This app is an interactive whiteboard that allows your students a variety of different methods to explain their thinking. Students can post pictures to the virtual whiteboard, draw on it, dictate speech to it. This app is not only beneficial for math classes, but rather any type of lesson no matter what subject you are focusing on. You can create stories, presentations, reports, fact sheets and so much more all with this one app. It is also great because you can have all students using the same app, however, they can gear it towards their learning style, whether that be dictating their speech, drawing their thinking or typing it out.
For more about the Explain Everything app, check out their twitter page for great information and updates on what the app is capable of.
In math class this week, we used the problem solving process to understand patterning. Our instructor began by giving up balloons with a piece of paper inside that had a different characteristic for a pattern. I got texture. We then had to go around the school with our group and take pictures of patterns with that characteristic. Afterwards, we used the Explain Everything app to put our pictures into a slideshow and type or dictate an explanation of the picture, while answering these three questions:
1. What is the pattern element/component
2. What is pattern rule?
3. Explain what type of pattern
I really enjoyed this activity and think it would be a great way to get students thinking about the problem solving process as it is engaging. This activity got students out of their seats and moving around, it was a transference of learning to real world problems for them to connect with and they were able to collaborate with their peers to help solve the problems.
Another way of doing this activity while using the Explain Everything app would be to set up a scavenger hunt bingo activity for students to do. Before starting, you as the teacher would have to walk around and take pictures of patterns in the community. Have your students take iPads or their iPhones with the Explain Everything app and walk through the community as a class. The goal is for the students to find all the pictures that you took of patterns without any help. As they are finding the patterned pictures that you took, they could also be taking pictures of their own patterns through the Explain Everything app, and dictating what kind of pattern it is.
An extension to this would be to only write the attributes of a specific pattern on the virtual bingo card and then go for a walk with your students and have them take pictures of things patterns that have those attributes, while dictating into the app why they think their picture fits with the description.
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