#AppSmash

This week I am going to talk about app smashing, and share with you part 2 of my project that I blogged about last week.

App Smashing

App smashing is simply using two or more apps to create content. It's that simple, and you have probably done this before. To find some great examples of app smashing, simply search the hashtag #appsmash on Twitter and you will see tweets of how students are using this in the classroom.  You can also check out this padlet with examples. Last week, I used the Do Ink green screen app to make videos about igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock (as an example of a project I would have students do). This week, I am going to use the HP Reveal (formerly named Aurasma) app to play the videos.

HP Reveal

HP Reveal is an augmented reality application. Augmented reality means enhancing the physical environment with digital content. It superimposes digital content over something you are viewing in the real world.  Pokémon Go is an example of this. To use HP Reveal, you link an image or text to a video. Then another user can hold the HP Reveal app up to that same image and view the video. For my project, I created an example of a bulletin board for a classroom that has images of igneous and metamorphic rock. I then linked two of the images to the videos I made last week with the Do Ink app. To view the videos, I open the HP Reveal app, and push the circle button at the bottom (see screenshot below). The app will then search for linked images in the environment.

Here is a video capture of the app being used on my iPhone. The circles show that the app is searching for a linked image, and when it finds the linked images, it plays the videos:

(image sources: https://www.freeimages.com/photo/gabbro-igneous-rock-1544116 and

http://www.photos-public-domain.com/2011/11/29/black-and-white-metamorphic-rock-texture/)

Here is a screen capture I made of an aura I created with one of the geology books from last week:

Creating an Aura

Setting up a link to an image, an Aura, is pretty easy. Here is a video of the process:

The steps are:

• Open the app.
• Click on the plus sign in the upper, right-hand corner.
• A box will appear with a red/yellow/green bar at the top. Center the box over the image you want to use. When a dot appears in the yellow or green part of the bar, click on the blue circle at the bottom of the screen.
• It then takes you to Choose an Overlay. Click on Device (so you can upload from your device), and then Upload (to upload your content).
• After you pick your video, click on Choose and it will upload the video.
• Name your Overlay (video image) and click Done.
• Now it will show you the overlay over the image. Move the overlay and resize it and click Next.
• Name the Aura, and click on your public aura library so others can see it. If you only have the private auras library, click on Create a new channel to create a public aura. Click submit and then Done.

Lessons Learned

To make this look really cool, I could have taken a screen shot of me holding the rock while I was sitting in front of the green screen recording the video with Do Ink last week, and used that image as the HP Reveal trigger image. Then it would look like that image came alive when the video is triggered with HP Reveal. But I didn't figure this out until later, and I didn't want to set up the green screen again.

I had some difficulty with image quality. The app refused to link to several of my rock images because the quality was not good enough. I took photos with my iPad and iPhone, and tried printing them on a printer or as photos, but it didn't work. Finally I used images downloaded from the internet and it finally worked. This was frustrating, and I can see how it would cause problems when working with students.

I also learned that one way to signal to others that an image has an aura is to include the HP Reveal logo in the image. You can see in my first video that the two images with auras have the logo. This could help students find images, or signal to them to use the HP Reveal app to find out more, rather than just hoping they figure it out by chance. To overlay two images in MS Word, click on the image, then Layout, Wrap Text, and Through. Do this for both images, and then you should be able to click and drag one image over the other. Then print. Of course, you can do this old school and print the logo and glue it onto the photograph.

Another tip is to create the aura after you have mounted the image to the board. If you link the image before, it will look slightly different and then the aura will not work. 

This was a fun project. I envision creating a bulletin board of student videos sharing their research projects. Students can have fun and learn from others by using the app to watch videos.