Flowboard is a free iPad App that allows users to create presentations and digital stories on the iPad with a simple user interface design. Each screen uses simple touch gestures to create the presentation and then presentations can contain buttons, videos, and galleries to make a presentation interactive. Once a presentation is completed a Flowboard is shared by providing a URL that works on any browser or within the app. Once shared, the Presentation can be viewed online or offline.
Content for the Flowboard presentation can be utilized from your Dropbox, Facebook, Box, Instagram, or a Google Image Search. An upgrade to Skydrive and Google Drive would make it much more beneficial since districts are mainly Google and Microsoft users.
ExamTime is a students study solution by offering several different ways to prepare for exams. Testing has always been a part of education, it is just in a grander scale now. Students need ways to prepare for the assessments in their classrooms in ways that can benefit them. ExamTime offers students the ability to study using mind maps, flashcards, goal setting, and reviewing. Students can share study guides and notes that they have created with other students and for studying on the go, they can use the mobile app when development is completed. ExamTime is currently free and as the site grows, premium features will probably cost in the future. To see ExamTime in action, check out their sample study resources. You can also see the informational video below.
Back in December I wrote about EduClipper when it was in it was still in its infancy stage. It is now out of beta and has added several new features and can become a great homepage for teachers looking for resources, documents, videos, and classroom ideas. The layout for EduClipper is very similar to Pinterest, so if you are users of Pinterest then you should be very familiar with how to use this service. Educlipper allows users to do several things within the website without having to leave the page, which makes it much easier to keep and share.
By creating an account you can clip links, documents, videos, images, etc to your board and then follow other educators and share what they have clipped. There is also a bookmarklet for easily saving what you find on the web and there is also a "Follow Me" option for your blog, wiki, or website. If you are a user of Google Drive, you can embed your Google Drive into your Board for easy sharing.
I am currently not in the classroom, but those teachers that are will be glad to know that you can create different boards for your classrooms in order to share with your students and vise versa. Creating a class is very simple. You give it a name and then you can add your students or take the access code that is provided and share it with your students. The content controls in your settings allows you to control what students have access to and what they don't have access too.
Brainscape is a learning service that allows users to create flashcards and then control their learning based on how well they can recall the information they are studying. Brainscape is a step above other flashcard services by providing users the ability to add pictures and audio to their flashcards. The audio aspect is definitely an improved feature for ELA and Foreign Language learners. At my school we offer a medical terminology class and I could see it useful there as well. Brainscape also offers a free iPhone app that allows users to download their flashcards too so that they can study on the go.
Brainscape offers users the ability to see different levels of what they have learned and what they don't know at all. This allows students to focus on the areas that they are weakest in. There are also flashcards that are already created that users can find and start studying immediately for a fee. Users can create an account using standard log in information or connect with their Facebook. See the video below for more information.
It is interesting to think about how this technology could change "virtual" field trips, but replacing field trips to local attractions I think is probably not going to happen. However, the ability for teachers to connect with other teachers across the world and participate in discussions and field trips of global attractions would be a beneficial aspect of this technology. I can imagine schools getting a virtual field trip to the Great Wall of China, The Pyramids, CERN as in the video, watching a production at the Sydney Opera House, or visiting various museums from all over the world (although I wonder about security issues).
I think about inner city and low income schools and how money is not necessarily available to take field trips. I could see Google Glass being utilized to assist those schools in taking a field trip to places within their city and within their state. I remember in high school taking a trip to Washington D.C. Several students could't afford the extra cost on top of what they didn't get through fundraising. Those students missed out on the Holocaust museum, the Smithsonian, Vietnam Memorial, etc. This technology could provide opportunities like that for students.
It could also have an impact on "pen pals." Students from other countries could use the technology to learn about the life and culture on a daily basis of students in other countries, with the hopes of possibly meeting in the future. There are several interesting opportunities where I could envision this technology being utilized in the classroom; especially if it becomes more mainstream and affordable.
