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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Smashing Windows? #busedu #appsmash

I get envious sometimes of all the cool "class activities" surrounding App Smashing and the cool teacher who use Ryan Read's App Dice. I don't have classroom iPads to do those cool things. But, I do have a big room full of Windows computers. Why can't I have fun, too?!?!

So, I decided to start Googling. Windows smashing. The Google results weren't quite what I was looking for, but the first thing I clicked on was quite amusing and my first hour class got a kick out of it... check it out. Apparently, there's a fast food window smashing "alleged gas leak so you should bust out the windows" prank happening. Classic.

But, I digress.

I started thinking about how I use various websites, since it would be more of a website-smashing instead of "app smash" in my classroom. I need in-browser things to smash together. So, what are some fun items we can smash in the browser?

  • To record a "webcam" video from the browser, try Clipchamp. It has easy share options to upload straight to Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook or Google Drive. Then, you can embed it onto a webpage or blog post. Or, you can download it and use it in an editing app or program.
  • To record the screen, I like the Google Chrome plugin called Screencastify. The lite is limited to 10 minutes and you can even add a webcam.
  • A fun way to create a cartoon image of yourself is using Bitmoji. They have a Chrome plugin (and it works great with Gmail, too... I constantly put them at the bottom of e-mails) and apps at Google Play and iTunes.
  • How about putting it all together in Blogger or Microsoft Sway? You can embed videos into both! (NOTE: Blogger uses Google logins and obviously you'll need a Microsoft login for Sway, but Sway is pretty neat if you've never tried it). 

I love Tellagami, but it's an Apple app, so naturally I can't use it in my classroom. I'd love to know if someone knows a program like that for the browser!

I'd love your feedback! Certainly, I know it's important not to use tech for the sake of using tech, but the use of app dice is intriguing to me and I think would help students become more creative in applying knowledge in a way to help reinforce their learning in other classes or with specific concepts.

Got any good ideas to share?

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