Adobe Voice

For those of you who may not be familiar with Adobe Voice, it is a very good, easy to use, and intuitive app that can be used as an explanatory tool to explain concepts, ideas, or tell stories. 
What makes this iPad app even more appealing is that it is extremely intuitive and completely free!

It is very easy to get started. Upon opening the app there are three categories at the top: Explore, Projects, and Shared (see first screen capture below). 

Explore will allow you to look at other people's examples. Projects is the area where you will be able to save your stories that you create. Shared will allow you to share, view, and manage your stories. You will need an Adobe ID or you can sign in with your Facebook credentials to share your story. You have the ability to share your story privately (only people who have the link can see your story) or publicly whereby anyone using the app can see your story.

This app is ideal for teachers who want to explain concepts in a humorous manner using icons, pictures and text. The key thing to remember is that the app is used for short stories or recordings. Ideally, we would want to stay between 1-5 minutes.

Once you click on +Create a New Story at the top, you can begin creating your story. Once you enter a title you can choose from an array of templates or create your own depending on what you are trying to create and the message you are trying to send to your users.  Once you have chosen a format, in the center you can choose to enter an icon, a photo, or text (see second screen capture below). Many of the icons and the music tracks are copyright free or you have the rights to use realizing that at the end of your story, the person creating the icon or music will be given credit.
To record your voice to provide a voiceover for your story, tap and hold the Record button that looks like a microphone. Incidentally, to ensure that you keep your recording and story an appropriate length, you will be prompted to keep your recording short if it becomes too long.
The Layout, Theme, and Music options at the top will allow you to make appropriate choices to enhance your story.

Lastly, this app can be used as a tool to provide a quick overview of a concept in math class, a historical event or defining  and using vocabulary words just to name a few ways to use this app. In addition to using this app to explain concepts, ideas, or using it just as an explanatory tool, teachers can have students use this app to create their own projects. For example, if a teacher wants to check students' understanding of a concept, one can have students create their own story demonstrate how well they understood the concept. Or, for instance in a history class, a teacher can have students' demonstrate that they have understood the events or sequence of events related to a historical event.  

This is simply, an intuitive, fun, entertaining, and low cost way to add some pizzazz to your instructional arsenal!

  

Apps To Control Your Computer

Splashtop Whiteboard & Doceri

If one is an instructor, and one needs or wants to use one’s mobile device to control the computer in one’s classroom, then there are two very nice apps that will allow one to do this. They are: Splashtop Whiteboard and Doceri. 

Both will allow one to connect one’s mobile device to a PC (i.e. Windows) or Mac in the classroom and allow one to control the computer from the mobile device. These two apps are great tools to add another dimension to one’s instruction by allowing teachers and students to interact with the content as well as each other. Splashtop Whiteboard and Doceri will also allow the teacher to maneuver 

throughout the class while still providing instruction. Because  the mobile device is connected to the computer, students can also be given the opportunity to teach and interact with content or the computer. This is a nice way to allow students to present information or content, or allow students to conduct presentations right from the mobile device. 

How Does This Work? 

First the apps have to be downloaded from the appropriate app store depending on which mobile device one uses. For iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.) one needs to download the app from Apple’s app store. If one is using an Android-based device one will need to download the app from the Google Play store. Once the apps have been downloaded, then one will need to download the application software from the respective websites (Splashtop Whiteboard and Doceri). Then, it is just a matter of connecting the mobile device (using the app) to the computer (be sure to have the application software running on the computer when making the connection). Once the connection is made between the app on the mobile device and the computer, you are on your way!

If one is wondering which app is better or which app one should use, below are some comparisons:

1. The Splashtop Whiteboard app costs $19.99 but the software for the computer is free.
2. The Doceri app is free but the Doceri software for the computer costs $30.00 per license.
3. Both allow one to make annotations on the screen but I found the Splashtop Whiteboard annotations feature to be more user-friendly.
4. Doceri allows a teacher to record what is on the screen to be shared later with students who are absent or reviewing the information covered in class at a later time.
5. Both will allow a teacher to turn their computer into a touch-based device as one uses the app on the mobile device to control the computer.

Recommendation:

As much a I enjoyed Splashtop Whiteboard, and even though it costs less than Doceri, I found Doceri to be more robust and the recording feature gives it the edge. While $30 for a license is a little more than one would expect to pay, I think it is well-worth the cost. 

TeacherKit: The Organizer App For Teachers

If you are  a classroom teacher who needs help with organizing your classes and feel you don't have the time to always take attendance, record student behavior, and record grades then TeacherKit may be the app for you.

First, this app allows one to organize the classroom and create desk icons for every student in the class.  So, one can use one's iPhone or iPad to take quick easy attendance and then later transfer the attendance for the day into the school's official attendance system.  Or, if you don't want to create a seating chart on paper, then this app will certainly fit the bill.  And, if you do use a seating chart, remember how it gets worn out after a couple of weeks?  No worries with this app; just create a seating arrangement and it's there for however long you keep the class in the app.  Also, if you need to move a student's location in the real classroom, then you can also move the student's location in the app (just put your finger on the student's desk and drag the student to the appropriate location).  If one wishes to record attendance, then click on the Attendance tab. Then click the appropriate student's desk, and click once for Present, click twice for Absent, and click three times for Unrecorded. If one wishes to check the date or needs to make a change for a date, then click on the black date tab at the top to expand the view and see the calendar.  One can even click on the appropriate period below the calendar. Be sure to click on the blue Done button at the top when finished.  The number in the red circle at the top of each student's desk represents the number of absences that have been recorded for the student.  Looks like George Harrison and John Lennon already have two absences each (see picture below)!

