ShowMe, AudioNote, LiveNotes, Whiteboard are iPad apps for notetaking, recording, sharing.

I recently read a blog post from Tech & Learning by David Kapuler (@dkapuler) about Top 10 Sites for Note Taking. While Evernote and Livescribe were absent from the list, it was still an interesting read.

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been talking with math teachers, English teachers, Spanish teachers, and members of the Technology Department (Andrew Gardner @agardnahh, Gina Marcel @fpgina, Don Buckley @donbuckley) about various tools and iPad apps that would be helpful with recording kids voices, taking notes, offering alternative assessments, populating a digital archive of student work, and moving towards a flipped classroom model similar to the Khan Academy. (See my last post about Livescribe and Smartpens in the math classroom…)

Below are some iPad apps I am encouraging teachers to use specifically to record audio, text, and handwriting. Please feel free to share more!

ShowMe

San Kim (@SanKim) came to our school yesterday afternoon to show us ShowMe (@ShowMeApp)! It is still in Beta, though may be in the App Store in a month. You can apply to be a beta tester on the site.

Pros: Free, records audio, can import an image to the background, has 6 pen colors to choose from, uploads to a shared space, saved files are embeddable

Cons: Does not [yet] have a slider to move the play head back and forth, does not allow you to click on the drawings to hear the audio synced with that moment

AudioNote

Pros: Lite version is free, records audio, incoporates a notepad where notes are input via iPad keyboard or a pen tool, syncs audio with text/drawings and vice versa, scrolls down for a longer page of notes, timestamps your notes

Cons: Premium version is $4.99 and is needed to send recordings via email or a network connection, no choice of pen colors, cannot import a background image

Live Notes

Pros: Lite version records audio, incoporates a notepad where notes are input via iPad keyboard or a pen tool, different paper styles, shapes tool, syncs audio with text/drawings and vice versa, multiple pen colors and widths, multiple pages

Cons: Premium version is $5.99 and is needed for DropBox integration, sending/printing notes via email, Lite version is limited to 3 Notes that are each 5 pages maximum and there are ads

Whiteboard

Pros: Lite version is free, multiple pen colors and widths, can create collaborative drawings with another machine over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth peer-to-peer

Cons: Pro version is $2.99, HD version is $3.99 and either is needed to import a picture as a background image, cannot record audio at all

Notes from the Polyvision Education Technology Learning Symposium on 4/9/11

I attended the Polyvision Education Technology Learning Symposium on Saturday. It was held at Steelcase‘s offices at Columbus Circle with ridiculously posh seating options and gorgeous views of the southwest corner of Central Park. The two people I know best at Polyvision are Amy Brandt (of the Education Team) and Dennis Guidera (my Territory Sales Manager); They are Eno superstars, and I have had the priviledge of learning from them for the last couple of years (as my school has purchased more Eno boards) and having them support EdCampNYC and TEDxNYED.

On Saturday, the day began with a presentation by Bruce Friend (@SASeducator), the Director of Education Practice at SAS Curriculum Pathways. Bruce talked about their free curricular materials that include a lot of digital content for teachers that help integrate educational technology.

One of the more compelling moments of Bruce’s slideshow consisted of an image of a glass of milk. Bruce stated that he would argue that the milk has undergone more innovations than education.

Besides sharing that there are more honor students in China than total students in the US, Bruce quoted statistics from The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts. (This is a report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by John M.Bridgeland John J.DiIulio Jr., and Karen Burke Morison.) Of the HS droupouts surveyed: 88% had passing grades, 69% were not motivated to work hard, 66% would have worked harder if more had been demanded of them, 81% called for more real-world learning opportunities, and 70% were on track to graduate and still dropped out. Slides from the report are included below:

silentepidemicppt.pdf
Download this file

After Bruce’s presentation, Buzz Wood took the stage. Buzz is a National Account Manager and Territory Manager at PolyVision, however I had a hard time appreciating anything but his name at first. Buzz presented about Eno and iPod/iPodTouch integration. I learned buzz words from Buzz Wood: He described the new Interactive White Board (IWB) as a “digital dashboard” that helps “mobilize conent” into “learning objects.”

Buzz shared that there are now user defined icons on the new Eno magnetic strip. Amy Brandt (bless her heart) piped in to say that if you click the Polyision driver, you can “show onscreen icon strip” and there are two available icons to program for Safari or Keynote or specific webpages (like your district’s Acceptable Use Policy…)

Buzz recommended the following iApps:

Air Sharing – The easiest way to view your documents on the go. Buzz showed how one can share files from the presentation machine, select the “save in” path to be a folder or desktop that is then pushed to all shared devices.

Whiteboard – I’ve had this app on my iPhone for years just so my niece could draw pictures. I had no idea Whiteboard also allows iPad to iPad or iPad to computer collaborative drawings. I have so many ideas for how to use this with the little kids. As you can insert an image, imagine having a number chart on the screen and using red to circle the even numbers or green to circle all the multiples of 5.

Air Display – Ever wish you had an extra display for your Mac or Windows computer? There’s an app for that! With Air Display, you can use your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch as a wireless display, to extend your computer desktop.

After Buzz, Matt Finucane of Carteret, New Jersey spoke of a project he worked on with his special educaiton students, two other teacher colleagues, and Amy Brandt. They partnered with a school on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland to participate in an extended relationship to learn about each other’s cultures. Using Skype, they shared lessons during a common time (New Jersey mornings and Scotland afternoons). The kids also made informative videos about their home town’s to share with their new friends overseas. The awesome combined efforts of their collaboration can be seen here:

http://www.carteretschools.org/webpages/mfinucane/isle.cfm