Awesome iPad App: Touchcast Studio

Using video in the classroom helps those visual learners master content and keeps them engaged. Unfortunately video tends to be a passive activity where students simply sit and watch. No more! Now with TouchCast teachers (and students) can make interactive videos where students can tap the screen to interact with the video, take a poll, view a website within the video, scroll through a document, and more. Think of it as ThingLink for videos.

TouchCast is a free iPad app that teachers and students and students in most grade levels can use. Here is a TouchCast made by Lindsay Baker (@linzbaker), an educator from California. In this video she models many of the interactive video features available. 

If the interactive part doesn't work, try viewing the video from the TouchCast website at https://www.touchcast.com/baker1123/heres_how_to_use_a_touchcast_in_your_classroom

TouchCast produces a channel called EduCasts that features the best educational TouchCasts being made. These videos will give you ideas of how other teachers and classrooms are using TouchCast. You can view them at http://www.touchcast.com/educasts/ along with lesson plans at http://www.touchcast.com/lessonPlan/

Getting started with TouchCast is easy. Sign up is free for both teachers and students, but does require an email address. Creating a touchcast is done in 5 steps:

1. Scripting and planning

Have students write out a script, planning what they want to say and allowing time (pauses) in the script for vApps to appear on screen and stay there for a few seconds.

2. Filming

Launch TouchCast, make sure you are on the Cast Side, and tap the Start from Scratch theme.

The Effects tab at the bottom of the screen lets you add filters, add guides to help line things up, and add Green Screen.

You can also add Whiteboards where you can annotate on the screen.

3. Editing video clips

All of the clips from filming are in the Projects tab. You can re-order the clips, trim them down, duplicate and add transitions. Put all the clips together in the order you want them to appear in the video. Once individual clips are merged into one large video, import the video back into TouchCast using the Start from Scratch theme again.

4. Preparing interactive content

To add interactive content (vApps), tap the vApps button. Tap any of the apps to customize it and then tap Use. All selected vApps will appear in the vApp tray at the bottom of the screen, ready to use during the touchcast simply by tapping it. They can be positioned anywhere on the screen by dragging it, resized, and changing the options by tapping the gear icon. When everything is done be sure to save the project.

5. Recording the touchcast.

Press the red Record button and start recording, adding the vApps as you go. Tap the Done button when you are finished and you can preview the touchcast. You can always go back and edit the video or the vApps.

6. Exporting

When everything is like you want, tap Export TouchCast, name the touchcast and press Save. When you are signed in to your account it will save to your TouchCast channel as well as giving you the option to save to the Camera Roll.

There is a lot of power in this little app that allows you and your students to create some high quality videos. It seems to have a little learning curve and certainly requires some pre-planning (scripting), but I think students will enjoy working with it.

In my classroom this year, I plan on having a mini video studio set up in one corner of the room with green screen capabilities. Students will be able to use the iPads to create reports, screencasts, and other projects. I think TouchCast will be a great addition to this area.

Have you used TouchCast with your students? Let me know in the comments what you have done with it.

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Awesome iPad App: Videoliscious

Videoliscious is a simple video creation app for iPads. The app is free, but has a 60 second limit. It's simple to use, has a clean interface, and is great for creating short videos on the go.

There are only 3 steps needed to create the videos. The app makes it super easy for students by walking them through each step.

Step 1

Select videos and photos you want to use. These can be from the Photos app or take live video with the camera. It includes a tool to let you trim your video so you can include just the right shot.

Step 2

Add narration to the video. After choosing microphone only, students record their voice as they narrate over videos and photos. The videos and photos chosen in Step 1 appear in the bottom right corner. As the student talks, they tap on each video or picture. These are all combined to make the full video.

Step 3

Add background music from the Videoliscious library. The free version is severely limited in the number of options, but the chosen music is ducked under the narration from Step 2.

Finished videos can only be saved to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or emailed to the teacher. They are not saved to the camera roll.

This app is straight forward and easy to use. Students can easily master it in a matter of seconds. It's great for short (60 second) projects.  One limitation is where the video is saved. Since it's not saved to the camera roll, the only viable option is to email it to the teacher.

Check out these two blogs for some ideas of how this app could be used in the classroom.

Oral Presentations
Vocabulary

Although the 60 second time limit and inability to save to the camera roll are limitations, I think I will include this app in my video toolbox on our class iPads. I'm excited to share it with my students to see what they come up with. Let me know in the comments how you are using this app with your students!

