Bitsboard: An App That Transforms Education

Having been a part of the iPad/iPod/iOS education world for the past few years I have seen a number of good apps and tons of bad apps as well.  Unfortunately, the bad apps, or non-educational ones, seem to heavily outweigh the perfect for education apps.  However, whenever I present to a group of teachers or other educators the most common question is “What are some of your favorite apps?”  Now I completely realize that apps are only one thing that you can do on an iPad, but every once in a while a good app comes along and you just have to share it.  This is the case today with the creation and release of Bitsboard by Grasshopper Apps.  If you are not familiar with Grasshopper Apps, then I suggest you check out their website here.  They are widely known throughout the educational community for having amazing, beautiful, and free apps that are completely customizable.  That’s right - educators of any kind can tweak, change, and add whatever they want to their own app.  At FAIR School Downtown we would add in our own images, lists, and audio.  This has been a huge game changer in our classrooms - especially with spelling words.  Teachers would create their list(s) for the week all ahead of time with images, pictures, and audio over the top and then I would sync the one master iPad with the lists to all the other ones.  Sometimes it would work and at other times the lists would corrupt halfway through the quarter.  It was a great idea, but never reached its full potential.

Now the game has changed, finally.  For almost a year now I have been in close contact with Mila over at Grasshopper Apps.  They have been working on an app that allows teachers to create their own flashcards and then share them to their students through a catalog.  No syncing required.  It has been incredible to see an idea that many users wanted transform into a fully developed app.  That’s right, this morning they released the newest, and in my opinion best so far, app called Bitsboard.  

Bitsboard is only about 10% done according to their introduction email, but is is absolutely a game changer in terms of educational apps.  At this time the app has access to over 100,000 flashcards that include pictures and audio, allows you to create new flashcards (see the process below), backup the custom flashcards online, sync and share content across devices, and provides access to lessons from other teachers as well.  Now at this time I totally understand that this is only a app that has customizable flash cards with images or audio, but this is a start.  I personally do not know of another app out there that allows you to create unique, customized content with images and audio, share it with the cloud, have your students download it, and then practice totally without syncing the devices.  

Here is how it works:

1.) Download the Bitsboard app on the App Store.

Did I mention that this app it totally free!  That’s right, I get nothing for posting about it and there is no cost to you for trying it out.  Can’t get much better than that!

2.) Open the app and land in the “Home Screen” of Bitboard
This is where the pre-downloaded lists are at or where the lists are that you downloaded from the Catalog.

3.) Notice the “Catalog” icon in the upper left corner.  This is where Grasshopper Apps already has pre-created boards that have content in them.  They have also added in some of their more popular apps with the content already added in (Telling Time, First Words, Three Letter Words) at the top.  If you find a list you want to download, click the universal cloud with the arrow down icon and it shows up on your iPad in seconds.

4.) What about actually creating your own lists?  Easy.  Navigate back to the “Home Screen” for the app by clicking the “Home” icon.  Then click the “Gear” in the upper right corner.  We are all familiar with what this icon means, but this time it brings up a few option in the contents.  Click on “Your Boards” and then the “+” in the upper right corner and then “Create a new board.”

5.) Enter a title at the top where it says “Enter board name here”

6.) Click the plus icon to add a new flash card.  The new flash card comes up and then you can type in the word you want here.  Most words will then also automatically pull in a photo of what you typed as well.  If not then you can choose an image.  In addition, the app may also drop in audio of the word as well, but if not then click the red record button and put in your own audio.  Want to listen to it?  Then click the green plus icon on the other side.  As soon as you are done with one flash card, then click behind on the right and it saves automatically.  Click the “plus” icon and a new blank flashcard comes up here.  

7.) Sharing the set of flash cards (called boards in this app) is almost as easy as well.  Click the “Share” icon in the upper right corner of the app and provided you are logged into Facebook as well the board automatically appears in the Catalog.  The Facebook integration kind of bugged me at first, but then I read some more about this app and the folks at Grasshopper Apps are already working on the ability to create new user accounts without Facebook and they claim that this is coming “very soon.”  Then a few seconds after uploaded the board, I checked in the Catalog and searched for the title of my board.  It was there waiting for me and the students in first grade, or anyone with an iPad and this app, can download and use it.  Absolutely amazing!  

A few things to be aware of about this app from Grasshopper Apps.  First, they are currently in the process of integrating a bunch of their other apps into this one so that it becomes a “one stop shop.”  Coming soon is integration with Photo Touch, Little Reader, Little Speller, and Memory Cards.  They are also claiming to add in a bunch of other pieces to this app so that it is more than a flashcards app.  What that looks like we will see soon.  Also, this is only an iPad app at the moment.  They are actively creating an iPhone version as well.  For more information check out the full posting about this app in the App Store linked here.

