The Instagrok iPad App is Here

instaGrok has just released a free iPad app. The app combines the functionality of the web based version with interactivity to support learning on the touch screen. 

instaGrok is an intelligent visual search engine and interactive learning tool that collects content and displays it in the form of a cloud of related words. The tool is very appealing because it offers a variety of multimedia features to meet the unique learning needs of students. 

Students use the the visual mode to collect content, then they use the integrated journal to sort through collected content and take notes. Click on the push pin to add content to the journal then add original thoughts and ideas as notes. The journal can be emailed or printed for convenience.

instaGrok Integration with EasyBib 

The last time I shared instaGrok through this blog I included a wish list. On that wish list was a suggestion to integrate the tool with EasyBib. I am very excited to announce that the teams have worked together to build information literacy and digital citizenship into the instaGrok interactive learning process.

• instaGrok collects sources pinned to the concept map.
• The web based version exports sources with one click and imports them to EasyBib for creating citations. 
• The iPad App launches a screen requiring students to evaluate the credibility of the source.

Final Thoughts

Students with 1:1 iPads will most likely find this app extremely useful as they dig deeper into content through research and improve their ability to express learning through writing. 

Download the instaGrok app from the iTunes Store.

Advertisement

EasyBib: One Click Access to Google Docs & More

EasyBib is a free and popular tool for creating citations. By using this tool, students no longer need to learn to format citations, which means they can focus on the reason for creating the citations and the importance of giving credit to the author.  EasyBib has some really great features worth exploring.

Export to Google Docs and More:

Now there is a button to easily export citations to Google Docs. This one-click feature really streamlines the process by creating a Doc, naming it, and popping in directly into the user’s Google Docs account for use. If you aren’t using Google Docs, you’ll notice some alternate, but handy ways to export citations, pictured below.

The EasyBib App:

The EasyBib App features a scanner option to help students easily create bibliographies from book sources. This includes the ability to search by title and ISBN which can be quite helpful when the bar code is not readable by the device. The video below provides a good overview of how the EasyBib app works.

Research Engine: 

EasyBib supports it’s own social search engine designed to shows users a list of sources that have been used on a particular topic. In addition, it shows the credibility of the sources commonly used. 

Lessons for Educators:

Click on the tab at the top of the screen to access lessons plans to help teachers make the transition from traditional print research steps to electronic research. The lessons plans are simple and they cover a nice range of appropriate information literacy content. 

If you haven’t visited EasyBib in a while, you might want to take another look at EasyBib.com