The slides from my presentation at the Second iPad in ECE Roundtable are now online:
I would like to thank all the other presenters and participants for their contributions in this meeting — I look forward to continuing the conversation at future roundtables.
The slides from my presentation at the WCCC are now online:
I hope that this resource proves useful to educators, parents, and anyone interested in exploring how children learn through different forms of play and games. As always, I welcome questions and feedback.
Educational gaming continues to make headway, with recent news items focusing on the creation of a public school centered around it, the discussion of its role in civics education, and how it can be used as a way of improving STEM education. My own podcast series, Game and Learn, was designed to provide educators at all levels with a self-contained introduction to the core knowledge needed to use educational gaming effectively. That said, one aspect of educational gaming still frequently goes unaddressed: the fact that many educators lack personal experience with actual gameplay.
It is not uncommon for educational gaming projects to be undertaken by instructors who have either never played a videogame, or are at most familiar with one or two examples in narrowly defined subgenres. This can lead to a range of more-or-less serious problems, ranging from unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished, to a lack of appreciation for features and nuances of games that can be effectively exploited in learning scenarios.
Until recently, remedying this deficit was nontrivial: the task of assembling a reasonably complete game collection could be quite daunting, given the cost of the games themselves, the need for dedicated consoles to play game genres not well-exemplified on personal computers, and the overall lack of a list of “games that matter” to help guide the process. However, over the past year, the economics of game publishing on Apple’s iTunes Store have changed this situation dramatically. The games are inexpensive, cover all key genres, and are playable on all iOS devices, from the basic iPod Touch, through the most advanced iPhone or iPad.
That only leaves the need for a game list as the sole unaddressed point – which is where this blog post comes in. I have spent some time over the past year testing games (I know, tough job, poor me) so as to compile such a list. My criteria were:
I have used the list of genres discussed in episode #3 of my podcast series:
For each genre, I have selected two games, one to act as an intro, and a second one for further exploration, or as an alternative to the first choice. Wherever available, I have linked to free “try before you buy” versions – in many cases, they suffice to provide a good intro to the genre, and some can be upgraded to full game versions if so desired. I have played all the games, and most of them should play fine on all iOS devices, with the possible exception of the oldest iPod Touch. If your device “hiccups” when playing a game, you might want to reset it, following the instructions on Apple’s site.
If you’re interested in looking for more games, community sites can be a great source of info – I have found discussions and reviews on Touch Arcade to be particularly informative. Finally, you may find some of my podcasts useful as a way to learn what to look for in these games – in particular, podcasts 3 and 4 are specially relevant here:
Enough talking – it’s time to have some fun.
Narrative Games:
Text Adventure: Frotz
Frotz provides an interface to play all the great non-commercial classics of Interactive Fiction (IF). Text structures the gaming experience here: players are presented with descriptions of environments and events, and respond by typing in text themselves. An excellent IF game to begin with is Emily Short’s Bronze – it was designed as an introduction to the genre for both players and game designers. It is worthwhile studying the progression of puzzles, and their integration throughout the game – there are multiple lessons to be learned here.
Also see: it is almost impossible to pick a single follow-up game here, but particularly good choices are Graham Nelson’s Jigsaw, for its complex, deep puzzles; Dan Schmidt’s For A Change, for its unusual use of language; and Adam Cadre’s Photopia, for its approach to storytelling. Also try the “Browse IFDB” button – it’ll take you to more gems of the genre, such as Dan Shiovitz’s logic puzzler Bad Machine.
Graphic Adventure: Myst (Full version)
While the focus here is still solidly on storytelling and associated puzzles, images, rather than text, guide the experience. Very few games have succeeded as thoroughly as Myst in creating an immersive experience, where the mood of the landscape perfectly matches – and defines – the puzzles. Try comparing Myst‘s puzzles to those from one of the IF exemplars – what similarities/differences do you see?
Also see: Mystery of Monkey Island: Special Edition (Full version)
A very different game from Myst – dialogue, which is near-absent from Myst, plays a central role here. Also worthwhile studying as one of the few examples of non-IF games that manage to make humor (mostly) work for them.
