Mentormob.com

App Description:

This website with app component is my new favorite website that I have found over the summer. According to their website, “MentorMob's online learning platform allows anyone with a passion for what they do to curate websites, videos, blogs, and more into Learning Playlists.

So instead of searching alone, people all around the world can work together to show off what they know and learn from each other.

Everyone deserves the chance to discover their talents. And nobody should be kept from realizing their potential because they don't have access to a good education, mentors, and other curious minds.

At MentorMob, we're fueled by the belief that education is a basic human right, and we aim to organize the highest quality information on everything worth knowing by bringing out the expert in everyone..” Basically this means for me as a teacher I can create learning playlists.

Price:

The website is committed to maintaining a free website for everyone.

Website Component:

It is mostly a website component with an app for the iPad.

Screenshots:

This is the reason I love this website. In what world is a lingerie ad appropriate for a children's video. 

This is a shot of what the playlist looks like with all of my videos.

What students see rather than the bra ads and inappropriate comments.

Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!

Pros:

• It eliminates inappropriate content from otherwise wonderful content. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been teaching using the Internet and a Victoria’s Secret commercial popped up. Also there are trolls out there that love to post awful comments because they know kids will see them. My kiddos can’t read, but I can imagine it being a huge problem in older grades. 
• Secondly, since my kids can’t read or have strong Internet skills, by creating game playlists, students can press the “Next” button to navigate those games making them more independent in a safe way. 
• It is so convenient. All of my content is in one place. Pinterest and blogs are blocked within my school system. By using mentormob, my content is in one place and I don’t have to go hunting for it every time I need to use it. 
• I also like that the website provides html code to embed it. I put it on my school website so that parents have access. 
• It isn't just for YouTube videos. You can add a link, upload a file, write an article for your students to read, and a pop quiz. You can also add a "challenge" question for students to pass before they can go to the next item in the list. 
• They also have a fantastic customer service team that is really prompt with answering questions.

Cons:

• The only downside is that it does not have an autoplay feature. We have a dedicated music and movement time everyday and it would be nice to turn on my music playlist and just have it play.

Overall Impression:

I think this is a fabulous website that has a lot of uses within my classroom. I have already created five playlists that have a lot of uses within my classroom and I hope to create many more. It has so many opportunities for differentiated instruction, skills focus, and teacher convenience. I am impressed that this kind of website exists and is committed to making technology free and accessible to everyone. I am excited to put it to use this upcoming school year.

iBookshelf

iBookshelf

App Description:

From the iTunes store: “iBookshelf is your personal portable library reference. A comprehensive book database, created and continuously maintained through extensive feedback from readers like you. Books are displayed sorted by your preference. You can search for books in your library, and enter a "loan status" to remember who you loaned the book to or borrowed it from. A new book can be entered automatically (enter ISBN and remaining data is loaded from the internet) or manually. It will even tell you where you can buy the book and how much it costs and where you can find a library with the book!”

Price:

While there is a free version, I bought the $1.99 version because I had a lot of books in my classroom library.

Website Component:

The library is backed up to a website, but it isn’t really a component to using this successfully.

Screenshots:

Books can be organized in multiple ways

All books have many, many data entry points.

There is a book synopsis making lesson planning easy!

My Impression on What Parents Think:

This app is for organization so my parents don’t use it at all.

Pros:

•       One of the unique aspects of this app is that it has the book scanner built in.
•       It has the capability to scan the barcode on the back of books as well as I can enter the IBSN number manually in case there is no barcode.
•       I get to set the genre of the book.
•       Every field is customizable.
•       There is an online database meaning that I don’t have to enter in all of the data myself.
• Each book has a synopsis built in.
• 
  

Cons:

• ·      For the scanner to work properly, there has to be an Internet connection. My school doesn’t have wireless so I had to use my personal hotspot on my phone to get all of the books in my classroom library. You can use the app without Internet once all of the books are scanned in though.
• ·      There are limited checkout capabilities. This is more of a reference app.

Overall Impression:

I wanted this app to solve the unique problem I have in pre-kindergarten. All of the books in “my” classroom library are the property of the pre-kindergarten program. None of these books are mine and honestly I didn’t know what I had. That made Sunday Funday lesson planning a problem. I would go to select my books for the week and either A.) have to go into work B) use books I knew I already had or C) use books from our school library. It took about two weeks to scan in all of the books in the classroom library, but now I have them all scanned in. I think my favorite feature is that I can set the genres. Instead of setting the genre as fiction or whatever, I’ve been able to set them based on what unit I use them in. Meaning next September when I am thinking of planning my dinosaur unit, I can just check out the genre on Sunday and not have to come into work! However, if I were ever move out of pre-k and the books needed to be “checked out” by students, I don’t know if this app would necessarily be the best one to use as this is mostly a reference app. Overall it solves a problem and I love that!

Signupgenius.com

App Description:

This is also a website. It is actually the website I switched over to when jooners.com crashed. According to their website, EASY: Set it up and let your members sign up at their convenience FLEXIBLE: Sign up creators can also sign people up themselves EFFICIENT: Store an address book of your group for future sign ups POWERFUL: Export your sign up data to a spreadsheet for use offline SMART: Automated email reminders make sure no one forgets HELPFUL: Send emails to those who signed up or those who didn't.

Price:

Free

Website Component:

At this time, there is only a website component.

Screenshots:

Sign Up Wizard

Example of a completed sign up sheet. This was my sign-up for my spring conferences.

My Impression on What Parents Think:

I had a lot of success using this website to schedule spring conferences. Out of twenty-one families, sixteen used the website to schedule their conference. Those numbers can speak for themselves.