Maybe I am only the one that is totally excited about this app, but the possibilities for me boggle my mind.  Teachers can now be at home, create a spelling list, review list, etc. and then have the students download it when they arrive on their iPads at school.  In addition, teachers in the same building or district at the same grade level can all be using the same lists so students learn the same content regardless of the teacher.  Foreign language, special education, and high school biology terms have all been transformed now.  Create a list, share it with your students, and then have them review on their own time and not during precious class time.  This app can also transform the learning and review process at home.  If families own an iPad (or iPhone in the future) they can download this free app and then look for the teacher’s lists for that week.  Then the student can practice and review their school work at home.  No missing paper, lost list, etc. Furthermore, students can create their own lists.  If they consistently have trouble with a few words they can create their own “challenge list” and then add the ones they get wrong each week and consistently practice them when they have a chance.  The possibilities appear endless. 

With the understanding that this app is still under development, there are a few things I would tweak.  My largest suggestion at this point, outside of adding in the non-Facebook requirement to post lists, would be the integration of testing and reporting the progress on lists.  Alligator Apps has an awesome app titled “A+ Speller” that allows students to practice their words and then the progress is emailed back to the instructor.  I would love to see some integration on this front so that instructors can track student progress and how they are doing on specific words.  This would be a welcome addition to the app, but I have to say at this point I am very impressed with the ease of use, functionality, and ability to easily share and download content.  Well done Grasshopper Apps!  

I would encourage everyone out there to download and try out this app.  It’s free so its not like you are out a dollar or two.  Who knows, you might just figure out a way to integrate this into your classroom/school/district.

P.S. I was not paid or encouraged to write this post about Bitboard.  I am so excited about the potential this app has to transform education that I had to share.  Thanks for reading!

VoiceThread and Van Meter Schools

In class this week we were asked to use a Web 2.0 collaboration tool called VoiceThread.  At its core VoiceThread is a "conversation in the cloud."  Think Google Docs merged with Google Voice and Video in a simple, easy to use interface.  Check it out here.  Have you used this in your classroom before?  I know our Biology teacher has used this tool multiple times before, but I never really understood the power of it until this class assignment.  It was great to see slides, PDFs, and a video while other people comment in real time along the side.  My cohort members have logged in at different times and left comments on different slides so it was great to see what they said.  Overall, I am very impressed with this tool and look forward to using it in my classroom in the future.

The VoiceThread that we looked at today was all about Van Meter Schools in Iowa (Map).  A key component that we looked at was their promotional video.  There are really four things that I noticed in this video that I wanted to comment further on in this post:

1.) Van Meter Schools is a K-12 model that has some really cool things going on.  It reminded me a lot of the district and school that I work in currently.  We are also K-12 and our class sizes are small as well.  We have also integrated technology throughout the curriculum – from iPads in elementary and middle school to MacBooks in our 8-12 grade classrooms.  For more information on Van Meter Schools or FAIR School click the links.  It was great to see another school doing similar things as we are in Minneapolis.

2.) Van Meter Schools have embraced technology.  It appears that there are a lot of school districts that are doing this across the country, and many of them with iPads specifically.  Here in Minnesota, Lakeville Public Schools just rolled out 1800 iPads in their buildings.  Whether iPads, MacBooks, or some other tool, the end result is that Van Meter has embraced the technology.  They understand that technology is a cornerstone in education today and this is referenced on their Teaching and Learning Technology page as well.  Technology is a large part of what they do there.  The same emphasis appears at FAIR School in specific reference to our 1:1 MacBook program.  Check out more information about that program here.

3.) The town of Van Meter and the school district appear very progressive.  They have moved ahead of other Iowa and midwest schools to embrace this technology.  In fact, they have done it with overwhelming community support as well.  That appears to be a large hurdle in today's world – How to get the public to understand the need for students to have access to technology.  In Inver Grove Heights, MN (a southern suburb of Minneapolis) their technology levy has been defeated twice.  Check out the moving and realistic press release by the superintendent.  Having technology as part of the curriculum is an important piece of the educational landscape across the country today.  It fits in directly with the Iowa Core Curriculum and the revised Minnesota standards as well.  However, how many school districts crave for the community support that they have in Van Meter?

4.) Van Meter gets the idea that technology is a TOOL to aid in education.  The English teacher in this video says: "The laptops are a source for information.  They don't make the teaching, they make the teaching easier."  How true is this statement?  Too many school districts get caught up with the big shiny object (iPads more often than not today) and do not really have an integration plan.  After a little digging I found Van Meter's Library Science Curriculum.  What do you notice about this?  The big thing that I saw was that skills that are very specific and scaffolded throughout the grade levels.  In our school district I believe most of our students can accomplish the skills in K-8, but then our official media classes stop.  It would be great to hear more about how Van Meter meets these high school curriculum requirements.  Too often I think we "assume" that technology literacy is taught in our high schools.  Is it really though?  Can our students accomplish everything on Van Meter's high school list?  Can they do it effectively?  This is a skill I want to look at specifically in our high school throughout the summer.  Students need to continue learning about technology in high school, using the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills as a framework, in order to be successful in the future.

How do your students or schools use the P21 skills?  Have you heard about all the awesome things going on at Van Meter Schools?  How do we teach media and technology skills in high school?