Office 365, Google Apps for Education & AirHead may keep you cool under pressure

For many people, logging in to multiple web based services is a real pain in the backside. In schools, when you add in the pressured pace of life and dynamic nature of the environment, the pain can really stack up.

It’d be very cool to just have one log in that spoke to every other system as access was needed aka a ‘single sign-on’. But as Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker in Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Logging out of systems suddenly becomes very important.

How could Office 365 or Google Apps for Education help life in school?

Lots of schools now choose to adopt one or the other platform (& sometimes bits of each) because it means they’re in a good position to get one step closer to the dream of single sign-on. One unique username (often an email address) and password will not only get each person into Office 365/Google but even better is that they can use these same credentials to log in to other systems too.

Find out more about having Google Apps for Education in your school
Find out more about having Office 365 in your school

Take Blippit as an example

Schools using Office 365 or Google Apps for Education can now use their school details to log in and get busy making apps, code projects and so on. We make a simple change on the school’s Blippit account and then that’s it. There’s no more extra account creation, management or delayed lesson starts while someone sorts out their password. Any password changes that happen are triggered through Office 365 or Google and when this happens it doesn’t affect any other system, including Blippit.

If your school uses Blippit IO and wants to reduce the number of tech admin jobs for colleagues as well as the number of usernames and passwords children/teachers have to remember then visit these two ‘how to’ articles for Office 365 or Google Apps. Start saving time, energy & blood vessels today.

Find out more about setting Blippit up with Office 365 or Google Apps

AirHead

Blippit IO is also available on AirHead which, when you first have a go with the free version, allows you to enter your Blippit IO username & password then securely remember it for wherever you are and whichever computer you’re using. It’s a superb way to begin to experience the convenience of simplified sign on. Dig deeper and you’ll also find that AirHead can offer your school a different way of making children’s and teacher’s lives a lot easier because it also integrates with Office 365 and Google Apps for Education among other things.

Find out more about having AirHead in your school

25th May 201630th December 2016

Fully Revised Yr 6 Unit for Summer 2016

Written to go hand in glove with Blippit’s App Maker over a half-term including video links and more for use in class.

Also included is a bonus mini-unit that we suggest you use as a ‘warm up’ lesson to heighten awareness of and increase ‘code curiosity’ in the children.

It’s all step-by-step with ready-to-go plans and videos built in so depending on your confidence level you can use it as is or do a bit of computing jazz and give it your own flavour.

Just click below to download the free PDF

19th May 201630th December 2016

Blippit IO Free Version Project Limits Change

Since we started doing the free version of Blippit IO we’ve been so pleased at the response and uptake from thousands of users. It was the right thing to do for everyone what with time-limited trials being a headache for everyone.

This weekend we did the cloud equivalent of a full skeleton transplant with Blippit IO. It was pretty intense but in order to enable schools who were behind older proxy servers it had to be done and hopefully it will pay off for those schools now who may not even realise the restrictions being applied to their web use.

All things for a reason though we like to think. As part of the ‘transplant’ we also had to re-allocate a big chunk of Blippit’s resources to ensure that schools who had upgraded to unlimited everything were getting the best service possible. We’re really pleased with the results now even though we had to skim some resources from our many lovely free Blippit users.

Thankfully the re-allocation has been managed well and the upshot is that by reducing the project cap from 15 to 10 per free school account we’ve balanced our resources out. It’s a shame we can’t do more for our free users but hopefully groups and individuals can still do what they need to do on the free version. We’ve updated our terms of use to reflect this change as of 19/5/16

15th April 201618th January 2018

Blippit IO – New Browser Based Version LIVE!

Schools have been asking for a browser-based version of Blippit IO so today we launched one.

You only need Google’s Chrome browser to use the new version of Blippit (Log In blippit.io) (UAE Ministry of Education Log In appmaker.moe.gov.ae) ) which hopefully means less hassle for you and your students.

Blippit IO New Look and Feel

Blippit has also had a face lift designed to help you move nimbly around the screen while you’re making apps, block programming, coding or having a video call.

We’ve added

a full screen feature (top right)
clean and simple arrow screen management (side panel tops

26th March 201630th December 2016

How to Update your Blippit IO Chrome App Extension

Updating the Chrome Extension version Blippit IO sometimes needs a bit of encouragement.

Many teachers have said

I don’t have a Chromebook

But to use this popular version of Blippit you only need the Chrome Browser not a Chromebook.

At time of writing we’re currently on version 2.2.4. The quickest way to check if you’re on vers. 2.2.4 at a glance is that the tool bar looks like this.

