RealCalc Scientific Calculator. A fully featured scientific calculator which looks and operates like the real thing. It turns your android smartphone into a mean number crunchingmachine while staying connected on the field
Continue reading RealCalc App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05: The Periodic Table app offers reference information about each element. The app offers audio clips to help users learn pronunciations of the names of the elements. The app also includes a quiz mode.
Continue reading Periodic Table App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
Overview of the App – Periodic Table
• App Title: Periodic Table
• App Publisher/Developer: Socratica
• Version: ?
• Link to App Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socratica.mobile.chemistry#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwiY29tLnNvY3JhdGljYS5tb2JpbGUuY2hlbWlzdHJ5Il0.
Curriculum Compliance:
Unknown. I am not a science teacher but I had fun with this app as it brought me back to some basic chemistry courses I took in High School and College many years ago. It presents the periodic table backed with all the data for each element, including a voice pronunciation.
Operational:
Is navigation easy? Yes but it would be better if there was a link from an element in the table to the data
Is on-screen help and/or tutorial available? No
Does it have multiple ability levels? No
How does it respond to errors? Incorrect spelling in the quiz is okay as it gives the correct answers and allows you to proceed. The lookup is frustrating as a spelling error leaves you hanging with no suggestions.
Are there audio/video options with controls? The audio clips for the pronunciations are great but not always correct. The videos are great as they give engaging definitions to terms – very suitable for high school/college level
Can selected material be tagged, copied, pasted, saved, and printed? Not sure
Does it keep a history of the user’s work over a period of time? Not sure
What support materials are included? Has links to Wikipedia for each element
Pedagogy:
Does the material accommodate diverse ways in which students learn? Yes, view the table, lookup each element, a learn function that randomly selects and displays an elements attributes, a quiz function and definition videos
Is it developmentally and age appropriate? Yes for HS/College
Does it provide an opportunity to increase students’ understanding? Yes
Does it provide an opportunity for engagement and interaction? Yes with the sounds, videos, quizzes and lookup functions
Does it provide feedback and assessment? Yes through the quiz function
Doug.
Thanks Doug for that thorough analysis of this app. I teach Science 10 and the Chemistry unit takes up approximately 25% of the course. In the past, I used a paper printout of the periodic table that students would reference. I found that during my classes, the majority of help time was spent on assisting students finding the element in question. I must have wasted hundreds of instructional minutes answering questions such as “I can’t find Lead?” Luckily I have a class set of ipads and downloaded the interactive periodic table of elements from iTunes. This app has a landscape and portrait mode that switches depending on how the students orient the iPad. The elements are presented in the table and also alphabetically. They are linked to videos and images that allows the students to visualize what they look like. I have noticed that the interest level has skyrocketed and students are quite often exploring more than they are required to and sharing their findings with each other. The interactiveness of such apps opens up a whole new realm and adds fun to topics such as Chemistry that have traditionally been detested. I have left the link below, worth checking out…
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/interactive-periodic-table/id384319425?mt=8
I did post this response already in another area, but then noticed the Periodic Table App Review Discussion.
Here is my review on the Periodic Table App:
At first I thought this app was too simplistic, but then I thought about what it supposed to do. It is to teach it’s users about the periodic table. There were some great features such as a quiz on naming elements, abbreviations of elements, and atomic #s. As well, there was a description of each element as well as a sound byte of each element name. There was a video chemistry section that explained more information than what would be found on the periodic table. What I would like to see as a link or add on that helps learners in naming compounds and formulas. Maybe I should make an app for that…
Lisa
Welcome to our Apps OER. After viewing our launchpad video please feel free to join us this week on Weebly for our ETEC 522 Apps OER experience. The OER team: Melissa Ayers, Patason Brooks, Mike Rae, Ken Stackhouse, Jonathan Tang
Continue reading Week 5: Apps OER Posted in: Announcements, Week 05:
Great presentation! You’re a natural. I’m very much looking forward to learning about Apps. Thanks.
I really liked your use of different backgrounds. Not that it matters, but I curious as to where the video was shot?
