Category Archives: Students

Anything relating to student devices

Faculty, iPads, Student, Students

Notability issue – Out of Storage

Think of your ipad as a filing cabinet with a limited amount of storage. If you fill up your filing cabinet, then nothing more can be stashed there until you toss some stuff.

If the cabinet [your iPad] is full, then Notability will NOT save what you’ve been working on.

How to tell how much storage you have used/have available:

Settings –> General –> About

How to tell what app is using the most storage:

Settings –> General –> Usage –> Manage Storage

Suggestions for clearing out some space:

  • First thing to try: Close out of all your apps [doubleclick home, swipe up all the apps], then reboot by holding down the power button until the “swipe to turn off” slider appears.
  • Second thing to try: Settings –> General –> Software Update. Click on the triangle at the bottom – it MAY let you delete the downloaded update file.
  • Photos & Camera: Delete any pix/videos you don’t need. If you have some you’d like to keep, upload them to Drive and then delete from the iPad
  • To upload pix/vids to Drive: fire up the Drive app. Create a folder where you’d like to stash the files. Click the PLUS icon. Select “Upload Photos or Videos”, then camera roll. Click to select the files you’d like to upload, THEN CLICK THE BLUE CHECKMARK at the top right.
  • iBooks: delete anything that you don’t need anymore
  • Notability: delete anything not needed. If you don’t need it NOW but want to keep it, upload the file to Drive by clicking on the Export icon at the top of the screen.

    http://tech2.mountdesales.net/blog/2013/ipad-how-why-backups/ has detailed instructions.

  • Mail: Sometime Mail is taking up tons of room, especially if you never delete anything. Mail is actually downloading a COPY of your emails from the server – to clean things up without actually deleting the mails, delete the account from your iPad [Settings –> Mail]. When you set it up again, select “Google” for the account type.
Make Tech Easier, More, Students, Video

Virtual Light Lab – make a movie

[4/14/15 update: added section about getting your video into iMovie on your iPad, at the bottom.]

Virtual Light Lab is installed in all the ARC computers. It allows you to design stage lighting and experiment without all that mucking around with electrical cables and gobos and such.

After you have created your show, you can save it as a quicktime movie [which can then be plopped into your Google Drive and viewed on your iPad]. Here’s how:

[Click on each graphic to see the bigger version]

1. Call up the SlideShow

VLL 1

2. The instructions give you an overview of the process.

Basically you give a save location and filename, set some parameters, and then manually step through your slideshow by clicking the play button.VLL 2

3. IMPORTANT: Make sure you add .MOV to the end of your filename. The program tries to add .moov, and quicktime doesn’t know what that is. [Neither dfoes anything else.]

VLL 4

4. Next up: parameters [aka settings]. Here is what I suggest.

VLL 5Greater frames per second = less jerky motion but bigger filesize.
Better compressor quality = better quality images but bigger filesize.

You might try using “low” quality, or even least, to see if they are good enough.

5. Notice the record button is green.VLL 66. Click the PLAY button.

The RECORD button will turn red, and behind the scenes a movie file is being created. YOU determine the length of each scene by how fast you click through. VLL 7

WHEN DONE, CLICK THE RECORD BUTTON AGAIN.

 

7.  You may see this dialog after clicking record. Click Yes.VLL 8

8. Then your movie will open and you can see if you like the results.

vll movieIf you don’t like them, switch back to the slideshow and record again. You’ll have to redo the settings each time.

If you DO like the result, then you can email the file, stash it in google drive [drive.google.com], trash it, etc.

 

Once those files are in Drive, how do you get them into iMovie on your iPad?

 

Summary:

  1. Fire up the Drive App
  2. Navigate to the desired file – I suggest starting with the VIDEO file first.
  3. Click the “I” icon, on the right.
  4. Click “Open in….”
  5. Click the 2nd “Open In….”
  6. Select “iMovie”
  7. iMovie loads the file.
  8. Go back to the Drive app.
  9. Select the “I” icon for the audio file.
  10. Click “Open in….”
  11. Click the 2nd “Open In….”
  12. Select “iMovie”
  13. iMovie asks if you want to create a NEW movie, or to add it to the “Last one edited”. Select Last one Edited.
  14. The audio is placed in the project.
Faculty, Faculty/Staff, iPads, Student, Students

iBook not downloading?

If your purchased iBook is not downloading, here are a couple of things to doublecheck:

  • Make sure you are indeed on the network. Try going to an OFF-campus website [hamsandwichtees.com, for example]. If it’s time to re-up your network subscription, the login screen should popup.
  • Reboot your machine. Hold down the power button until the “Slide to Turn Off” slider pops up.
  • Make sure you have room for the book on your iPad.  Settings –> About, and then look at “Available“.
  • Try clicking the download icon on the book again – and leave the app open and the iPad on for a while. If nothing changes after 15 minutes, then it’s time to call in Support.

Before you go the the website and contact Apple Support, make a note of these things about your iPad. This will save some time. Open up Settings –> About:

  • iPad Model
  • Capacity
  • Available
  • AppleID used in iBooks

Then surf over to this page:   https://getsupport.apple.com/Issues.action

  • You want help with iTunes
  • iTunes Store
  • Connecting & downloading
  • Incomplete or interrupted downloads

Then you get to choose how you want to communicate with tech support – email, chat windows, etc.

How long this process will take will change depending on the day, time of day, how many other people are trying to get technical support help, etc.

SAVE TME AND AGGRAVATION. FOLLOW THIS ADVICE:

  • Be as specific as possible about the problem. Don’t just say “well, it’s like it kinda does this“. Write down what the error message is [if there is one], or describe what the exact problem is [“I redeemed the code and the book is not downloading.”]
  • Speak/Type clearly. Enunciate. use complete sentences, correct grammar, punctuation, etc.
  • Good communication gives the impression of intelligence, and you’re more likely to get better help.