REVIEW: Timeline 3D - Make and Present timelines

Timeline 3D - Make and Present timelines by BEEDOCS (iPad only, $14.99 at time of review) Tweet



General Impression:
Media really steals the show in this timeline app! I can see myself using this just as much for my own personal use- slideshows of the kids, presentations about apps etc. as in an educational setting. I really like how I can easily embed videos too, and the 3D effects are really impressive. This app costs significantly more than the other options, but it is so visually appealing and the most flexible choice. This is the one I will be reaching for the most.  See a comparison of Timeline apps HERE:

 

Some Features I Like:

3D Mode

Embed photos and videos, as well as add notes, and URL links to timeline events

Use with AirPlay Mirroring

Searchable tags in edit mode

Allows more flexiblility in input of time units

Adjusts to a variety of languages and time formats









Out of the three "timeline" apps I have tested out, this one is definitely the most feature rich.  Not only can you add photos, you can embed videos, and include links and notes as well.  There are several color themes to pick from (several are pictured above), and this app supports a variety of languages and time formats.  Of course the wow factor is alive and well too- when you swipe your finger along the timeline, the pictures will pop out at you in 3D mode.)

Adding events is easier too- the app accepts a variety of ways to input time "units"- you can be as specific as "1:53:15 PM" or as broad as "2011".  Sometimes you don't remember or know exactly what month or day that photo was from, or you don't feel like divulging that information, so I really appreciate this flexibility.  This flexibility also means I can use this app as a visual aid/tool to help a student with special needs understand events throughout his or her day, as I can break it down to specific times in a day.

There is a tags feature you can use to easily search timelines while in edit mode. I could see this being really helpful for studying, or for finding a particular event in a large timeline.

This app also allows two forms of sharing. You can send a timeline in 2D. You can also share the timeline in 3D format among other users of Timeline 3D, and with users of Mac applications:Timeline 3D for Mac and Easy Timeline. You can also use iTunes file sharing to add and remove files from iTunes.

 

 

 

Wish List:

For an app in this price range, it would be nice to include some simple editing tools like a crop feature, and perhaps various options for fonts/text size/ colors.  If you notice in the image below, there is a pattern along the bottom of the photo inserted... this was a photo taken with the iPad camera of an old snapshot- it would look more polished with a tool to crop out the background of the fabric that the picture was resting on.

 

The recognition of a variety of different time formats is super.  When an event is not entered properly, a pop up will alert you of the error and remind you to use the Formats tab in the Settings Panel to see acceptable formats- I would like this to go a step further and show a pop up of acceptable options to choose from when an error is made.

 

 

REVIEW: TimelineBuilder by Knowledge Quest, Inc.

TimelineBuilder by Knowledge Quest, Inc. (iPad only, $6.99 at time of review)


General Impression:

I was really excited to see this in the app store- at the time I saw it I wasn't aware of any other timeline making app. I have used it for several projects, and am glad to have it, but am also a bit frustrated by it. I feel the interface of the app is making timeline creation harder than it needs to be, although I do think it will be a helpful tool in classrooms.

For a comparison of several Timeline apps, SEE HERE:





Some features I like:

Photos- I love being able to add photos. This makes all the difference. Once a photo is placed, you can easily drag it away or toward the timeline in either direction, so you can fit all photos on the timeline. Resizing a photo is done by simply tapping the image until it is bordered in red, and then dragging it by the right corner to make it larger. 

Backgrounds- There are nine different backgrounds to pick from, to give the timeline a different feel. I would love a transparent background choice to save ink when printing, and would love to be able to use a photo of our own (with ability to control its opacity) as the background.

Share- Send your finished timeline through email! You can also send a list of events and the pictures as well, or even save the event photos to your Photo Album. I love the email feature, as this means I could print out a timeline easily if I choose. If your timeline is long, it will be separated into more than one image.

Search Wikipedia- this is a neat feature! It will open up Wikipedia and use the title you already entered as the search item. Very handy feature- if you enter the name of a historical figure or event, you can then read up on key events for that person or historical moment in time.