Action-Adventure: Across Age (Full version)
The action-adventure genre is, by definition, a hybrid one. Some games lean more towards the action side of things (i.e., are almost platformers), while others are more focused on puzzles and character attribute development (i.e., akin to a Role-Playing Game). Across Age is an exemplar of the latter – relatively minimal finger agility is required. Examine how players are encouraged to explore and develop skills – and how those skills are used later in the game.
Also see: James Cameron’s Avatar (Full version)
This game leans towards the action side of the genre. The game allows for relatively little exploration, i.e. it is mostly linear in its presentation of challenges, but nonetheless provides a decent intro to the shift in puzzle construction demanded by the action perspective.
Role-Playing Game: Vay
RPGs are the descendants of pen-and-paper games like Dungeons and Dragons, and as such tend to focus on the interaction between narrative setting and roles acted out by players who must complete a set of assigned tasks to develop their characters. As an introduction to the genre, Vay is a perfect choice: a decent (if somewhat overwrought) story, a gentle learning curve for its character attribute development challenges, and enemy fights that are not too repetitive if you play along at the “just right” pace. Not the prettiest game around – but a good beginner’s RPG nonetheless.
Also see: PuzzleQuest
An excellent example of the possibilities that open up when you combine genres – in this case, mixing an RPG with a Bejeweled-style match-n puzzle. Worth using as a point of departure for thinking about possibilities for non-traditional challenges in educational RPGs.
Massively Multiplayer Online Game: Pocket Legends
In MMOGs, the challenges and worlds of the RPG are shared with multiple other players, creating new possibilities for player collaboration, competition, and other forms of interaction. Pocket Legends plays upon fantasy themes, and as such is a mini-version of the justly famous World of Warcraft. In addition to studying these interactions, you may also want to think about the storytelling themes embedded within the game, and how they could be used as a point of departure for student-driven narratives.
Also see: Outer Empires
Outer Empires is a more cerebral game than Pocket Legends, focusing on themes of interstellar travel, trading, and conflict. As such, it feels like a scaled-down version of the much-larger computer MMOG Eve Online. As food for thought, consider how mathematical models, and student-driven exploration could be embedded within similar worlds. Note that as of the time of this writing, this game requires a device that can be updated to iOS 4.2 or later, so it cannot be played on first-generation devices.
Simulation Games:
Sims: Virtual City (Full version)
Sims (short for simulation games) create machines designed to simulate systems in the real world to varying degrees of accuracy, and embed these machines in gaming contexts. While the well-known SimCity is available on iOS, Virtual City is overall better scaffolded as an introduction to the intricacies of running a city simulator. Take a look at how missions build up knowledge about the tasks ahead, and make sure to explore the sandbox mode for free-form creation.
Also see: The Sims 3 World Adventures
The Sims series has specialized in creating worlds for players to explore the outcomes of interpersonal interactions, as played out by their doll-like characters. While the focus of the series has not been on realism, it nonetheless creates an interesting sandbox for players to explore “what if” fantasies and narratives about the world.
Real-Time Strategy Games: Warfare Incorporated
RTS games put players in contexts where they have to make quick decisions in real time about resources and their use that will affect the outcome of a conflict. The interaction between intrinsic game piece parameters and terrain-based properties is a key component of this process, and is equally important in all other types of strategy games. Warfare Incorporated follows the standard rules for the genre, putting the player in charge of making progressively more complex tactical decisions affecting a series of military battles. The scaffolding of this progression is worth studying, as is the subjective evolution of your own analytical processes when under time pressure.
Also see: The Settlers (Full version)
A slower, but more complex RTS game, incorporating deeper strategy elements, akin to the turn-based Civilization series. Worthwhile studying for how these more complex elements modify the game experience.