Pros:

Again, I love how convenient it is to set it up, send it out, and let the families schedule what works the best for them. I find that allowing families concrete choices, ensure a higher participation rate without having to wrangle anyone. The biggest pro is that this website actually loaded when families tried to use it. There are also lots of instructional videos and templates to help out and making signups easy.

Cons:

It is a one-size fits all website. There is very little personalization like the other website I used. I could not customize every field to exactly meet my needs in very situation. It is also only capable of signing up for things. If I want to gather information, this website does not support this feature.

Overall Impression:

Overall, I don’t like the website as much as the website I converted over from. It isn’t as customizable as the other website, it has limited features, and it just isn’t as pretty. But it works. It works. It does exactly what I need it to do. It has made something difficult into something easy. I can set it up and allow adults make choices that work the best for their family. And that is pretty impressive.

Scan by QR Code City + QR Codes

Scan by QR Code City + QR Codes

App Description:

This is an app for iPad, iPods, and smart phones that allows the user to utilize the built in camera as a scanner to read both QR codes and barcodes. You open the app, point at the code, and it will pull up the data you are trying to communicate.

Price:

Free

Website Component:

The app itself does not, but to build codes for use in the classroom, a website must be used. There are many, many free generator websites out there. But I use qrstuff.com with no problems. This website is also free.

Screenshots:

My Impression on What Parents Think:

I have not heard any feedback from parents either way.

Pros:

• I like being able to communicate data to my classroom parents such as my professional contact information, websites I am using, apps I’m using, and other pieces of data that are hard to communicate in other ways.
• The website and app are really user friendly.
• Both aspects are free to use and there are no limits as to how many codes you can create or scan.
• You can place QR codes on many different kinds of media. As QR codes are just pictures, they can be placed on my website, newsletters, and business cards to easily communicate. 

Cons:

• This is very new technology. I am unsure as to how many of my parents know how to use it.
• To read the codes I generate, parents must have the scanner app on their smart phones. If they do not have a scanner app or a smart phone, they will be unable to “read” the code.

Overall Impression:

As a tech savvy twenty-person, I am always looking for new ways to communicate with parents and make my job easier. As such, I am very comfortable using new technology even if it is a bit ahead of the curve. I have used this technology sparingly this school year simply because I do not know how comfortable my parents are in using it. However I hope that as this technology becomes more engrained in our day-to-day lives, I hope that my parents will become more comfortable using it. QR codes are already being used in ad campaigns and promotional materials so I want to use it to promote my classroom as well. Overall, I love using the website to create codes. Some websites will limit the number of codes you can create. All I have to do is fill in the information they require to make the code. Save the code, and then place it on the medium I need to communicate the data with. The scanner app is free and also easy to use. I love using the technology and cannot wait for it to be more readily usable by my parents. I might try hosting a technology seminar with my parents next year.

Review of Jooners.com

Jooners.com

App Description:

This is not an app per say. It is a website, and according to that website, “Any time you are organizing a group or planning an activity, consider using Jooners! 

On Jooners online sign up sheets you can list jobs, items and time slots for activities. Participants see what is available and what is taken and with a simple click can sign up for the slots that they want. Once signed up, participants are automatically reminded of their commitment and Jooners even creates personalized Thank You Notes on behalf of the event organizer.
Jooners online sign-up sheets help you and your participants get on the same page without a going through hundreds of back and forth emails.”

Price:

There is a basic membership option that is free and a premium membership, which is $5.95 per month. The main difference between the basic and premium memberships is that free users can only create five signups, signups cannot be downloaded to a program such as excel, your email will not notified when someone signups up, volunteers cannot change their commitment, and the users can see who signed up for what. I ultimately decided to go with a premium membership because I felt as though the $6.00 per month was worth the extra features.

Website Component:

There is only a website, but advertises that an app is coming soon.

Screenshots:

Every Field is customizable.

*This is the signup sheet from our Easter party as it would appear to a parent. As you can see, with the premium membership, everything is private.

My Impression of What Parents Think:

The first time I used this website was to help plan our Easter party. I sent the link out on a Wednesday, and the party was completely planned in two days. However, I got a lot of feedback saying that the website had glitches. And I mean a lot of glitches.

Pros:

• The biggest pro is the convenience factor. Before I found this kind of website, organizing class parties and parent-teacher was a nightmare. I would have to send out a list requesting items. Parents would send them back in. Then I would have to make the decision of who got which items. It would make for some very angry mamas because there is really no fair way to decide.
• The website is user friendly and reminds me of creating a spreadsheet in Excel. Every field is customizable.
• You have the option of signing up people on the administrator’s page.
• It can be password protected.
• The support team on Facebook is very quick to respond to questions and help fix any bugs if they can.

Cons:

• This website is incredibly glitchy. I never had problems in the actual creating a signup sheet. However, I got a lot of emails from parents saying that no matter how many times they tried or computer they used, the sign up sheet would not load. It doesn’t matter how easy it is to create a sheet if no one can open it. I had similar problems on my own computer.
• There is no database for parents to search for the signup sheets, meaning you must email or use QR codes to get the word out. This was a problem for the parents that didn't have email.

Overall Impression:

Overall, I love the idea of this website. I initially used it to plan a class party when I was out sick. I realized that the party was only a week away, I was out with the flu, and I needed to get the party planned. Since I wasn’t physically at school, I wasn’t able to send out the notes I usually do. So I emailed out the signup sheet. Some parents were able to sign up no problem, the rest emailed me saying the website wouldn’t load so I had to manually sign them up myself. It is very user friendly and I love that is so much like Excel. However, it doesn’t matter how user friendly the website is, if it does not work the way it was intended. Ultimately, I abandoned this website in favor of another that is very similar in purpose. It was disappointing this one didn’t work as it was more user friendly than the website I switched over to. Maybe the website will work itself out with time.