Booktrack Review

Booktracks are soundtracks for books. The Booktrack Studio allows you to read and create synchronized soundtracks for e-Books or any kind of digital text by adding background music, ambient sound, and sound effects. The website can be accessed here: Booktrack

Three different sound types Music, Ambience, and Sound Effects can be added to text for different reasons in each case such asmusic adding emotion and atmosphere to the text; If the emotion of the music doesn't match what the story is conveying the reader will have problems understanding the tone of your story. Ambience which Instantly lets the reader know where the scene is set. And lastly, sound effects, which enhance the actions happening within the text.

Substitution – acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional change

            Booktrack acts as a direct tool substitute for an audio player

Augmentation – acts as a direct tool substitute with functional change

            It offers a functional change in that sound effects and ambience can be used in addition to music

Modification – allows for significant task redesign

            It doesn’t allow for much task redesign

Redefinition – allows for creation of new tasks

            It doesn’t allow for the creation of new task

Booktrack is fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it. Currently, you can use Booktrack on Chrome browser on your Mac or PC. Support for other browsers as well as Booktrack Apps for iOS and Android are all coming soon. For now the Booktrack Studio is free for anyone to use to create and read Booktracks. In the future, writers will be able to sell their Booktracks if they choose.

A review of the application can be found here: Review

A video tutorial of the application can be found here: Tutorial

Sketchpad Review

Sketchpad is a free online drawing application for all ages. It can be used to create digital artwork to share online and export to popular image formats JPEG, PNG, SVG, and PDF. A link to the application is available here: Sketchpad

Sketchpad would, and is encouraged, to be used in class our outside of class for a variety of purposes such as a school project. It can also be used for recreation.

After evaluating Sketchpad with the SAMR model, we found that it fulfills three out of four levels. 

Substitute – acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional improvement.

Students are substituting a pen/pencil and paper.

Augmentation – acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement

            The technology augments assignments by offering features such as ClipArt, Crop, Zoom, & Layers.

Modification – allows for significant task redesign

            Allows for sharing of sketchpad designs with peers and supervisors.

Redefinition – allows for creation of new tasks

            There is no redefinition as far as this product goes, no task is made uniquely possible with the use of this technology that isn’t mentioned in the modification level.

Sketchpad is a relatively easy online application to make use of. It works very well in a classroom setting when coupled with the Google Classroom platform. A video tutorial can be found here:Using Sketchpad in a Google Classroom Assignment

Sketchpad is a great addition to any Google Classroom lesson. Creators are looking to make it compatible with a pen and tablet in the future. The desktop app version can be purchased for just $4.95. The online version is free.