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Thursday, February 28, 2019

How to download free Android Apps as .APK files using the APK downloader

During our tablet training for teachers in Limpopo and Gauteng last year we needed to easily share free apps with the teachers in a way that the apps wouldn't take up a lot of space on their tablets. This post highlights a great way to share free apps without having to download them again. You download apps from the Google Play store as APK files. This is a manual process.


What is an APK file?
APK stands for Android Package Kit and is the file format that Android uses to distribute and install apps. It contains all the elements that an app needs to install correctly on your device. It doesn't install the app on your device unless you ask it to. The main thing to note about APK files is that you need to be sure they are legitimate and not files from malicious developers that have somehow added their ransomware to the Play store.

How do you download an app as an APK file?All you do is download the apps from Google Play on to an SD card using a special downloader called APK downloader (http://apk-dl.com/), You store them on the SD card as APK files. When they need to be used, you. install them from the SD card on to your Android device.
Here is the process explained more fullyLet's look at this step-by-step.

Step 1: Use your PC for this process and not the Android tablet in this case.

Step 2: Search for the apps you like using the Google Play Store
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Step 3.
Open APK downloader from http://apk-dl.com/

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Step 4: Find the app you are looking for
Search the Google Play store and find the app you want to download to your SD card. In this case for Kidoko Free the URL is http://bit.ly/2IHYFNZ

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Step 5: Type this URL into the APK downloader page and press GO.

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Step 6:
Find the download button

It will take you to a page with plenty of details and where you can download the file.

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Watch the file download
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Add this file to your folder of Android apps on your computer and then transfer these to your SD card. Whenever the app is to be used click on it in the SD card and install it.

This was a great way to share the relevant apps for each training quickly and effectively on the teachers' Android tablets when needed.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Free reading sites to use on World Read Aloud Day – or anytime!

1 Feb, is World Read Aloud Day. Exciting reading activities are taking place all over the world. People all around the globe are reading aloud together and sharing stories on this day, to promote literacy as a human right that belongs to all people. It is important to celebrate days like these that put reading in focus. However, reading aloud to children should take place every day! In my previous blog post, Reading aloud to children - is it important? I wrote about what some of the research studies show about the importance of reading aloud to children.


Taken from the Nalibai site
Activities we will see happening on Read Aloud Day
Here are a few examples:
  1. Some people create their own special one-on-one read aloud moment at school or at home. The Litworld website gives a read aloud guide that shows how to read to children effectively.
  2. Many teachers connect virtually with authors, classrooms, and more for a special read aloud session using Skype.
  3. Some classes around the globe read to each other via Skype.
  4. Many websites such as KidLitTV have some read aloud sessions where children can watch people reading awesome children’s books.
Our World Read Aloud Day celebration in Grade 3
I am the computer teacher at my school, and my Grade 3 class celebrated World Read Aloud Day in the computer lab. In this post I want to tell you about some of the things we did on WRAD and show you some of the reading sites we visited.  

1. World Read Aloud Day with Nalibalihttps://nalibali.org/
Here in South Africa, Nal'ibali (isiXhosa for “here's the story”), a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children's potential through storytelling and reading, always does something great for World Read Aloud Day. Every year on World Read Aloud Day, Nalibali commissions a brand-new story and translates it into all 11 official SA languages. This year's story is "Where are you?" written by Ann Walton. It can be downloaded from their website free of charge.  Nalibali encourages adults and caregivers across the country, to join them in reading it aloud to children on WRAD (World Reading Aloud Day) They have called this the #WRADChallenge2019. 

We downloaded the story and read it together, aloud, in our computer lesson. 


After that 
the class visited a number of websites to see what they were about, and then they selected and read a story from one of the following sites, aloud. but softly!

2. The African Storybook website
https://www.africanstorybook.org/
This is a wonderful local website that has a huge amount of Grade R-4 beautifully illustrated Creative Commons picture storybooks that one can read, translate, change etc. I have done numerous activities using this website. The stories are in many different African languages - one simply has to choose English. The storybooks can be read online or offline, or downloaded from the website and printed. All the storybooks are available for free. The website is also available as an app that one can download. 


3. Storyweaver website
https://storyweaver.org.in/
This is a wonderful website from India that has a huge amount of Creative Commons beautifully illustrated stories. It works on similar lines to the African Storybook website in that the 
storybooks can be read online or offline, or downloaded from the website and printed. All the storybooks are available for free. They also focus on Indian languages but all one has to do is type in English for a large variety of lovely stories. The website was awarded a substantial grant from Google which enabled it to expand its storybase to 11,154 stories in 136 languages.


Both of the above story websites make use of four levels in reading:

Level 1: Easy words, word repetition, less than 250 words
Level 2: Simple concepts, up to 600 words
Level 3: Longer sentences, up to 1500 words
Level 4: Longer, more nuanced stories, more than 1500 words

4. Storyline online
https://www.storylineonline.net/
This is a popular children's literacy website created by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which provides free storytelling videos and resources for parents and teachers to foster a love of reading in children. The stories are nearly all, if not all, in the form of videos.


5. Litworld
https://kidlit.tv/category/read-out-loud/ This is a site I haven't used much yet, but I plan to explore it. LitWorld is a nonprofit organization founded by literacy expert Pam Allyn in 2007. LitWorld works with a broad coalition of national and international partners to ensure that young people worldwide can experience the joy and transformation of reading, writing, and storytelling.  They have an interesting approach in that their year-round, child-centered programming is designed to develop each of the 7 Strengths which LitWorld sees as inherent in every child. LitWorld’s 7 Strengths are: Belonging, Kindness, Curiosity, Friendship, Confidence, Courage, and Hope.


Studies show that one of the most important things we can do for our children, at home and at school, is to read aloud to them. The benefits are enormous when this becomes an ongoing practice. Why not make reading aloud to your class a daily habit?