I wish to continue my discussion of interactive whiteboard apps for mobile devices by focusing now on Educreations (www.educreations.com).
Educreations App Overview from iTunes
This whiteboard app is similar to ShowMe (www.showme.com), which I profiled earlier this week. Educreations features a simple, straightforward user interface, which serves to lessen the learning curve for those new to the app. Since this app is quite simple to use and also quite similar to ShowMe, I will not go through a step-by-step demonstration on how to make your own project. I will, however, highlight the differences between ShowMe and Educreations.
First of all, Educreations offers users the capability to create slides within the presentation. For those who spend a lot of time generating slideshows, this will be quite familiar. I actually prefer this capability to create separate slides within my overall presentation. In ShowMe, I felt a bit less focused at times, since I had to have all my images/photos in place on the same screen and had to toggle between them as I recorded my presentation. With Educreations, I can create several slides within my presentation, and I can focus on each slide separately as I record. To see what this looks like, check out the presentation I made illustrating a simple Latin dialogue which uses key vocabulary words:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/latin-vocabulary/1270717/?ref=link
Secondly, users can upload images from their Dropbox folders/files (www.dropbox.com) to use in their Educreations projects. Since I have the Dropbox app on my iPad and it is synced with the Dropbox folder on my laptop, I can easily access these images to incorporate into my projects. And, with Educreations, just as with ShowMe, you can also access images directly from your device (i.e., “Camera Roll”/”Photo Stream”), you can search images on the web, and you can take pictures using your device. Here’s a screen shot from the app illustrating this:
Educreations Screenshot Illustrating Dropbox Image Import Option
Educreations also allows users to type on the whiteboard by inserting text boxes; this is in addition to writing by hand directly on the board. For those whose handwriting is atrocious (like mine!), this is a welcome feature. I can type my main text as I am setting up my presentation (i.e., before I record), but I can also write/draw on the whiteboard by hand while I’m talking and recording my presentation. Here’s a shot of this function on the app:
Educreations Screenshot Showing Text Box Function
Once your presentation is complete, you can choose to make it public on the Educreations site or you can set it to private, so that only those to whom you give the project URL can view it. This is identical to the public/private options in ShowMe. The privacy option is very desirable when working with students in a classroom setting. As a teacher, I feel more secure when I know that my students are using a web tool that provides a measure of privacy from the general public. On the other end of the spectrum, with both apps you also have the ability to send your project to Twitter and Facebook, if you wish to post it to social sites.
One other difference I noted between ShowMe and Educreations is that ShowMe allows users to download their projects, thereby making it possible to view/show the projects offline and avoid internet connection issues. Downloading also makes it easier to save and retain the projects for future use. This is one feature that I would like to see in Educreations. I did not readily notice this capability; if I missed it, please do comment on this posting (or e-mail at classappsblog@gmail.com) and let me know.
One last thing: I made mention of Dropbox in this posting. Dropbox is a convenient way to upload and share files from one device to another, and with multiple users. It’s a free application, and can be used on desktop/laptop computers as well as mobile devices such as iPad. For more, visit www.dropbox.com.
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