maps. He had moving arrows showing where the Vikings came from and where they landed. They're able to work on one slide at a time, but each slide can have different movements in it and a whole dialogue as you're recording your voice explaining what is happening on the screen. Then when you press "play" the whole thing plays - it's pretty cool.

 

The kids all have Minecraft on their iPads as well. We had a couple of weeks where they were each working on a historical place (the Hagia Sophia, a castle, etc.) while we did our discussion. I was a little worried that they'd get so into their Minecraft that the discussion suffered, but it actually turned out really well. We had great discussions and the kids really got a kick out of doing Minecraft at co-op.

 

My youngest guy has used Pages to do some of his co-op assignments. It's easier for him to type than it is for him to print and he likes playing with titles and fonts to make his work look nice. He's also figured out how to search for images and import them into his document so he's ended up with some lovely pages to share with his class.

 

Outside of co-op, I've used Evernote to record bits of violin lessons while taking notes in the app. I like that I can organize the notes in whatever way I like and that it's easy to go back to them later.

 

Thanks! Your use of Toontastic is awesome! Off to find Explain Everything...

[Tea 4 Three]

 

How did she do this? We are headed this direction for my ds too, and he loves the Siri voice. Does Siri read to her in Learning Ally too?

 

Learning Ally is all human read books. There isn't any print, so I check out the books from the library and she reads along as it is read to her. It has helped to improve her fluency. You can slow the voice down using the app. She just recently has been able to follow along at normal speed. Sometimes there is a reader that we don't care for, but overall, we have been pleased. It is MUCH better than the computer generated reading from Bookshare, there is so much more variety over others such as Audiobooks or Librivox, and it saves SO much money over using Audible or something similar.

 

We were advised by a teacher for the visually impaired to work extensively on strengthening her auditory skills by speeding the voice up so she is able to listen and comprehend at a faster rate. I incorporate that into her history as she listens to Story of the World. It isn't read as well as Jim Weiss, but it gets the job done;) She listens and then does a narration.

 

There is a setting for Siri to have her read to you. Go to Accessibility...then turn Speak Selection to ON...You can adjust the Speaking Rate in that as well. She can go pretty fast and we have ours set pretty far off center towards the turtle. You can also have it highlight words as it is spoken. We will occasionally use this feature. We keep Speak Auto-text and VoiceOver set at OFF. After you have your settings in place, all you do is highlight what you want her to read and it will give you a pop-up menu with Speak as an option.

 

Another feature that I like is Guided Access. Sometimes if she is working on something that is particularly challenging, she will tend to procrastinate and "wander" into other apps and waste time. Then I just put it into Guided Access and force the issue.

[FairProspects]

Learning Ally is all human read books. There isn't any print, so I check out the books from the library and she reads along as it is read to her. It has helped to improve her fluency. You can slow the voice down using the app. She just recently has been able to follow along at normal speed. Sometimes there is a reader that we don't care for, but overall, we have been pleased. It is MUCH better than the computer generated reading from Bookshare, there is so much more variety over others such as Audiobooks or Librivox, and it saves SO much money over using Audible or something similar.

 

Ok, now that I have reset everything to Siri, can Siri read the Bookshare books? I've put off paying for Learning Ally b/c of the cost, but we are close to the end of the library's catalog of audiobooks and ds hates the Bookshare electronic voice.

[Tea 4 Three]

 

Ok, now that I have reset everything to Siri, can Siri read the Bookshare books? I've put off paying for Learning Ally b/c of the cost, but we are close to the end of the library's catalog of audiobooks and ds hates the Bookshare electronic voice.

 

 

I can't answer that one. My dd HATED Bookshare so much I let it expire and didn't do anything further with it.

[happypamama]

About keeping notes, yes! I am loving the bigger qwerty keys and LOVE my stylus! When I try to type on my phone now, I feel like a giant ape! :lol: I am trying to embrace Dropbox. What I really would love is something for spreadsheets, because that is how I make our school schedules. Or I could just upload the one on the laptop and read it on the iPad? But what would allow me to make one from scratch on the iPad, I wonder...