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Awesome iPad App: Spark Page

Adobe recently recently rebranded several of their apps and now collectively calls them Adobe Spark. With Adobe Spark students can communicate ideas and learning with stunning visuals and multimedia, each focusing on a different presentation format (video, social media, and web page). I believe all three apps should be a part of everyone's presentation toolbox. All three Spark apps make it easy to create professional looking presentations that include stunning images, videos, and text.

I previously wrote about Adobe Voice (now rebranded as Spark Video), which is used to create amazing student narrated videos. Today I played with Spark Page and found a new favorite presentation app. Students can add pictures, videos, and text to create polished web stories with magazine-style themes. It’s so simple and easy to use that students in most grade levels and across all subject areas can use it.

It is available as a free app for mobile devices and also has a web page. Students can log in with an email address or their GAFE accounts. Projects are synced across all devices.

I embedded a short presentation I created while practicing with Spark Page. It was super easy and looks great!

Once students are logged in, either by creating free account or signing in with their GAFE credentials, they create their first project by tapping the + button at the bottom of the screen. From this main screen students can also view sample projects from the gallery and have quick access to their saved pages.

Students are then prompted to add a title and a cover picture.

 
When selecting images for any part of the project, students can choose from a variety of sources, such as the camera, Photos app, and even search high quality, creative commons photos.

Students can then start adding a variety of elements to their Spark Page, including images, text, links, and videos. One of my favorites is glideshow, where students add several images and they slowly transition as the user scrolls or swipes up the web page.

Adding links creates a button, that when tapped, take the user to other websites for additional information. Students just need to add the text for the button and the URL for the website.

When the project is done, students tap the share icon and choose their settings. Projects can be public or private. They must select a category and can add their information as the author of the post.

Projects can be shared by copying the link to the clipboard and sending to the teacher or embedding it on a website, like I did above.

Integration Ideas

This is the perfect app for students to use when presenting any type of information or report. Some examples could be:

• Create an All About Me story
• Summarize a chapter
• Recount a story
• Share a biography
• Create a how-to video
• Present a position on a topic
• Cultural explanations
• Journal of field trip
• Book trailer
• Descriptive language practice
• Create a dictionary

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Spark Page and see if you are up to the challenge!

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Student Presentation Apps

Today was my district's annual iDevice Mini-Conference. I always love these conferences because of all the learning and sharing. There are so many good ideas that come from them! I facilitated two sessions on student presentations. Because of the focus on iDevices, I shared several apps that I love to use for helping students share their learning.

Rather than just focus on tools, I like to discuss ways to help students be better presenters. My inspiration comes from a blog post by Lisa Nielsen called Stop Letting Good Students Do Bad Presentations.  She outlines 6 tips teachers can use to help students be better presenters. I think these tips are more important than learning the apps. It doesn't matter how well students use the app or how easy the app is, if they present their content poorly all the hard work is lost.

My beginners session focused on 3 basic apps that are simple enough for students and teachers to transition from the idea of PowerPoint to doing the same style presentations on an iPad. The session handout can be downloaded here and the presentation is below.


Student Presentation Basics - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

The three apps I focused on for this session are

• Keynote
• Haiku Deck
• Educreations

In the advanced session I also added information about a new presenting method I absolutely love called PechaKucha. PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where students show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and students talk along to the images. This helps them be concise and stay on topic. It forces them to let pictures tell their story.

The session handout can be downloaded here and the presentation is embedded below.


Engaging Student Presentations - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

The three apps I focused on for this session were specifically chosen because they don't follow the traditional slideshow format typically used in PowerPoint.

• ThingLink
•  Sock Puppets
• Adobe Voice

These are some simply, yet powerful apps that can really help students be creative and show their learning.

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Awesome iPad App: Adobe Voice

Storytelling is a powerful way to inspire students and give them a voice. They inspire us, catch our attention, and solidify concepts in our mind. The way stories are created and shared can be just as powerful. Students don't need a tool to be so complicated that it gets in the way of the telling of the story. 

Adobe Voice is an iPad app that follows this philosophy. Check out this two minute video from Adobe Voice that shows this philosophy.

 

Voice is so easy to use that students at virtually any grade level could use it. When you launch Adobe Voice the first time, it includes an on screen tutorial to walk you through the process of creating your story. Once you know what you're doing you can skip that and go straight to the creation!

The app starts by asking you to enter a topic for your story. Swiping up from the bottom reveals suggestions for different types of stories.

Voice then offers a story structure for various kinds of stories. The structure includes a certain number of slides with suggestions for what story element to include on that slide. You can also start from scratch. Make your choice and tap Pick This One.

Choose a Layout for the slide you are on.