Military Turn-Based Strategy Games: Highborn (Full version)
Military TBS games focus on tactical decisions in the context of a battlefield, but unlike RTS games, they allow the player as much time as they want to decide what to do next. Highborn is an excellent introduction to the genre, mixing good tutorial levels with humor throughout the game. It is particularly worthwhile contrasting the subjective game experience with that provided by RTS games.
Also see: UniWar
UniWar provides, in addition to an individual TBS experience, the possibility of playing against other players. Particularly worthwhile for comparing the experience of playing against a game engine to that of playing against other human players, and the pros/cons of the respective experiences.
World Turn-Based Strategy Games: Civilization Revolution (Full version)
World TBS games focus on the “big picture”, i.e., the strategy involved in building up a large-scale civilization (including resources and decisions beyond the military domain), rather than the tactical decisions of multiple battles. The Civilization series is the clear leader in this genre, and Civilization Revolution is a particularly accessible game in the series. While it makes no claims to historical accuracy, it can be an excellent tool to get students to think about the complex web of factors that are involved in historical processes. The in-game tutorials are good, but some players would like additional resources for a game this rich – for them, I recommend the supplementary materials available online.
Also see: nothing here yet – one can only hope that games like Europa Universalis, that try to include a measure of historical accuracy within the genre, will make it to the iOS platform sometime soon.
Action Games:
Shoot ‘Em Ups: Platypus – Squishy Shoot-em-up (Full version)
In shmups, players are presented with waves of enemies that they must pilot a vehicle through, eliminating them while avoiding attacks. These games favor even faster decision-making than RTS games, and tactical thought becomes a required near-intuitive reflex – good shmups do not reward thoughtless button mashing. Platypus is a whimsical shmup that is accessible to beginners, yet challenging enough for them to explore the full range of what the genre can provide. See how your own reflexive thinking evolves throughout the game, and consider how this might help students develop a feel for otherwise hard-to-visualize physical scenarios such as those involved in the electromagnetic educational game SuperCharged!
Also see: Space Invaders Infinity Gene (Full version)
A shmup that doubles as an intelligent reflection on the history of videogames in general, and shmups in particular. Particularly notable for the way in which gameplay evolves to reflect this history alongside player skills.
Platformers: Giana Sisters (Full version)
Courtesy of the success of games like Super Mario Brothers, everybody knows the basic formula for the platformer: a character runs through a terrain littered with obstacles, picking up goodies and defeating enemies along the way. Giana Sisters is a superb tribute to classic platformers, with a gentle learning curve for newcomers. The game’s teaching style is particularly worth exploring here – pay special attention to how a new skill is introduced, then rehearsed, then used in progressively more complex scenarios in combination with other skills. It is also worthwhile studying how the game provides feedback to the player as to their relative level of skill in completing tasks – and thinking about how similar tactics might be used for formative assessment in the classroom.
Also see: :Shift: (Full version)
What do you get when you combine a platformer with a puzzle game that requires a fundamental rethinking of what is meant by terrain? One answer: :Shift:, a puzzle platformer that draws upon the player’s 2D figure/ground reversal skills for success. Until Portal is brought to iOS devices, this may well stand as the best example available of how a platformer can help reshape thinking about spatial properties.
First-Person Shooters: N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (Full version)
FPS are designed to provide an immersive experience for the player, by matching their viewpoint to the viewpoint of what their game character would see around them. As such, they typically generate a “you are there” thrill ride, similar to a good horror film. N.O.V.A. is fairly typical of the genre – weak story, but good feeling for the creation of a believable surrounding environment. Pay special attention to how a world is constructed around the player that encourages the suspension of disbelief, and full engagement with the environment.
Also see: Archetype
The FPS experience in N.O.V.A. focuses on the individual player; by contrast, Archetype focuses on the multiple possibilities for player-team interactions. The modes in which teams come together, and create strategies for success is worthwhile exploring here.
