Explain Everything in Action!

Students had a lot fun with the camera/video tool in
Explain Everything.

I had a fantastic time working with Kathryn Murray's grade 6/7 class using Explain Everything (EE) on her mini iPads. After 5 minutes of initial playtime in EE, students were able to share their findings on what each tool did. Very quickly, they were becoming the experts on the tool. With exploring the tools even further, the students were able to provide examples of how and when this app would be useful.

The software, AirServer, was used for
students to share their screen on the SmartBoard.
 

Taking the tool to the next level, we explored how Siri can be used in EE and how to export final products into their Google Drive accounts and share their video with others.

To finish the lesson, students worked in pairs and used EE to share their summaries of articles in a special Remembrance Day newspaper. When they are done, they will export their videos into their Google Drive account and then share it with their teacher.

Thank you Kathryn for inviting me to spend the morning with your class and giving me the opportunity to help your students learn all about my favourite app!

Wow!  Intense learning for me...the students seem fine!
Watch out!  Sometimes home screen with iPad number disappears!  We learned we needed to put iPad number on back of mini!  We did this with masking tape.  Panic over!

Fun time just with native features.  Sometimes kids are so distracted by applications, it was amazing to see all we could do without one application downloaded.  They listened to SIRI, Google mapped - 3-D, made videos and blogged about a video.

First download was MyScriptCalculator.  Really helpful with Grade 7 BEDMAS questions.  They did questions by hand, inputted on Calculator and compared answers. Fast way to get exponents and operation signs in!  Lots of student thinking as they had to figure out why the answer was different!  High level of student engagement in solving math problems!  Hehehehe!

Finally on day 5 we looked at Explain Everything.  Almost too many options for students to grasp in one go! Lots of menu options.  We really looked at how to take pictures and videos and move them into Google Docs.

Screen Shots

I'm in the process of creating a couple of worksheets for my students and have found the screen shot tool very useful - so I'm passing the info on to all of you who are using iPads or iPad minis.

Go to the screen that you want.  Press the power key (at the top of the iPad) at the same time as the home/menu key (bottom front of iPad).  The screen should flash.  Your screen shot is complete!  EASY!  The photo will be stored in the cameral roll.  You can then email it to your PC/laptop or upload it directly to a Google Drive document :)

Have fun :)
Sheri