Stored Timelines- you can store saved timelines in the app and refer to them easily through the "Open Timeline" tab.

Hide images- with the press of a button you can hide all images in a timeline. This would be really handy to make an activity out of matching pictures with event dates - I wish I could choose "hide pictures" as an option when sharing a timeline, as I could then print it without the pictures, for a child to fill in.

You can email yourself a copy of your timeline too, along with the details: 

 

 

Wish List-

My wish list centers on one main issue, the interface. The settings are very finicky and less intuitive than I would prefer. For example to create a new timeline we have to remember the correct format to enter dates each time. Perhaps each element (month, day, year) could be entered through a picker of some sort, instead of blindly guessing the format. I also want the app to "remember" what was used last time (BCE, BC, AD or CE) and preselect that setting. Also I would like to create a timeline without specifying any of the above- For example a timeline about my life is clearly AD, and I would like to leave that heading off entirely. Also, inexplicably, we have to choose from just stating a year, or stating a month, day and year, but not a month and year by itself (I wanted to create a timeline showing my son was born in December of 2003, without divulging his actual birth date. I settled on putting the year only. When I went to add events within my son's life, I had to make up a date in order to show the month (I don't remember what day in January my son started preschool, so I settled on January 1, 2006, as January 2006 was not an option; for his brother's birth I just put the first day of the month to keep his birthday private.)

For some reason, when I went to enter a photo of my son at Christmas, I could not- the app told me it was outside the range of the current timeline. (The current timeline starts in 2003 and ends in 2012, so I am not sure why December 25, 2012 is not considered within that timeline. To get around this, I had to enter "2012" as the event date.)



One weakness of this app is that it assumes what kind of time units you want to work with. They are all based on years, months, and days- I would like to be able to break it down further and use these timelines to look at different units of time- perhaps I want to show the stages of mitosis? Perhaps I just want to show a student how time has passed for that day in his life, with photos illustrating moments from that one day of his life, to help make the concept of time more concrete.
Although this app is not exactly as flexible as I was hoping for my needs, I think most will still find this app very useful for historical timelines to enrich academic learning.

I do love how easy it is to resize photos, but there should also be a way to choose fonts, colors, and text size for the title, description and each event. I would love to see cropping available as well.

Bottom line, you can make a visually pleasing timeline with this app. This is a good start and one of very few apps for timeline creation that I know of in the app store, so I hope the developer takes heed and makes this app even more user friendly.

Thinking about Time : Timeline Apps

I had been hoping for a timeline app for quite some time when I stumbled over Timeline Builder in the app store.  Shortly after that, I came across two more and became inspired to share them in a post centering around timeline apps.

Timeline Builder by Knowledge Quest, Inc. (iPad only, $6.99 at time of review)




General Impression:
I was really excited to see this in the app store, as there are very few timeline apps out there.  I have used it for several projects, and am glad to have it, but am also a bit frustrated by its interface. The feature that stands out to me as a big plus is the ease and flexibility of adjusting photo size and placement. The Wikipedia search feature is another standout.  I do think this is a useful tool for the classroom and hope to see entering of time units become a bit easier. (SEE FULL REVIEW HERE).



Timeline 3D - Make and Present timelines by BEEDOCS (iPad only, $14.99 at time of review)





General Impression:
Media really steals the show in this timeline app!  I can see myself using this just as much for my own personal use- slide shows of the kids, presentations about apps etc. as in an educational setting.  I really like how I can easily embed videos too, and the 3D effects are really impressive.  This app costs significantly more than the other options, but it is so visually appealing and the most flexible choice.  This is the one I will be reaching for the most. (SEE FULL REVIEW HERE)

QuickMem Perspective by Blackstripes Publishing (iPad only, 99 cents at time of review)





General Impression:
If your main focus in creating historical timelines to view on the iPad, this may fit the bill and the price is certainly appealing. You can add images, links and text, but the images are not displayed directly on the timeline as they are in the other timeline apps; to access them, you have to tap on the colored title. The focus in this app is on the data- you can also refer to notes while presenting to a class (VGA adaptor needed). You can add bookmarks to your timeline, and change the colors of the tabs. A favorite feature is a line you can place showing present time. (SEE FULL REVIEW HERE:)

