melissaayers
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my learning experience through this course. The topics were very interesting and relevant and the OERs I found a great way to deliver content and learn at the same time! However, I agree and echo the sentiments others have about using the weblog vs an LMS. I also found it difficult […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio Posted in: General
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Please find below my elevator pitch and attached supporting venture pitch document for my fictional new business venture – Learn2Read that proposes to develop a range of digital books with voice recognition support for early readers. Elevator Pitch Venture Pitch Venture Pitch – Learn2Read
Continue reading Need2Read – Enhanced Digital Books Posted in: Venture Forum I came across this article this morning and thought I would share it. I wonder what implications it could have on education in Northern America if we ever decided to issue a low cost tablet device such as this for all students. How a $20 tablet from India could blindside PC makers, educate billions and transform computing as we […]
Continue reading A $20 tablet Posted in: General
I think this is a great initiative, especially for countries where affordable educational technology is only available to the upper class. I also came across an article this morning in Canadian Business about a tablet that’s 35 dollars, also in India. The idea of providing technology for students in less fortunate coutries/communiteis has been a focus for EdTech companies for a while (eg. 100 laptop/netbook in some areas in Africa). Now although this would provide for access to a “computer”, there is still the issue around the infrastructure (within organizations or at home) to support enhanced learning by leveraging that device (wifi, apps, maintenance, etc). I’m assuming that students would purchase these netbooks and use them as a BYOT device. In our organization we have some infrastructure in place to allow for BYOT devices to be used in the classroom but experience enormous difficulties to make effective use of it. But this is an amazing start and I look forward to seeing how they manage this, and hope to learn from their work.
Thoughts?
Thanks for sharing this Melissa,
Suhayl
Thanks for sharing this article Melissa. I agree with Suhayl. The idea of this tablet is great but the infrastructure in many of the countries it could be used it may not be conducive. I taught in Africa for a year. The school I worked in did not have much technology but the technology that was present was not useful most of the time due to other issues that limited access and capabilities of the technology. Internet connection, lack of electricity, etc, are major issues in countries that are on the other side of the digital divide. Any technology that is presented in these setting can not be used to its full potential until these issues are addressed. The article you posted reminded me about a project with a similar intent that I had learned about in a previous MET course (http://one.laptop.org/ ).This organization wants computers to be made cheaply so that more kids can have access and they also look at making these computers in a manner that addresses the power issues faced in communities it will be used in.
Thanks for sharing the article about the $20 tablet. It defiantly got the wheels turning in my head.
Nureen
Good afternoon,
One of Touch screen’s revolutionary advantages is that its direct and intuitive interface, which makes computer use and access readily available to everyone.
One barrier to achieving this goal however has been cost, and countries such as India have realized that to empower their populations with 21st century skills and know-how, getting them access to the technology that can drive them there is critical. I’m excited to see how the $20 tablet will evolve.
The invention of low cost computer such as the Ubislate can bring enormous change and revolution in developing countries by bringing the internet to the masses. With education becoming becoming more available and in many cases even free (MOOCs and the Khan Academy’s..), the low cost hardware will make education easily access to the poor and significantly help in spreading literacy an enlightening the impoverished.
My sincere thanks to Mr. Suneet Tulli for trying to make this dream become a reality and for inspiring others to innovate and use technology for the betterment on humankind.
I think it is unlikely that this sort of tablet would ever appear in North American schools. We have been seeing pretty good low-cost tablets in Asia for a long time and even the ones that could get into Canada without a lawsuit from Apple would be unlikely to get much traction in the market. Canadians are pretty cautious about new technologies. Things that take off in other parts of the world, such as mini-discs and VCD’s, never made a blip. People seem to want trusted name brands and are willing to pay. And as far as schools go, the boards are so strict about what you can buy and who you can buy it from that again, I think it would be unlikely we would see them. I remember when I taught grade 1 in Peel, there was a shortage of computers in the school and we couldn’t choose our own distributor. We had to buy the machines from the the authorised Peel company for 2500 bucks a machine, even though I was able to buy a better one at College and Spadina for 500 bucks. The 2500 dollars got us a service plan, but they always took over 2 months to come to repair them in any case, so it wasn’t much help. At any given time, there were several machines in the lab with sticky notes on the screen saying it didn’t work.
Here’s a fun website where you can see the newest Chinese brands and various knock-off devices and read reviews of them:
http://www.gizchina.com/
In many cases these days, their specs are as good as the big names but the prices are less than half.
And remember, that Indian machine is subsidised by the government. It costs 80 dollars to buy one yourself.
Good point Ben, about the tablet being government subsidized. Do we really want the Canadian government involved in underwriting technology purchases? As you say, the cost to bring one of these low cost tablets to North America would be at least quadruple the price, to cover shipping, duties, taxes, distribution, marketing, service, support, language naturalization and bilingual packaging… the list of fees goes on and on. It makes us realize once again, the enormous coast barriers we place on entrepreneurs, trying to bring new technology to market. As you also note , there are bound to be features which infringe on at least one patent held by Apple, Samsung, Google or some other manufacturer – which will only add to its cost.
So, I see these devices as solutions only for the country which subsidizes them. Which begs the question – who is going to develop apps for it? It might be ok for online activity, but with such a limited market, I imagine its app ecosystem will be hard to develop.
Ahh enabling technology.
These devices are outstanding. The focus should be about enabling technology and by that I mean allowing students to have access to a computer. The most important aspect of having a computer is access to the internet through a web browser.
Technology access to more people means more access to information. The applications that surround it are great to extend ideas but if a simple internet connection can be established then the opportunities are endless. Many great programs work through the web browser as well.
This got me thinking of the Sugata Mitra TED Talk where he ran “Hole in the Wall” experiments. Essentially Mitra told students what they needed to learn, left some computers, told them he had to leave and that he would be back in a few weeks with a test. It’s fascinating to see the results as students self taught themselves the material they needed to know for the test.
The computer is a resource/tool in this case that the students taught themselves with.
These low cost tablets are awesome for increasing the distribution to more people. I’m with @teacherben on the idea that they wouldn’t make it to North America. There tend to be many problems with these types of devices. In North America we tend to have a highly curated selection that needs to pass many regulations before they can be sold here.
Forgot to include the Sugata Mitra link TED talk link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
Oops! How embarrassing. I just realized that of course the group linked Sugata Mitra – in the next phase (Touch, I just finished putting in my responses for Voice 
My apologies for the redundant link.
Smart Sparrow Adaptive eLearning PlatformTM was developed by a research group in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2011. The platform was designed to support their three principles of Adaptive eLearning Promote Learning by doing. Be intelligent and adaptive. Empower the teacher. Their Labmaker software has […]
Continue reading SWOT – Smart Sparrow Adaptive eLearning Platform Posted in: Week 08:
I like the concept of adaptive learning especially because it is learner centric. When I looked at some of the sample tutorials, the product seems to be Flash template based product that allows you do develop interactive animation and provide feedback. Their concept of being adaptive seems to be confined to providing feedback based on the user actions. This feature is common in most of the professionally designed e-learning courses developed using popular desktop authoring software. I wonder if there is anything particular about this software platform that stands out as compared to the competition?
In threats, you can also add the inability to be accessed on mobile devices.
Hi Ranvir,
Thanks for you feedback. I agree that I do not find their product offers anything particularly innovative (technologically speaking) in the way they implement their platform that other providers cannot copy or use as well.
To find out if there is anything particular that the platform does compared to its competition I would need to spend some more time doing competitor analysis sorry, so for now I can not answer your question.
From what I understand the labs & activities created with their software are able to be viewed & used from mobile devices.
