Educreations: Cross-Curricular Creation on the iPad

 

Educreations: Cross-Curricular Creation on the iPad

Educreations is:

–an interactive whiteboard app

-can be used instead of whiteboards in math class

-an option for flipped classrooms

–a way for students to demonstrate mastery: summative assessment for a unit

Options for this app:

Basic version

–free

-can save one draft at a time which can be an issue if you only have limited iPads or you share iPads

Pro Classroom

–$8.25 a month for 1 teacher and up to 40 students

-export videos

-almost 10x more storage

-can import docs and maps

Pro School

–$1495 a year for 10 or more teachers

-unlimited storage

–Pro Classroom for all teachers and students

–Admin can make and manage classrooms

 

How can you use Educreations in the classroom?

Example of a K-1 math lesson/assessment for comparing numbers:

– On DoodleBuddy (free) or another picture making app to create a picture that has 1-20 of one object and 1-20 of another object. Students will have to record their thinking while they count the objects (they can cross out or number objects with the drawing tool or number the objects)

–They also can write a number sentence underneath to show the inequality and compare the numbers using grater than and less than.

Here is an example I created in about 10 minutes:

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/i-can-compare-sets/36314504/?s=UoPMhP&ref=appemail

Example of a K-1 Five senses assessment using Educreations:

-After teaching a unit on the five senses (common K unit) students can create an Educreations presentation on which part of the body matches with each sense.

-Students take a picture of their face and hand and as they name the senses they can circle the part on their face or hand that connects to that sense.

Another idea:

-Have students take iPads on a field trip and take pictures and then use those pictures to create an Educreations presentation all about the field trip.

FREE Apps that work well with Educreations:

–Popplet: free web creating / brainstorming app that can save to your photo library and then import into Educreations

–Geoboard: free geoboard app, great if you don’t want to deal with elastic bands all over the room! Students can take a screen shot or export to photo library and then put into a Educreation to label different shapes or show shape attributes

–Number Pieces: Basic version is free, virtual Base-Ten blocks where students can create numbers with base ten blocks and then can also write with their fingers to label the numbers

–Doodle Buddy: free drawing app similar to drawing desk, stamps can be used to create a scene, some of the stamps make noise so make sure they have their volume off

–RWT Timeline: free app where students can create a time line for a historical event and use their own pictures or pictures from the web to illustrate each date

–Word Clouds: Free app to create word clouds, which is where you put in a large amount of text and it creates a graphic that makes the most mentioned words larger, great first image to introduce a topic.

Tips & Tricks for creating an Educreation:

-Pre-arrange your slides and have students plan out their slides

-Use the pause button to take a break

–Also be aware of the web search for pictures, it is not limited to kid friendly pictures! For younger grades you may want to only limit to pictures in the photo library.

-Put up a “Recording in Session” sign if recording at school

-You will need to create a login/password for each student and then they need to type your class code to see your lessons

-Using the eraser tool there is the option for them to use it as a regular eraser or they can tap it again and click either clear page or clear ink which will only clear what has been drawn. They can also clear their recording.

-With the duplicate page option you have the choice to duplicate the entire slide or only the text and images

-When finished, can click the box with arrow at the top and save it as a draft or publish.

–Educreations can exported through email, or copying the link and putting it on a blog etc.

My Educreations!:

This is one of my favorite apps from the entire conference. It is easy to use, kid friendly and applicable to many grades. I made a few sample presentations so you can get an idea of the app.

One of the only drawbacks to Educreations is that there is no way to record without sound so for some of these you can hear background noise so I’d recommend listening with the volume off.

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/bumblebee-bat-presentation/36265544/?s=0GgiQX&ref=appemail

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/beaver-lodge/36257412/?s=n7lR8C&ref=appemail

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/morning-meeting/36257420/?s=1LdkoH&ref=appemail