App review by Patricia Monticello Kievlan, Common Sense Education | Updated May 2022
ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard
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ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard

iPad whiteboard app is easy to use, falling behind

Get it now
  • Download from App Store
Learning rating
See full review
Community rating
Based on 25 reviews
Privacy rating
59%| Warning Expert evaluation by Common Sense
Grades
7–12
Subjects & Skills
Communication & Collaboration, Creativity
Great for
Media Literacy, Creating Media, Assessment, Presentation, Classroom Management, Instructional Strategies
Price:  Free, Paid
Platforms:  iPad
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Take a look inside

5 images
ShowMe is an interactive whiteboard app for iPad with tools for drawing, adding images, and recording audio.
Presentations are saved publicly by default; premium accounts offer more privacy controls.
The Explore section of the app features content from teachers in subject areas.
Users can create "groups" to manage classes and share videos with students.
Most features are available only with a paid subscription; tapping on such features brings up this pricing screen.

Pros: Simple, focused, and easy to jump in and use.

Cons: Limited features make saving and searching chaotic. Privacy lacking in free version.

Bottom Line: With limited features for creating, searching, and sharing content, this is an app best suited to teachers with focused needs and paid accounts.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

If you (or your school) spring for a subscription, take a spin around the Explore and Courses tabs to understand what content is already out there and how you might choose to upload and organize your own videos. Start on pen and paper or a slideshow tool first to sketch things out. Consider which photos or images you might want to use as individual slides in your presentation and save them to your camera roll so that you can easily access them and add them to your presentation. Then, consider using this as a tool for flipping the classroom or for offering further review for students. Encourage your students to watch, pause, and rewatch videos so that they watch and listen as you explain how to balance a chemistry equation, solve a math problem, or translate a sentence from one language to another. 

Think about how you might want students to create content. Perhaps invite students to create their own presentations working through problems as part of a shared review process for an exam. Invite students to use an interactive whiteboard as a way to share a presentation with the class, creating their slides within this app or importing them from the device's camera roll.

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Put this tool into practice:
Standards:

ShowMe is an interactive whiteboard app for iPad where teachers and students can create presentations with live drawings, text, images, and audio recordings. Once you finish recording a ShowMe, you can tag it with a subject (like math, art, or language). It then gets saved publicly in the Explore tab in the app. Users can browse other videos in the Explore tab by subject, and they can view videos from featured teachers as well as "trending" and "popular" videos. 

ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard has a free version, but most of its features -- including the option to save videos privately -- are available only with a paid subscription. Other paid features include basic classroom management tools (like creating student accounts and creating courses) and accessibility features (like subtitles and closed captioning).

ShowMe has been around for a while, and over time its features have become increasingly limited in comparison to other tools. It's easy to start recording a presentation with some basic drawing and media features, and this might work for some, although Educreations is similar and perhaps a bit more slick in presentation. However, even though it's easy to get started, other aspects of ShowMe lack polish. Features for tagging content by subject are limited, and it's surprisingly difficult to search for relevant content. The Explore tab and Courses tab can feel chaotic to navigate and difficult to use. While it's nice that you can browse other users' content, it's not easy to use the app itself to save the videos you like so that you can easily share them with your students. Plus, the fact that videos are shared publicly by default may be a nonstarter for some teachers and schools. While some features are available without a subscription, most are behind the paywall.  

Overall Rating
Engagement

The simple toolset has limited capabilities and works inconsistently. Premium accounts have a bit more to work with.

Pedagogy

There's learning baked into the process of whiteboarding and presentation. Through collaborative sharing, ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard users support each other's learning.

Support

The interface is intuitive and there's a brief FAQ section, but it's challenging to navigate so much content with little moderation or organization.

Common Sense reviewer
Patricia Monticello Kievlan Foundation/nonprofit member
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Key Standards Supported

Speaking & Listening

  • SL.7.4

    Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

  • SL.7.5

    Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

  • SL.7.6

    Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

  • SL.8.4

    Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

  • SL.8.5

    Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

  • SL.8.6

    Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

  • SL.9-10.4

    Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

  • SL.9-10.5

    Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

  • SL.9-10.6

    Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

  • SL.11-12.4

    Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

  • SL.11-12.5

    Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

  • SL.11-12.6

    Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Writing

  • W.8.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

  • W.9-10.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

  • W.11-12.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

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Community Rating

(See all 25 reviews) (25 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
McCall M. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Colfax Upper Elementary School
Springdale, United States
Great as a flipped classroom or tutoring tool!
I think this provides a great way to provide examples and support for students and is certainly a useful teaching tool. I find that when a child leaves a math class knowing exactly what they are doing they sometimes are not as confident at home and a Show Me video and can help provide them with a reminder through example problem of the content from a certain day's lesson. I like how you can import pictures because I have put my own tables and pictures to support math problems into Show Me videos and I a ...
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Data Safety
How safe is this product?
Unclear whether this product supports interactions between trusted users.
Personal information can be displayed publicly.
Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.
Data Rights
What rights do I have to the data?
Users can create or upload content.
Processes to access or review user data are available.
Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.
Ads & Tracking
Are there advertisements or tracking?
Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
Traditional or contextual advertisements are displayed.
Personalised advertising is displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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