Thanks
This morning I can across the an article on how the OLPC initiative is going 6 years after it was launched. Unfortunately does not seem to be bringing the benefits and advancements they hoped it would initially. DeathWatch: One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) I was lucky enough to briefly meet one of the founders of the […]
Continue reading One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Posted in: General
Thanks for sharing the link. The report provides an interesting perspective on whether or not OLPC has been able to deliver the proposed results. I had thought that providing a child with a laptop would open doors to learning on a whole new level. But what you’ve said made me realize that in order for programs such as the OLPC to be successful a child would still need to be able to do well on tests. The sad reality seems to be the fact that success ultimately depends on test results…
Yes, I have to agree its not great that its test based for the assessment as I am sure the students gain many valuable skills from having the devices that they would not have gained previously.
I remember participating in a local program that encouraged students to create applications that would be used by the OLPC group. Unfortunately, not much was known on their education system and the program had many issues that prevented our students from truly creating the experience that should have been achieved. Additionally, I recall reading issues about the lack of infrastructure to provide students with the connectivity that would be required to make the OLPC initiative successful. All this leads to an investment that seemed doomed to fail from the onset. I almost wonder if there was someone who cashed in on this by securing certain distribution rights while the whole thing was on wobbly legs to begin with.
Patrick, I would be interested to know more about the group that was making applications for the OLPC–what languages/tools were they working with? While I was at first really excited to see the OLPC loaded with with a Linux distribution, what they came up with was so vastly different from anything used in the real world that it may not have been all that helpful. While Windows machines with Excel on them may not quite be the ‘machines to think with’ that they imagined at MIT, they might give kids a chance to get into school or get a job.
We were using machines called the XO. You can see a model that is likely the same or a derivative of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1
As for the languages and tools, most were using either Java or Scratch to create the games. This was for an introductory level programming course for grade 10 students. Most had no idea how to program while a few had been doing it on their own for the past 2 or 3 years. As the machines had limited functionality, these were the recommended tools for the students to create their mini-games.
Odd timing.. I just heard a radio announcement this morning about the OLPC initiative. They were discussing how much of a success it had been in a small African community with no schools, teachers, or Internet. I’m a little unsure about electricity but I’ll assume there was some otherwise it will be difficult to get these recharged. 
Anyhow, apparently they dropped off some boxes of these little machines loaded with a bunch of apps pre-installed and were researching how the children would adapt to them. According to the radio announcement, within just a few minutes, some of the children had opened the boxes and within the hour they had begun turning on the machines and seeing what they could do. Over the course of a few weeks and months, they gradually learned to use the computers and started teaching themselves things by looking through the applications. Needless to say that I’m in total shock now.. I’m unsure as to whether the OLPC initiative has turned into a success or if this is an isolated case. I’ll have to see if I can find out more as it looks like it may have turned out for the better in the long run if this isn’t an isolated case.
App Adventure Experiences – please share with everyone your creations and experiences during this process.
Continue reading App Adventure Experiences Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
So I just spent the past 30 minutes or so playing with TheAppBuilder. I found it a bit slow and not totally user friendly. When I thought I had uploaded a picture, the image didn’t appear. I also didn’t like that I could only upload my YouTube channel and not one specific video. I think for a beginner like myself I should have tried the easier versions suggested. I will try the others out and do a quick comparison.
Anyway, here is my first attempt at an app.
http://webapp.theappbuilder.com/apps/26f5289b-4ed7-422f-9eff-092ad2505275
Quick question, how did you get the webapp addition of your final product. I for some reason, cannot figure out how to do that…
I have been playing with it this morning. I also found it clunky and slow. But like any good tech teacher, I handed the project over to a student. Our school does not yet have an app so I asked her to investigate this program to see if it would be an appropriate tool for our needs.
On my own, I got far enough along to get a few pages created and set up some RSS feeds. Then I loaded the app on my phone. All it did for the feeds was redirect to the web though–pretty lame. I wonder if the final exported version of the app will load feeds so you can read them when you are offline.
If anyone is interested in learning a little coding, there is a very simple programming language called Processing that allows you to export your programs for Android. KhanAcademy just released a ton of resources for teaching programming with this language. The nice thing is that you can make highly personal apps and only share them with people you are close with. I made a little game for my toddler where I took a picture of him and when you click on different parts of his body, everything disappears except for that part and it says the name of the body part. I even recorded him saying the names of the parts. This is one of the real advantages of Android over IOS. You don’t have to worry about getting a developer license and you don’t have to worry about getting your app into the app store to share it. You can just give it to whomever you want and they can install it on their device. With Apple, you can only do this with web apps and that isn’t really the same thing. They are pretty limited in what they can do. With Android, you can make apps for a specific target audience. You can make an app for your kindergarten class about friendship and use pictures of all the kids in your class, then put it on the tablet you keep in the classroom.
Hi,
I also experienced a lot of difficulties with this. I originally tried appmakr.com, but did not find it very user-friendly. I would try to make changes, but nothing would happen, or I could not figure out how to make changes. I did not try TheAppBuilder, but I did try AppShed, and it was significantly more user-friendly. After getting consumed by this for a few hours, I have come to the conclucion that developing an app is a skill that must be worked on and acquired over time. It is something that interests me, but I feel like I would need to research this process much more before another attempt would be worth while and less frustrating.
Jhodi
Thank you for sticking it out with this part of our week’s activity on apps. I too had issues with TheAppBuilder. However I simply look at it as part of the learning process as this ETEC 522 class explore this new technology called apps.
Feel free to extended the adventure to discover and use the app creation tool of your choice
Hi Jen,
Sorry to hear you did not have too much fun with the appbuilder last night – this is something we all found when we tried it as well. It takes a bit of getting used to and it is a little restrictive in what you can do.
However just for you information in case you want to go back and try you can embed individual Youtube videos If you take a look at the TED-Ed sample app on a number of pages I have embedded videos. To embed a single video you need to:
1) go to the Youtube video (on Youtube.com)
2) click on the “Share” button under the video.
3) click on the “embed” button next to the link given
4) copy this html code snippet
5) go to the appbuilder item that you want to add the video to
6) in the text editor click the “html” button in the tool bar and a small text pop up window will appear. Paste the html code snippet you copied in here and save.
7) you should now have successfully embedded a single Youtube video in your app.
Sorry for the long details I wanted to just post screen shots of how to do this but I seem to be unable to post images in the weblog comment posts.
For the picture not appearing you might just need to refresh your browser as it does not always update automatically.
Hope that is of some help. Do not hesitate to mention/share any further issues you come across we are here to help as much as we can.
Also great work for diving in there and giving the appbuilder a try!
I have created the app, but when I went live with theappbuilder… I only get one screen advertising their company, not what I built… However, when I trialed the app… it worked fine…
Thoughts?
Never mind, think I figured it out…
To facilitate my apps ability to be seen on multiple platforms, I have used appshed to generate a HTML 5 version of it… the link is here:
http://appshed.com/appbuilder/8446
Thoughts? (it is my hope to have students use this to see their homework, etc…)
Thanks for sharing Tom. This looks like a great tool to support your work and provide students with resources they can use.
I am not sure if I posted my original message in the correct location (I posted it under Week 05), so here it is again!
I found this experience extremely frustrating. I started out trying to create an app with appmakr.com, but after spending half an hour and getting nowhere, I quit and decided to try an alternative. I found that this website was not very user-friendly or intuitive. I could make minor changes, but any larger change that I wanted to make required me to search out how to do it.
Once I switched to AppShed, I found the app creating process to go much, much smoother. I really liked how it provided you with an editable screen shot of what the app would look like on the actual phone. It was easy to edit the various sections since each section has its own individual edit button. It was easy to switch the functions and tools within each section as well in order to modify the section to what I wanted.
Here is my sample app (I just put a few things on it, I would like to build upon each section):
I too tried creating an app on theappbuilder.com and after playing around for 20 minutes I did finally create a basic photography app though it would take much longer to create something worth showing. Then I tried appshed.com and I agree that it is much easier to design as they show how the app will look right on the screen. It was more enjoyable working with this program as I found it more user friendly.
I have never heard of these sites before so I am glad that you shared as I have already incorporated it into one of my assignments. I will be interested to hear how my students like it and what apps they will design. It definitely teaches students to think through their design and plan out exactly what they want to do as you can’t just quickly enter click a few buttons and be done.
