Tag Archives: app

by | August 26, 2017 · 1:17 pm

HP Reveal – Augmented Reality Platform

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User scanning a trigger with the HP Reveal app

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HP Reveal (previously known as Aurasma) is an augmented reality platform accessible via the web, mobile app, or as a software developer’s kit (SDK).

Users upload “trigger” images and add overlays like images, video, 3D animations and sounds to them either through the web application or on their devices. Making your Auras public allows your followers to scan your trigger images in the real world in order to view your Auras.

Free Features:

  • Shared Auras (users must follow you to view)
  • Unshared Auras (which you can still share with specific user using links)
  • Social media sharing (with controllable sharing permissions)

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As virtual and augmented reality software and applications like Pokémon GO become more advanced and accessible to the average user, educators must ask themselves where they might benefit the educational community. The value in HP Reveal is that it brings static content to life, turning an observational learning environment into a more interactive one. There are already a number of ways teachers have incorporated this platform in their classrooms to boost student engagement and interactivity.

 

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  1. Download the HP Reveal app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store depending on your device
  2. Sign up with your email, create a username and password
  3. Create your first Aura:
      1. Take a picture of an object to act as a trigger. HP Reveal works best with flatter triggers like pictures, posters, or patterns. The more detail in the image the better.
      2. Upload the image either from your device or through the web application.

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  4. Add overlay content. When the trigger image is scanned the overlay content will be displayed. If you are creating the Aura on your device you are limited to the default overlays that come with the application. Creating Auras through the web application allows you to upload 3D animations, sounds, images, videos, and add actions to each to make them even more interactive.
  5. Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 10.39.56 AM

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by | August 24, 2017 · 9:58 am

AR Flashcards: A new way to engage your students


AR Flashcard – Animal Alphabet

AR Flashcards are a series of Augmented Reality apps used to teach your students words and concepts based on different categories such as animals, shapes, colors and planets. By using 3D animation, AR Flashcards bring print outs of animals and planets to life.

Some main features include:

  • colorful renditions of animals, dinosaurs and the solar system
  • sound effects
  • screenshot button which allows you to save your pictures

Click here for more information…

AR Flashcards are great tools for early childhood educators and English as an additional language (EAL) instructors. AR Flashcards create an entertaining way to introduce different vocabulary words to young children. According to testimonials, students have engaged with the app and have enjoyed the learning process:

“It’s definitely unique and a very clever way to get children involved in learning the alphabet and animal names.”

“Love how the animals pop up! My son gets a huge smile on his face when the animals appear. The new graphics are great and being able to take pics is cool.” (Augmented Reality Flashcards).

  1. Download and print out the cards from here . (Tip: print out flashcards in color and use cardstock paper)
  2. Download and install AR Flashcards to your mobile devices (the Alphabet and color have free versions where as the rest are paid apps) .
  3. Double tap the screen to bring up the focus button onto the flashcard so that you can adjust your device’s camera to bring the cards to life.

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by | August 17, 2017 · 3:22 pm

Ozobot: Smart and social robot

Ozobot is a miniature smart robot that can follow drawn lines or roam around freely, detect colors and can also interface with all the popular programming languages (especially Python), and it has Bluetooth for downloading programs! With Ozobot students will have hands-on opportunities to learn about robotics and programming while working on STEM/STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Math) applications.

Ozobot is a simple and fun way for kids to learn about basic or advanced programming and coding practices.

With Ozobot, students from kindergarten to grade 12 can begin learning about the realm of robotics. Ozobot allows students to create routes or adventures for their robot with colored markers and codes. In fact, students can begin learning about robotics using the colored markers and then advance into coding as they begin to understand the programming process. Ozobot is thus an excellent tool to use in STEM/STEAM classes to engage and inspire your students!

By using the mat that comes with the Ozobot Evo Education Kit, teachers and students can observe how this smart and social robot reads and interacts with different circumstances. In this case, you can use the Evo app to control and monitor your Ozobot Evo by designing custom blocks and building a sequence of events.

Check out the Teacher’s Guide to explore some ideas on how coding activities can be integrated into the classroom.

All Teacher Candidates can sign out a kit of Ozobots from the Education Library to use in their practicum classrooms. Visit this catalogue to view when the kits are available and to sign them out.

