Wednesday, March 6, 2013 Meeting

News & Trends Apps (Keeping Current)

reddit

The topic of the user group was using apps to keep up with current news and trends, especially in technology. Three apps were reviewed.

Jeff Maston gave a presentation on reddit. http://www.reddit.com/ is a website where users enter current topics, news, trends, etc.... into "subreddits" (individual web pages within the site) that are theme based. Each entry is voted up or down in importance by users. The top voted entries are filtered to the main reddit page.  You can learn more about reddit at http://www.reddit.com/about/. In order to vote on reddit you will need to setup a free account. The free account also allows you to save and organize the "subreddits" you are interested in seeing. The disadvantage of a site like reddit is that there is a ton of information flowing through the site at any time and there can be a lot of entries that are not of any value and some that are flat out inappropriate. The advantage of the reddit is that all this information and source-crowded information allows mostly only really important news and resources to be voted to the top of the web pages. Using an account and selecting topics that interest you will provide you with great current information and resources on those topics. An example of a subreddit is this one on tablets: http://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/ This is a great place to ask questions, get recommendations and read up on the latest tablets. You will also find subreddits for each major tablet platform, like Apple iPad and Android and even specific subreddits for tablets like the Nexus7 or KindleFire. These are great places to learn tips and techniques for using your specific tablet, find out about bugs or problems with updates and learn about new apps.

There are reddit mobile apps for all of the major tablets available. The standard reddit app in Google Play and the Apple iOS store works well. The iOS version was demonstrated in our meeting. There are also alternative apps that can be used to manage reddit. The Alien Blue app for iOS was demonstrated at the meeting. This app is currently available for the ipad and iphone and provides a more streamlined user interface than the standard reddit app (free) and some additional features for organizing your reddit account. The Alien Blue for ipad app is $3.99 but worth it if you find yourself spending a lot of time on reddit.

All Things D

Brandy Thatcher presented the AllThingsD app to the user's group. AllThingsD.com is a website devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. But it is different from other sites in this space. It is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources.
This website provides really current information and resources on anything related to the digital world. There are mobile apps available for both Android and Apple and more information on them can be found here: http://allthingsd.com/mobile/. The Apple mobile was demonstrated in our meeting. The app's magazine like interface provides easy reading. Visiting this app once or twice a week and browsing through the stories is an enjoyable way to keep current on the world of technology. 

Flipboard

Brandy Thatcher demonstrated the Flipboard app. Flipboard's slogan is "Your Social News Magazine" and that is essentially what it is. The app has a magazine like interface that allows you to flip through the headlines of sources you have indicated and click on them to read the articles. The best feature of Flipboard is the ability to customize it to only the sources you want to see. This is a great way to see lots of sources you would like to keep up with. You can add any public facebook page, Twitter stream, web page, blog, etc... to your Flipboard sources. You can add your own Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linked In, Instagram accounts (and more) to see anything shared with you in the Flipboard format. The search interface is easy to use and you can easily add sources like USA Today, BBC, National Geographic, etc... You can also add the standard Flipboard feeds of stories they have aggregated. The streamlined interface and aggregation of stories from all these sources helps you stay up to date without getting stressed.

An added bonus app:




Create an account with http://www.readability.com/ and use it to store and organize articles that you want to read later. It's a very easy to read text based format for collecting and archiving articles you want to read later. It works with Flipboard and many other apps. You can set readability up on many, many devices including tablets, phones, ereaders and even your computer. By logging into your readability account on each device all of the articles you saved will be synched and you can access them from any device. Brandy demonstrated in Flipboard how you can select and article and select the read it later link then by choosing the readability app the article is saved to the app.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - Second Meeting (Whiteboard Apps)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - Second Meeting

Brandy Thatcher, Instructional Media Developer demonstrated whiteboard apps.
Three apps were demonstrated: screenchomp, showme, and educreations.

ScreenChomp

http://www.techsmith.com/labs.html
Screen Chomp is only available in the iOS app store. An app created by Tech Smith, the same company that created Jing and Camtasia, is a recordable whiteboard. Simple to use with multiple marker, width and color choices. You can insert a background from your camera roll or take a photo to doodle on. You can also choose an image from your dropbox account. You must select your image before you start recording. You can not change or remove the image during the recording. You have the option to erase all doodles or spot erase. Record your audio and doodles, then you have two options to share your recording, you can send it to screenchomp.com or send it to your facebook account. I have tried to send 6 different  recordings since the beginning of September to screenchomp and get an error message each time saying that the cloud doesn't recognize my video ID. From what I have read, once you've shared the recording on screen chomp you can view them later from the screens button icon inside of your app. There is also an option to view the recording in Safari, then you could copy and paste the url to share. I also understand from other blogs that once you have the screenchomp.com url for your recording, you can download your recording as an .mp4. That's a good option if I can ever get a recording saved to screenchomp.

