When reading Breanne’s week 3 blog post Khan Academy Video Tutorials In Math I saw Kris's comment about an iPad App called Educreations. As stated on their website, “Educreations is a global community where anyone can teach what they know and learn what they don't. We’re on a mission to democratize learning by extending the reach of great teaching.” More information can be found here. For info on how to create using Educreations go here. There are also numerous YouTube videos relating to Educreations.
I immediately down loaded the free iPad App, for those without an iPad access is available on any browser at this site http://www.educreations.com/. Within minutes I had both created an account and a basic trial video. This I emailed to myself and with the click of a button I viewed the video. Not only can you create your own lessons using the whiteboard but you can also import pictures and take screen shots, and you can create pages and then go back and record the audio to go with each page. The one thing I do not like is that you could not edit the videos. You can stop and start but if an error is made you cannot go back and edit.
Looking at the "Terms of Use" in relation to copyright, you have the option to make the video private or public. Keeping it private allows you to retain your copyright, making them public does not. There are a number of videos created by others that are available on the site as open educational resources.
As I researched Educreations I came across this blog post New iPad App Lets Any Teacher Be Like Sal Khan. This relates directly to the original blog post I had planned to write this week.
I have been interested in the use of Khan Academy with my math students for a number of years. See my blog post Khan Academy- Online Learning Revolution. Recently I was informed that starting in September our school will no longer have access to Successmaker , an alternative that was suggested was Khan Academy. This gave me the push I needed to explore further.
I went to the Khan Academy site and created an account. Once in my account I clicked on “Coach”. This allows me to create classes and enroll students either through their personal email or by creating them an account. I can then direct them to work through a specific area of study, for example, fractions and monitor their progress using the online tracking as their coach. Connected to each video is practice questions supplemented by the guided explanations option and also the original video to view if needed. Note, for students that are under the age of 13 parents’ permission is required and the parent’s email address must be inserted.
One thing I have found in the past when using Khan Academy, which is why it is important to preview the videos, is that some videos take concepts too far and then students end up confused plus some videos are lengthy, one I viewed was 13 minutes long.
In looking to use Educreations, I can create my own set of videos that meet the needs of my students. There are a number of ways the videos can be used. I can create a classroom and student accounts in Educreations, this gives students access to all of my videos. I can embed the video in a blog. I can also send the video link through email. Students can even create their own videos to demonstrate their learning, See the video, Khan Academy, I began to create for my blog post, unfortunately I saved it with hopes I could then edit the audio only to find out I could not. Note I created the page first and then added the audio.
In relation to math what Educreations does not offer me that Khan Academy does, is the online tracking and already created practice questions and guided explanations.
The question I am now pondering is, how and when will I use both of these resources? A comment Randy LaBonte made in relation to my Khan Academy-Online Learning Revolution blog post in OLTD 502 resonates here, "In the end to me it always comes down to pedagogy. What is the end goal and how could technology help us to get there more conveniently. So creation of video is one way to differentiate instruction. The devil is in the details of how and when you apply the use of video.”