Fighting Games: Blades of Fury (Full version)
Fighting games step back from the immersive perspective of the FPS, and focus the camera at a mid-range third-person perspective. What is lost in immersion is gained in the possibilities for fast, complex interaction in fights that are far more complex than simple boxing or karate matches. Blades of Fury is a good, if somewhat generic, exemplar of the 3D variety of this type of game. Pay no attention to the very silly and overwrought story; instead, focus on how the game develops player skills for choosing from a complex array of possible attack and defense moves on the fly, with split-second timing.
Also see: Street Fighter II (included in Capcom Arcade)
A classic of the genre – and one that exemplifies how reducing complexity in one part of the game domain allows for greater complexity in other aspects of the game. In this case, going from the 3D terrain in Blades of Fury to a simple side-scrolling 2D landscape allows for a much greater player challenge in choosing and timing the use of particular battle skills.
Sports Games: X2 Soccer 10/11 (Full version)
The simple sports games (e.g., bowling, tennis) included with systems such as the Nintendo Wii are easy to get into, and a lot of fun to play. However, they do little to translate the more subtle aspects of the sports experience, and in particular those components that relate to team play. In X2 Soccer 10/11, you may never feel like you’re really kicking a soccer ball – but the team tactics and strategic components of the sport are faithfully reproduced. Of special interest: how the game design allows users to control multiple players onscreen, without losing track of what is going on in the game overall, while retaining the swift game dynamics characteristic of soccer.
Also see: Baseball Superstars 2010 (Full version)
What would happen if you included an RPG within a sports game? Baseball Superstars 2010 is one possible result. The interaction between the two game genres is particularly worthy of study here – even though this specific combo is unlikely to ever occur in a good educational game, the design choices made to produce a successful game can help illuminate the design of other possible combinations.
Vehicle Games: Real Racing (Full version)
Of all game genres, vehicle games depend most crucially upon immersion and acceptable verisimilitude to the physical world to obtain player acceptance. Some vehicle games (usually called “arcade-style”) strive for just enough realism to make the experience enjoyable; others try to include as much of the vehicle physics as possible. Real Racing is an example of the latter approach – pay attention to how the game manages to draw you into its world, even though there’s a world of difference between holding an iPhone in your hands and sitting in the cockpit of a race car. Also, study how the game quickly guides you up a non-trivial difficulty ladder, while providing reasonable rewards at each stage.
Also see: Jet Car Stunts (Full version)
Another hybrid – in this case, one generated by the fusion of an arcade-style racer with a platformer. As before, the key topic here is to study the details that make the fusion work; pay special attention to how two genres with very different typical difficulty and learning curves can be reconciled in a single game.
Rhythm Games: DanceDanceRevolution S+ (US)
Rhythm games focus on the player’s capacity to reproduce different aspects of music presented to them, typically by stepping on a dance pad, interacting with a musical instrument-like controller, or – as in this case – tapping on the screen. Dance Dance Revolution is a classic of the genre, and this game does a good job of scaling down the experience from the dance floor to a small device. Of all game genres, this one relies particularly heavily on repeated practice and rehearsal of game sequences over and over again – so it’s well worth studying how the game keeps this from becoming boring.
Also see: Thumpies (Full version)
A perfect study in how small changes can add up to a very different game experience. Thumpies, like DanceDanceRevolution S+, invites players to keep up with the rhythm of pre-scripted music by tapping onscreen – but key changes in presentation, use of the screen tapping space, and musical development make for a radically different flow and feel to game play.
Other Games:
Puzzle Games: Zen Bound 2 Universal
There are hundreds of puzzle games available for iOS devices, but the very best ones are those that could not have existed in the world of pencil and paper. Zen Bound 2 proposes a deceptively simple challenge: how efficiently can you wrap an irregularly shaped object in a length of string? The game taxes both tactical planning and visual 3D thinking, while making creative use of the device – literally asking the player to roll it in space to solve the puzzle. A wonderful game that should help trigger creative and original thought about what educational games might look like.
Also see: Lumines – Touch Fusion (Full version)
One more example of the challenges and solutions that need to be invoked when two game genres meet. In this case, a Tetris-type puzzle is mixed with a slow rhythm game: particularly worth studying are its unique differences that are reflected in neither of its two parent sources.
