App Smashing: getting the right mash up for the right mesh.

Combining apps effectively to get your intended final result.

I first heard the term 'app smashing' from a colleague after he had attended an in-service training with Joe Dale, an educator and technology consultant. Looking it up, I found that the term referred to mixing or combining artifacts from different apps to make a final product.

Icon for Pic Collage

An example is my photo collage below of my recent trip to the beautiful isle of Penang, Malaysia. I mashed all of them in one photo using my favourite online site, www.collage.com and am planning to use this image in a Thinglink to chronicle my thoughts and impressions on each photo. You can also try the app Pic Collage for the same collage effect.

I was also considering adding a Soundcloud audio of an interview (120 minutes free) as one of the links to the image below.

Now that I have gained some confidence in app meshing, I am trying a new combination to get my students to make an Aurasma - a video explaining their creative choices for their poster.

Steps to make the poster.

1. Make poster using Adobe Ideas.

2. Insert font or text using www.cooltext.com and saving the finished product as an image on camera roll.

3. Combining images and text on Adobe Ideas or Keynote.

Prep for the Aurasma video. (This is where I am at currently)

1. Prep images using Skitch. Each image will highlight one aspect of the poster such as slogan, image, symbol and colour. Students use Skitch to annotate on the image which is then saved to Camera roll.

2. Prep script for the iMovie using google docs.

3. Download VisioPrompt to read script off of.

4. Use Imovie to combine audio and images. To add text where necessary.

5. Upload to youtube and share to common faculty channel.

(It is easier to create a common channel for all student videos. This enables sharing across classes and motivates teachers to submit their final videos to the same channel- great for archiving)

Actual Aurasma

1. Create Overlay, which is the poster

2. Connect to youtube video and a common faculty Aurasma channel

Phew!

Looking forward to the actual finished product!

Below is the youtube video of the finished product which will be linked to Aurasma.