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lunes, 25 de mayo de 2015

12 Excellent Android Apps for Unleashing Students Creativity

May 25, 2015
 Here are some excellent Android apps to enhance students creative thinking and boost their imaginative faculties. Using these apps, students will get to engage in a wide range of digital activities such as creating story books, designing  mind maps, creating and sharing short animated videos, recording and sharing audio files, creating beautiful drawings and photo collages and many more. All of these activities are geared towards stimulating and unleashing students creativity.

1- Book Creator


“Book Creator is the simple way to make your own beautiful ebooks, right on your iPad. With over 10 million ebooks created so far, Book Creator is ideal for making all kinds of books, including children's picture books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more.”

2- Explain Everything


“Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.”

3- SimpleMind

“SimpleMind Free for Android™ is a mind mapping tool that turns your android phone or tablet into a brainstorming, idea collection and thought structuring device.”

4- Tellagami

“Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated Gami video. A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos.”

5- WeVideo

“WeVideo is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, cloud-based video editor. Capture your favorite moments in photos and video clips and edit them on the go.The WeVideo Editor is easy to use for kids but designed to be enjoyed by the whole family. Enjoy an intuitive interface and animated interactions where you can see your images and video clips on a visual storyboard. Start a video on your mobile device and pick up a where you left off on our full-featured desktop editor.”

6- PicCollage

“Use PicCollage to combine photos, Youtube videos, funky fonts, sassy stickers and cute cutouts to create the prettiest collages you'll ever see on a mobile device…Share with your friends and followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and iMessage. You can also PRINT your collages into greeting cards or postcards to send to your loved ones anywhere in the world!”

7- Animoto Video Maker


“Make fun videos wherever you are, with photos and video clips from your phone or tablet. Choose from one of our sleek video styles, add a song, and you’re done! Share via email, Twitter, or Facebook and impress the socks off your friends and family.”

8- Magisto Video Editor & Maker


“Magisto Video Editor & Maker automatically turns your photos and video clips into awesome edited movies, complete with your choice of music, cool graphics, and effects, in just a few magical minutes! Best of all it is free to download.”

9- Photo Editor

“Adjust color, add effects, rotate, crop, resize, frame, clone, and draw on your photos. Color adjustment options include hue, saturation, contrast, and brightness. Additionally, Photo Editor offers a large variety of effects for your photos including gamma correction, auto contrast, auto tone, blur, sharpen, oil paint, sketch, black & white high contrast, sepia, and more.”

10- Draw

“Draw and flash on the go! This app is for easy finger communication, making quick notes or keeping kids entertained. Draw! is simplistic, it is basically a whiteboard. Some find it too simplistic, others find it too difficult. Whatever you think it is, we get it. Draw! is what it is and stay that way.”

11- Easy Voice Recorder 

“Easy Voice Recorder is a fun, simple and easy to use audio & voice recorder. Use it to reliably record your meetings, personal notes, classes, and more, with no time limits!”

12- Photo Collage Free


“Collage makes it easy and fun to arrange images, pictures, photographies and photos on your smartphone or tablet in an instant!. Have fun, and share your photo collages with any social media. Great for any theme greeting cards!”

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Difference Between Screensharing in Apple TV and Google Chromecast

May25, 2015
Both of Chromecast and Apple TV allow you to stream content from your computer or mobile devices into a projector or TV. However, there are some major differences which you need to consider if you are thinking to use them in class with students.

For $35, Google Chromecast comes at a cheaper cost than Apple TV. Using an HDMI input you will be able to instantly plug it to a projector and start wirelessly outputting content from your computer or tablet into a bigger screen. This is particularly handy when giving presentations in class. You can move comfortably around the class while remotely controlling screen display from your mobile device. And in case there are multiple presenters in class, they can take turns in presenting their content seamlessly by simply pressing the “cast" button. Another interesting feature is the ability to cast your Chrome tabs directly to your TV or projector. You simply install Google Cast extension, connect your laptop or tablet to the same Wi-Fi network as your Chromecast, then go to any website and click the cast button and watch. However, only websites optimized for Chromecast support this functionality (e.g YoutUBE, Netflix, HBO GO…etc). Casting other websites is presently in beta feature. Also, tab casting is usually slower than video streaming.


A Major concern for using Chromecast in the classroom is the lack of robust security features  that allow teachers to control what is displayed on the screen. Any student with a mobile  device in class can easily push content to the screen and hijack teacher's screen. Unless the teacher sets clear rules on content sharing using Chromecast, this could be a complete fiasco. Additionally, Chromecast is essentially a video and audio streaming utility. As such, it does not lend itself to screen sharing in the way Apple TV does. Unless the app or website is Chromcast compatible, there is no way you can cast it into your projector.  Overall, Chromecast is a great utility but with limited features for classroom inclusion. If you are seeking a device for mere screen sharing, Chromecast is definitely not for you.


Apple TV comes at a higher price ($). First, Apple TV is not app limited and works with all kinds of   apps through Airplay  making it thus an ideal screensharing tool to use in class with students. Second, Apple TV provides more advanced security settings allowing teachers to passcode what they are sharing on a projector and eliminating the risk of the screen being hijacked by others in the same wireless network. Also, Apple TV has recently added the peer-to-peer Airplay Discovery and Playback functionality to iOS8. This new feature allows users to “wirelessly connect iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to Apple TV without first connecting to the organization’s network. Which means you can present or share your work even if you’re offline or the organization has a complex network.”

Final verdict: When it comes to screensharing and content mirroring in class, Apple TV is, in our eyes, the best option to go with. There are also other alternative for screen sharing which you can find in this page.

