#SMARTkapp Fits Nicely In My Collaborative Classroom #edchat

I'm happy to share how the SMART kapp has worked in my classroom and I how I plan to get the most out of it with my students. Here is a short video that explains what kapp is and how it can be used. 

The main reason that I love kapp is that it is a collaboration tool. For my classroom, I look for things that will make collaboration better and easier for me and my students. Kapp fits those requirements. 

Using kapp is very easy to do. Here is a great graphic from SMART that accurately depicts setting up kapp. 

I currently have the 42" model hanging in my classroom and I have been using it with my students.

Here is some important info on the app.

You will notice there are four differences between the free version and the paid version. I upgraded to the yearly paid version to really try things out.

The pin protection for the live web view is not a concern for me. There might be something I do not want the world to see, but I have not encountered it yet.

Watermark-free PDFs is a cool feature if you are going to use anything created on the kapp for a presentation. I could see where that would be important, but it has not been an issue in my class yet.

Persistent URL for live sharing is awesome. I can create one link and that is the link that my students can return to over and over again on their iPad. This can be turned on or off and a passcode can be entered if needed. This is nice for long term use of the kapp in the classroom.

Concurrent live remote viewers is important for the classroom. 5 students would be ok for small group work on different days, but if there is something that wanted to be viewed by others on their devices, 5 would not be enough. For the smaller 42" board, I do not see this as a huge problem, but for the lager 84" board, there might be many more people around a room using it, more than 5 viewers might be needed. Also, if a class is working with another class remotely, having more that 5 open spots for viewing could be a cool way for the classes to collaborate.

From the app

Overall, the upgrade is worth it for the first year to see if how often you will use the different features. You could always go monthly if you feel you will only need it for certain lessons. It is nice to have those options.

Here are some of the things I have been doing with kapp.

Note Reminders:

Here is a screenshot from my phone of the SMART kapp app. This is what I wrote on my board and it was captured by kapp and sent to my phone after I scanned the QR code. Everything that I write on the board appeared on my phone. If I erased something, it erased from my phone. It worked smoothly with the Bluetooth connection. 

SMART kapp works with your existing Evernote account so users can save their work and start with a fresh screen. Simply pushing the camera icon will save the work and it will be available on the app. Here are a collection of the different items saved. 

Once I select an item, I can choose to text it, mail it, or send it to Evernote. The send it to Evernote part is something that makes the most sense for me. Since I have shared notebooks with my students, I can send any of these notes to all of my students by simply sending it to the shared notebook. Better yet, when students are working on different projects, they could use the board, scan the QR code and start sharing their work in their own Evernote notebooks. All of their work can be quickly and easily saved. I'm hoping for Google Drive integration in the future. 

Here are some stats on the 42" kapp

Here are some stats on the 84" kapp

One of the things I have been working on this first half of the school year is creating a Makerspace for the my school. I have been pulling in resources from everywhere to make this happen and I have to say that the kapp is a perfect edition to my classroom and it will be great in a Makerspace. Kapp is all about collaboration and that is what I want to see in the Makerspace. This product is perfect for the type of work students have asked to do in our space. It is a very cool device that will only grow to have more bells and whistles as time moves forward. I couldn't be happier to have one in my classroom.

Check out SMART kapp and see how it might fit into your learning environment.

SMART sent me a kapp for the purposes of this review. 

SMART amp In The Classroom

I recently had a trial for SMART' amp. Here are some thoughts on how it went with my students over the course of a few months.

What is it?

Here is a short video that explains amp.

Amp is a cloud based collaboration tool that works with Google Drive. At first, I was not sure how amp was going to fit into my ecosystem of technology, but it turned out to be a crucial tool for many of my students. 

How I Used amp

After getting all of my students signed up and joined into my class, I created Workspaces. Each Workspace is blank slate where I can place anything I want.

Students were taken to a Workspace that I had shared with them. This workspace was already set up with a Notebook file I had created and wanted all of the students to see.

