Helping students 24/7 via screen casts

Students send me questions about math problems via email throughout the day.  It is not easy to demonstrate how to solve a math problem via email – especially when those problems involve exponents, subscripts, and square roots. It can be done, but it takes a lot of time.  If their question involves graphing, it is almost easier to wait until I see them in class.  But now I have a way to answer their questions quickly and easily.

Educreations

I’ve been using an iPad app called Educreations to answer students’ questions in just a few minutes, including graphing questions.  It is a really easy to use app filled with useful features.  And it’s free.  The Educreations software allows you to use an iPad, and now even a web browser, to create video lessons using a recordable, interactive whiteboard.  You can then share those lessons with your students via email, Blackboard, Facebook, Twitter or make them public for anyone to view.

Create video lessons using an interactive, recordable whiteboard.

With the Educreations app on my iPad, I can write or type on a solid white background or I can use a grid, including coordinate axes. I can choose 10 different pen colors. I can import files and images or use photos I’ve taken with my iPad.  I can create as little or as much of the visual material as I’d like before I begin recording.  When my video is complete, I simply email a link to my student.  Students love that they can hear their instuctor.  I can choose to make my video public if I’d like and then anyone can see it.

Below is an example of a screen cast I created for a student.  It only took me a few minutes to create the video and email a link to my student.  In this video, I began simply with the expression you see below and I created the rest as I recorded it.

While I mainly use it to answer students questions, it certainly isn’t just limited to answering student’s questions about math.

Other applications

• Supplement lecture
• Review for a test
• Send correct problem solution for a CAT
• Utilize public Educreations screen casts – wide range of subjects
• Student created videos

How do you think you’ll use Educreations?