Today our guest blogger is E. Berenice Marquina, Adjunct Instructor in the department of Hispanic Studies.
We are using the book Aventuras (Vista Higher Learning), and the online homework platform called “Supersite”. The Supersite offers access to the vText. Every time that I need to access the book, I have to log-in into the Supersite. The iPad saves you time, and if you are moving from one classroom to another (I am teaching five SPAN-190 classes this semester), you just need to log-in once, and connect and disconnect your iPad in each classroom. If you connect your iPad to the projector, students can follow your explanations and work in the activities with you.
The vText has a highlighting tool, and it allows you to write notes or comments on the book, but it is not the instructor edition. You can see the highlighting text, and open the notes, but you cannot do it in the iPad(I’m sure there is a way, but I haven’t find it yet). So, I have to write and highlight the notes in the vText in my computer. The book has icons that connect with videos, tutorials, presentations and recordings resources in the Supersite. If I need to play a video or a recording I just “click” on the icon. It’s easy and simple.
I really like the vText, and my students seem to like it when I use the projector to support my explanations. I think students benefit listening to the recordings that come with the text because they have access to different accents from all the Spanish-speaking countries.
Aventuras has also an ebook, but I haven’t tried it yet. We just adopted the book this semester, and I decided to start with the vText. The ipad is great, but I still use the computer to access the Supersite and the vText some days. It is not because I don’t like the iPad, but because I move around the classroom all the time. I wish there were a wireless way to just connect the iPad to the projector without using the computer.
