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Real Quick… Have You Seen the Qwiki App?

July 31, 2011 8:54 pm Meg Wilson 0 comments

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Meg Wilson

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Here at EdReach, we are big fans of the educational tool Qwiki. (Did you notice the Qwiki of the Day on the sidebar?) For those of you who have not yet have the pleasure of experiencing Qwiki, it is a fantastic tool that allows you to learn about literally millions of different topics in a matter of moments. According to Wikipedia, “Qwiki is a platform that creates interactive, on-the-fly, multimedia presentations of information.” Basically, Qwiki lets you quickly learn about almost anything – people, places and/or things – in a multimedia format! It truly is an information “Experience”.

As if the free Qwiki.com website wasn’t great enough, they have gotten even better by going mobile! You can now download their app for the iPad via the App Store. After playing around with the app for quite awhile, here are a few of my favorite features of the Qwiki app:

it is a combination of images, maps, videos and infographics that are narrated by voice and text to create a short digital story that is relevant to today
you can explore topics by searching, browsing a map, or simply by what’s popular
once you have watched one Qwiki, it will make suggestions for other related Qwiki you may enjoy
it goes where ever you and your iPad go!

A Qwiki is a great way to introduce new topics, expand on previously mentioned topics, review topics quickly, or just let students tap into their own curiosity to learn. This is a great tool to bring into your classroom, regardless of how tech-savvy you may or may not be. If you can type a topic, Qwiki will work for you!

With rave reviews from ABC News, TechCrunch, and The Washington Post, it is clear that Qwiki is just getting started. Like Daniel Rezac, I have to wonder, is Qwiki the next, best platform for digital storytelling? If you are an iPad user, download the FREE app (and if you don’t have an iPad, just head over to Qwiki.com!) and let us know your thoughts on using this awesome tool in the classroom!

Qwiki iPad App Demo from Qwiki on Vimeo.

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