Great to hear that you are able to use this in your teaching practice. One thing that we noticed while researching and mentioned in our intro video is that designing an app takes careful consideration. As you mention the students will have to have a clear plan in mind in what they hope to accomplish before going ahead with creating their app.
Sorry, I posted this in the wrong place yesteday.
My app
I really enjoyed creating this app. The program I used was not the most user friendly. It was very slow but I had fun creating the app and the best part was seeing it function on my phone. I have always wondered how apps were created but never thought to look into it. This activity gave me the opportunity to learn that it really is not that difficult to create and app. My app is not as complex as most but I still feel like it is an accomplishment. I used ‘TheAppBuildrer’ program to create my app. The link to my app is: http://webapp.theappbuilder.com/apps/cca8540d-3bea-41ad-8621-6b38301dd296 Thanks.
Nureen
Im glad to hear that so many of you got your hands dirty with trying to build an app. Our purpose wasn’t to have you bang your head against the keyboard in frusteration, but rather (as most of you have done), move on once it gets too much, maybe try a different site to compare what you liked and what you didnt.
I’d be interested to hear how students respond to wither using an app that you guys have made or the process of making their own.
Does anyone think app creation could have a place in curriculum outside of IT classes?
HI Mike,
I definitely do see a place for app creation outside of IT classes.
When creating an app there are many essential skills that have to be thought out – such as problem identification, need assessment, simplification of task, user needs etc.
The building of the app would just be the fun part and the interesting part where as the real learning would be from breaking down the problem and delivering it to the audience.
After a task like this a student becomes more of an independent critical thinker and opens their mind in relation to the possibilities that they would have taken for granted previously – like their mobile device.
Stuart
I find with so many elements, or essential skills as Stuart explained, there is a great opportunity for social skills, organizational skills, and collaboration skills to be practiced and applied. As well, with a subject-specific application you would need to integrate other subject areas into the process. So yes…definitely, get it out of the lab and into the classroom.
I used the app builder to build a commercial style app. I took a design studio just to see how it would cope with the different elements.
The wizard is very clear and thought out. The instructions are not complicated and work well. It is a complex process but app builder hides the complexity and delivers on usability.
Downside of this process, similar to creating a website in weebly or wix, is that there is very little options to steer away from the structure that is given. There is little to no creative input allowed on the functionality. But then again allowing these sort of adjustments might create issues with the app being ‘accepted’ into the Apple store.
Good to experience the structures and to see the elements necessary such as the splash pages, icons and sizings. I enjoyed it.
Have a look see for yourself – http://webapp.theappbuilder.com/apps/163ed2da-bd8c-4142-8d96-0eca02f9d4bb
Stuart
Thanks for sharing. Yes, like weebly there are some fixed elements that restrict the user in some ways. I think for someone that is not an expert in coding and design it is a big help. I know that a couple of years ago I didn’t think I would be able to host a website or app of my own. For me taking some hits on being over-structured is worth the fact that I wouldn’t be doing this without a program like this.
Nice app. I too thought that the tool I used was a slightly rigid as well. It has pre-structured components that you can choose from but does not give you the leeway of adding something different.This might have been because I used the free version. However, I think as a first trial this activity was great.
Thanks for sharing.
Nureen
Hi Stuart, if you are confident in html and/or html5 most of these application creators and website creators like weebly give you a bit more freedom and creativity, however this is still usually somewhat restrictive on certain elements and structures depending on the host/provider.
I tried to use appshed as everyone seemed to find it more intuitive to use and I would agree. With a little searching around it is pretty easy to set it up. Most of my time was actually trying to figure out what to create. Anyway, here is my mini app on three good mountain biking sites: http://appshed.com/appbuilder/8516
Great job. I agree the tasks seems a lot more difficult than it is. I had a hard time deciding on what to make my app about also. Looks like you found a topic that you know lots about. Thanks for sharing your app.
Nureen
Sorry the link doesn’t look great on a laptop as it is optimized for mobile phones. Here is a link to the preview – hopefully this will look better: http://appshed.com/appbuilder/preview/8516
Jenny,
This app looks great! Thank you for sharing. It is great when our only problem is deciding how great we will make an app. You have done a nice job on this.
Hi,
I used AppShed, after reading of others’ experiences with it. My initial experience was not great, as I deleted everything I created by mistake. As well, I found it to be a bit slow, but it could be my Internet connection. I found this exercise very interesting and useful. There is nothing better than actually trying to create an app, in order to learn about what is involved. I did not realize it was ‘so easy’ (and yet also so hard) to develop an app. I thought it was easy, in the sense that you do not need to know how to code, etc. It is difficult because there are glitches and also one must plan the design beforehand in order to best maximize the nature of APPS.
I created an app for a website that I have developed over time. It relates to film production. My app is the product of about 1 hour of fiddling around. Obviously this is just a sketch of an app idea, as I think it would require several weeks to refine.
http://appshed.com/appbuilder/preview/8542
I hope you are able to see it. I want to create a kind of homepage for the app, but I think I have to have less icons/tabs at the bottom in order to do that. If anyone knows other ways to have more icons on screen, please let me know.
Eva
Great work Eva, you seemed to have managed your way around AppShed no problem and found out how to content and embed videos. Unfortunately there is a restriction of only being able to add 5 tabs to this app creator.
I used AppShed as many before me have had good experiences. I messed up my first attempt pretty bad last night so left it and came back again tonight. Success of at least a prototype, it was fairly easy once I got my head around it.
Below is the link, it is not pretty but it works! This is a simple app that links to the different programs that my School offers.
http://appshed.com/appbuilder/8519/?8519-ODQ0NTk=-s
As Eva mentions above, it would take several weeks to refine. And like anything new, the first few attempts take some time until you get a deeper understanding of the functionality of the program.
I would like to thank Group 1 for a great module and a wonderful learning experience in the world of Apps. Without this, I would have continued to wander through the world of technology not knowing that building an App is really not that specialized a skill. Anyway you have set the bar high for the rest of us to follow!
Doug.
HI Doug, great to hear that you are able to try out something new with our OER! Thanks
I spent a good amount of time playing around on AppMakr just to see how easy/difficult it would be to make an app. (It probably would have been better if I had a real idea of WHAT I wanted to make beforehand… BUT I did have a GREAT time figuring out how to transform one of my tumblr blogs into its own app!) It was a bit frustrating at first, as is the case with many new experiences in technology, but when I started seeing things come together and work, displaying my content, I’ll admit I got a bit giddy (as all fangirls know well how to do)!
I chose not to publish my app as, being a tumblr fansite, it would violate terms of service as it would infringe on intellectual property/copyright. It was very interesting to see, however, how easy it would be to set up something to deliver to a broadcasting company/publicist/publicity house in order to “sell” them a readily accessible database of content for viewers/fans. The ideas are flowing…
Thank you for presenting us with this fun, and informative, challenge! I am seeing new possibilities for what I have only previously viewed as leisure activities.
I finally got around to playing at trying to make an APP (http://appshed.com/appbuilder/8764/?8764-ODcwNDY=-s) . I wrote ‘trying’ because it clearly takes a lot of time to build. What I learned is that organizing all the files, pictures and material for the APP before starting would have made the process much quicker. I literally just placed a couple of icons and attached a file to each; the idea was to create an app for EFL/ESL students to look up grammar, essay writing questions etc. I did not upload anything else because it would have meant looking for material with no copyright.The application was much easier to use than I expected.
Thanks for this great activity. The only way to learn is to dive in.
I tried creating an app with the web-ware AppMakr and found the experience to be quite interesting. I have never created an app before, and had always thought that having programming skills was a prerequisite. I was wrong.
AppMakr allows users to create apps simply by answering a few short questions. The more time spent on selecting the pre-determined affordances, the more functionalities will be enabled on the app. Appmakr also allows users with programming skills to create apps in various programming codes. These are important educational features because those without programming skills can now experiment with creating an app and learn different programming codes through the process.