Choose a Theme for the entire story.

Choose Music for the entire story.

On each slide you tap the + to add an icon, photo, or text. There are thousands of iconic images to choose from.

If you select photo you can import from the camera, camera roll, or Dropbox.

Tap the microphone and record what you want to say. It's best to add only one or two sentences on a slide. Let the pictures help you tell the story.

When your whole story is done tap the Share icon and save the video to your camera roll.

Adobe Voice maintains a YouTube channel with some really good videos that offer some more advanced tips and tricks.

Integration Ideas

• Create an All About Me story
• Summarize a chapter
• Recount a story
• Share a biography
• Create a how-to video
• Present a position on a topic
• Cultural explanations
• Journal of field trip
• Book trailer
• Descriptive language practice
• Create a dictionary

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Adobe Voice and see if you are up to the challenge!

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Awesome iPad App: Sock Puppets

Digital storytelling is one of my favorite activities for students to do on the iPad. Letting them do this really brings out their creativity. If done correctly, students can still go through the writing process, learning all those needed skills, and still create a fun product in the end.

Sock Puppets is one of those apps that lets you create digital stories. With it you can create your own puppet shows in seconds. From the Sock Puppets description:

Just add puppets, props, scenery, and backgrounds to start creating. Hit the record button and the puppets will automatically lip-sync to your voice.

Friends can work together and create hilarious conversations with multiple puppets. While recording, simply tap a puppet and that puppet will lip-sync to your voice—all you have to do is tap a different puppet to make them talk back and forth. Switch backgrounds to take your puppets to different places, move the puppets all over the screen and use props and scenery to animate them while recording.

Sock Puppets is only available for iPads. The free version has a limited number of puppets and backgrounds. Projects are also limited to 30 seconds. A “complete” version costs $3.99 and has all the content included and allows for 90 second recordings.

How It Works

Before using the app have students write out their script. This will help the, organize their thoughts and prevent a lot of false starts and stops.

After opening the app tap the New button. Select puppets to appear on the screen. You can select up to four puppets. Tap Next.

 
Select a background. You can select up to 5 backgrounds to use as multiple scenes. Tap Next.

Select up to 4 props to use in your scenes. These will all appear on all backgrounds.  Tap Next.

Arrange the puppets and props and change their size to setup your scene.

Tap the Record button, move your puppets and props, and record your narration. Every time you tap a puppet it will start lip-syncing. You'll see an arrow above it to indicate that puppet is the one talking.

When your show is done, tap the Save button, give it a name, and export it to YouTube or save it to the camera roll.

Integration Ideas

• Explain a science concept
• Retell a story
• Tell about an event from history
• Share information about a famous person
• Model appropriate social behavior
• Tell jokes (Knock-knock jokes work well!)
• Review vocabulary
• Have a mini debate
• ELL conversational skills
• Foreign language practice

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Sock Puppets and see if you are up to the challenge!

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Awesome iPad App: Book Creator

image courtesy of Red Jumper

One of my favorite iPad apps is Book Creator by Red Jumper. This app is so easy to use that even kindergarteners can create stories with it. Yet it's so powerful that secondary students can use it to publish multimedia ebooks. It can be used in any subject area with any grade level. Publishing for students has never been easier! 

The free version of Book Creator allows you to create only one ebook. Unlimited books comes with an in-app purchase of $4.99. Schools can use Apple Volume Purchasing Program to buy it in large quantities for 50% off. There are iOS and Android versions available.

This short video gives you a quick overview of how easy it is to use.

Launch the app and select New Book.

Choose a book shape (Portrait, Square, Landscape).

The first page is the Cover. All other pages are designed the same way. Tap the + icon to select an item to add. 

Photos - accesses the camera roll for pictures students have saved from the internet or taken with the camera. Also use this option to import videos saved to the camera roll.
Camera - use the camera to take a picture and insert it onto the page.
Pen - can be used to create simple drawings to include on the page.
Add Text - create text boxes that can be moved around on the page.
Add Sound - can be used to import audio from the iTunes library or record student voices. A speaker icon is placed on the page, which, when tapped, plays the audio.

Elements can be resized and placed by dragging the blue dots in the corner.

Format text or layer graphics by tapping the i symbol in the upper right hand corner.

Final projects can be exported as ePub files, which can be viewed in any ebook reader, or PDFs. PDFs lack the interactive element of videos, audio, and page turning.