Traditional Games: Shredder Chess (Full version)
Chess, go, backgammon, and poker are all worthy of study as particularly evolved examples of games that have become streamlined over time to their core essentials. In the computer domain, good examples of software that plays these games should not just play the games well, but also demonstrate good tutorial capabilities, good tools for showing players the deep structure of game positions, and interesting ways of adapting to player level and skill. Shredder Chess does an excellent job of accomplishing all these goals, and is specially valuable to educators as an exemplar of how to provide adaptive feedback and formative assessment.
Also see: SmartGo Pro (Full version)
While no go program has yet reached a level of play expertise comparable to the best chess programs, SmartGo Pro does a good job of compensating for this by providing players with a complete set of tools for learning, including problems and past games for analysis. A good example of a comprehensive approach in games that seek to educate the player.
Board Games: Reiner Knizia’s Samurai
In recent years, so-called “Eurogames” have transformed the board game landscape, with approaches that are both original and easily learned, while providing for excellent depth and complexity in game play. Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are two well-known examples, but the lesser-known Samurai may well outshine them all in terms of providing a game that can not only be readily learned and enjoyed, but also easily broken down into its component parts by game scholars interested in seeing what makes the game tick. This particular computer incarnation of the game excels in its tutorial capabilities, and supplies an engine that is both a reasonably challenging opponent, but also one with flaws that can lead to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanics of the game.
Also see: Monopoly
It is worthwhile examining how a very well-known board game classic is translated to the digital domain as a way of better understanding what makes games work in general. Monopoly is, of course, a classic that nearly everyone will have played at some time, and as such is ideally suited to this exercise.
This blog post is dedicated to the memory of my dog, Freya, who taught me more about play than I can ever acknowledge.
The slides from my recent presentations in Göteborg and Stockholm are now online:
I would like to thank everyone who participated in the planning and development of these sessions – I can truly say that I felt welcome and at home everywhere I went. And while this was my first trip to Sweden, I certainly hope to return again in the future to continue our discussions.
The slides from my recent presentations at Swarthmore College are now online:
My thanks to everyone who participated in these sessions – I enjoyed our discussions, and look forward to continuing our conversations in the future.
Materials from my ISTE 2010 Poster Session are now available for download:
Special thanks to everyone who stopped by, and participated in the discussion – I will definitely incorporate your thoughts and feedback into future work.
The slides for my NMC Summer Conference presentation on research into student attitudes towards educational games, and the professional development necessary for faculty and staff involved in educational game use and creation are now available for download. The Game and Learn podcasts mentioned in this presentation can be downloaded from iTunes U; more information about these podcasts is available in a previous blog post.
My thanks to all who participated in this session – I hope that these resources prove useful to you.
The slides for the Mobile Programming for Educators workshop, presented at the 2010 NMC Summer Conference, are now online, and can be downloaded here.
My thanks to everyone who participated in the workshop – I enjoyed working with all of you, and look forward to seeing the projects you develop.
Over the past two months, I have had the opportunity to present three talks at events sponsored by the New Media Consortium, covering some of my recent work on digital storytelling, as well as my current research on the “lively sketchbook”. Full recordings and resources for all three talks are now available online:
Mapping the Digital Storytelling Domain: Notes for a Future Cartography — http://www.nmc.org/preso/7724
MIDEA Presents Two Perspectives on Digital Storytelling — http://www.nmc.org/connect/2010/march/30
The Lively Sketchbook — http://www.nmc.org/connect/2010/april/16
I would like to thank the NMC for providing me the opportunity to share this work with an intellectually passionate and diverse audience — and I strongly encourage everyone to check out some of the other recordings from the NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning, as well as the Connect@NMC Series.
In looking at some of the recent iPhone (or iPod Touch)-based initiatives in education, I was struck by something: most of the uses described focused on using the iPhone as a client for information consumption and basic feedback, rather than as a tool for creation. While the iPhone is indeed an excellent information client – I prefer to read the New York Times on the iPhone, rather than on my laptop or on paper – this nonetheless struck me as unusual. Was this due to limitations of the device, or of the way it was thought about?