The only concern I have for this web-ware is that it might enable hackers to use the app created by a novice to hack into people’s devices because of insufficient security measures of the app caused by a lack in programming skills. But perhaps this too can be regarded as a learning opportunity for users who are serious about creating apps, so in all I think this web-ware is a good educational resource.
James
Great point about security James, I hope (and have not had time to verify) that the apps created through these sites follow strict security guidelines and protocols for each of the apps created. I am sure they have in-build security and data protection precautions.
I apolgize – twice – up front. A hectic week, so while I’ve been interested in learning how to create apps for a long time, and never new how to get started and your links were a great way to get started (!!), I didn’t. But I will return, as I am fully intrigued and want to give your sites a real trial.
2nd – While I understand the purpose of this class is to learn to think like an entrenprenuer, or an EVA, for me it really is all about “how can this be used in the classroom??” (for me it’s always a K-12 classroom). I love how you’ve introduced us to these sites that allow you to create apps – what excellent ways to totally engage students in problem-solving, creative thinking, collaboration. Sites such as those you’ve provided are simply amazing opportunities for students – those who are interested – to simply fly. Thank you Week 5!
Peggy
If you have any questions or problems during this activity feel free to ask for help from your fellow classmates and our EMT team.
Posted in: Week 05:
Hi,
Thanks for organizing this week’s work. Just a couple of things. I struggled to find where to start, because I believe we’re supposed to launch from the wiki, as mentioned in section 3 above. I went to the wiki and could not find your page activated. I returned to your introductory video and saw the link to your launch pad. once there, I tried to download the Rubric on the page you sent us to, and i’m afraid and error message appeared. I’ll go to activity 2 meanwhile.
Being the first group is not easy; all your work looks really interesting.
Hello!
The Weebly is where we are hosting our OER (etec522appsoer.weebly.com). It should have been activated but all should be working now (I just went ahead and made sure it was activated again.. just in case).
There are three sections that you will find inside our Weebly:
1) Market Research
2) DIY App – Build Your Own App
3) Discussions
The rubric is located within the first section (Market Research). We didn’t build this rubric but we found one off of the website. You are right, it looks like the link is dead now 
I’m not sure why.
There is one that is written up on the website that can still be used right off of the website (under the link). It can definitely be used as it is the same. Simple Yes/No…
Hope that helps! Sorry for the dead link (that wasn’t planned!)
No worries, I’ll use the questions underneath. Thanks for writing back
Hello, I also tried to download the rubric but it wouldn’t work. I noticed that there are questions beneath that we could use to guide our evaluation of the apps. Would you like us to do this?
Hi Jen —
Not sure when the link went dead. There is a rubric written underneath as you’ve noticed. Fortunately, that is the same rubric as the one that you can download. We had intended for the printout to be downloadable but they are both the same.
Thanks
Hi:
If you want an alternative “App Rubric”, just Google it. Here are a couple of examples:
http://learninginhand.com/storage/blog/Vincent-App-Rubric.pdf
http://kathyschrock.net/pdf/ipad_app_rubric.pdf
Doug.
Thanks for sharing those Doug
Dragon Dictation allows the user to dictate anything from emails, blogs, texts. you can post or save to your clipboard to be copied where you need it. Meant to be a time saving app.
Continue reading Dragon Dictation App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
App Title: Dragon Dictation
Publisher/Developer: Nuance Communications
Version: 2.0.23
Operation Analysis:
This powerful, yet free, application allows students with weak fine motor skills, cognitive delays, or inabilities at transferring thoughts effectively to paper, to easily write sentences, entire papers, or answer problem sets through speech-to-text; unfortunately. Furthermore, the app itself is easy to navigate with decent help/tutorial information, allows the information to be emailed, cut, copied, facebooked, and even tweeted. On the negative side, this app requires individuals to speak very clearly or else it misunderstands the spoken words, an issue with students who have speech difficulties
Pedagogical Analysis:
Dragon Dictation as mentioned previously, is a powerful app, in its ability to accommodate diverse learner needs for students at all age levels. As well, by allowing students to verbalize their thoughts, and provide a written record of these events, students can increase their understanding of a topic, facilitate higher order thinking, and if paired with appropriate assignments, can increase engagement/interaction, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.
Personally, I find it easier to talk my idea’s out loud, instead of staring at a blank piece of paper. Therefore, for individuals such as myself, this tool is an effective and quick way to explore and develop powerful written works.
Tom – I have have also spent some time trying to use Dragon Dictation. Although I agree with a lot of what you have said I found that the program made many mistakes, even when I or the children spoke slowly. I work with elementary students and when I have used it with them, they get frustrated when it doesn’t type what they have said. I know they have a paid version (which I’ve heard is a couple of hundred dollars) but apparently it is outstanding. I have a friend who did her entire Master’s Thesis paper using this.
My son is a great thinker but has written output delays so I have seriously considered buying the version of this app. It would allow his teacher’s to see that he does have great ideas and voice when it comes to telling stories.
Jen — I’ve been playing around with the iPads recently (we got a few) — and it just occurred to me that Siri is now built into the new iPads (version 3). This effectively replaces Dragon Dictation at least on the iOS devices. I found that Siri works quite effectively on the Apple Laptops as well now as well.
Just some thoughts. I think your son would definitely benefit from it. One thing that I’ve also experienced is that Siri works better with a slower voice. I’m sure you’ve noticed this with Dragon Dictation as well.
Perhaps a free Siri will save you some money.
I once downloaded a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking for my 2-finger typist stepdad. He stayed up all night trying to train it to recognize his South African accent to no avail and endless frustration. He read the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech about a thousand times. It was sort of comical listening to him shouting that speech at the top of his lungs, peppering it with profanity when it couldn’t understand him and made him say every other word over again… On the other hand, my much milder Ontario accent is easily picked up by the new Dragon plugin for my Android phone, although I hardly ever use it.
On the investment front, this has left opportunities for companies like ‘Keda Xunfei’ to specialize in voice recognition software for other languages (they make Chinese voice recognition software that is similar to Apple’s Siri.)
I’ve had a similar experience to that of your stepdad. I have a very distinctive Jamaican accent and tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a few years ago with limited success. I have been looking around for a voice recognition software for my daughter; she is dyslexic and is now in grade 8. Her verbal (oral) output is great but struggles to produce on paper. Her school uses Dragon Naturally Speaking. While her accent is more ‘Canadian’ I fear that her success will be limited. Yes, great investment opportunity here.
Sophia
This is an interesting discussion and I will add my two pennies on the experience I have had using this app. I agree that it is a valuable tool for students to get their thoughts on paper quickly before they lose them, however, it’s important to say the words slowly and clearly for the app to not make too many mistakes. I have had lot of frustration with this app and found it easier to write rather than repeat the words multiple times and make corrections.
Anyways, I guess if you can learn how to use it well, it can become a valuable tool for capturing notes, doing homework and project work.
Thanks for the great points everyone. Yes, it will be interesting to see how Siri and other programs will impact this company. Hopefully as a business they see this competition and have begun planning on how they will maintain a competitive choice. Is there a version of Siri for the Android market at this time?
There is a few apps in the Android Play (market) that can do similar things as Siri. One is Iris. I believe this started off as just a small group of individualsand in about 8 hours they created this app. There is also S-voice for the Galaxy s3 and it works really well. I found that I can dictate what I want into the phone and the phone is pretty accurate with what it types out.
Thanks. I figured their had to be other options. I have an iphone 4 so I have only used the simple speech recognition available on it. Accuracy is such an important component with these services. I have a co-worker with a bit of an accent although he would never admit to it. He found Siri very difficult to use. He was complaining that it wasn’t working, I tried the same commands and it worked great. Is there a way to calibrate Siri and the other programs?
I did three different recordings of the text found in the post above. Dragon dictation was fairly accurate on both my slow speed and medium speed voice. The only errors I notice are that it doesn’t do a good job of ending sentences and any kind of punctuation. When I went to a faster voice then I received this
“Dragon Dictation allows you to dictate anything from e-mails blogs text you Bowcester save to clipboard to copy Greanead it meant it time-saving app.”
