The ShowMe app has just become available through the iTunes app store. ShowMe lets you create audio-narrated whiteboard diagrams. The diagrams can be uploaded to the ShowMe site (after you have registered at their site). The diagram can be uploaded as either a public or private drawing. A private drawing can be shared with others by giving them the URL to the drawing. Public drawings can be searched at the ShowMe site. From the web site, the drawing can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, email, or embeded in your web site or blog.
You may want to consider getting a stylus. You can read reviews by clicking on the links in this post.
When you open the app (which works only in landscape view), the toolbar shown below appears. In addition to drawing and erasing, images can be imported from your Photo library on your iPad.
Screencasts could be viewed by students for reviewing material covered in class.
If each student or group of students had an iPad, they could be assigned to create a screencast on a particular topic, which then be viewed by the teacher and other students in the class (either at the ShowMe web site or at the class’s web site).
In an earlier post, I discussed the learning strategy called whiteboarding. If each student (or least each group of students) had an iPad, they could use the iPad as a whiteboard and record what is written using ReplayNote. ReplayNote is in essence used for screencasting so what ever is recorded can be uploaded to YouTube or an email can be sent, which will contain an URL to a webpage containing the screencast. The videos can be up to 10 minutes long.
The free software, VUE (Visual Understanding Environment), is used for creating concept maps. VUE can be installed on your computer but if you want a class of students to have access to VUE, you can install the VUE on a server. But if you don’t have access to a server, you can install the VUE applet in the Public folder of a DropBox account. Although the main use of DropBox is for synchronizing files across multiple computers, DropBox can also be used for sharing files (and accessing with others by placing them in the Public folder, by placing the VUE applet in the Public DropBox folder, anyone can create their own concept map with VUE.
Here’s what you need to do.
1. Go to http://vue.tufts.edu/download/index.cfm and set up a new account if you don’t already have one.
2. Once you have created an account, you will be taken to a page where you can download the Applet.
3. The applet will be downloaded as a zip file. Unzip the file which will create a folder called vueapplet. Place the folder in your DropBox Public folder. You can rename the folder if you like.
4. One of the files within the vueapplet folder is named “index.html.” In order for others to create a concept map using the VUE applet, you will need to get a URL that will access the index.html file. The instructions for getting the URL can be found on DropBox’s site on this page. Give this URL to others and they will be able to create a map using the VUE applet.
Although YouTube allows you to create hyperlinks to other YouTube videos using the Annotations feature, if you want to create a hyperlink that will go to an external site, you can use the LinkedTube. You won’t be able to create a hyperlink within a video that is playing at the YouTube site but if TubeLink will allow you to embed the video in a Web page, blog, wiki, or any site that will accept the HTML code for embedding a video.
Evernote allows you to clip information from the Web and edit the Web pages. You can create your own notes, drag and drop content into Evernote. Also, there is software that you can download that allows enter information and sync it with the Web-based content.
By default, the information is kept private on the Web but you can make it public.
A number of video tutorials are available here. The Getting Started Guide can be found here.
With the free account you are allowed up to 40MB of uploaded files each month. With a Premium account, which costs $5/month or $45/year. the amount of uploaded files allowed is 500MB. There are other advantages of upgrading to the Premium account. Click on this link for more details – Premium account.
You can also embed widgets into your Web pages such as the one below.
The folks at Inspiration, the popular software that allows you to create concept maps, have created My Webspiration, which is presently in beta. I’m very impressed. Not only can you create your own concept maps but you can also collaborate with others. Additionally, you can both import and export Inspiration 8 documents.
There are a few concept mapping (or mind-mapping) software tools available. I like Inspiration the best. But it is not free but quality comes at a price. If you want something that is free, you may want to consider CMapTools.
A free software package that uses the mind-mapping template is FreeMind. Click on the link below to get more information about it.
This could be an interesting site to use in an early grade class. Or at the higher levels, you could have the students draw something more complicated (like mitosis) and then have then save it and send it (two features available at this site).
