Educreation

=Educreations=
 * * ======Screencasting Home====== || * ======A+ Signature====== || * ======Educreations====== || * ======Animoto====== || * ======Blurb Mobile====== || * ======Explain Everything====== || * ======ShowMe ====== || * ======Apps and Resources====== ||

What and Why:
This app turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard, so you can create great video tutorials by tapping and recording your voice. You can annotate your screenshots, record your path for solving an equation, and capture your process as you draw on the screen. Features include handwriting, moving and resizing photos while recording, making multiple pages, and exporting your video. This app includes an undo button, import photos from the camera roll, import from web locations, and it is embeddable.

//Educreations can be used for not only screencasting tutorials, but for for explaining anything where you might use a whiteboard, such as a math calculation or chemistry experiment. On the iPad, from the Educreations starting page "My Lessons" click on the Featured button on the bottom of the screen to view featured examples of Educreation projects. Scroll up to view more examples.// //You can also view examples from a browser on a computer or iPad by going to the Educreations.com website and click the Featured button.// **//Some day an Educreation done by you or your students' may be among this collection! Visit Carolyn's Badger story.//**

Activity:
You will create a step-by-step guide to using the USA Today app.

Create a multiple screen explanation of the steps necessary to configure and use different tools in the USA Today newspaper app. Add visual indicators such as circles or arrows to show where to tap. Record a voice narration explaining each step in the process.

1. Open USA Today (free) 2. Decide what you’d like to have the users learn. Is it how to configure a specific aspect of the app?
 * Task - Create a screencast to explain how to configure the USA Today app to display the weather information for your location.
 * Task 2 - Create a screencast showing how to view “Today in Pictures” from the front page of the USA Today app, and display the pictures as a slideshow, for use as a discussion starter in a classroom.
 * Task 3 - Create a screencast of how to view an article in the USA Today app and change the font size, and then share the article via email or Twitter.


 * //Tips://


 * If it would be helpful, create a written script with what you will say. If students are doing this, you may want them to create a storyboard of their screen shots.
 * Walk through each step in your script. Think about which screens are needed and if the screen will need some type of label to indicate where a user will click or enter information.
 * Start at the very beginning and screen-by-screen, capture a screen shot for each step in the process.
 * Add text to further describe the steps in the process.

3. Open Educreations (free)
 * From the mountain range button, click to insert a photo from your library. Navigate to the first of your screen shots and tap to select.
 * Once it’s on the screen, tap on it to see the menu of image controls. Select Fit Width or Fit Height.
 * Select the red color and draw a circle around where you want the users to tap. If you make an error, tap the X in the menu and select Clear ink and try again.
 * Tap the small triangle in the lower right corner to go to a new blank screen. Insert the next screen shot using the same process. Adjust the width or height as desired.
 * Add another red circle or other indicators to show where users should click. Repeat the process, inserting another blank screen and images until finished.

4. Record your narration
 * Using the small arrows in the bottom of the screen, return to the first screen. Review what you are going to say as you practice going from screen to screen. Once ready, return to the first screen and press the red rec button in the upper right corner of the screen. As you finish narrating the first page, click the triangle to go the the second page and continue. Once finished with your step-by-step narration, click the button to pause or stop the narration.
 * Enter a title and short description. Click Next
 * Choose to make the lesson Private or Public. Select Public. Click Next
 * Select a subject area. Technology or Other are good choices. Then click Save.
 * It will bring you to an Educreations login screen. Create an account or login.
 * A link to your lesson can be sent via email or copied and shared. Click the My Lessons button and then on the specific lesson to view the options. The lesson can also be shared via Twitter or Facebook. Dropbox can be used to import photos.
 * Even if you do not have an account in Educreations, your finished project may be viewed on your iPad

5. Repeat the process to create additional screencasts to explain other aspects of customizing or using the USA Today app.

//Tips from Chris Streeter, Co-Founder of Educreations://

 * 1) A great way to prepare a lesson is to set up a bunch of slides before hitting the record button (put something on slide one, something on slide 2, etc), then go back to slide 1 and start recording. Then you can just jump ahead and don't have to write out another slide.
 * 2) You can pause the recording at any time. So if you want to draw something, think about what you want to say, etc, just hit the pause button until you are ready again.
 * 3) Everything you do is recorded. So if you move or resize an image while recording, that will play back as an animation when you watch the lesson. You can also pinch to resize an image and rotate with two fingers to rotate an image.
 * 4) If you make a lesson private, after you upload it, you can email a private link to people who can only view it with that special link.