Before you look for resources, figure out the model of your Ozobot – Bit or EVO

Next, choose how you want to introduce the Ozobots to your students. 

  • Are you going to play games that don’t require the Ozobots first?
  • Are they going to practice drawing lines and following their own pathways? USE THIS CODES CHART
  • Are you using the app to have students block code instructions?

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Reference
Ozobot teacher’s guide. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2017, from http://files.ozobot.com/stem-education/ozobot-teachers-guide.pdf

Colour Codes Bot Camp (August 2018). Retrieved April 11, 2018, from https://youtu.be/uRsFoAX4rGA

Ozoblocky Bot Camp (August, 2018). Retrieved April 11, 2018, from https://youtu.be/mHAJgIFlfGM

 

Images obtained from https://ozobot.com/press-kit 

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by | August 16, 2017 · 10:19 am

iMovie

iMovie is an IOS and MacOS based video-editing tool. With iMovie, you can choose and edit previously shot videos, add titles, music and effects in only a few steps. In addition, you can access your creations from any Mac device, and you can publish or share it on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Vimeo, and YouTube.

Features include:

  • various built-in music and sound effects
  • 10 creative video filters
  • voice-over recording
  • speed-changing effect
  • picture-in-picture effect
  • split-screen effect

With iMovie, you and your students can create engaging videos that can be shared with the class and that incorporate topics relevant to the lesson. iMovie allows you to use different effects and features to edit and add different elements to your video. For example, as an instructor you can add titles and record voice-overs that can be useful when trying to guide your students or provide additional information.

In addition, with iMovie’s effects, students can add a broadcast feel to their productions with picture-in-picture and split-screen effects. They can also place their characters “on location” in exotic places using green-screen effects. Last but not least, using the built-in filters, you and your students can easily make videos look more professional.

Click here for more detailed information about iMovie’s features.

  1. Download iMovie here or from the iTunes store on your iPhone/iPad. After downloading the app, choose to create a new project with your app.
  2. Name your video and set the aspect ratio. The widescreen ratio (16:9) is recommended.
  3. Choose the theme you wish to use. Take the time to play with the theme before making your decision. Of course, you can always switch to a different theme while editing as long as you ensure the “Automatically Add Transitions and Slides” option is unchecked; otherwise, you will need to do some tedious work on manually setting up the timeline.
  4. In order to import your video, go to “File” in the menu bar, select “Import”, and click on “Movies…”. From here, you will choose the video files that you would like to import into iMovie.
  5. Now you need to select which clips you would like to add into your video. Once  your clips are loaded into the iMovie project database, select which clips you would like to add into your video. Click on each clip and drag it into the timeline. While adding your clips, make sure to put them in the right order.

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by | August 10, 2017 · 9:23 am

Educreations: Interactive Whiteboard App

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Educreations is an interactive whiteboard that has an easy, interactive platform and is straightforward to use. It allows you and your students to do screenshots, record video/audio clips, embed websites/images and share what you have created with others immediately. Educreations is only available for iPads and web browsers, and basic features are free.

The features include:

  • Capture your ideas
  • Use your content
  • Share instantly
  • Cloud sync

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Educreations is a good tool to help you create a digital classroom or work with a flipped classroom model. On the one hand, it is straightforward to use, so you can focus on your content instead of spending time learning about the technologies. With it, you can easily save your drafted work on your iPad, and share it with your students and co-workers whenever you want. What’s more, all of its basic features are free.

On the other hand, Educreations can be used as a multimedia model to help your students with their learning and communication. Students can choose their own format to capture their ideas (video, audio recording, drawing, typing, inserting website or take a picture, etc.) and to communicate with others. They can also control their own pace while learning new content. Educreations is a platform that helps you to create an equal accessible environment for all your students.

Here is an example of what you can do with Educreations:

https://cdn1.educreations.com/static/examples/paul-groves-accuracy-and-precision.mp4

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You can get started with Educreations in a few steps:

1. Download the app from your iTunes store on your iPad or to your laptop web browser.
2. Sign up as an educator (or student) and log in.
3. As shown in the screenshot, you can choose to click on the audio icon to record your lecture, use the pens/brushes to draw/mark on the screen, use the eraser to erase your typos, or click on the “+” icon to add websites’ URLs, videos, images, etc., to your screen.
4. Play to explore different features!

