Good Afternoon Friends,

Bare with me through my intro as I have guest blogger this week that you won’t want to miss.  This will be the first of a two part series including a demo on “Turning Students into teachers using iPad apps,” from my guest blogger for part I and a recap of an Evernote Webinar that I attended last week for part II.

So far this year I’ve spent a decent amount of time writing about various methods of pedagogy that have become extremely interesting to me including project based learning, design thinking, peer instruction, and so on.  I often draw comparisons of these approaches to how I was taught, primarily in high-school & college because I can’t seem to remember much further back that that.  At any rate, a tool that I have grown a fair amount of distain for is the dreaded Powerpoint.  I remember spending hours on end putting presentations together, figuring out just the right “slide theme” with what I though at the time was a super cool “transition.”  Be honest, how slick did you feel with just the right “Word Art” and a nice “Fade and Dissolve” slide transition?  Although you and I may have felt pretty #futureready at the time, here’s the reality of the Powerpoint:

My musings aside, please welcome my guest blogger, the one and only…Betty Ann Fish, Chair of lower school PE, lower school PE teacher, & technology enthusiast!  In part I, Betty Ann will be discussing how to turn students into teachers using iPad apps to create tutorials.

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Betty Ann: (FYI, BA and I used Evernote sharing to collaborate on this blog.  More info. on that in Part II of this week’s post).

I recently attended a webinar on iPad apps specifically on how students can create tutorials on the iPad.  One of the main benefits of using this type of teaching is that the students are not jut developing a product but it is about the process.  For example if students develop a math tutorial they are explaining underlying reasoning and not just an answer to the problem.  When a student teaches someone else using this method, they develop a deeper and multi-modal representation of their understanding.

The 4 apps discussed were

Click the link below to view a quick video I made to show what you can do with these apps.

Click Here for the demo!!

Each has their advantages and ease of use depending on age of student.  Below is a list including a brief description on each.

ShowMe – a large whiteboard where you can write and record your voice

Educreations – take a picture as make tutorial, choose from library or from dropbox can insert multiple images and resize

ScreenChomp – write on whiteboard, record while writing and makes movies, use for student portfolio – can scan the student work in can add images in the tutorial

Explain Everything – lots of features in preferences – Dropbox, Evernote, Youtube, Twitter, & Facebook integration.  Can drop browser window into tutorial and many more additional tools

As with any new app or program the best way to familiarize yourself is to PLAY!

If you want to have a look at the apps together I will demonstrate them at the next Mac Monday on March 5^th from 3:45 – 4:15 or if you just can’t wait send me an email and we can test them out.

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Thanks so much to Betty Ann for joining Daytime this week, it’s always a pleasure to work with her.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to join BA for “Mac Monday” please do so!  I’ll be there for the next MM to answer any Evernote questions that you may have.  So please stay tuned for part II of this week’s Daytime post coming later this week.

Please let me know if you have any interest in become a guest Daytime blogger.  As always, please add comments below.