Educational Tools in the Classroom: Educreations

I consider myself reasonably experienced regarding technology use in the classroom. While I still have a lot to learn, I have found that there are a few tech tools have provided me with different, but beneficial, uses for my mathematics classroom.

1) Educreations / Educreations App

Think of Educreations like a recordable whiteboard. I have started slowly migrating away from the smartboard and started to use software like Educreations instead. There are three primary ways that I have found Educreations useful in my classroom:

i) The Educreations website has a section called 'Features Lessons'. In these featured lessons are various lessons that have been previously created, by other teachers and students, and offer a variety of content in different subjects, including mathematics, language arts, and several other content areas. The lessons are essentially short videos - which are animated either by writing on the whiteboard, or have been set up as a video slideshow - and in which the teachers cover various content areas. I find these useful when I attempt to do 'flipped' classroom activities, as it lets students watch the videos, and then I can facilitate learning and provide feedback on their opportunities to practice.

ii) The Educreations App has allowed me to have students create 'review videos'. I used these review videos at the end of the unit, before an assessment, for students to provide me with proof that they understood various concepts. I had them create videos that included: the learning goal, a brief explanation of the topic, a worked example, and an example for other viewers to consolidate their learning. The students are able to join my 'class' on Educreations, and when they save their videos, I can see them on my dashboard, review them, and provide the students with feedback.

                             

iii) I use the Educreations app on my iPad to create lessons for my own classroom. The app is capable of recording your voice, handwriting, and any graphics or other information that you put on the whiteboard, allowing you to create your own lessons which can be shared to everyone digitally, or just to your students. The plus side of this is that students can have a recorded video, with audio, which they can watch should they happen to be absent or be more of a visual/auditory learner.


The only real downsides I have found when using Educreations in my classroom are that the iOS app does not have a search feature (the main website does), and that, when recording a lesson, you cannot go back and edit parts, so if you happen to mess up when speaking or recording, you would need to start over with your recording, and this takes a bit of getting used to!

In general, I find that I have used Educreations to provide content, provide feedback, and assess students, all in different and engaging ways.