Showme

 http://www.showme.com/
This app is only available in the Apple iOS store. You can go to showme.com to create a free account. The website also features a library of recordings shared publicly by other ShowMe users. This library can be searched and the recordings can be linked to, embedded, sent via email and shared via facebook and twitter. Some of them are pretty good!

Create a free account or sign in with twitter or facebook. At the website you can login to view your ShowMe's. You can edit the details of your showme. ShowMe's by default are public and searchable. you can choose to make them private and only those with the exact url will be able to view your ShowMe. You can edit the Title, Description and Details of each ShowMe, also. You can download your ShowMe's as an .mp4 file. You can view your ShowMe's online and share it via facebook, twitter, email or embed code or by copying and pasting the link.

You can search the library of ShowMe's and view your own via the app, also. To start a new ShowMe click the Create a New ShowMe button. You can choose a photo from your camera roll, take a photo or search the web and select an image to use! Doodle on top of your image with seven color choices while recording your audio instructions. Use the undo button to remove the last mark made or use the eraser tool to erase any marks made. You can erase all doodles or the background image using the erase background button. You can pause during a recording to erase and then start recording again to make a clean recording. That is a great feature. It automatically pauses your recording when you select the photo tool to change the image. Once you are finished recording choose Save ShowMe. You will get a notification email as soon as your ShowMe is saved to the site. It is by default public, so you can change that by going to My ShowMes in the app and clicking the manage button and choosing the privacy button for the ShowMe. Click the Share button to share it on Facebook, Twitter or to email it or open in Safari to get the link or embed code. You can also do all this through your computer at showme.com as mentioned above. You can also create accounts for students through ShowMe.

EduCreations

http://www.educreations.com/

This app is also only available in the Apple iOS store. You can go to the website to create a free account. You can also view and search their gallery of Educreations. One thing that differs about Educreations is that you can create a Course and then create the "lessons" recordings with that course. You can create the recordings online through the website or through the app! You can create accounts for your students and associate them with a specific course or you can send students to a unique link to sign up for your Educreations course and let them create their own accounts. Once the students are signed up, you can see a last login date for them. You can set the privacy of your lessons and recordings to "Visible to My Students" so that only students signed up and logged into Educreations will see the recordings/lessons you have created for that course. 

The image options in creating your recording allow for an image from your camera roll, taking a photo, an image file from your dropbox account, and searching the web and selecting an image. When you begin the recording, it will automatically pause when you select the image button to change the image. You have 10 choices of colors and you can choose four colors to be in the tool bar. You can use the hand tool to move your background image around during the recording. Doodling and recording your voice is very easy. You can also enter typed text, which is an option not offered in the other apps. It does pause the recording when you select the text tool. You have an undo button at the top of the screen to undo the previous step. To clear the screen you can select the plus sign at the bottom and choose duplicate screen this will keep the background and text but remove the doodles. You can click the arrow tool at the bottom to get a clear whiteboard. Click Done to finish your recording and save the lesson. Don't click the X that deletes the recording completely.

When saving the lesson you have the option to choose Private, Public, MyStudents or MySchool (not sure how the setup for myschool) works. You will choose the subject area next. Then your lesson is saved for preview. You can click on the lesson to preview it and share it via Facebook and Twitter (only if lesson is public), or share by email or by a link. I haven't figured out how you can associate one of your lessons with your course through the app, though.

On the website you can click on your username and see all of the lessons you have created. Click on the lesson and click edit lesson. From this screen you can click an Add to Course button. you can edit the subject area, subject summary, and privacy setting for the lesson. 

If the lesson is set to public you will have the option to embed the lesson. I did not find an options to download my lessons as an mp4. I do like that feature and knowing that I have a way to archive my lessons. 

Conclusion

Overall my favorite app is Educreations. I love the many options to choose images and the ease of use. Also, that you don't have to have an ipad to use it, you could do it all from the online account. I liked the extra options of setting up a course and associating a lesson with a course, also. ShowMe is at the top of my list, also. Another great app with great features and really use to use. These apps are currently all free. I don't know how long that will be the case. Often these kinds of apps with such great potential start free and then in order to be a profitable business it's necessary for them to start charging a fee. For now, enjoy them and create great online instructional materials with them. Happy recording!