When starting a lesson I like to go and stand quietly behind the "least settled" student and while using a prepared presentation containing a few relevant images I kick off a lesson talking about what it is we are learning - it enables the visual learners to "see" what it is while the "auditory" students listen and at the same time I manage to have the class quickly settled and focused.More and more I felt my Macbook was like a ball-and-chain tying me to the front of the room when I needed to change slides. So utilising my love for gadgets I bought a Logitech VX nano cordless mouse (it has the smallest USB receiver pictured on left). I have used it extensively in the classroom and I feel lost without it.
The first few lessons the students were wondering how it was the images on the projector were changing while I stood quietly down the back of the room behind the fidgetting adolescent. It made perfect sense and I wondered why other colleagues did not see a cordless mouse being an essential teaching tool. It gave me the freedom to walk all around the classroom and maintain full control of my Mac. I was no longer tied to the front bench!
Having already mentioned a love for gadgets... this year I "invested" in a 32GB itouch, my first ipod. Very similar to the iphone but (obviously) without the phone and camera capacity. Most app's for the iphone are compatible with the itouch. This introduced me to alternative ways of controlling my Mac.
First was "Mobile Air Mouse"
It works by installing server software on your computer and transmitting the data over wifi. It has two modes, you can use the iPod/iPhone accelerometer to move the mouse as shown in the video clip (which doesn’t work too well on the mac yet) or you can use the iPod screen like a laptop touch pad. The bonus is the keyboard function. Allowing you to wander around your class and interact with your laptop as if you were sitting right at it.
I would like to say at this point... I have found that it is NOT the easiest to use and would not recommend using it in a professional/serious context due to the fiddly nature of it. Perhaps with practice I will feel more confident but there is nothing worse than fumbling around when you are trying to present a "polished performance".
The second app I came across for controlling my Mac using my itouch was Stagehand.While it ONLY controls keynote presentations and nothing else, it does it with a huge amount of finesse. It gives you all your presenter notes on the itouch/iphone screen for the current slide. It allows you to move to the next slide (or previous slide) in fact any slide! Turning the device (itouch) to the landscape position actually gives you the slide itself on your device. In this mode you can two-finger flick to the next slide. If you want to highlight a point on the presentation, using ONE finger will bring up the highlighting capacity and where ever on the presentation you are touching it will appear highlighted.
If you are a Mac user, chances are you do not use keynote. You probably use powerpoint for your presentations. Just remember Keynote is very clever and can open powerpoint presentations and that means you can save it in the keynote format which then allows stagehand to work.
The only final point I have not made is the stagehand software links with the laptop via wifi so you will need wifi for this application to work!
There are lots of other ways to control the Mac from an itouch/iphone. Here are a few others I have come across:
PearPad
Snatch
iClickr
Jaadu Click
Good luck with controlling your Mac from your itouch/iphone and please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any experience with any other applications I'm always keen to refine the skill of "Controlling the Mac".
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With the release of iwork 09' there is a new app and it is 1/10th the price of stagehand. You can check it out here.
With the release of iwork 09' there is a new app and it is 1/10th the price of stagehand. You can check it out here.
