By Tech Powered Dad | September 7, 2011
Device: iPad
Grades: Elementary and up, especially targeted at teachers
Cost: Free
Here’s an app I got really excited about when I first realized what it was capable of. ScreenChomp is a very simple concept that’s actually quite powerful. It turns your iPad into a digital whiteboard, capable of recording not just what you draw on the iPad, but also the audio of what you are saying. While that’s nice enough, it’s what you can do with the video that’s very exciting. You have the option to upload any video your record to the cloud to be shared with your students at a private URL. There’s also the option to post the video to Facebook.
There are a lot of opportunities with this one. I will most likely use it when I want to record a quick explanation for my students. I’ll just post the link on my class website. I could also see it as an opportunity to have students to a brief problem presentation for teachers or even as a way to collaborate with colleagues or group partners. If you’re curious what the final product looks like, here’s a really simple example of a video I made.
The only negative is that there is no way to delete your video from the internet without making a special request from the developers of ScreenChomp, but as those devs point out, the url is a string of random numbers, so it’s pretty unlikely anybody would figure it out. From visiting their site, it sounds like they are working towards adding file management and possibly an Android version as well. This is an exciting technology, and I look forward to seeing where they take it next.