Doceri vs the World of Education Apps!
Okay, maybe not the world, but it certainly has completely changed how and where I am able to teach within my classroom. If you have ever used Splashtop (Remote Desktop) to control your computer through your iPad, you will want this! How about Educreations, ShowMe, ScreenChomp, or Explain Everything? Yes, you should check out the Doceri app!
I’ve come to recognize that some of my posts get too long. 
That is okay, but here is the short version of how the doceri app has been used in my class the last few days.
- Created a screencast from the SB Notebook slides that we used in class.
- You can start from scratch or mirror anything on your computer screen and then adjust it on the fly.
- Set up your screencast before you begin, and then also have the ability to edit any object or writing before, during, or after.
- Shared student work on the board via Airplay.
- Took a picture of the work with iPad camera and it was there for all to see.
- Controlled computer as we moved through our notes slides.
- We do a lot of group work and I enjoy being able to be anywhere in the room to add to our conversation, write on the SMART Board, or create practice problems.
- Students worked problems on the board, directly in their table group, without always having to go to the board.
- Merged screencasts into one, allowing me to record at separate times.
- You can then export these videos via email, YouTube, Facebook, or your camera roll.
- Annotated directly on the slides, and/or wrote over the top of them.
- The latter then saves everything you do to the apps history and those can be turned into slides that you post or screencast with for absent students.
- Or, better yet, as I found out. Easily pull up a single notes slide from the past without having to remember which file you saved it to.
For those who have students create videos and screencast, then this is definitely a notch up from Educreations, ShowMe, and Screenchomp (and I have great things to say about those). The interface is very clean and simple, and best of all it allows for easy edits and adjustments to be made. I do wish that it had a text tool. Some may prefer Explain Everything if they are attached to embedding a browser into their videos, but that is not a function I have used much on Explain Everything. Oh yes, that reminds me, it also needs to implement importing PDF files. For now, it works great to simply have the PDF open on the computer, press one button and it is then saved to your app history.
I like Doceri for screencasting with math because I can set up an entire problem on one slide, and then instantly select which items I want to show up on slide 1, 2, 3, etc., then get rolling with the video. The ability to prepare is important because I see students so often get frustrated with creating a video because they made one tiny mistake and there is no undo button for that.
In the end, when looking for apps for education, I always turn to those that allow students to engage in content creation. I definitely see potential for this to be our go-to-whiteboarding app when creating math videos this year. Excited to keep experimenting!
Even though it was not part of the post title, like normal, this is post #9 – Technology Integration Tools: Doceri. See additional Technology Tuesday posts here.
Filed under: Apps, iPad, Technology Tools, Whiteboards