Review: QuickMem Perspective by BlackStripes Publishing

QuickMem Perspective by Blackstripes Publishing (iPad only, 99 cents at time of review)




General Impression:
If your main focus in creating historical timelines to view on the iPad, this may fit the bill and the price is certainly appealing. You can add images, links and text, but the images are not displayed directly on the timeline as they are in the other timeline apps; to access them, you have to tap on the colored title. The focus in this app is on the data- you can also refer to notes while presenting to a class (VGA adaptor needed).   You can add bookmarks to your timeline, and change the colors of the tabs. A favorite feature is a line you can place showing present time.  See a comparison of Timeline apps HERE:


Some Features I Like:

You can add photos, notes, and internet links to attach to an event.

You can add a vertical line to show where present time begins on the timeline.

Color coded tabs- you can choose from a variety of colors to color code groups of events on your timelines.

Use this for classroom lessons- "teach from embedded notes while students view timeline on projector (requires VGA adaptor) "

This has a zoom feature which allows you to zoom from billions of years down to weeks.

You can add bookmarks to refer back to.

 

 

 

Wish List:

 

I would love to see some basic editing features to make this more flexible. You cannot crop photos, or change the font/text size etc. You cannot set what part of the picture will show when a tab is tapped.  There is, however, a full screen mode you can use access to view each picture.

 

I would love to be able to use this to break down time into hours/minutes, so I can use it to teach the concept of time using examples from a student's day. 

 

There is supposed to be a help link in the settings, but it appears to be broken.

 

 

 

The Wonky Donkey

Giveaway

Developer: Kiwi Media

Description:

This book will tickle kids’ funny bones as each page reveals more of the characteristics of the titular donkey – The New Zealand Herald

The donkey in this fast-paced song and cheekily illustrated book has issues galore, and the kids will embrace each and every one of them – The Newcastle Herald

The Wonky Donkey is an award-winning, number 1 bestselling book with a song that makes children squeal with delight!

Prepare for fits of laughter and hours of entertainment for all ages with this interactive story about a spunky, hanky-panky cranky stinky dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey. Have fun finding a special feature on every page!

You will be amazed at how these wonderful children’s stories come to life with QBook. Children love being able to run their fingers over the text to hear the story and touch any word to hear it said or spelt. They will happily spend hours coloring in the book and they can record themselves as well.

It’s great fun for kids of all ages and it helps with early learning and literacy development. They can even explore other languages and have loads of fun while they do it. This is the perfect gift for your children and it’s educational as well.

Features: 

• Includes the original Wonky Donkey song!
• Personalize each book with ‘this book belongs to …’ page.
• Swipe-to-Read™ the words to hear and playback the story at your own pace.
• Touch-to-Hear™ individual words spoken.
• Touch-to-Spell™ to hear the letters that spell each and every word.
• Auto Play to enjoy the narration.
• Use the My Narration function to read and record the story yourself and customize your book.
• Paint mode is now on each story page!
• Paint has a paint palette, brush width, move and zoom, and undo abilities!
• Tap the paint palette icon and tap a color to change the paint color!
• Tap the brush palette icon and change the slider to change the brush size!
• Tap the move icon and pinch with two fingers to zoom in and move the picture around with one finger. Tap the move icon again to continue painting!

If you like the Wonky Donkey, check out these other two awesome apps from Scholastic NZ and Kiwa Media: Willbee the Bumblebee and Quaky Cat!

You Tube:

Specifications:

Category: Books
Updated: Oct 24, 2011
Version: 1.3.6
Language: English
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Links:

Website: http://www.kiwamedia.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KiwaDigital
Twitter: @kiwadigital
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kiwamedia/
You Tube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/kiwamedia
iTunes Store: The Wonky Donkey

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Giveaway:

We have a Rafflecopter giveaway until January 22, 2012

TAL /SASK Review, Appy Chat & Giveaway for Niki Agenda

Niki Agenda

Review, Appy Chat & Giveaway

Developer: Alessandro La Rocca

Description:

Niki Agenda is a daily/weekly calendar for children, teen-agers and adults needing visual organization of their days. Especially this helps people with communication difficulties and behavior problems to increase their levels of autonomy and participation.