In considering this latter point, I noticed that a repeated theme in many discussions of the iPhone in education was that it was “only” good for “notetaking”. This, however, struck me as missing a key point – and one that predates any introduction of computer technology into the classroom. As any serious writer, visual artist, or musician knows, one of their most important professional tools is a good notebook or sketchbook. I know no choreographer or theater director that would take a step outside their home without a way to take notes in hand. And as any scientist would be happy to confirm, the “good bits” and insights of the research process are to be found in lab notebooks. In short, prefacing “notetaking” with “only” completely misses an essential dimension of the creative process: fundamental parts – and in many cases, the bulk – of the act of creation occur as “notetaking”.
I therefore set out to see whether the iPhone could function as a “lively sketchbook” – one that could provide a rich set of tools for analysis and creation across a broad range of scenarios throughout K-20 education. After a couple of months of testing multiple apps in combination with each other, I found that this was indeed possible. The question in selecting any given iPhone app is not whether it has all the features of its desktop counterpart – that way lies interface madness. Rather, the question is whether the app is designed in such a way that it functions in notebook/sketchbook-like fashion, with the same grace and ease of use that one might expect from its paper-based counterpart.
I make no claims that the app set described below is the only set that would comprise a lively sketchbook, or even the “best” such set. Nor does it include highly specialized tools that would be useful in specific disciplines – for instance, the iPhone has some excellent tools for use in chemistry and medicine. However, I would claim that it is a set that can be used fruitfully by educational projects right now – it certainly has changed dramatically how I go about my own work. And I can’t help but wonder how this set and the approach it embodies might be changed by the announcement that Apple is scheduled to make later this week – something tells me things could get even more interesting in a couple of days…
The Apps:
Writing Apps:
Evernote (Website/iTunes Store) Notetaking for the briefest of notes, the types of passing thoughts that need to be grabbed before they fade. Jot down something quickly, snap a fast snapshot, record a brief comment or reminder, and ship it off to the cloud. Notes can be retrieved from any computer, and shared with others. Made more valuable by the fact that it interoperates with Awesome Note (see below).
Awesome Note (+Todo) (Website/iTunes Store) My workhorse for writing. Can integrate image and text, organize and file notes by projects, and attach simple to-do date tracking to notes. Interoperates with both Evernote and Google Docs – the latter makes it a great tool for collaborative writing.
Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite (Website/iTunes Store) Sometimes, you need more structured writing or formatting options than either Evernote or Awesome Note can provide – this where this app comes in. It’s also a good tool for editing docs created by others, provided their formatting isn’t too complex. Also OK for tables and spreadsheets, so long as you don’t need graphs.
MyWiki (Website/iTunes Store) When writing is best viewed not as a single document, but rather as a series of interconnected documents, this is the right type of tool. Also doubles as a very nice webpage creator, since it can output its contents as HTML. Unlike other iPhone wiki apps, this one can’t (yet) act as a wiki server – but the interface and functionality are a much better match for the device.
WordPress 2 (Website/iTunes Store) Finally, when writing needs to go out to a central location on the web, I’ve found the combination of a WordPress blog with this app works best. The app is very simple – almost minimalistic – but it works quickly and well to publish thoughts to the Internet.
Analysis Apps:
Instaviz (Website/iTunes Store) When I’m sketching out the connections between a set of ideas, or diagramming key elements for a project, this is the tool I turn to – in fact, this may well be my all-time favorite iPhone app. It is both an elegant structured diagram creation tool, as well as a fast and effective way to create concept maps. Additional bonus: excellent interop with both the desktop version of the app for further editing, as well as with Box.net for document sharing.
ProStats (Website/iTunes Store) Storing and performing quick analyses of data is an essential portion of an analytical notebook, and this app is both fast and elegant. All the key stats functions – and then some – are included. Some of the visualization options are particularly nice – in fact, I wish more desktop statistics apps were as carefully thought out.