At certain points it had some problems and came up with some interesting results. I think it is great for someone that likes just talking and having notes taken. Though for me when I write notes I also organize them so they make better sense. The options for formatting are rather limited. I don’t see any uses for me in my classroom unless a student has writing issues.
I have also used Dragon before, while traveling, as I wanted to record story ideas. Unfortunately the software made many mistakes and it became more of a farce to see what it was actually writing down. My hope was to use this app with brainstorming assignments, and also for students to use as a form of logging ideas quickly. In terms of creative writing, I would see many uses for this app, since many people come up with ideas in quick bursts. For example, perhaps when waking up from a dream, it would be handy to have this app available and then later, use the material in an actual written form. I think this app would help the many students that feel their writing is weak, which often causes them to avoid writing. In this case, they would see that they have great ideas and encourage them to write further. Lastly, it would be idea for recording dialogue scenes for screenplays. You could improvise with actors, and simply have it all recorded and written out. If the errors could be worked out further on this app, I would use it in many capacities.
I’ve incorporated Dragon into my tutoring, specifically for what Colin identified…. missing punctuation and grammar mistakes. Then we spend time looking over the text and polishing it. But it can by a tad trying because of having to slow down the conversation to a point that the text isn’t filled with too many mistakes. I am also a bit curious about how relying on apps like Dragon changes our learning methods and potentially our brains. If we are slowly moving away from handwriting with students, will there be ramifications? In my other class right now the focus is on potential “rewiring” of our brains because of the incorporation of technology. It’s interesting to think about.
I have experimented with Dragon Dictation and it is useful for students with written output problems but does have its limitations. Along with the limitations mentioned above (words must be spoken clearly and slowly), I found that the biggest obstacle was finding a space for the student to make their recording. In a functioning classroom, there is lots of chatter and background noise which interferes with this apps functionality. A student wanting to use this at school would need a quiet space in order for to maximize its effectiveness. I found that students who had written output problems resisted using this app as they did not want to leave the classroom and be seen as “different” from the other students.
I have experimented with voice recognition software before, and have always been disappointed by their results. From my experience, accuracy in such software is determined not only by a person’s accent but also the speed and tone of voice in which a person dictates. Even more frustrating is when the software mistakenly recognizes what has been said for something else which necessitates additional commands to delete the unintended text input. Although the time spent on training such software would increase its accuracy, I think the usage of such software will instead have more impact on training a person’s tolerance and patience with technology.
On the flip side, I have heard that English language learners have used such software to train their own English speaking skills. An example of this can be found at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/05/10/use-googles-speech-recognition-tool-to-play-a-game-learn-english/
James
Hi there all,
I used Dragon Dictation over the past week and have found it extremely useful for both long term and short term solutions to complex problems. When considering complex issues, I have found that the full version of Dragon, rather than the app, is best used on the computer because of it’s ability to learn from your speaking tendencies. It slowly builds up a vocabulary of your accent the more you speak with it and the longer you use it, the more effective it is.
Being a film teacher I need to do reviews and critiques of my students films on a fairly regular basis so that they can improve them consistently and thus become better film teachers. While the app version was not very useful for this sort of thing, the computer version was as it allowed me to write out complex critiques in about half the time than would have taken with typing alone. I’m quite a fast typer (60 plus words a minute) as well so this came as a surprise to me.
That being said, the app version has it’s uses. For example, my wife and I stopped using regular to do lists this week and both installed dragon in an attempt to add some efficiency to our lives and it worked marvelously. I think the key with this app is knowing what it’s limitations are and taking advantage of them when you need them but not trying to shoe horn it into something other than what it is capable of. In fact, that should be the mantra for most apps honestly.
Joel
By the way this entire reply was done with dragon dictation
* Film students not teachers as it states.
Hi Everyone,
This is great dialogue, I downloaded Dragon Dictation and few other apps this week to my iphone that I thought were more applicable to adult education. I agree with Joel Dragon Dictation does have its limitations but can be useful for to do lists, reminders related to course content, such as websites, articles to look up, quotes that you may want to use in a paper, ideas that you want to capture in the moment, important concepts from a lecture. Keeping in mind cell phone are permitted in adult education classrooms. It certainly is a good option if you don’t have Siri. This activity was a great opportunity to learn about and try different apps.
Catherine
Magic Piano is an application that lets you create music by giving you a piano at your finger tips. You can play freestyle on one of the three keyboard layouts or follow one of the songs from the songbook.
Continue reading Magic Piano App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
App Title: Magic Piano
App Publisher/Developer: Smule, Inc
Version: 4.0.8
Curriculum Compliance: Unknown, perhaps for a music teacher in K-6 there may be some relevance (a fun way to listen to some songs) but it definitely does not teach the proper way to play the piano or the other instruments available. The app is free to download and there are a few songs that are free but you must pay for most of the songs.
Operational: The low down – easy to use by a wide variety of students and keeps track of your achievements.
– Navigation is easy to use
– There is no on-screen help or tutorials
– There are multiple ability levels
– It does respond to errors such as playing too fast or too slow
– Your songs can be saved and listened to by other people
– It will keep a history of your songs and associated points
– It would provide options to those with special needs – someone without the dexterity and/or cognitive ability would find it easier than playing a real piano. There is the option of playing freestyle that doesn’t require vision and ESL that are familiar with apps would be able to easily move around the site.
– There isn’t really any support materials
Pedagogy: The low down – It won’t make anyone a real piano player but is a fun way to learn rhythm and create your own music (and perhaps pretend you are Chopin). It may be useful with young and autistic children.
– I don’t think that this program in any way simulates learning to play a real piano; it is more of a fun, interactive tool to listen to a song or create your own song (freestyle). It does allow people to play a variety of songs from pop culture to classical pieces and would be appropriate for ages 3 (with assistance) and up.
– I don’t believe it would increase a student’s understanding of how to play a piano, I think it would rather give them a false understanding of how to play a piano.
– It may give students a better understanding of rhythm of songs but not how to play the actual notes. It is similar to rock band where you must hit the note at the right time so there is a high level of engagement with the song.
– You can listen to others playing songs but there is not the ability to play together or share ideas
– The freestyle option does provide an opportunity for creativity and imagination
– As it keeps score and gives you feedback when you are too slow or too fast, it, in a sense, gives you a chance to think about how you could do better next time, but this reflection is not required.
– Feedback and assessment are provided
Thanks for this analysis. You are right, the app is not intended to train one to be a pianist. It is a fun app though. I showed my daughter and she and I ended up spending about 45 minutes working our way through various songs. I tried their another game by the same company, Magic Guitar. While it was pretty cool it also had way too many ads. I quickly deleted that one.
Magic Piano is excellent.
It really envelopes the excitement and challenge of game education learning.
And who gives a dam as to whether you will end up being a pianist or not afterwards – its not about that. If you want to be a pianist then play the dam piano.
What it does do is give a fun reflection on what excitement a good pianist has in playing songs.
It’s an introduction into the mechanics and construction of songs, tempos and notes.
This is done through well thought out short goals that have to be completed to advance in the levels.
It keeps the interest and definitely is engaging.
I would think more along the lines of it being a bridge. It would get people interested in music in an engaging and fun way. If they liked it and it sparked their interest they might look to playing a keyboard or piano. Everyone who played Magic Piano for a while would benefit from this experience with their learning curve of playing the real thing.
This app doesnt want to create pianists but successfully encourages music appreciation and interest.
Well done Smule Inc.
Stuart
I think you hit it on the head Stuart: not gonna create a beethoven, but makes engaging with music a lot easier. Last I checked, pianos and keyboards were pretty expensive (and heavy), so instead of making that investment, Magic Piano could be a much better option.