Thanks for the comments. The video was shot in Saint John, New Brunswick. I have to give my wife, Laura, credit for spending the day walking around the city filming me. 🙂 She is a good sport. One thing I found interesting was the amount of time it takes to make such a short segment. I definitely have a greater appreciation of what it takes to make news reports or reports like Rick Mercer’s Rants.
I have been doing a lot of tutorials to support staff recently and it does take a lot more time that you expect it to (and more than others probably appreciate.) I assume that the more I do, the easier it will get, either because I get better at doing it, or that I won’t be so uptight about seeing myself on camera and all the little mistakes. The changes in scenery do keep us watching. I would love to have a version where you did it all in one spot so I could show both to my students to compare. (I’m not actually asking you to make anther one…)
I actually didn’t do any single takes of the script. I had decided to do a paragraph per scene so I just did as many takes as required at each location. For me the editing part was easy and probably took about an hour using iMovie. We probably spent about 3.5 hours filming. So it took about 4.5-5 hours to make a video under 3 minutes. 🙂
In my media studies class they create three video projects, a commercial, a movie trailer (to a movie that doesn’t exist), and a chase scene (no cars). The students are always amazed that it takes them about three hours of filming for a 3-5 minute storyboard.
Nice intro to your week – you’ve defnitely caught my attention. I’ll looking forward to an interesting week!
Peggy
Great into. I especially liked the comment about angry birds.
Nureen
Apps OER Team, great introductory video. Going to visit your Weeblysite now.
Catherine
Just a question, what camera and mic did you use?
Thanks for your interest. I used a combination…my iPhone 4 and my iPad 2…no external mics. There was only one scene where there was a lot of background noise that I had to adjust the audio in iMovie so you could hear me better.
It’s amazing what you can do nowadays with mobile technology and apps. I just finished editing our Grade 4 camp experience using iMovie into a 12 minute video for parents…all on my iPhone! I look forward to learning more this week about apps!
That is awesome. I was just telling a friend about this ability. He couldn’t believe that the iMovie app was only $4.99! I have only used the desktop version. I heard that there have been a few full length movies filmed using iPhones.
I’ve filmed a lot of footage for demo videos on my iPhone 4S and have been really impressed with both the quality and the ability to edit “on the fly.” I also do a bit of photography when I can and am always amazed at the quality of the photo editing apps floating around out there. Some of the photos I take on my phone give the ones I take with my fancy schmancy digital SLR a run for their money! (And the phone is MUCH more portable…)
Thanks to this week’s group for an awesome learning experience. Both activities taught me a lot and left me curious to carry on learning. The links to the readings were also very interesting. I did not know there was a difference between an application and an app, or that there are three types of apps: native, web and hybrid, and that some are easier to build, but others to find.
Many thanks for the positive feedback about our OER – its very reassuring to hear!
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Suhayl Patel 9:21 am on October 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I actually really like this app, and I find it provides efficient, effective, and easy use of a calculator without carrying a stand-alone calc in your bag. I enjoy how easy it is to use, students can take screen shots of their work, progress, and understanding using the screen capture tools, which is not possible using an actual calculator. When I think of student progress and understanding, I automatically default to formative assessment. I find that this tool can be leverage to provide that assessment piece which is usually missing because math is so black and white (right answer or wrong answer). My only wish is that educational institutions allow students to use them on tests and quizzes but unfortunately, they are not ready for that as they assume the worst in that students will use their mobile technology to cheat…..but that’s a discussion for another time.
Lisa Nevoral 2:43 pm on October 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Suhayl,
I also really liked this calculator app. Student’s don’t need to go out and buy another instrument (ie. calculator) since they can use this on their IPhones, IPads, Androids, etc… As you have stated, I guess the next question is if teachers will allow them to be used in the classrooms. I have had many debates with colleagues about students being allowed to bring mobile devices into the classroom. This is at the middle school level.
Lisa
visramn 4:18 pm on October 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think this app has a lot of potential. I work in a juniour high school and I find that 90% of the time students do not have a calculator with them even if they know they needed one for class. However, they always have their phones with them. hence, and app like this is perfect because they will be prepared for their math class due to it.
Calculators can be expensive this app can also help reduce that cost for parents.
I think this app is a great learning tool!!!
Nureen