Niki Agenda can be very helpful for subjects with autism, mental retardation, behavior disorders, language disorders, pervasive developmental disorder, aphasia, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, brain trauma, …

Niki Agenda is a valued tool for parents and therapists, and has been designed to be easily managed by the end user as well.

Niki Agenda provides two modes for scheduling activities (daily or weekly), and the day is divided into three times (morning, afternoon and evening). Each activity can be easily marked with a comprehensible symbol indicating its state (completed, canceled, next) or type (preferred, timed, rewarded).

The application includes a basic library of pictograms that can be completed or replaced with own pictures and photos, and is widely customizable.

Niki Agenda provides also a token economy feature. This shows the reward (a picture chosen from the library) and a set of stars to be lit, one for each completed activity.

You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=886uVjDLMpY

Specifications:

Category: Life Skills
Updated: 10 January 2013
Version: 1.1.0 Language: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish 
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Links:

Website: http://www.nikitalk.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nikitalkaac
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/NikiTalkAAC?feature=watch
App: Niki Agenda

Review:

I really like this visual schedule. It is simple to use, but actually quite feature rich. I feel this app was really well thought out, and there are several features that stand out. It is actually much more than a typical visual schedule -it also has a weekly view feature and a token board as well.

One of the features I love is how Niki Agenda divides up the daily schedule into three chunks of time- Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. These are natural transition points for children, and this feature makes the schedule less overwhelming- without these groupings there would be a quite a few tasks for the child to scroll through and complete for each day. These logical transition points are marked with easily recognizable icons too- In the morning when the child wakes up, he/she can tap the "Sun" symbol to view the first part of the day. Once the items for the morning have been completed, the child can tap on an icon showing the sun setting. The evening symbol shows a moon. The child can focus on tasks for that period of time only, without visual clutter from earlier in the day. To view all items in a day, the weekly view can be used- the schedule for that day stands out, while the other days of the week are automatically dimmed to take focus off of them. The first five items of the day will show, but you can use a scrolling motion to scroll through all tasks for the day.

Editing within the schedule is very easy too. To edit, tap and hold the lock symbol first, then the address book symbol, to reveal the main settings. You may want to not press the lock in front of your kiddo as he/she too will have access to the settings! This hasn't been an issue for us, but we all know how clever our kiddos can be! Adding my own pictures from the iPad's photo album was easy, although I should note there is no option for taking a picture from within the app.

My kids like the fact that they can choose their own colors (23 choices of color!) for each day of the week too- and you can decide to have the colors show up as solid or an outline. There are settings for two users that come free with the app, with the option to add more users as an in-app purchase. You can also set how you will "check off" the tasks as completed. There are 6 different options for displaying the "status" of each task, including check marks, Xs, arrows, hearts, clocks, or stars. These will show up when you tap the empty tick box to the left of each image. The check mark and X status markers will dim the task's image when applied, the others do not.

I have saved one of best features for last- the dyslexia font! The schedule allows you to easily type in each task, using one of three fonts. (Handwriting, Helvetica, and OpenDyslexic). The OpenDyslexic font has been designed specificly for dyslexics, and is a great addition to the app- I find myself using this font exclusively.

Token board!  You can easily add an image of a reward the child is working for, and assign a number of stars to be earned to show below.  This can be used independently of the schedule feature- tap the star on the main screen to access it.  This has recently been adapted to include up to 10 stars!- Thank you!  That is another thing- the developer of Niki Agenda has been very responsive to user feedback. When each star is touched a soft chime will sound, and when all are filled in there is clapping along with the verbal praise "Yay!".  There are also two options for "rewards" when the number of tokens set has been reached -either fireworks (my kids' favorite) or pulsing- the image will change from small to big and so on for a few seconds.

Appy Chat:

Why did you decide to develop this app?
Niki Agenda is a natural consequence of my first app, Niki Talk. Two years ago I was looking for a solution to allow my daughter Niki, 8 years old autistic and non verbal, to communicate effectively.

