App – Infinitely Teaching

This is a post for my remote teaching friends or even my friends who are in person but don’t want to touch papers. It’s a scary time we live in and the less we touch the better.

During emergency remote learning in the Spring, I had students send me images of their work. Many of them were HORRIBLE. They would send a picture taken from the side with mostly their bed and pillows in the background, dark or blurry pictures that you couldn’t read, or the HEIC image format that couldn’t be uploaded.

I didn’t want a repeat of the spring so I did some research and found Apps that would work on most phones. I created tutorials for each and I also screen shared my phone during Zoom sessions and demonstrated how to use these apps.

Reasons to Scan vs. send pictures:

You get a better image and you can pick PDF or .jpg (in Genius Scan)
You can crop out the background
You can email it or save it to your Google Drive or OneDrive
You only get one file and not 3 separate submissions from students

Notes App (iPhones)

This app is standard on the iPhone. It will only save as a PDF but you can choose color or black and white.

Genius Scan

I have been using this app for a few years now. I LOVE this app and have shared it with my colleagues. You can send the image as a PDF or .jpg and it’s available for free on iOs or Android. I still use this app even though Notes will now scan.

I created a tutorial slide for my students with some additional information. The template is from SlidesMania (of course!). Feel free to use it with your students if you find it helpful.

I shared the scanning idea on Twitter the other day and received a lot of requests for more information. I though a blog post would be the best. Hopefully it helps make remote learning a little better for you.

Stay safe friends!

I stumbled across this post by @micahshippee on Kasey Bell’s website ShakeUpLearning.com. Micah is part of my Google Innovator Cohort and he is amazing.

Micah created an activity where students use Google Slides to create an “app” that you can load on your phone or tablet. I decided to use this wonderful idea to review area formulas. My students created an app where you could click a button and find the formula and an example for each shape. I love when you create a project that students are excited about! This project fits that description.

Bonuses: Students were VERY ENGAGED. They were still working when the bell rang and didn’t really want to stop. They were helping each other, critiquing without being prompted, and giving great advice. I was MORE THAN excited when students came into class the day the assignment was due with the app already loaded on their phone. They were soooo proud! I think, as an extension of this activity, we will share our apps with lower grade levels, who are learning about area for the first time, and have them give us feedback through Flipgrid.

Here is the activity I gave the students. My instructions are taken directly from Micah’s post because they are so thorough. He is cited in the activity.

I’ve also included some of the apps created by my students. OMGee, they make my heart happy. You should be able to click on the phone below and it will open a Google Drawing file where the links are active. If you use this activity, please share on Twitter and tag me @MandiTolenEDU and @micahshippee.

Imagine what else you could do with this activity!!!

Category: App

Scanning Apps for Remote Learning

Apps with Google Slides