I have discovered a number of interesting iPad apps that can help you to create short learning units. Those of you familiar with Jing or Screencast-o-matic would appreciate these apps, since they allow you to do somewhat similar things using iPad. They are not as powerful as Jing and Screencast-o-matic though, for they do not show everything on your screen. They show what you write, draw or bring into the recording screen. Photos or pictures are treated as “backgrounds”. These apps are more like interactive whiteboards.
The first one is the free app called “Showme” with which you can draw and write things using your iPad. Your video then can be uploaded to the Showme website, and from there you can share it with your students or whoever you choose to share with. Like Youtube, you have the option to publish your video privately (share only with those you want) or the general public. I just created a tutorial about it using “showme”.
As I illustrated Showme with Showme, it was not always possible to record everything on my screen. Please excuse me for this inconvenience.
Students do not need the iPad to view the Video you created this way. The videos you have created will be stored at Showme’s website. You can log in to this site, click on “edit showmes” to find your video. Click on the video, and then find the embed codes to paste to your course pages.
Other similar applications include: Educreation and Screenchomp. They are very similar to Showme except for these slight differences:
Showme’s greatest advantage seems to be the ability to search for images from the web.
Screenchomp has three marker tools which is good for showing things you draw or write in rather bold fonts. You can search for pictures from your iPad picture library, your dropbox or you can take a photo. But you cannot search pictures from the web.
Educreation has an “undo” and a “redo” button that makes it easy to undo or redo your writing. You can get pictures from your dropbox, your iPad library or you can take a photo with the iPad, but you cannot search pictures from the web.
My personal favorite is “showme”. I hope you will also find it helpful if you use iPad to teach.