In collaboration with her therapist, specialized in AAC and assistive technologies, we started to purchase and try some of the best selling applications available on the market. But after the initial enthusiasm, we realized that most of these applications were not easy to use as they should be, and some key characteristics were not presen

When did you first release this app?So I created Niki Talk, an easy to use AAC application with a familiar PECS look to make the change from the book easier. Then, many enthusiastic parents and therapists asked for an agenda with the same level of usability. Niki Agenda is the result of their demands.

This app was first released January, 2013.

How long did it take you to develop this app?
It took me 2 months. Fully involved.

What is your favorite feature?My favorite feature is the usability. Niki Agenda is a value tool for parents and therapists,  and was designed to be easily managed by the end user as well.

What is your favorite page in the app?Certainly my favorite page is the Token Economy page. Not so much for the technical content, but just because it makes users happy.

What skill were you hoping to help the end user to develop?Niki Agenda helps people with communication difficulties and behavior problems to increase their levels of autonomy and participation. It can be very helpful for children or adults with  eg. autism, behavior disorders, language disorders, pervasive developmental disorder, aphasia, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, brain trauma

What age range would this app most suit?Niki Agenda is for children, teen-agers and adults needing visual organization of their days.

Are any new updates coming soon?An update came through just after the first release, which included a lot of new features

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Giveaway:

We have a Rafflecopter giveaway until January 21, 2012

TAL GIVEAWAY/CHAT : Reading TherAppy

 

Reading TherAppy

Giveaway

Developer: Tactus Therapy Solutions

Description:

1800+ Phrase & Sentence Level Reading Comprehension Tasks with the option of creating your own exercises! **Try for FREE as part of Language TherAppy Lite or purchase in our 4-in-1 bundle: Language TherAppy ** This app gives adults with neurological impairment (stroke, brain injury, aphasia) and older children with special needs the practice they need in between reading words and reading stories. It's a digital workbook of semantically organized reading comprehension tasks with the added ability for you to create your own exercises in each mode! Goal Areas: Reading Comprehension, Attention, Problem Solving, Visual Processing, Reasoning Can be used with: Aphasia, Alexia, Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, Cognitive-Communication Impairment, Brain Injury, Early Language Learners, Language Learning Disability, Autism, English as a Second Language Learners Features: ➤4 modes with over 450 exercises each, for 1,800+ reading comprehension practice items! 1)Phrase Matching 2)Sentence Matching 3)Phrase Completion 4)Sentence Completion ➤Hundreds of clear full-color photographs selected by a Speech-Language Pathologist used in both matching modes ➤Carefully-crafted foils on each exercise challenge users to read carefully ➤Clean interface with symbol support allows for independent use ➤Automated scoring allows for easy data-tracking ➤Wrong answers are grayed out once selected ➤Forward and back buttons allow users to skip items and go back to discuss completed items or retry skipped exercises ➤Child-friendly mode removes references to adult themes and disables links to outside sites ➤Users see their answers paired with the stimulus for reinforcement of the correct answer ➤Turn any picture/word on or off ➤Limit answer choices to 2, 3, or 4 ➤Results can be e-mailed in report-ready format so clients can keep their therapist informed of their progress and therapists can send results to themselves for charting later, using the copy-and-paste ready format to decrease documentation time ✻Please note: There is no sound with this app except for the correct/incorrect sounds as the focus is on reading, not auditory, comprehension For more information, please head over to their webpage http://tactustherapy.com/apps/reading/

What's New in Version 1.02

• Limit answer choices to 2, 3, or all 4!
• Turn any picture on or off in the app!
• Minor bug fixes for Customization added in v1.01

You Tube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1yPNU6OQuA&feature=player_embedded]

Specifications:

Category: Literacy Updated: 21 December, 2012 Version: 1.02 Language: English Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Links:

Website: http://tactustherapy.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/tactustherapy Twitter: https://twitter.com/tactustherapy Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tactustherapy/ You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/tactustherapy App: Reading TherAppy

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Giveaway:

We have a Rafflecopter giveaway until January 13, 2013