Explain Everything is an iPad app for making teaching videos quickly and easily.  The interface consists of a blank canvas,  annotation tools and a record/pause/play button.  As soon as you hit the record button, the application screencasts the notes and drawings that you make on the canvas whilst recording your audio narration.  If a mistake is made or you want to change something about your screencast, it’s easy to go back and rewrite what you’ve recorded.

For teachers, the application can be used to record beforehand the explanation of a difficult concept – the combination of readymade sound, images and animated notes put together in a concise video serves to capture students’ attention and can be used for flipped learning.

Below are some examples of how I’ve used this application to create short tutorial videos on the topic of binary, decimal and hexadecimal conversions:

Even more useful still, is to have students make their own videos.  This enables you, the teacher, to quickly identify any misconceptions that a student has about a particular topic.  As an assessment tool, asking students to make their own tutorial videos can be invaluable for giving you a clear insight into their knowledge, skills and understanding.  At the same time, students become much more involved in their own learning process by making a tutorial video.