Educreations

Price:  Free 

Purpose/Capabilities: 

Educreations is an interactive whiteboard with voice recording, the ability to import images, write on the screen with four different colored inks, add text, and share the video through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, or upload it to a website.

Educreations can be used in the classroom by the teacher or the students.  It is a great way for teachers to preview material and have students watch it before coming into class, work through a homework problem that students had trouble with without spending class time on it, add commentary to an image, and provide extra help tutorials for difficult concepts.  Students can also use Educreations themselves to showcase and explain a problem they solved.

 Positive Aspects: 

This is what the blank screen looks like.

Educreations is very intuitive and easy to use.  It has great potential for both teachers and students.  Educreations does allow you to create multiple screens for one project and go back and forth between them.  You can record and write at the same time, or if you prefer, you can have it all written or drawn out and then record the explanation to go along with the different screens.  You can pause the audio and continue recording as well.

Negative Aspects: 

Educreations does not have an eraser feature, only an undo button that will delete the last move (you can use it multiple times in a row).  In addition, with this app, you cannot save your work unless it is recorded.  Once you record, you cannot go back and edit your recording.  If you make a mistake, you are forced to start again from the beginning.  Despite these negatives, Educreations is definitely a must try, especially since it is free!

Sample Activity:
In each of my Honors Algebra II classes, I had my students use Educreations to create a video explaining an application of exponential functions.  There were seven application problems and each group was selected to be the experts of a particular problem.  They were to solve that problem first and create a video explaining the problem and how to solve it.  After previewing the videos myself, I posted them on the class wiki and the rest of the class was able to check their work using the videos.  They were asked to comment on at least one other group's video.  Below you will find the link to the directions and rubric I used in my class, which can definitely be adapted for other activities.

Educreations Video Assignment