Qwiki app for iPad

Our department has a set of iPads and we are investing in more.  It seems that at this point, the iPads are being used mostly as a connection to the internet. A big part of this, I think, is that people don’t feel they have the time to figure out what apps are out there that might be helpful.  Or that people think you can only get gaming apps and Angry Birds is only applicable to studying parabolas in math. (Other life lessons from Angry Birds may be a future blog.)
But, back on topic... I would like to help out by choosing one app per week that I’ve put on the iPads to tell you about.



This week’s app is Qwiki.

Qwiki is also available on the computer at www.qwiki.com  For those without an iPad of your own, you can search available Qwikis at home if you want to prepare a lesson around this.
According to Wikipedia, “Qwiki is a platform that creates interactive, on-the-fly, multimedia presentations of information. Its co-founders are entrepreneur Doug Imbruce and Louis Monier, founder of the AltaVista search engine.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwiki, October 31, 2011)
Qwiki takes information (I believe from wikipedia) and provides a short (2-3 minute) multi-media presentation on the topic of your choice.  There are historical topics as well as current events, news, sports, and entertainment.
After you watch a qwiki on the iPad there is a list of recommended, related qwikis for you to watch.  I’ve used it in a few of my classes with mixed results.  I like that it focuses the research into manageable clips - rather than students scrolling through (not reading) really long Wikipedia entries.  Some students find the computer voice a little annoying (the voice can be turned off, and students can read the scrolling text), but for reluctant readers, it can be helpful.  I used it to introduce students to various aspects of Roman life before starting the Gladiator unit in Adventures in World History (CHM4E). Students were given a list of topics that could be found on Qwiki in chart format and told to write down one thing they learned about the Roman society for each Qwiki topic.
Because of the audio aspect of the app, it is useful to encourage students to use their headphones.

Try it out.  See what’s available on Qwiki for one of your courses.

Please use the comment space to share your experiences with Qwiki (positive or negative).  Or suggest other apps that could be used in our courses.