Quick Tutorials

Out of the five iPad whiteboard-recording apps available at the time, Educreations and ShowMe included a hosting service. That made them useful for recording and automatically posting short teacher-created tutorials for students. Below is the process I used:

1. Using the Google Sites “iFrame Gadget” or any other iFrame function, embed your public Showme or Educreations profile into your class site.
2. Identify frequently asked questions or questions students ask via email or text.
3. Record solutions using Educreations or Showme.
4. Walla! Solutions are posted automatically to your website available for ALL students, not just the question asker.

Although this seems like a very simple/no-brainer process, the fact that the iFrame functionality completely removes the step of publishing and distributing the video to students makes this process sustainable. I find myself carrying my iPad with me at all times, pulling over on the side of the road to answer student texts (I provide students with my google voice number), or simply wandering the classroom and recording solutions that I would have otherwise done on a separate sheet of paper or a whiteboard. Clickhere and here to see videos made via Showme and Educreations (I switched to Educreations for the second semester when it was launched). The videos are super shaky and bad quality, but that’s THE POINT. Capturing the authentic tutorial stores it for everybody, with learning taking the lead, rather than aesthetics.

The system turns one question into a reusable tutorial for the entire class without adding a separate publishing step.