Doceri

Doceri is another remote control app like SplashTop with a whole slew of extra features that could improve the effectiveness and scope of your instruction. The app transforms your iPad into what is essentially a remote tablet that can control any linked desktop (PC or Mac). The app also features a bevy of whiteboard/chalkboard/map backgrounds on which you can write. As a bonus, you can record whatever you write and even record your voice on top of it to create a presentation that can be shared with your students. Everything you do is projected on the screen of the controlled desktop, which is hopefully connected to a projector, television, or SmartBoard. There is also some cool connectivity through AppleTV.

How does it work in the classroom?

This is an exciting new way to play "Pass the Chalk," for sure. You can pass the iPad to a student in your class and whatever he writes on the tablet will be projected on a SmartBoard or (even better) a classroom HD television. That alone should help alleviate any anxiety many students may experience when they have to stand in front of a room full of students and write on a board.

It's also very easy to write notes on the board while switching back and forth between the web browser or videos. Even from an athletics standpoint, things like plays can be drawn on the iPad from across the room while the team watches, and you can just record what you draw to play it time and time again, step by step.

Doceri works extremely smoothly and very fast if you have a solid internet connection. This program ups the ante for SMART Technologies, and I don't know if SMART can answer. It allows you to do everything that SMART can do with SmartBoard, only now you can do it with the sleekness of an HD TV. Really cool.

Project Plan: Vectors (Precalculus)

The Gist:
This is a project that my students completed a few years ago involving vectors. Basically, students were to find a way to circumnavigate the globe in no less than 12 stops using vectors as their means of travel. Students worked in groups and used Google Earth to come up with the most exotic travel destinations they could find. Then using trace paper and their beautifully backlit computer screen, they would draw the vector onto paper so that they could find the magnitude and direction of the vectors that were used for their journey.

The Product:
Each group created a simple presentation to take the class on sort of "a guided tour" of the locales they discovered, as well as to share their calculations for the vectors. It was fun seeing the groups try to "out-do" each other with the places they found. Students were amazed at the satellite images of famous landmarks like the Pyramids at Giza or Mount Fuji.

The End Result:
The class knew vector direction and magnitude inside and out (and yes, I know there was probably some significant error due the fact that the earth is round). They also got to learn a little about global awareness, which is never a bad thing.

Click here to download the project plan