I found the app entertaining but it would be nice if they have more songs for free. I agree it won’t make anyone into a pianist and I wish they at least showed a keyboard so you could see what keys you are hitting and where. Though as a bridge it does teach students about timing and also finger dexterity. I am not a pianist but I believe they tried to do the spacing relative to what it would be on a keyboard. The other part that I liked is how I could change up the tune when I didn’t just play the 4 keys as a chord. In a elementary music classroom I could see them spending maybe one or two lessons on this before moving on.
My daughter and I tried this app and were bored very quickly. Initially our enthusiasm was high but after five minutes we were tired of playing the same song. I find apps like this really bothersome as they try to hook us in and ultimately want us to spend more money. My daughter read some of the other titles of popular pop songs and wanted me to buy them for her. It began a discussion of how many apps market their products… which she didn’t understand It is because of apps such as this example, that I have the button for in-app purchases switched to OFF.
After reviewing the demo video and evaluating the app using the App Rubric, I feel that the Magic Piano app should not be considered an educational tool. As Colin and others have mentioned above, the app is at best something to be used for entertainment purposes only because it allows users with no music background to get a sense of what it feels like to play the piano (i.e., touching the screen once = playing one note). The main concern for me from an educator’s perspective would be the app’s ‘keyless’ approach to playing the piano because the skills one gain from this app cannot be transferred to enable the user to play an actual piano. It might, however, allow the user to get better scores playing Guitar Hero, for example.
In my opinion, if the app displayed a section of the keys of a piano as its interface and that the keys respond to the notes being played the educational value of the app will be dramatically increased. From an entrepreneur’s perspective the addition of a keyboard would enable users to learn how to play the piano (at least using just the right hand) of the songs they pay for, which would in turn motivate the users to want to download more in-app products and songs because the skills they gain can be transferred to an actual piano.
James
GoodReader – The file server that handles many types of files including: documents, pictures, movies and sound clips. Annotation and organization features built in.
Continue reading GoodReader App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
App Title: Good Reader
Publisher/Developer: Good.iWare
Version: 3.18.2
Operation Analysis:
I have personally used this App since starting the MET program, and have found it a great way to read and markup multiple types of files for the various papers and research activities in which we are required to complete. Unfortunately, other than reading, and highlighting papers for key information, this App has limited curriculum correlations.
In terms of its operation, GoodReader has easy navigation to access papers, apply markups, and even share entire papers, or key sections of documents. Furthermore, GoodReader accommodates those individuals requiring larger text, and a decent help section for those requiring aid in the use of the App. Unfortunately, due to the limited nature of the App, it does not accommodate multiple ability levels, does not truly respond to errors in spelling and markup, and does not track the individual’s usage.
Pedagogical Analysis:
As a pedagogical tool, GoodReader accommodates diverse learner needs in its ability to allow students to utilize various tools within the App to markup important information, or to add notes to further their understanding at either a basic or advanced level. Considering the nature of the app, I would limit its use to Middle School Students and above, as I am unclear as to how this might benefit younger students at this time.
Overall, I have found this App very beneficial to my studies, as it fits a specific need and does not try to be anything more than what it was originally meant to be.
Tom —
To add to what you are saying, I’ve also been a user of GoodReader since the start of the MET program. It definitely gives us the ability to manage our files.. in a file system (something that is nonexistant at least to users inside iOS). One thing that amazes me is that GoodReader developers keep pumping in updates. I don’t even use half of the features, but it’s good to know they are there. For example they keep adding different ways to access files. Accessibility gets a high rating here.
I think you nailed it with this bit “does not try to be anything more than what it was originally meant to be”. This is the essence of an excellent app. Good apps only try to do one thing right, that’s why they are so beautiful. In some ways you could argue that GoodReader does too many things, but I think at the base of it — it’s functionality is there and it works well.
Excellent analysis Tom! I have used Good Reader app since I joined the MET program and have been very satisfied with the app. As you rightly mentioned, it does it well what it is meant for…. The additional features that I found very powerful were the integration with Dropbox, Box.net and Google Drive. I used to download the course pdf files on my Dropbox folder and annotate while on transit to work on my iPad. When I reached my office/ home, I would sync the folders and continue working on my desktop.
Thanks for letting me know about the sync option, I have had the opportunity to explore that feature… I wonder, are apps becoming as complex now as regular desktop software, I that the programs full functionality is either unexplored or never used…
Thoughts?
Skitch – Allows you to take screenshots for annotation and diagraming purposes. Sharing is now enabled through Evernote.
Continue reading Skitch App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
App Title: Skitch
Publisher/Developer: Evernote
Version: 2.0
Operation Analysis:
This is an application I have consistently used on my Mac, and was very excited to see its move to the iPad. On the Mac, I found Skitch to be very intuitive in its navigation, something that translated well to the iPad. Unfortunately, any help/tutorials to assist those with limited technical abilities could not be found within the app, nor were there any audio/video controls or elements to add into the screen captures. Skitch though, does use the iPad’s built in spell checker, as well; it allows material to be shared through evernote (which can also be used to show the history of the user), public links, airplay and even email. With Skitch being on the iPad, those individuals with limited motor control can markup, and comment on various images, websites, etc, a great feature for students of any age.
Pedagogical Analysis:
In terms of assisting education, Skitch allows students to comment both visually and verbally to anything that can be screen captured on the iPad, as well; the intuitive controls allow students of all ages to easily utilize this App. Furthermore, when the markup feature is combined with the Apps ability to easily share, students can receive peer and teacher feedback easily, allowing students to increase their understanding at a basic and high level.
Overall, this App appears to be a basic screen capture tool, however if given proper assignments, or tasks (such as – locate the issue in this Rube Goldberg, and explain why this might be an issue), a student’s creativity, ability to problem solve, and work collaboratively can easily occur.
I have never used this app before. I can see how it would be useful for illustration and highlighting purposes. I have been an evernote user for a long time now and Skitch is of similar high quality. Useful but limited application. I would see its potential as an instructional rather than as an educational tool.
Skitch now exports to Evernote by default! I noticed this recently as it requested that I setup an Evernote account (I use to have one.. but I forgot about it). Skitch is really great for a quick snapshot in class of student’s work and being able to show it off on a whiteboard. You get the options of annotating it right away. For students, the ability to annotate a photo they just took is really nice as well. ie. Have the student’s show off different sections of an animal — it could be part of a bigger project for them.
On a side note about Evernote. Do you find it really useful? I never paid for Evernote and I felt it was definitely necessary to pay into Evernote before the useful features will activated. Are you using the free or paying? Is it a “can’t live without it” service?
This was my first time using Skitch and at first I was not that impressed. I installed it on my Iphone and I found that it lagged a lot before it would show me what I have done. Though after reading your reply Tom maybe it works better on an Ipad. I do agree with your pedagogical analysis as it would be easier to mark some of the students work as I could just write on it and send it to them. When I finally get an Ipad then I will be sure to try it again.
For myself, I have only used skitch on my desktop grab images for presentations, or to include into department meeting agenda’s, or to highlight issues for our IT department. As for use on the iPad or iPhone… I am not sold yet…
Does anyone have any instructional ideas of how this might be utilized?
Thoughts?
Hi Tom,
Your analysis of Skitch was quite accurate. I can see the use it would have at meetings to capture information being presented, to capture things written on whiteboards, or images/information projected on screens.
One thing I did not like about Skitch (but maybe I haven’t used it enough) was the ability to change the text font size.
An idea that I thought might work well with Skitch was in a math class. A student or groups of students could work on an open-ended question where the solution was found in multiple steps. The students could take pictures using Skitch on their IPhones, IPads, mobile devices, etc. of each step they performed to find the solution. Because it is an open-ended question, there would be many different solutions and representations. For each stage of the solution students could add notes for later use or other students or the teacher could provide feedback or corrections.
Just a thought,
Lisa
I had never used Skitch and really liked it. In EFL/ESL or other language teacher it could be used in lots of ways: labelling things for learning vocabulary; listening practice having students label things in a picture the teacher describes; for note taking and lots more. The only drawback is having to buy the special pen; I’ve used ‘Drawsome’ using my finger and it’s quite hard to do.