The app also allows one to record behavior for each specific day. So, instead of creating a record on paper, one can record the behavior in the app by clicking on the Behavior tab at the top.  Then, click on the appropriate student's desk, and then click on the plus sign to add an entry; give the entry a title and then record whether the behavior is positive or negative, and add any corresponding notes in the Description field, and change the date and time, if appropriate, for the entry.  Then, click on the blue Save button in the top right corner (see picture below).

One can even enter grades into a gradebook.  Click on the Gradebook tab at the top. Then click on the plus sign in the top right corner and enter the pertinent information: title of assignment, description, date of assignment, how much the assignment was worth in points, and the weight of the assignment if desired.  If one needs to edit a grade, click on the appropriate grade field under each assignment column (see picture below).

Finally, one can access all pertinent information (attendance, behavior, and grades) from the main page.  Click on the My Class tab at the top (see picture below), and select a student. If one needs to edit information, click on the Edit button when the information window opens up.

Needles to say, this is a nice, clean app with an easy to use interface.  However, one should make sure to get permission from an administrator before beginning to record student information on the app.  I think you will find this app easy to use and make your record-keeping tasks easier as well.   

SlideShark!

I came across this great app called SlideShark from brainshark.  It allows one to run Power Point presentations right from one’s iPhone or iPad.  With the app, one can upload a presentation right from one’s email on an iPad or iPhone and then download it to their iPad or iPhone for viewing later or presenting.  This is awesome if you do not have Keynote, Power Point or other presentation software and apps loaded on your device. 

From your iPad or iPhone email, just touch the attachment file and hold until a menu displays that allows one to “Open in SlideShark”, and tap on said option.  Then tap on Upload and upload it to your account.  Afterwards, when you are ready to present, log into the SlideShark app and tap the Download button, and after downloading, touch the green Play button to present the Power Point. Swipe or tap to the left to advance the slides and swipe to the right to go back to a previous slide.

What’s really nice is that if you put your finger on the screen and hold it, you start the built-in laser pointer that can be used to focus your audience on a particular point on your slide.  When you are done, move your finger off the screen and you can begin moving the slides again.  You can even pair your iPhone or iPod touch to your iPad and use it as a remote to run your presentation on your iPad.  When you are finished with the presentation, just swipe up or tap the Home button on your iPad or iPhone, and you are finished.

This is a simple yet elegant way to present to your students from your mobile device, and you can store your presentations in the cloud with 100 MB of data available for a free account. This is a great, simple app to use to present using your mobile device.  Give it a try!

Evernote: The All-Purpose App!

There are very few apps that I would put in my hall of fame.  However, there is one app that I believe belongs there without question.  That app is Evernote.  There is a companion website, so one can use either the website or the app if one is on a mobile device.  

Essentially, Evernote will allow one to save clippings of information, web pages, and links to save and access later.  One may clip a page from a website and store it so one does not have to take up space on one's computer.  

Have you ever gone to a site and accessed information, for example, a recipe and wanted to save it in an electronic format to as not to have to write it down or print it?  I, myself, used to have to deal with this quagmire, and then I discovered Evernote.  Furthermore, with the Evernote app, one can use a mobile device's camera to take pictures and save the pictures in Evernote.  One can also make voice recordings and save the audio files in Evernote.  

So, to recap:  one may save clippings of sites, information from a website, pictures taken with a mobile device camera, and voice recordings or voice memos.  But wait, there's more!

Evernote is absolutely free!  Yes, you read that correctly!  One may sign up for the free account and get 60 megabytes of data upload for free.  One can certainly sign up for the paid (premium) account.  However, I have been using Evernote for several years now and rarely have I ever come close to exceeding the 60 megabyte limit for the month.  I still cannot believe that they offer a free version of Evernote.  This app is a must especially if you do a significant amount of research on the Internet!

If you are interested in the iOS version of the app, I have posted a link below for the iPhone/iPad version.  There is also a link below to Evernote's website where you may obtain more information on Evernote.  

Evernote App

Evernote Website

iTunesU

There is a gold-mine of resources and it's called iTunesU. iTunesU allows access to resources from universities and colleges. It even allows individuals to access college courses and materials for free.  Some of the larger universities are posting entire courses in iTunesU.  For example, Stanford University has posting their course on coding and creating iOS apps in iTunesU. 

Best of all, the materials are free!  All you have to do is download the iOS app (see link below) or download iTunes from apple.com/itunes and there is a section in the menu at the top labeled iTunesU.  Please see screen capture below.

This is most interesting, because with rise in college tuition, etc., could this be a model for future higher education?  What do you think?

iTunesU App

Khan Academy 

You may have heard about the Khan Academy.  But did you know there is a Khan Academy app? Indeed, not only will the app allow you to access videos that cover a variety of topics and content but it also transcribes the video as one is watching the video. This is a great tool to use for students who are hearing-impaired or for those students who need to have visual text to understand a concept or idea.

Below is a link to the iPad version of the app.

Khan Academy iPad App