Integration Ideas

• In a math classroom students can create a book to compare and contrast different methods of solving problems using text for directions and videos modeling each method.
• In a primary classroom students can create a number or alphabet book.
• Students can collaborate on a book with each student responsible for a chapter.
• In the science classroom students can embed video of an experiment, examine the data, and write out a conclusion.
• Create a book describing and showing the different types of triangle. Include audio definitions for each type.
• Create an instructional sequence with each step or task as a chapter.
• Create an interactive report on an animal or country, including pictures and text.

This blog post by Technology Coach Chris Loat on the Red Jumper website has some really good ideas for using Book Creator in the classroom.

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Book Creator and see if you are up to the challenge!

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Formative Assessment Toolbox: Socrative

Formative assessments are a vital tool for any teacher to give feedback to students and/or guide their instruction. They should not be used for grades. In the digital classroom there are many excellent choices, including Socrative.

Socrative is a student response system that runs on tablets, smartphones and the web. Teachers can survey students, ask formative assessment questions, or facilitate an online discussion. Data is live and in real time, providing immediate feedback to the teacher and students that can drive instruction and class discussions.

Socrative is completely free. There is a separate app for teachers to prepare the questions and for students to answer. Apps are free and support up to 50 students logged in at one time. Teachers can also create at t.socrative.com and students participate at m.socrative.com.

There are several reasons a teacher might want to use a digital tool for formative assessments instead of traditional formats. 

• Its interative and engaging
• It provides immediate feedback
• It is paperless
• It saves time when grading assignments
• Students can use Socratic on any device, on any platform. 

Check out this quick overview video to get an idea of how Socrative works.

Teacher App

There are four types of questions teachers can ask, all from within the teacher app.

1. Start Quiz - Tap this button to select a prepared quiz from the list of saved quizzes.
2. Quick Question - Tap this button and choose Multiple Choice, True/False, or Short Answer. Ask the question out loud and students will respond on their app. Answers will appear in the form of bar graphs. With Short Answer questions you can type the question and have it appear on the students screens and have students include their name with their response. When done, tap the Finish button.
3. Space Race - Tap this button to create a game style quiz where students compete in teams or against each other. Select a saved quiz for questions and choose the number of teams. As students answer questions correctly the space ship moves across the screen.
4. Exit Ticket - Tapping this option will send three preset questions to the students: How well did you understand today’s material? What did you learn in today’s class? Answer the teacher’s question.

Tapping the Manage Quizzes button takes you to a screen where you can create, edit, and import quizzes. The Socrative Garden blog has a list of teacher generated quizzes you can import right into your list of quizzes! You can also view and download reports on any type of quiz. 

Student App

When students first log in they enter your room number. They will see a short message as they wait for the quiz to start. As each question appears on their screen they select their answer and tap Submit Answer.

Integration Ideas

• Use multiple choice question as a likert scale: Do you agree with the main character’s actions? A = strongly disagree, E = strongly agree
• Use the short answer option to create fill-in-the-blank questions on subject-verb agreement.
• Include pictures outlining a state’s shape as a states quiz.
• Have a Space Race against another class within your school? Against another class in the US?
• Use short answer to ask “Please explain your answer”.
• Check for understanding of vocabulary by using short answer format to have students create a sentence using the vocabulary word.

Check out http://garden.socrative.com for more creative ways to use Secretive with your class.

More detailed help, including video tutorials, is available in the Socrative Help Center.

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Socrative and see if you are up to the challenge!

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App Criteria: Choosing a good iPad app

As a Digital Learning Coach I've been working with several schools as they define what they want to do with iPads. Sadly, most of what I find on their iPads is what I consider to be junk, useless, and educationally inappropriate apps. It seems that previous tech folks, and in many cases, teachers, have simply installed the free app of the day or the latest "Top 20 Apps for Education" without really looking at the app and evaluating what it does. This results in the iPad becoming a toy or babysitter in the classroom.

My philosophy on iPads and apps is based on the SAMR model. I find this model to be very useful in helping to define what I want technology to do. Using the iPad to do something that's just as easily done on paper and pencil doesn't seem like a good use of technology. To me, the iPad should be used for learning tasks that could not easily be done without the iPad. This blog post by Jennie Magiera articulates my thoughts on this very well.

When looking specifically at apps, the SAMR model becomes even more important. Using a commonly found app such as Math vs Zombies as an example, you can see how how this plays out. The app is simple enough: users answer basic math problems in order to kill off the attacking zombies. Students have to solve math, so it's educational, right? Students are learning, right?

The answer is no, they are not learning, for many reasons. The app doesn't track progress for multiple students, the problems are not customized for the student's needs, and there are no math skills actually being taught. This app really only hits the lowest levels of Blooms Taxonomy and the Substitution level of the SAMR model. Math facts could just as easily be learned with a basic set of flash cards.

