iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

Flipped Videos

Create Interactive Flipped Lessons With Knowmia Teach

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The Knowmia Teach iPad app is an excellent app for creating your own whiteboard videos. I’ve written about the app and shown it workshops quite a few times over the last year. Recently, Knowmia Teach received a bunch of updates worth noting.

The most significant update is the addition of an assignment wizard (available now in public beta) that teachers can use to build assignments using a combination of video lessons, questions, and slides. Teachers can track students’ performance in real-time. Take a look at this sample chemistry lesson then go here to learn how to start using the assignment wizard.

Knowmia Teach was originally designed just for teachers to use to create lessons. The latest update introduced student use of the free iPad app. Now students can use the free Knowmia Teach iPad app  to create video lessons for their classes and share them securely. The only way that someone can watch a student’s video is to be given the secret link by the student. Students’ videos do not go into a public gallery.

I have found the Knowia Teach app to have far more creation options than the similar Showme and Educreations apps. If you’re considering creating flipped lessons or you want your students to create some explanatory videos of their own, give Knowmia Teach a try.

Five Free iPad Apps for Creating Video Lessons (AKA Flipped Classroom Lessons)

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trampoline-71548_640One of the things that I’m often asked about is creating explanatory videos on the iPad. Whether you want to create these videos for students to watch as part of a “flipped curriculum” or you want students to create the explanatory videos to demonstrate what they know, these apps are good choices for reaching those ends.

The Knowmia Teach iPad app is an excellent app for creating your own whiteboard videos. Some of the highlights of Knowmia Teach app include the option to use your iPad’s camera to record yourself while drawing on the whiteboard. You will appear in the corner of the screen so that your students can see you while you’re talking them through the lesson. The app includes the option to import images and graphics from your iPad to your lessons. You can draw free-hand on the whiteboard screen, type on the whiteboard screen, and insert pre-made shapes and figures. All Knowia Teach lessons can be uploaded to the Knowmia website with just one tap of your iPad’s screen. Students can watch your lessons on the Knowmia website.

Ask3 is a free iPad app from TechSmith. TechSmith is probably best known as being the company that produces Jing and Camtasia screen capture software. Ask3 is a tool that teachers can use to create short instructional videos that are shared directly to their students’ iPads. Students can use Ask3 to ask questions about the video, mark the video with drawing tools, and create their own audio comments about the video. You share Ask3 videos to your students through a virtual workspace. When you register as a teacher you are given a room number to share with your students. Students then open the Ask3 app on their iPads, enter their names, create a password for themselves, and enter the room number that you gave them. Students do not have to have email addresses to use Ask3. Anytime students enter your Ask3 room they can access the videos you’ve posted to the bulletin board in that room.

educreationsEducreations is a free iPad app that turns your iPad into a whiteboard. You can use the app to illustrate concepts and narrate what you’re doing on the screen. You can draw images from scratch on the Educreations iPad app or you can upload images and draw on them. Your completed lesson can be shared directly to others or made public on the Educreations website.

screenchompScreenChomp is a free app for creating and sharing short tutorials or lessons on your iPad. ScreenChomp provides a whiteboard on which you can demonstrate things by drawing and talking people through your instructions. ScreenChomp records your voice as you go. When you finish your recording share it toScreenChomp.com where a shortened URL will be provided for you to share with anyone you like. From ScreenChomp.com you have the option to download recordings as MPEG-4 files.

showmeShowMe was the first whiteboard app that I Show Me is an app for creating and sharing whiteboard-style lessons on your iPad. To support teachers, the Show Me website is building a gallery of lessons developed and shared by teachers. Each day there is a “Show Me of the Day” that is added to the gallery of lessons. Click here to download the app from iTunes.

Ask3 – An iPad App for Creating Flipped Video Lessons Your Students Can Actually Respond To

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Screen Shot 2013-03-16 at 4.29.45 PM Ask3 is a free iPad app from TechSmith. TechSmith is probably best known as being the company that produces Jing and Camtasia screen capture software. Ask3 is a tool that teachers can use to create short instructional videos that are shared directly to their students’ iPads. Students can use Ask3 to ask questions about the video, mark the video with drawing tools, and create their own audio comments about the video.

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You share Ask3 videos to your students through a virtual workspace room. When you register as a teacher you are given a room number to share with your students. Students then open the Ask3 app on their iPads, enter their names, create a password for themselves, and enter the room number that you gave them. Students do not have to have email addresses to use Ask3. Anytime students enter your Ask3 room they can access the videos you’ve posted to the bulletin board in that room.

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Ask3 could be a great app to use to develop and share short tutorials with your students. The option for students to insert comments and questions might make Ask3 your new favorite whiteboard app.

ShowMe Now Offers the Option to Create Class Groups

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Screen Shot 2013-03-12 at 2.59.34 PMShowMe, a very popular interactive whiteboard video creation iPad app, has added a new feature to the service. ShowMe has always allowed you to share your videos with the community of ShowMe users. Today, they added the option to create a group of ShowMe users with whom you share your videos and they in turn share with you. The groups option lets teachers create groups students with whom they share lessons. This option is a great compromise between making your video lessons public and keeping them private. The only drawback is that it does cost teachers $5/month to create and maintain groups. Students do not pay to be in a teacher’s group.  photo_48_

The ShowMe app itself is still free to use to create as many video lessons as you like. It’s a great app for creating videos for things like explaining how to solve math problems or explaining the structure of a cell.