It sounds like fun, doesn't it? Actually, I thought it sounded really intimidating at first because I had it set in my mind that app smashing meant combining a couple of apps together to form one new app. That sounded like something WAY beyond my technology skill level! Then I figured out that it is really just utilizing several different apps to make one final product. Still requires some skill and patience to figure out how the parts can fit together, but totally manageable for me.
The assignment for our Using Digital and Social Media in Education (DSM) class was to experiment with app smashing in a way that would be applicable to our classrooms. I threw around several ideas, but eventually landed on our project for the food unit in the General Chemistry class that I teach.
The final project for this unit has students researching a typical dinner from a different culture and then analyzing the nutrition data from that meal and comparing it to a typical American meal. (At this point, we have already spent a substantial amount of time discussing the chemistry of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins as well as learning what a Calorie is and having each student analyze their own diet over a three day period.)
The end product for their effort is to make a sample menu from a "restaurant" that features the dinner items that they selected and determined nutrition facts for. Students will also present their information to the class so that we can discuss as a class some of the differences in various ethnic menus. If students would like some extra credit, they can also bring in a sample of food that they made for the class to sample during their presentation.
I decided to try my hand at app smashing with this project because most students are already using technology to look up menu ideas and nutrition facts, and many will also find images to use in their menus. This seemed to me like a perfect opportunity to eliminate the paper part of things and allow students to show some additional creativity.
My process for my menu was:
1. Find images using Google that can be shared
2. Combine images using Pic Collage
3. Save the image from Pic Collage for further use
4. Upload the image to Skitch to add labels (names of food, prices, etc.)
5. Save the image from Skitch/Evernote for further use
6. Upload the image to ThingLink
7. Add content to image - I added links to the nutrition facts for each individual menu item as well as some additional information (a video with mariachi music, a link to an article about the health of different types of ethnic cuisine, and a link to an article about Mexican eating habits).
The final product looks like this:
It can be found at the following link.
I can see many other possibilities with this project. Students could record some videos of them actually making the food, post it to YouTube, and include it as a link on their menu. Students could use Jing to record themselves discussing the results of their comparisons of American cuisine with their chosen ethnic cuisine. Students could make a podcast of an interview with either someone they know from their chosen culture or with a restaurant owner and provide a link to that on their menu.
What possibilities do you see to use it in your classroom?
**I'm already trying to figure out if this is something that I want to implement with my AP Physics classes as a way to show what they know. I might try having them upload their handwritten work (or use some app on an iPad to write out - and then save - their work...) and then use ThingLink to provide annotations that will explain why they did what they did.