 

 

I'm still getting used to my iPad, but I'm totally hooked so far. I don't have stylus yet, but I definitely think it will be helpful for writing, using the iPad as a whiteboard, writing on PDFs, etc. I love reading on it with iBooks and the Kindle app. I love Notability a lot, and I also have the Mango app for using Mango Languages through my library.

 

I've gotten used to Dropbox, and I like how easy it is to go between the iPad and our desktop. I also got the QuickOffice HD Pro app, and it can do spreadsheets from scratch or imported from OpenOffice from the desktop. It can do word processing too, though I haven't created anything from scratch with that yet. Between QuickOffice and Notability, I seem to be well-covered. I think my biggest issue is going to be two of us needing it at the same time -- DD wanting to read or do her math on it (she loves working electronically) while I also need it for something.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I'm still getting used to my iPad, but I'm totally hooked so far. I don't have stylus yet, but I definitely think it will be helpful for writing, using the iPad as a whiteboard, writing on PDFs, etc. I love reading on it with iBooks and the Kindle app. I love Notability a lot, and I also have the Mango app for using Mango Languages through my library.

 

I've gotten used to Dropbox, and I like how easy it is to go between the iPad and our desktop. I also got the QuickOffice HD Pro app, and it can do spreadsheets from scratch or imported from OpenOffice from the desktop. It can do word processing too, though I haven't created anything from scratch with that yet. Between QuickOffice and Notability, I seem to be well-covered. I think my biggest issue is going to be two of us needing it at the same time -- DD wanting to read or do her math on it (she loves working electronically) while I also need it for something.

 

 

Thanks! I am having a big issue with 4 other people "needing" it at the same time! :tongue_smilie:

[PeterPan]

 

We were advised by a teacher for the visually impaired to work extensively on strengthening her auditory skills by speeding the voice up so she is able to listen and comprehend at a faster rate. I incorporate that into her history as she listens to Story of the World. It isn't read as well as Jim Weiss, but it gets the job done;) She listens and then does a narration.

 

 

 

Are there other apps where I can adjust the speed of the audio playback?

[FairProspects]

These are the 12 Best Special Needs apps as rated by Special Ed. Teachers. The Sound Literacy one looks particularly amazing and is OG, so adaptable to AAS/AAR, but it is not cheap!

[Tea 4 Three]

 

Are there other apps where I can adjust the speed of the audio playback?

 

If Siri is reading it, you can slow it down. Unfortunately, Siri won't read from Kindle or Nook apps. But you can use the VoiceOver feature under Accessibility Settings to read from iBooks. I have played around with it, but we haven't used it functionally.

[PeterPan]

Siri requires you to be connected to the internet (wifi or 3G), right? We aren't. I updated the iOS, but I haven't even pushed the button. I just assumed it wouldn't work.

[JanetC]

Thanks to everyone for sharing their helpful tips!!!! :thumbup:

 

 

-- Evernote is available across platforms, but I didn't need that feature so much

 

 

The multi-platform feature of Evernote is a life-saver around here. I can get at my Evernote notebooks on either the "old" or "new" PCs (with the desktop app) and on my android phone, even via the web at the library. (Which has saved me a few times --- I have created worksheets on my phone in a waiting room and printed them later at the library on a busy day.)

 

I just got the ipad for Christmas, so I haven't used it heavily on that platform yet. But, having used Evernote for a year, "Notes everywhere in the cloud" is a must-have feature for me, though I can see "need it on my phone" being replaced by "need it on my ipad" as this year goes on.

[Erin]

OK, so I don't have an iPad and probably won't anytime soon, but I just want to say thanks for those of you who've mentioned Learning Ally! That site is great. $120 a year, and so far, every book I've needed to find, they have!

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. :)