If you’re not on 2.2.4 then follow the steps below.

First

Last

Not Installed a Chrome Extension Before?

You can get it here directly or watch the video first.

18th February 201630th December 2016

Want the Chrome Version of Blippit IO?

In the USA, the Chromebook is the number one selling device into education from K-12. Globally, well take a look for yourself at how the Chrome Browser is doing. It’s pretty incredible.

browsers map stats

We love Chrome and Chromebooks but amazingly so few people in the UK and beyond have got to grips with how simple it is to speed up access to applications in the classroom.

So we decided, after a bit of a prompt from @TomSale (it was on the to do list Tom), to make a quick video to show you and your students exactly what to do and how to do it. Enjoy!

Music: http://www.bensound.com

18th November 2015

Blippit Torus New App Launch – explore, scan & share!

Blippit Torus is our new QR Code Reader app built exclusively for Blippit IO App Maker users.

With schools moving over to the new Blippit IO we’ve now released Blippit Torus as an all new and totally free companion app that’ll make exploring apps, scanning QR codes & sharing apps a whole lot easier.

Log in as an Admin with your Blippit IO details to get your school view of all student apps which is ideal for seeing at-a-glance who has made what for evaluation/assessment purposes.
Logging in as a Student with your Blippit IO login gives you all your published apps in one place as well as fellow students.

Available for Android on Google Play & iPhone/iPad on the iOS App Store

18th November 2015

App Shy or App Proud? Blippit IO caters for both

We know some teachers don’t want all apps to be showcased for their own reasons.

This is a ‘top tip’ blog post for all Blippit IO Admins who have the job of saying yes/no and providing feedback on submitted apps from students.

How to control whether apps are showcased in Planet Blippit or still go live but ‘not’ appear in Planet Blippit.
blippitiovisibleinvisible

How to view a student app if you’ve chosen not to list it on Planet Blippit

The Administrator clicks the ‘View App’ button View an app that is not listed on planet blippit

and a QR Code will be created for you to scan with *Blippit Torus and get the app.

scan with blippit torus

How the student gets their app if it’s not on Planet Blippit

student scans qr code

*Blippit Torus has not been published just yet but we hope to bring good news soon

6th October 201530th December 2016

Blippit IO FREE Version

Schools from 9/10/15 (GMT evening) will be able to use all of Blippit IO’s tools for FREE!

Included:

Blippit IO App Maker
Blippit IO PureCode Python (text based coding)
Blippit IO Spotlight (video web conferencing)

You’ll be able to set up unlimited student and teacher users accounts within your school to use all of Blippit IO’s tools whenever and wherever you choose (subject to the t’s and c’s). *Schools can upgrade their FREE Account to ‘unrestricted use’ at any time as per usual.

App Maker Privacy

Administrators can now choose whether or not to publish a student’s app onto Planet Blippit

Planet Blippit or Not

App Maker Animation

We have re-designed both the Image Widget and Slideshow Widget so that you can now upload animated Gif files into your app. These clever little files can be seen on any mobile device and have seen a resurgence in popularity recently. Here’s an example of such an animated gif featuring Blippit IO PureCode Python.

Animated Gif - Just do it!

Here’s another showing animated images in the rebuilt Slideshow Widget. Don’t watch them too long though or you may go a bit mad.

Image Widget Editor

Upload and press ‘Edit Image’ to open up the powerful image editor right there in Blippit IO App Maker. Add text, Instagram-type filters, stickers and more sophisticated effects with ease and speed. This in it’s own right transforms what users can creatively achieve in their app projects.

Blippit IO App Maker Image Editor

#freefriday #blippitio

*free accounts are not available for home-school arrangements or schools using single-sign on platforms in the UK. Schools using single0-sign on setups can of course register outside of their single sign-on platform but they would then have to log in outside of their normal habits and subsequently have more than a single sign on account to manage.

Blippit IO FREE Version! Computing App Making, Python coding, video web conferencing

19th May 2015

New Blippit IO Knowledge Base & Support

We’re building a brand new Blippit IO knowledge base for schools to supplement how you can find solutions to queries and create support requests too.

When you are not Registered the Knowledge Base will look like this.

<br />

When you ARE registered here’s a peek at what’s there now…

[thumbnail src=”http://blog.blippit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Solutions___Blippit-1024×849.png”]

…and here’s a sample of a Solution article

[thumbnail src=”http://blog.blippit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Solutions___Blippit-2.png”]