Paper – Designed to replace a pen and a piece of paper, Paper is a drawing application designed to capture your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings which can all be easily shared across the web.
Continue reading Paper App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
App Title: 53paper
Publisher/Developer: Paper by FiftyThree
Version: 1.1.1
Operation Analysis:
I have never used, nor even heard of this application before this week, however after playing around within the application, I found it an interesting way for students to both verbally and visually express themselves regarding any topic they can fit on the provided page (as it functions similar to a journal or note book). As well, 53Paper, provides easy navigation, and assists people with a limited but helpful guide in terms of the applications features. Furthermore, this App, allows a students work to be shared through tumblr, facebook, and twitter, as well if your school has blocked these social media sites it is possible to share though email as well. As well, this App allows an individual to continually add pages to the book, which allows a history of the work to be collected over a significant period of time.
Pedagogical Analysis:
Pedagogically, the ability to allow students to express themselves is a powerful tool within many of today’s classrooms. Unfortunately, if a student has weak fine-motor skills or limited artistic talent, they may become frustrated with this approach and refuse to utilize the App as intended. However, for most students, this approach allows for students to represent their ideas and thoughts in ways that are meaningful to them, sparking higher order thinking, engagement, problem solving and even creativity.
For myself, this App is a blend of art and mind-mapping. Personally, I am not very artistic and would find limited use, however for many students I teacher, I feel this app would allow them a freedom they rarely experience within a traditional classroom.
My son loves this app. He makes drawings for us all the time. Similar to the art he brings home from school I can display this art on my iPad. I have one of his drawings as my wallpaper. We only have the free version so the number of brushes is limited but I think it is still a great way to create.
I found the number of brushes to be disconcerting. Yes I understand, it is an easy way to not only figure out if you like the program, then add functionality as you needed, but a good approach to monetize. However, I found it frustrating…
Thoughts?
It is exactly what you say. They include one brush and hope you will buy more. I have had the app for a few months. I was kind of hoping that they would release another brush for free. My fingers are still crossed. My son plays with this app all the time. He asked me the first time about the brush, I told him that we weren’t buying more and he was fine with it. He has been working with the “materials” that were provided with the first installation.
It is interesting though that he has his sketch book there and my daughter can also have her own separate one. That is one feature that I like. You can have multiple journals and multiple pages within each one.
Ken, if you do upgrade there is a fantastic ‘watercolor’ brush that really makes the artwork look amazing. We have an iTunes account between a few teachers and we often share costs. I tend to use the free brush and the watercolor, so if they do open it up to buying individual brushes…that is definately the one to get next.
Ken —
I always remember being really stingy about paying for upgrades but I will say this.. for 53 Papers — it’s worth it. It’s one that I don’t regret at all. I don’t spend enough time in this app and I am no artist, but this app sure does make me feel like one. Maybe buy your son the pack for his birthday or Christmas :).
It’s interesting, because I also found this application frustrating. Either I was not using it properly, but for some reason I only had ONE brush to work with. Does one need to buy more brushes? I also thought this app would be great for brainstorming and keeping records of my ideas, but after playing around with it for a few days on my ipad, I gave up on it. I think it is very ‘good looking’ for an app, and the products that others seem to make with it are very beautiful, but I did not find it intuitive. It reminded me a bit of a digital scrapbook, which I would use in a heartbeat, if only I could use it with greater ease. Are there tutorials to use it?
I’m not sure if there are tutorials or not. I let my son use it for a few days. He then gave me the tutorial. I think you are right, it is a great doodle scrapbook. That is how we have been using it. I wouldn’t use it for taking notes, or brainstorming but just a place to draw and be creative. Thanks for your feedback.
Eva, you should be able to upgrade by simply pressing on the other brushes. It should direct you to the app store for purchase. It is a costly 6.99. However, by importing pics into an app like Keynote i’ve made some pretty cool slideshows. I’d recommend using a Stylus as well.
Eva —
Start off by using it as a doodling app. In my classroom, I use it to draw diagrams. Whether it is Science, Math, or Socials Studies — I always manage to use this instead of drawing on my whiteboard. It just looks nice and my students are always enamoured with it. The map packs as Kent mentions are pricey — but it’s well worth it. Everything is very doable.
I had never heard of this tool. I think it has a lot of potential for students of all ages and for students with special needs. It is a great way to jot down thought or even draw visuals of a person’s thought process.
Nureen
Firefly is an app created by the Kurzweil Education System. It is meant to help readers access to their instructional materials and their Kurzweil library. Schools are using Kurzweil 3000 to help students with their learning needs.
Continue reading Firefly App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
After going through all of the different apps, I found that from an educational (and not necessarily personal) standpoint this was the app that impressed me the most. Among other things, I really liked that operationally it is easy to navigate, has a flexible user management system, offers audio, cloud storage and especially that it can be used by students with physical limitations. Similarly, in regards to pedagogy, I found that it is well designed and I was impressed with the focus on individual needs such that the student can choose from different voices, choose the pace, speed and the display size, look up definitions when needed etc. Thus, overall I think this app can be quite useful for students at many different levels.
Thanks for your feedback. I know that the Resource and Methods teachers at my High School use the Kurzweil desktop program for struggling readers. It is a great tool that I have personally seen students succeed with. That is why I was so excited to see that there was a mobile app for this great service.
App Title: Firefly
Publisher/Developer: Kurzweil
Version: 1.01
Operation Analysis:
The Firefly App, upon first glance, looks to be a decent text-to-speech program that assists students who either struggle with reading, or are unable to read, due to an ELL status or cognitive reasons. As well, Firefly, is an easy to navigate app, that contains help files built directly into the program to assist with its operation. As well, if one has the proper login information, reading programs exist for learners at different levels and abilities, meeting them where they are currently at in their education. However, I was not able to determine if the App tracked a student’s progress over time, but this might be a feature when logging into the actual website.
Pedagogical Analysis:
As I do not instruct any language class, I can only assume that this tool would be beneficial to accommodate students at different reading levels, however I am unsure if this app allows one to load in their own documents, which if possible would make this text-to-speech app very powerful. Unfortunately, the app itself does not promote higher order thinking, interaction, collaboration, creativity, problem solving, or feedback. However, this app if combined with an effective assessment or task based activity to easily allow students of all reading levels, to complete and excel.
I wondered the same thing about login into the students’ documents, and even listening to them read; otherwise why bother reading out loud? This aside, it has a lot of awesome features like the ability to translate text; being able to customize readings; the choice of voices and more so, that it’s FREE!
I was also incredibly excited to see this app! We use Kurzweil for a group of students in our school and I have found that it is very empowering for the majority of students who use it. I’m not well-versed on it, but I know how successful students feel after using it. We have an issue of drops in our classroom for installing a Kurzweil reader, perhaps this app can help to bridge the gap!
Great to hear! Hopefully this will be a resource that you can take advantage of. I know that our school has been using the desktop version. We don’t have class set of iPads or iPods at this point. But this is a great suggestion that parents can load on their own devices to help their children if the school can’t provide it.
Thanks Apps OER for guiding/reminding us on what great educational resources apps can be. I also like the possible affordances of the FireFly App — really a Kurzweil app. Kurzweil seems to be a great tool for students with language processing/learning/output challenges and see this as a great resource for all teachers – not only teachers of language. While it is not totally free — you have to have a Kurzweil account — it great that you don’t have to pay for this app, if you already have an account. I would like to see an android version of this app so that it can be used on non Apple tablets. Is there a smartphone version in the making?
I too found the Firefly app very inspiring and would be very useful in specific learning situations. It was easy to navigate and well designed. The positive aspects of this app are the capability to address individual student needs, various reading programs, an assessment component, and feedback for the learner. The app has some great features that will assist the learner through look up definitions and translate text; cloud storage is another added feature. The app website refers to private and public documents being accessed through Firefly, wondering what private documents includes?