A much better choice would be to let the flash cards to their job and use the iPad to redefine the learning and the teaching. Use creation apps so students can demonstrate what they are learning and reach that higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

What to I consider, then, to be a good app? After thinking about this for awhile, here is my criteria for what I consider to be a good educational app:

• can be used in multiple content areas
• can be used in multiple grade levels
• allows the content/project to be transferred off the iPad, either to a website or through a Dropbox type service
• can track the work of multiple students, either by saving multiple projects or through student logins
• engages students at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and the SAMR model

This is just my thoughts on what makes a good app and I've listed in a previous post what I think are awesome apps that fit the above criteria. I'm constantly adding to the list (ThingLink!) as I come across new and exciting tools.

Do you agree or disagree? What do you think makes an app suitable for the classroom?

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Awesome iPad App: ThingLink

ThingLink is a digital tool that provides users with the ability to turn any image into an interactive masterpiece. Create multiple hot spots on specific parts of the image that launch videos, text, audio, and links to websites. The website and iPad app versions have similar functionality. ThingLinks with full interactivity can be embedded on any web page.

ThingLink is free, either on the web or as an iOS app. When creating your account on the web, teachers should be sure to do so from the ThingLink Edu page. This lets you set up groups and students.

Setting Up Classes and Students

1. Click the Students button and then create a group.
2. Click Register Students. Follow the directions carefully to enroll your students. You’ll need to print out the list of usernames (fake email addresses) and passwords. Students can change their email address and password from their own profile after they’ve logged in.
3. Manage Groups lets you reset passwords and view student usernames.

Creating a ThingLink

1. Click the Create button.
2. Upload an image or click Web and paste in the URL. This will be the base image that becomes interactive.
3. Click anywhere on the image to add a tag or hotspot.

4. Paste in the URL for any resource: image, video, audio clip, or website.
5. Enter text as a caption to the multimedia resource or use text as the information that appears in the hotspot.
6. Change the icon for the tag/hotspot.
7. Save the tag and reposition it if necessary.

ThingLinks can be shared by Tweeting, linking or embedding on a class blog. You can even embed your ThingLink into Edmodo!

Integration Ideas

• Use a map as a base image and identify historical places, link to current temperature, local attractions, and regional recipes. 
• Create a photo collage and add links with descriptive adjectives, synonyms, antonyms, etc.
• Use a picture of a famous artwork as a base image and add links to information about the artist and their other works.
• Create an interactive author presentation adding tags to book lists, book trailers, and bibliographies.
• Music teachers can link to audio recordings of composers, sounds of instruments, vocabulary, and biographies.
• Assign a ThingLink image to prep for a class discussion.

Find even more inspiration for using ThingLink in your classroom:

• 73+ Ways to Use Thinglink
• 65+ Ways to Use ThingLink In Your Classroom

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for ThingLink and see if you are up to the challenge!

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Awesome iPad App: Explain Everything

In a previous post I mentioned an easy to use screen casting app called Educreations. Explain Everything takes that concept and adds some powerful tools and features. Explain Everything is powerful yet easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer.


Explain Everything is available from the iTunes app store for $2.99. Discounts are available from Apple’s VPP. No accounts are needed to use the app or share projects.

Explain Everything is a very powerful interactive and screen casting app. It has a lot of features that can make it appear daunting. It has the flexibility to import almost any file type and export in a variety of ways. As such, it’s difficult to provide all of the steps in one short tutorial such as this one. The best way to learn how to use this app is to play with it. The steps presented here are simple steps to give you an overview of what can be done with it.

1. The tools are down the left side. Tools include pen, shapes, text box, inserting an object (such as a photo/video, browser or sound), laser pointer, object manipulation, zoom, and undo. Long hold on any tool to access settings for that tool
2. Add and navigate through additional slides.
3. Audio controls for narrating your project.
4. Tap the timeline tool to scrub through and edit your timeline.
5. Export options for saving drafts and exporting pictures and/or video.

Integration Ideas

• In primary grades have students take a picture of a drawing and explain their work.
• Record steps in a procedural essay.
• Have students explain how they grouped or sorted objects.
• Create a book trailer.
• Present any information such as a biography on an explorer or report on a planet.
• Describe the way a bill becomes a law.
• Students record themselves working through a math problem.
• Teachers can record any type of lesson for students to view as a blended classroom.
• Create a digital story.

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Explain Everything and see if you are up to the challenge!

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