SpaceTime – Graphing, Calculator, and Mathematics Software (Website/iTunes Store) The symbolic complement to ProStats – this is a true standalone symbolic math app – a mini-Mathematica, if you will. This is far more powerful than any graphing calculator I’ve ever seen, and the interface, while not the best I’ve seen on the iPhone, is also superior to standalone devices. Coupling this with the rest of the apps described here provides a truly powerful toolbox for math and science exploration.
Image Apps:
AutoStitch Panorama (Website/iTunes Store) The iPhone’s camera doesn’t have the most impressive optics out there – but as has been said many times, the best camera is the one you have with you. One way to work around its limitations is to stitch together multiple photographs, and that is where this app comes in. A single-trick pony – but one that allows image creators to exceed some of the camera’s built-in limitations.
Photoshop.com Mobile (Website/iTunes Store) For most photos, only a few touch-up steps are needed or wanted. This app takes care of those steps – basic cropping, exposure corrections, some simple effects and frames – and little else. It’s fast and simple, and gets out of the way of image creation and reuse.
Flickr (Website/iTunes Store) If WordPress is the simplest way to share writing online, Flickr is the most effective way to share images. Not only can this app get photos into the cloud – it can also source Creative Commons-licensed images for remix and use in other projects. A key app, particularly for use with Strip Designer.
SketchBook Mobile (Website/iTunes Store) There are probably dozens of sketching and painting iPhone apps. Most either are too simplistic, or clutter up the interface with awkwardly implemented options. This app, in my view, gets it “just right”: enough tools to have flexibility and power, but with an interface that gets out of the way, and allows you to focus on creating. It “feels” like drawing in a sketchbook with pencils, pens, brushes, and charcoal – I actually prefer this to my desktop tablet.
Intaglio SketchPad (Website/iTunes Store) A very powerful vector drawing app – the iPhone feels like a natural tool for handling objects in a drawing. It is every bit as effective in the iPhone domain as its counterpart is on the desktop, and it interoperates reasonably well with the non-vector iPhone apps.
PhotoForge (Website/iTunes Store) Photoshop.com Mobile can handle basic image manipulation – this takes care of all the rest. All of the tools, filters, and effects you might want – and then some. The additional tools come with an interface that is not as elegant as it could be, and some added complexity, but it’s worth it.
Strip Designer (Website/iTunes Store) It’s always been my view that comics are one of the essential forms of digital storytelling, particularly in education. Strip Designer is an excellent tool for comic creation – a reasonable and usable subset of a desktop app like Comic Life in the palm of your hand.
Audio Apps:
Recorder Pro (Website/iTunes Store) An essential component of an “audio sketchbook” is a recording app that does a clean, competent job of recording the spoken word – and nothing else. This app fills that requirement very nicely, with an interface that gets out of the way of the recording process, and good options for adjusting the quality of the recorded files.
NLog Free Synth (Website/iTunes Store) Another key component of the “audio sketchbook”: a simple musical instrument that allows one to “doodle” musical ideas. This is one area where exploring the app store is worthwhile – there are multiple apps that will appeal to different preferences in instruments, whether keyboard, string, or wind. This one is my favorite, though – the keyboard interface is usable without cumbersome or finicky finger picking, and the surprisingly rich sounds are reminiscent of old-style analog synths.
MultiTrack – 16 Track Recorder (Website/iTunes Store) Recorder Pro can’t handle the more complex layering involved in a sketchbook for musical or spoken word ideas that involve more than one simultaneous thread. This app fills in very nicely in that category – the interface allows handling a complex set of options simply and transparently, and also makes for a gentle learning curve.
Xewton Music Studio (Website/iTunes Store) Just as MultiTrack expands upon and complements Recorder Pro, so this music composition app expands upon and complements the NLog Synth. This is not unlike having a pocket version of GarageBand – but with an interface uniquely suited to the iPhone. This is not limited to doodling – it is perfectly possible to put together a good rough draft of a musical composition using this tool.