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domingo, 24 de mayo de 2015

Two Awesome Apps for Creating Educational Shows with Students

May 24, 2015
We received an email a few days ago from a teacher asking about a good iPad app for creating simulated TV shows with students. The apps we suggest below are both from Launchpad Toys which have been acquired by Google a couple of months ago. These are probably among the most popular apps among teachers and educators. Students can use them to unleash their creativity and delve into a world of imagination creating scenes, designing characters, animating cartoons and telling their own stories through beautifully recorded shows.


1- TeleStory
“TeleStory takes you behind the scenes to create and broadcast your own TV show! Record a music video, teleport to an alien planet, film a high-speed-chase, or perform on a reality TV show - TeleStory is a TV studio in your pocket. Here is how it works:

  • Pick a theme, then mix and match over 30 animated scenes to film your own story
  • Craft a script using our playful TV tropes (or write your own)
  • Dress up in 50 different digital costumes with face tracking
  • Perform and record your own show with animated settings and special effects
  • Broadcast your by exporting it to the camera roll and then sharing your creation with family and friends around the world! “

Watch this video to learn more about TeleStory



2- Toonastic
“Toontastic is a creative storytelling app that enables kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons with friends and family around the world…Making cartoons with Toontastic is as easy as putting on a puppet show - simply press the record button, move your characters onscreen, and tell your story. Toontastic records your animation and voice as a cartoon video to share with friends and family.”

Watch this video to learn more about Toonastic



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Teachers' Guide to The Use of Google Voice in Education

May 24, 2015
Google Voice is a great communicational utility with huge educational potential. As a teacher, you can use Google Voice to obtain a phone number to use when communicating with students and parents without you revealing your personal phone number. You can connect your Google Voice number with  multiple phone numbers (e.g landline number, mobile number, work number) and have incoming calls routed to all of these numbers simultaneously. You can also select a single number to forward all your incoming calls to.

The voicemail features of Google Voice are also wonderful. All voicemails are recorded and transcribed. Only  transcription of English messages is available for now.You can set up your voicemail so you get voicemails emailed straight to your Gmail account. Also, voicemails are available as audio files that can be saved and embedded into a website or blog or used in audio editing tools such as Garageband or Audacity to create audio files for classroom projects.

From language teaching to storytelling, Google Voice can be used in a variety of ways with  students. We have compiled for you a list of some very good reads to you help learn more about how you can integrate Google Voice in your own teaching. But before that, here are some good video tutorials covering some of the features provided by Google Voice.

1- What is Google Voice?


2- Voicemail Transcription

5 Great Apps Students Can Use to Demonstrate Their Learning

May 24, 2015
Below are some of the best iPad apps students can use to demonstrate their learning across different subjects. Apple has recently released Apps in the Classroom series featuring the apps listed below (except Book Creator)  in separate visually explained guides for teachers to use with their students. All of these guides are available for free download with iBooks in Mac or iPad or with iTunes on your computer.

1- iBooks Author

“Use iBooks Author to create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad and Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad or Mac at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBooks Store in a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.”

Download : iBooks Author Guide

2- Puppet Pals HD

“Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time!Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later.”

Download : Puppet Pals HD Guide

3- Explain Everything

“Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.”

Download : Explain Everything Guide

4- Stop Motion Studio

“Create beautiful stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need is right at your fingertips. No computer needed. It's simple to use, deceptively powerful and insanely fun to play with. Create fantastic movies your friends will enjoy or share it with the world on YouTube, Facebook and other sites. Cool themes, titles and sound effects are easy to add, too.”

Download : Stop Motion Guide

5- Book Creator

“Book Creator is the simple way to make your own beautiful ebooks, right on your iPad. With over 10 million ebooks created so far, Book Creator is ideal for making all kinds of books, including children's picture books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more.”

sábado, 23 de mayo de 2015

Some Good Educational Web Tools Recommended by Teachers for Teachers

May 24, 2015
Looking for a good tool to make one of your classroom routines a little easier? Here are some tools recommended by teachers. They may not all be relevant, but hopefully there will be at least one gem here for you.


Permission Click
Digital permission slips, forms, and payment collection for K-12 schools (PTAs & daycares too!) Free to use! Easy setup.
 Convert any PDF file, MS Word document, and e-book to spoken words.
Facilitate controlled online classroom discussions, often called "backchannels."
Read daily news that has been curated for tweens and tagged by reading levels.
Create professional-looking presentations and videos that look like the ones on company websites.
This is curated by teacher and technology integrator Tom Mussoline.
This one is curated by consultant and educator Polly-Alida Farrington.


By: Mike Lee, Co-founder of edshelf

4 Powerful Chrome Apps to Enhance Your Reading Experience

May 24, 2015
Here some very good Chrome apps to help you enhance your online reading experience. The extensions we curated for you today allow you to create a comfortable reading environment where you can enjoy your reading with no distractions and no eye strain. Using these apps will enable you to eliminate  ads and flash animations from your page, browse multi-page articles in one, seamless view, disable surrounding webpage noise and clutter and many more.  Check out the list below and share with us what you think of it.

1- Readability

“Readability is a web and mobile app that zaps clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view. The official Readability extension for Chrome provides a better way to read online, turning any web page into a comfortable reading view right in your web browser.”

2- Clearly

“With one click, Clearly makes blog posts and articles clean and easy to read. Clearly eliminates all distractions from your online reading experience, and even allows you to browse multi-page articles in one, seamless view.”

3- Read Mode

“Just click on the glasses icon in the address bar, the current page will turn into a nice-to-read black on white page allowing you to read without forcing your eyes. Ads and Flash animations are also removed while on read-mode. Click the icon again and everything will go back to normal.”

4- Easy Reader

“EasyReader can customize and improve the readability of long web articles
Make any article or part of a website more readable!’

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