Category Archives: How-to

How-to: Add text to your ShowMe

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I hear a lot how people are getting creative when adding text to their ShowMes and as was pointed out to me yesterday by Marko and Jim Teague, a new community member, there is a super simple easy way to do this with just your Camera Roll and Evernote, both free apps. Follow these easy steps and you’ll have super looking ShowMes in no time! These steps can actually be used for editing any image to a ShowMe, for more on that, see Marko’s post.

  1. Open up Evernote, and start typing. This can be instructions, problems to solve, or just labels. Adjust the size and font as you need.
  2. Take a screenshot of your text by clicking the Home button + Sleep button at the same time. You’ll see your screen flash, which is how you know it has taken the photo.
  3. Next, open up your Camera Roll from the Camera App and select the screenshot you’d like to edit.
  4. At the top of the screen you’ll see an Edit button, tap it and at the bottom you’ll see Crop.
  5. You can drag the image around and the corners of the selection box to select the part of text that you need. Most people decide to trim the rest of the screen and keep just the text
  6. Import the cropped image into your ShowMe the same way you would any other image.
You’re done! Good luck!

How to use ShowMe to record app tutorials?

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Just the other day I was thinking about how I could use the ShowMe app to walk students through an app demonstration so that I could show them to my students or other teachers that may want to use an iOS app. What I came up with is a very simple process that I think will work if you are trying to add images to your lesson video.

  1. Tap the power button and the home button at the same time on your iOS device to take a screen shot. The Camera Roll has powerful tools to crop and resize the image. You may want to crop the unwanted parts of the images.
  2. Import the image from your camera roll into the ShowMe application and begin layering the images as you go through the lesson video.
  3. Set the Accessibility feature in the Settings app on the iPad so that you can zoom in on the features that you want to highlight, just remember that you may have to take several screenshots for this to be effective, which will require more layering.
  4. Using the pen settings in the ShowMe application highlight the important features of the application.
  5. Upload your video or send out an email so that everyone can see it or use it.

HowTo: Add a ShowMe.com Tile to your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch Homescreen

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Many teachers have told me their students watch ShowMes on their iPods and iPhones using the Safari browser to access ShowMe.com. Did you know you can save webpages you open in Safari directly to the tiles on the home screen of your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch as if they were apps? You can watch any ShowMe on the iPad app, but this is a really easy way for to access ShowMe on an iPod or iPhone!

Simply open the webpage you would like to save in Safari. Then select the share button. This will give you a list of ways to share the webpage. Select “Add to Homescreen.” You will have the ability to customize the title of the tile. Simply select “Add” and you’re all done!

For Android: 
This can also be done on an android phone or tablet! Thank you for this tutorial from androidcentral.com!

  1. Launch the browser
  2. Bookmark the page you want
  3. Press Menu then select Bookmarks
  4. Long press any bookmark and click Add Shortcut to Homescreen

This will place an icon on your home screen allowing you to tap that and launch which ever site you had bookmarked.  You also can do it in reverse: Long-press on your homescreen and add the bookmark that way.

How-To: Email ShowMes directly to Evernote

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Evernote is a really fantastic organization tool for both teachers and students.  The notebooks you create can be accessed on your computer, iPhone and iPad. But did you know you can also email your ShowMes directly from you iPad to your notebooks in Evernote? With this strategy students no longer have to worry about losing schoolwork. Teachers can also create e-portfolios for each student and students can email you directly with their name #hashtagged! This can be a powerful and efficient way to have students submit ShowMes (or other work). Here’s how to do it.

Evernote provides an email for every account. You can find it by logging in and clicking to human outline on the top right corner of the page. Here you will see a “Settings” option. When you click that it will take you to a page that lists information about your account, including your evernote email. Use this email address to send ShowMes directly into your account. Emailed notes will go directly into your default notebook.

You can direct your ShowMe to a particular notebook by simply including key tags in the subject line of your email. (Use the guide above from Evernote to help.) Happy organizing!

 

How-to: Use a screenshot from your computer with ShowMe

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Although its now easy to find images of almost anything within the app thanks to our new web image search, sometimes you need to grab a piece of text right from your computer. In these cases, its extremely helpful to know how to take a screenshot of what is on your computer screen.

With a mac, this can be done very easily with just tapping a few keys. To select only a portion of your screen or a body of text:

  1. Tap Command + Shift + 4, all at the same time
  2. Your mouse will turn into a small + which you can click and drag around your desired text
  3. Let go of your mouse and you will find the image saved to your desktop.
  4. Email the screenshot to yourself then open and download to your photo library on your iPad. It will be waiting for you when you go to insert a photo on the app!
If you’d like to take a photo of your entire screen and don’t need to edit anything out:
  1. Tap Command + Shift + 3, all at the same time.
  2. You’ll find the image on your desktop and you can follow step 4 above to get it on to your iPad!
Thanks to C. Harun Boke for suggesting this How-to!

ShowMe and Google Forms

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Last week, I wrote on this blog about the advantages of using Google Forms with your ShowMe videos. Well, I must say that Google Forms is a powerful intuitive tool for the classroom. Even if you are not in a 1:1 school (with iPads or computers), Google Forms presents an opportunity to get real time information from students not delayed through exit slips or problem sets. The common question that I think that lingers is how are the students responding if you are not using iPads or computers; the answer is smartphones (and it doesn’t matter the operating system or carrier of the phone.) If you have a class website, links can be set up so that students can respond to questions or you can send students emails with the link of the form so that students can respond at the end of the class period or complete questions for homework while watching their ShowMe or simply completing their reading of various materials.

The reason that I mentioned these applications two weeks in a row, even though most people may already be using Google Forms, is that it is important that teachers receive data (which is an important part of the Common Core) and use it to meet the learning needs of their students. On a recent episode of 60 minutes, Kahn Academy was highlighted for the use of formative data to help teachers create a customized learning experience for each student, but what was at the heart of Kahn Academy was a program that allowed teachers to see precisely where the students were in their learning and the teacher could then direct the classroom based on the needs of students instead of creating a one size fits all curriculum approach. Why wait for Kahn, when the program already exists with Google Forms, especially since cash-strapped districts are not going to purchase expensive software, teachers need to plan what they want their students to know, understand and be able to do with the content of their ShowMe or their classroom and develop a form to help collect the data so that every student learns. Then with the data tailor lessons that meet the needs of every student in the classroom and the best part is the fact that it does not add any more planning time. By creating ShowMe lessons and assessing students knowledge with Google Forms, you are creating a truly enriching experience that benefits every student in the classroom.

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