Video Apps:
Storyrobe (Website/iTunes Store) Most of the apps in this group embody progressively more complex approaches to the task of digital storytelling in video. This one is the simplest of all: bring in several still images in sequence, then overlay a spoken narrative that can cross image display boundaries – but is nonetheless effective for all that.
Slideshow Builder (Website/iTunes Store) The next level of complexity allows for more complex transitions and relations between the images, setting them to a prerecorded soundtrack. Currently, this app is limited to “live” presentation – it uses its own file format, and unlike Storyrobe, it cannot output a video file – but is very effective at what it does.
Storyboard Composer (Website/iTunes Store) Storyboards are essential for both analyzing as well as creating all forms of video or film, but most desktop storyboard apps tend to be either clunky, or very expensive, or both. This app stands out because it is both elegant and reasonably priced, and it is beautifully integrated with the iPhone interface. Not only can it create standard storyboards that follow traditional notation rules – it can also create animations with voiceover based upon these rules. This app is probably the best example of the iPhone as a powerful “lively sketchbook”.
ReelDirector (Website/iTunes Store) A workhorse for video editing: this can bring together stills, video captured on the iPhone, voiceover, and recorded audio with all the editing tools and transitions that would be expected for a tool of this nature. As with the Xewton Music Studio in the audio domain, an excellent rough draft of a video project could be produced using this tool.
Ustream Live Broadcaster (Website/iTunes Store) If we’re thinking about uses of sketchbook video in education – or anywhere else for that matter – it is important not to forget the domain of live video. Ustream provides a free service and a very nice little free app that allows any iPhone, not just the 3GS, to provide this functionality. Extra bonus: this app can also record video (although at reduced frame rates) on older iPhones.
Ustream Viewing Application (Website/iTunes Store) If a student or teacher is broadcasting, then other class participants need to be able to listen in and provide feedback on their own devices. This app closes the loop, with both a video viewer and a realtime chat interface that runs alongside the video stream.
Utility Apps:
Pastebot — Command Copy & Paste (Website/iTunes Store) The iPhone has good basic cut-and-paste functionality – but this little app takes it to a whole new domain by providing both a “multiclipboard” and the capacity to perform some basic processing on text or images shared via that multiclipboard. Extra bonus: a beautiful, elegant interface – it’s not often that you can say that a utility such as this is fun to use.
Dragon Dictation (Website/iTunes Store) I find the built-in keyboard system on the iPhone remarkably usable – I won’t win any typing speed contests with it, but overall it works well for the device. That said, there are multiple scenarios where entering text via dictation would work better for a lively sketchbook. Enter this little app, which does a decent job of providing this functionality, provided that you’re connected to the network. How good is the transcription? While dictating text is faster than typing, I find that the necessary corrections bring the overall entry time into the same ballpark as the standard iPhone keyboard.
Air Sharing Pro (Website/iTunes Store) When you need to get files to or from the iPhone, this app is a Swiss army knife. It can print to shared printers, connect to FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV servers, as well as to other computers. It is constrained by Apple’s sandbox limitations on which files it can see, which in practical terms means that some file transfers may take an extra couple of steps to route them to an external server via the app that created them. Nonetheless, this remains a very valuable toolkit integration app.
Box.net (Website/iTunes Store) While Air Sharing Pro can in theory connect to most commercial file storage services in the cloud, in practice I find that using a dedicated app works better. I like Box.net because it is pre-integrated with one of my workhorse apps, Instaviz. Other apps/services (e.g. Dropbox) also work well for this.
Jaadu VNC (Website/iTunes Store) Given the power of the lively sketchbook, what is frequently needed to take a project from extended notes or rough draft to a finished version is only a few minutes on a more powerful computer – and those few minutes need not happen at that computer’s physical keyboard. This app provides remote access to any computer – Mac, Windows, or Linux – that has been appropriately configured. The range of tools that can be reasonably used in this fashion is surprisingly extensive, and well-adapted to the working model I’ve described here.