Battle of the Apps: Teacher Admin Edition

  

Scanbot vs. Flora
Teachers are constantly looking for ways to make their jobs easier. In attempt to see what technology could do to help me, I downloaded two separate apps on my iPhone and began using them.  I downloaded the free versions of Scanbot (Scanbot Scanner App- Scan PDF) and Flora (Flora- Focus, Study, Pomodoro). Both are helpful for saving time and improving productivity. I have loved both of these apps so far, but which is more useful to me?

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SCANBOT

Lets take a look at Scanbot. The concept of an app that can turn my phone into a portable scanner is a very appealing one. Not that I am disorganized or anything (cough) but I tend to get overwhelmed by the massive amounts of papers that tend to pile high on my desk. I lose things or forget what is important. If there is something I want to keep for the next school year, I have basically no hope of finding it later. I find that I am better organized when documents are digital. It is so much easier to sort and search when the "paper" I am looking for is on the computer. 

To use Scanbot, all you have to do is hold your iPhone or iPad over the document you want scanned. The app will automatically identify the document and convert it to a PDF. If the app is having a hard time finding it, you can also capture the image manually. You can also save multiple pages in one document. The documents save to the app but you can also send them to a computer by email. There are many other features that seem exciting, but the app is also a bit misleading. You can edit and manipulate a document in a variety of ways, but can only save the changes if you buy the paid version. Not only is the paid version $6.99, but it also requires a monthly subscription to use. So if you want to stick to the free version (like me) you do not get a lot of exciting extras, but it is still an extremely useful app. 

I have already used it to scan worksheets that I have "created." I did not create the worksheets from scratch, but took the parts I wanted from already made worksheets from the internet and taped them together. I do not do this for every unit. Most units it is just easier to make my student work from scratch. The units that involve visuals have been super frustrating for the past five years I've been teaching third grade because they are difficult to make on the computer, impossible to find exactly what I want already made, and I tend to have to recreate them every year (think graphs, reading scales, reading liquid amounts in a graduated cylinder, area, perimeter, quadrilaterals, visual representations of fractions, etc.). If I can scan the worksheets I have pieced together with safety scissors and tape, then I can save myself a TON of frustration next year. 

Here is an example of what I meant about worksheets that I have "made." Every other question on the original version of this worksheet contained decimals but decimals are a fourth grade standard (not third) so I had to replace those questions with ones from a different worksheet. This is my fifth year of making the same exact alterations. 

Here is a screenshot of an assessment I scanned. I got excited when I saw I could black out the student's name but was disappointed to realize that I would have to upgrade my app to the paid version to be able to save changes.

 

Scans are so clear! I will probably never need a scan of the instant oatmeal box for my teaching but I think this screenshot exhibits how clear the scans can be.

In short, here are some pros and cons of Scanbot:

Pros

• I can scan worksheets for easy organization on the computer and more easily reuse them next year.
• I can scan student work for assessing and to save for future reference (such as IEP meetings).
• I can send documents to coworkers and administration as PDFs from my phone.
• I can scan multi-page documents.
• I do not need to use a real scanner (they are just time consuming and annoying).
• I can fax documents without a faxing machine (and yes, I had someone ask me to fax them something this year).

CONS

• Anything beyond scanning requires a lot of money.
• When I tried to scan a page of a book, it was too curved to read easily and was no better than a picture. 

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FLORA

Okay so now that we have learned more than we ever wanted to know about Scanbot, lets check out Flora. Flora is designed to help people focus better and avoid getting distracted by their phones. Yes, it is a little bit ironic but it is literally an app intending to keep you off your phone. How does it work? Well, when you are working, studying, or just want to spend time with people instead of devices, you click to plant a seed. If you can stay off your phone for a designated amount of time, the seed grows to a plant. If not, the plant dies. Although not marketed to teachers, this app can help teachers like me who get distracted trying to complete a simple task. One minute I might be planning tomorrow's math lesson and all of a sudden I realize I've checked Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Amazon, the library's app, and beaten 3 levels in whatever latest game I've been playing. Although I have only had this app for a short period of time, it has already helped me to stay focused both on teacher tasks and graduate school tasks. 

 

Here is what you need to know. The app is simple and does not have very many pages to navigate. The home page has the majority of the things you need. By clicking the drop-down menu by duration, you choose how long you want to be away from your phone. You can choose a preset time or a custom time (but the custom times are limited to increments of 5 minutes and cannot exceed 2 hours and 55 minutes)

By clicking the picture of a seed, you can go to the page entitled, "The Grand Tour" where you can choose what plant to grow and you can unlock new plants. As you unlock new plants, you travel to new places. 

The home page also gives you the option to choose a monetary amount to wager on your ability to focus. This is optional but uses real money if chosen. 

For example, I might have to finish teacher evaluation paperwork and have an extremely limited time to do so. If I think it would motivate me and was worth the risk, I might choose  to wager $5.

 If I am able to stay off my phone for the time I have designated, then I get to keep my $5. If I am not able to stay off my phone then that $5 goes towards planting a real life new tree somewhere on the planet.











When the timer is running, you have the option to take a break if you actually need to use your phone. You can also choose to give up, but that will kill your poor little plant. Your successes and failures are recorded on a feed that you can refer back to or that friends can see.

 One really helpful feature that Flora has is that if you forget that you shouldn't be on your phone and *somehow* end up on Facebook or Instagram when you should be typing up your lesson plan, the app gives you a reminder and a few seconds of leniency before your plant dies. 

Another really cool feature that Flora has is that you can plant a tree with friends, coworkers, or some other group (like maybe a high school class that is addicted to their phones) and the group is then responsible for keeping the plant alive. If one member of the group goes on their phone then it kills the group's plant and everyone is given a notification that that person killed the plant. As silly as it may sound, this may bring a competitive edge to staying off phones. 

There is also a paid version of Flora available but most of the features seem to be the same. The only notable differences in the App Store description is that as you grow trees, they begin to create a forest, and that the paid version is available on the Apple Watch. If those are desired features, then users might be more willing to pay $1.99 for this app than the more expensive paid version of the Scanbot app. 

Here are the pros and cons of Flora:

PROS

• It can help keep you off your phone.
• The free version has a lot of cool features.
• You can "plant" things with groups of people.
• You can wager money for a good cause.
• It is visually appealing.
• It has multiple options to improve motivation. 
• Paid version is relatively cheap 

CONS

• You must log in through a Facebook account.
• It only works if you use it. 
• You could just as easily leave your phone on the other side of the room. 

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And the winner is.... SCANBOT!

While I have truly enjoyed both of these apps, I can see more a more unique helpfulness in Scanbot. I think the novelty of Flora will wear off quickly and I might not have the motivation to open the app. While that reduces the distraction of my phone, I also have other distractions that stop me from lesson planning that the app cannot help with (such as coworkers stopping in to chat). While Scanbot is much less flashy and there are far fewer things you can do on the free version, it has a more lasting benefit on my time and productivity.