The students had access to the the entire notebook file in the cloud. Students can look ahead if they wanted or I can control the page from my device. The best part is that students can leave comments or answer questions right on the document. I will show that in a moment. One of the issues with Notebook that some parents and students have said is that putting the software on their computer was not easy for them. With amp, that is no longer a problem. Since this is cloud based, all students have access to the same file without having to download anything. They can access it from their desktop, laptop, or their mobile devices.

What Can It Do?

Amp can do many things. Here are some of the ones that stood out to me over the past few months.

Add Web Based Content

Being able to add web content is huge. It's a web based and cloud based tool, so it might seem like common sense, but there are plenty of collaborative tools out there that do not all embedding of web based content. With this feature, I was able to embed a video and have students watch it at their own pace and leave comments on the document or the messaging system. I could respond to students and others could collaborate based on the video they watched. By allowing students to move at their own speed, there was less pressure for students to pretend they understood just to keep up with the class. Collaborating together over one video in a shares space became much easier with amp.

Assessments

This might not be a major feature for some, but for others this could be a big plus for amp. Instead of thinking of assessments as a big standardized exam, think of it as a simple way to check for understanding. Assessment questions can be created and used an exit ticket for students. The information is only shared to the teacher who will receive instant feedback. Practice exams could be created on workspaces and shared with students to use at home to prepare them for class. It is important for teachers to know where students are and this is a great tool to do that.

Communication 

Messaging is a great way to have a backchannel while using amp in the classroom. Questions can be asked and answered by other students while the larger class discussion is going on. Teachers can have students watch a video on amp and then post questions in the messaging area that can be addressed the next day in class. It would be a wonderful tool for flipping the classroom. It is important that students feel like they can reach out when they are stuck and the messaging feature is very helpful in keeping that communication open. 

Sharing

I've got this image off because it has all of my students' names and I did not want to share that. Since amp is connected to Google Drive, all of my students' information is dropped into amp and they are ready to go. When I am ready to share a workpsace with my students, it is dropped into a folder that is already shared with them so they can find it and use it when they come to class or get home. I also love the Hand Out Copies feature as well. It allows me to send a copy of everything we have done on the workspace to any or all of the students. Just like Google Drive, sharing is important for amp as it makes collaboration much easier than ever before. 

Zoom

You can zoom in and out as much as you need for amp and that is a nice way to organize information on the workspace. Things can be zoomed in our out depending on the lesson created by the teacher on the workspace. Other students could work on different parts of the workspace at different times and this feature allows the users to freely move around the workspace to see the different things people are working on and who is working on it. 

Here is a screen shot of an uploaded Notebook file and a template for note-taking. With multiple students able to access the page, note-taking can be a collaborative effort. 

Other Cool Features

Follow Me

Follow me allows the teacher to take control of the workspace and all of the screens viewing the space. This is great for my guided lessons. 

Pass Control

This allows the teacher to pass control to a specific student who can now control the workspace. This control can be given to one or multiple students. Small groups could be created and each group could have a turn addressing different questions on the workspace and then the teacher can pass control to the next group when they are ready. 

Device Neutral

I love that amp is device neutral. I have used it on a PC, Mac Desktop, Macbook, iPad 2, iPad mini, and a Chromebook with a single problem. I know that students have used it on their android devices without issues as well. 

Overall Impression:

I loved using SMART amp in my classroom with my students. It is a cloud based tool that allows for more collaboration. This is something that I am always striving to bring to my students. There is a bit of learning curve on figuring out how best to use it in the classroom though. I think that is true for any tool and I know that I need to spend more time with amp to get the most out of it. Again, that has been true for any great tool I use in my classroom. 

SMART amp is a subscription based service and it does offer free 90 Day Trials that are worth exploring if you want to create a large collaborative environment for your students that uses Google Drive. I highly recommend trying amp out and seeing where it fits into your classroom model.