Catherine
Spanish Tutor – learn or refresh your Spanish, anytime and anywhere with your own personal language lab
Continue reading Spanish Tutor App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
I did download the Spanish tutor app hoping that it would be a neat app that could teach me some Spanish. The app is more about testing your knowledge of Spanish than teaching you the basics. Not knowing any Spanish I was able to guess a lot of the correct answers but I wouldn’t be able to say the word or even remember it later. The app would be better if it would pronounce the word for you and give you some basic lessons before a test. I think this free app is just to get you to buy their other apps and on it’s own is not that useful. You can use it to test students but you can also do that with other programs where you have more control over the content.
I agree Colin. I do have a background in Spanish, so I found it useful for getting the rust off the knowledge that was buried in brain somewhere. It was amazing how much came back to me though. For beginner Spanish in high school I could see it as a possible review tool, either at home or in the classroom if kids have the proper devices.
You are probably right where they offer something the free version to lure you to spend a little money and help their bottom line.
I see that Rosetta Stone has apps for iOS and Android, but they appear to be companion products for those who have already purchased the full versions. It allows them to do some similar activities on their handhelds, but they are stripped down a bit. I wonder if this is a shrewd business decision or a missed opportunity. The software really is in a class of its own, but it is also priced in a class of its own. Maybe they don’t want to cut into their revenue share by offering an app that is cheaper, but sooner or later, there will be some really good apps to challenge their dominance in this area. Spanish Tutor may not be there yet, but one of these little guys will come out with something sooner or later that might.
If anyone is learning Chinese, or interested in learning Chinese, Pleco has an incredibly powerful and sophisticated app that is worth checking out:
Their app even allows you to use the camera on your device to take a picture of a Chinese character and it will translate it for you and then allow you to add it to your own personal set of flashcards to study later. Rosetta Stone doesn’t have anything like that!
I downloaded this app to try it out. I found that it has a lot of options to help a person learn or brush up on their Spanish. Personally I do not know any spanish and would need to work on it a lot if I wanted to learn to speak and comprehend the language. I do not know if an app like this would help me learn to the degree that I could communicate fully but it could definitely teach me some words and some easier phrases. I think the app would be better for people who already have some background in spanish.
I believe this app has a lot of potential in a classroom because it is hands on engaging way to expose students to Spanish vocabulary.
Nureen
I did not download this app to try it out as I have many good websites that I can use to learn Spanish already ( I recommend Duolingo for learning Spanish for free). So I just tried out the “Spanish FREE 24/7” and I quite like it. There is enough information for anyone wanting to learn the basics of Spanish before actually buying a paid version. I find the Basic Phrases and Questions to be very useful. I will definitely buy the paid version when I have more time to study more in the future ( after finishing this course).
Engrade – unifies all of the people, tools, data, and curriculum in your schools on one user-friendly platform and now available on your Iphone, Ipad and Android
Continue reading Engrade App Review Discussion Posted in: Week 05:
I found that, in my limited testing, that the Engrade app was quite simple and intuitive to use and communicates student progress in a clear way to parents and students. In short, I would be quite happy to use it as a parent or as a teacher.
This was a frustrating app to test because to really test it, you need to use Engrade (which I do not). I decided to set up a dummy account for this purpose, and I was delighted to see that Engrade now has a Canadian domain, making it an option that I could legally use for my own classes in Canada. After setting up an account, I quickly found out that the Engrade app only works on the US domain After deleting my Canadian dummy account, I set up an American one and did some playing around. It would be great if they could expand the coverage of their app, but I am sure that is something that they are already considering.
All of this made me think about some of the complexities of how apps are used internationally and how designers need to try to consider these as they construct these tools. Unfortunately, because they are small programs, after one bad experience or a small amount of frustration on the users’ part they can be quickly trashed.
John
I tried to set up an account too, and couldn’t. However, I do think that allowing teachers, administrators, parents and students access is great, so are all the things that can be managed in one area. It is a shame it’s not accessible in other countries. Any idea why? Maybe I should pitch it in Mexico
Thanks for taking the effort to test this out. You are right that it is a problem for app designers that they must consider not only their current market but also future market. Hopefully with the release of a Canadian domain they have the plans to expand their app coverage.
I was pleasantly surprised by this engrade app. I’ve used engrade online for years and I’m a bit embarrassed to say I had no idea they had developed an app for their program. i wonder how many other programs have created apps that I’m clueless about?
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:
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.
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
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
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!
Georg Petschnigg is one of the Co-Founders of FiftyThree who created the iPad application Paper. FiftyThree’s Paper Paper was designed to replace a pen and a piece of paper, it is a drawing application designed to capture your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings which can all be easily shared across the web. In […]
Continue reading Georg Petschnigg – CEO and Co-Founder of FiftyThree. Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Nicely done Melissa,
i have been looking at this lad and their team for a few months now. I think that they are excellent at how they focused in on a product, made it incredible and are now looking at niche ways of making bespoke elements for certain professions and industries. I definitely dont get a greed impression from him/their team but more of a ‘lets make things better’ impression.
Really impressive team.
Nice entrepreneur overview too.
Stuart
Thanks Stuart, that’s an interesting observation you make that they are more focused on ‘lets make things better’ rather than lets make money. I think you are right from the interviews and the commentary I have seen so far they are really focused on making a great product first and foremost.
I found your references and supplemental links very interesting, thank you Melissa. I downloaded this app the weekend it was released and I really enjoy using it, as do my daughters and a few of my students, It’s not as feature laden as some other drawing apps, which may be it’s best feature – what it does, it does very well. Petschnigg and his team are not the only tech team with this approach. Jonathan Ives has the same goal for uncluttered design. “”Our goal is to try to bring a calm and simplicity to what are incredibly complex problems so that you’re not aware really of the solution, you’re not aware of how hard the problem was that was eventually solved.” I really look forward to what Petschnigg and his team set their sights on next…
Thanks for the quote by Ives Scott, I have not seen that before. I wish more designers/developers would follow this philosophy, as you mentions there are many applications that are laden with many features (that are not always well done or are too complex for the target users) and it makes them a bit harder to master.
For this activity I decided to review the Educause: 2011 Top Ten IT Issues report. Just the title alone hooked me as it reminded me of something a manager told me once. “We do not face problems/issues here instead we have many opportunities and challenges to tackle”. While somewhat cliché I however started reading the […]
Continue reading Educause: 2011 Top Ten IT Issues Report Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Looking at the “issues” is just as important as looking forward to what is promising. When we as educators, policy makers, and consumers start looking at spending money and time it is good to know what needs to be considered. I skimmed through the list and it was apparent that each of the issues related are similar to those I have heard when asking the IT people about new products. Hopefully reports such as this one can offer viable suggestions for overcoming these issues.
Great post. I enjoyed reading how you compared between the reports in Educause and noted what the company is doing to improve the content of its reports. The interactive graph was also interesting to interact with. I could see how educators, technology specialists and venturers will each be able to relate to the graph differently to help them visualize trends in IT.
James
Hi everyone, My name is Melissa Ayers and I am a New Zealander currently based in Montreal. I am relatively new to the education and educational technology domains (aside from 4 completed MET courses). My background is more technology related; I have a degree in Computer Science and have worked as a software engineer for around […]
Continue reading Bonjour de Montréal Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
Welcome aboard Melissa. Career diversions are my specialty as I have done several along the way. Great way figure out what you want to be when you grow up, if ever ….
Look forward to working with you.
Doug.
are you the Melissa in my group? (apps)?
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jameschen 2:11 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Melissa,
I too, agree with the suggestions that you have stated, especially the second one about being able to edit/update comments after pressing the “reply” button. I think not being able to do so is related to the reason why my heartbeat increases every time before I press the “reply” button.
James
kstackhouse 1:58 am on December 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great ideas Melissa. I think that being able to provide examples (visuals or video) within the replies would be great. It would be difficult to provide the same response if you had to make a new post and then refer to the original posting that you were commenting on.
Ken
adi 10:22 pm on December 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Totally agree. It’s awful not being able to edit a post you’ve written and later find has a mistake.