The super smashing #Appsmash Live 6

Today, 2nd May, 2015, was another amazing Appsmashing live session hosted by Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist with Joe Dale @joedale, Simon Johnson @clcsimon, Rachel Smith @lancslassrach, Julian Coultas @digitalroadtrip and Bryn Goodman @bryngoodman. A rather amazing line up of ‘Digiexperts‘ wouldn’t you say? I’m still buzzing now from listening and watching how these impressive technology experts smash the apps! It’s safe to say my head was completely filled with ideas and I was once again inspired by learning from others. Isn’t that what we do as practitioners?

Mark introduced everyone and we were straight into what I call a great Digital ‘Show and Share’.

Simon Johnson, @clcsimon took us through his appsmashing ideas using Aurasma and Doceri, and the more complex part for me was not the apps, but the demo on learning and understanding Binary. Simon explained how he would use this in a classroom setting. I was lost….but only on the content not about how to use the apps themselves. Still can’t get my head around some things in life…..

Next up was Rachel Smith,@lancslassrach, who is an MFL Teacher and gave an amazing step by step, user friendly guide to using some amazing apps for revision, particularly where the students were struggling with some aspects of language and being able to comprehend the difficulties in memorising what key words needed to be learned.

Apps covered and mentioned by Rachel were Skitch, Thinglink, Photos, Chatterpix, Tellagami, and Popplet Lite. It was really great to see how the students can manoeuvre in between the apps and create a wonderful revisions resource. A new addition in looking at PhotosforClass too. Thanks Rachel.

We were then introduced to Julian Coultas @digitalroadtrip who started with an app which I was blown away by…..it’s PartySnapper. It’s not cheap but the amazing possibilities with this is just endless, and a fantastic way to engage your students so that they join your Learning Party (I shall let you discover what parties you can create!) The teacher can collate evidence from a whole class very quickly as the work will arrive onto the teachers iPad – a great way to screen share everyone’s thinking and learning immediately. Julian took us through an exciting process of smashing all different learning processes and some apps were just mentioned in passing as well as being demonstrated. Oh, yes, we must not forget the effective use of Air Server and Explain Everything as well as Screen Casting during the session. The apps Julian shared and touched upon were; PartySnapper, Symmetry Drawing, Legend, Photos, iMovie, Notes and Adobe Voice.

The PartySnapper app is not cheap – currently at £22.99 but allows all your students to send work instantly instead of issues with Apple TV or Air Server or similar screen sharing systems you may use.

Thanks Julian, my brain is still buzz, buzz, buzzing.

Next up was Joe….”I never miss an Appsmashlive” Dale… so said Mark.

Joe took us straight into using Vimo – animation and Motion Stickers, Nito – 3D Avatar Animation, Nutshell – instant mini-movies with text and animation and iMovie. Some great new apps there and I particularly like to Nito avatar animation one as the possibilities for its use are endless. Joe also mentioned Lego Movie Maker and Clips video editor.

The session then moved on to see what Bryn Goodman @bryngoodman was going to appsmash.

As Digiplayers (me included) we sometimes forget about what is already built into apps that come with the iPad. This was an excellent reminder by Bryn that we should look at what we have, before searching for lots of new apps and being excited by the next best thing. Bryn mentioned the Maps app on the iPad and the Fly Over tour which maybe some of you have never even discovered or tried, so if you haven’t, goaway and Digiplay! Bryn showed us Sydney in Australia, and he shared pics that the children had taken as screen shots. They then dropped the pics into Vidra, which is a totally free and great app. A really lovely session, simple, to the point but very very powerful.

Finally, as the session was running out of time, Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist, or rather as he introduced himself…’Je m’apelle Mark’ which was all cleverly tied into his presentation on thinking about revision techniques in MFL (I would have liked a bit of Welsh myself!)  and focussing on Top Trump revision card ideas. Mark began to present a very simple but extremely powerful app called Wordswag. He showed its powerful visualisation of text and spectacular background effects that could then be smashed into other visual apps such as Phoster, Repix, Rhonna Design and many many more.

It was quite clear that the mastery of these Appsmashers also lay in the way that they manipulate, share and present these tools using their understanding of technology. I could see the effective use of Google Hangout, Explain Everything and Screen Casting being used to its absolute maximum, not forgetting Air Server and the personal interaction and discussions with each other.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the #Appsmash Live 6 and as an avid Digiplayer myself, I’d like to throw in 4 apps that you may want to try smashing yourself. What about using Garageband, Shadow Puppet Edu, Notability and Photos, the possibilities are endless. How would you smash these for impactful learning both in and out of the classroom.

Do let me know your thoughts I’d be very interested.

Over and out for now…..

Ninja