The digital tool that I chose to evaluate was the app called Educreations. I have been using this app for a couple of years now on and off and my students really some to enjoy using it. Basically I think the website wants you to use their app like a whiteboard with sound and record a lesson. It has an arrow feature at the bottom of the page so that you can get a new “white board” when you have run out of space. You can record your voice while you are writing/drawing on the app, and then at the end you can save your video as a draft or a finished video. In my experience it is better just to save it as a finished video and then you see a screen with all of your previous ‘saved lessons’. I have never actually used this app to record a lesson of my own. What I like to do is pair students up and get them to use the app themselves. They have been using the IPAD to do this. For example, in French 1, each student prepares a basic description of their pet, giving information that their partner could represent in a drawing. When they have finished preparing, they take it in turns using the app. Student 1 draws and records what student 2 is saying and then vice versa. They then can upload the link to Schoology so that I can watch it later. Once they have finished recording each other, I then get students to look at the pictures that they drew and they then have to describe their partner’s animal in the third person so that they get practice talking about someone else. As a teacher you should create an account for yourself, and I also get students to make themselves an account too. Here is what my page looks like. To make a new lesson, just select the plus button on the top left of the screen. Once you have selected the plus button, you then get to the screen below. You then use the red record button in the top left to record, and can color and draw using the pen and color selection at the top. The colors look quite limited, but if you select a color you can change them. Having chosen a pen color you can then record and draw and press the stop button (the play button becomes the stop button while recording) when you are finished. You can also hit the pause button part of the way through if you need to stop for a bit. Once complete, you should save the finished video using the button at the very top left of the page by giving your lesson a title and description. When your students have saved their finished video, they then have to upload the video (button on the top right) so that you can see it. One disadvantage is that you cannot open the app directly into another program unless you buy the Pro version, but you can copy the lesson link, or email the link to your teacher. My students copy the lesson link and then post that to the assignment in Schoology which I can then open. This is really a great app for students to use for recording themselves or others and drawing, and it’s really simple to use. It didn’t take me long at all to learn how to use it and my students also have had very few issues with it - I just had to tell them about copying the lesson link and to not directly upload to Schoology/google classroom. Once their account is set up (I didn’t use a classroom code as I think that comes with the Pro version) they can just add lessons. I haven’t really used it to make a lesson myself, but if I did I would just copy and post the lesson link so that students could watch it later.
8 Comments
Rafael Garcia Avila
2/25/2019 11:48:46 am
Great App Tasha,
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Rafael Garcia Avila
2/25/2019 11:50:43 am
Can you add a link to your video, please. I wanted to play it but couldn't because now I know it is just a picture!
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2/26/2019 11:25:54 pm
I think using it for review would be great - you could upload the video for students to watch in the days preceding the test. I'll try and upload the link from my IPAD to the video. Thx
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Scott Marsden
2/25/2019 05:17:03 pm
Natasha,
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2/26/2019 11:24:12 pm
Hi Scott
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JP
2/26/2019 06:58:26 pm
This seems super interesting! I wonder if I could use it for students to brainstorm ideas for movies and even use it to brainstorm storyboards for their projects! I am seeing a lot of great tools for students to express themselves creatively.
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2/26/2019 11:29:28 pm
Hi JP
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Catalina Goldstein
2/27/2019 07:13:00 pm
Tasha, your visuals were so helpful! I sometimes have a hard time inputting images in weebly. But this seems like a neat tool. I especially like that you use it for the students to work together on assignments. What a great way to save their work.
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AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
March 2019
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