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by | July 29, 2017 · 12:38 pm

Prezi Presentation Tips: Dos and Don’ts

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by leonor brilha

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Prezi is a visually based presentation software that supports a non-linear storytelling approach to presentations. With many affordances, including the ability for the audience or presenter to zoom in and zoom out of the screen, Prezis can be powerful but they can also be problematic.

You may have used or seen a Prezi presentation. In case you’re not sure, Prezi is a presentation tool, that instead of following a linear format (slide after slide), it uses zoom and pan to connect the frames, changing not only the dynamics of a presentation, but also changing the way the audience makes connections between the ideas presented. Or at least, that’s what’s supposed to be the main advantage of using Prezi over other tools. However, as you may have seen, the zooms and pans are used by presenters only as fancy transitions between frames, with a lot of us in the audience left wondering, “What’s the point in all of this? All of this coming in and out of the screen, it’s so confusing. Should’ve just stuck to the good old slides.”

Below are some tips to support creating effective Prezi Presentation.

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What many presenters don’t realize is that, when choosing one presentation tool over another one, you have to make the most of what it has to offer. Prezi’s strength is in its non-linearity, but that doesn’t mean that the frames should be displayed randomly on the screen. The non-linear flow allows for seemingly unrelated concepts to come together by making new meaningful connections between them. Meaning through visual metaphors can be created by significant (hierarchical for example) spatial positioning on the screen and differentiation or similarity of concepts can be achieved by exploring design elements (colors and shapes). The biggest lesson is to use less text and bullet points, and let the visuals and transitions tie in the concepts of your presentation.

 

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Before starting work on Prezi:

  • Think about what are the main goals of the presentation and what’s a good visual metaphor to represent it. This will be your main layout, which can be a path, map, tree, etc.
  • Also take into consideration what kinds of connections are there between your ideas and design the frames in relation to the layout. Where on the layout does it make the most sense to place each frame? How does it connect with the frame immediately before and after it, and how does it connect in general with the other frames?
  • Think about your presentation with a view of the whole in your mind, because at many times the audience will be able to see all the frames, and you want to draw the eye towards focus points.
  • Think about what visual/temporal patterns you’re creating with your presentation and how that’s going to influence the pattern of thoughts and learning process in the audience.

For a visual summary of these ideas and more tips for Prezi (made with Prezi!), please refer to this Prezi and video below it that walks through it.

 

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by | July 28, 2017 · 3:07 pm

Piktochart – for creating attractive infographics

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There are many applications you might use to  create informative and attractive online posters, otherwise known as infographics (including PPT, word, pages or any desktop publishing or word processing application). One of these, Piktochart, is a web-based and iOS application allows its users to create their own original design or select from a variety of well-designed templates. Those familiar with software like Microsoft PowerPoint should have little to no trouble using Piktochart as its simple and attractive design makes creating infographics rather intuitive for your average user. Another option I’ve used with students is Canva. NOTE: both Piktochart and Canva are not Canadian housed. Visit this post to learn more about protecting student privacy.

Free Version

  • Create:
    • Infographics
    • Presentations (similar to PowerPoint)
    • Posters
    • Reports
  • Copyright Free Access to:
    • Backgrounds
    • Icons & Images
    • Some Templates
    • PNG or JPEG Exports

An example of what a Piktochart Infographic might look like:

how-to-create-great-presentations

 

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Creating an infographic allows you to share your ideas in an attractive poster-style manner on the web via social media or embedded in a blog. Key ideas are highlighted without cluttering your information, which can often be unattractive and overwhelming to viewers. Being able to create and consume information in a visual way supports varied learners and allows even those with less developed fine motor skills create posters with a professional feel.

This application is designed in a way that encourages its users to keep their content simple and attractive, and makes it rather easy to do so. The Piktochart Blog also has an interesting post titled “Seeing is Believing: 5 Studies about Visual Information Processing” that outlines some key findings about the way people perceive digital media and its impact on digital content creation.

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  1. Go to the Piktochart website and click “Start for Free” on the front page.
  2. Enter your information, and confirm your email address.
  3. Log in to Piktochart with your newly created account and get creating.

 

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Basic features:

Watch the video below for a more in-depth tutorial:

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