Review of Vivi

As more schools move from interactive whiteboards to wall-mounted televisions or interactive panels, and from teaching in front of the roam to roaming the classroom, a simple screen mirroring and robust video streaming device is needed. This device needs to work with all platforms -- Windows, Mac, iOS, Chrome OS, Android, Linux DEB, and Linux RPM -- and be easy to use. It would be useful if it also included an administrative component to allow IT departments to manage the users and collect data on usage.

There is already a solution designed specifically for education called Vivi (http://www.vivi.io) that does all of this and more! I was sent one by the company to try out. 

I cannot speak to the administrative portal and central management components of the device at length since I do not have a school network to experiment with. However, I did have to use the admin panel to set myself up as a teacher user. You can find out more about the administrative portal here, view all the technical details here, and the company will gladly set up a demo to both showcase the Vivi's capabilities as well as answer any questions you might have!

PASSING CONTROL

The goal of the Vivi is to support real-time communication and collaboration in the classroom. The teacher is free to move about the classroom and mirror to the television or interactive panel. The teacher can give a student (or all students) control of the Vivi to share and showcase information with the entire class, too. 

Students can digitally "raise" their hand to ask for control from the Vivi app on their device as seen below. It does not matter what device they are using. This is a great feature for BYOD or 1:1 initiatives! The teacher is easily able to grant control by clicking on the student's name from the Vivi app on the their device.

Students can request control to screen mirror

Instead of worrying about a student in a nearby classroom requesting access to share their device's screen, you can put a 4-digit Room Code on your Vivi that your students need to type in to access the device. Also, once you have Room Code on your Vivi, you can give open access for your students to share their screens. Now, as with any code, you have to insist your students do not share the code with others. However, if you teach multiple classes, you probably will want to change the code regularly!

SHOWING VIDEOS

There are three ways teachers can show a video using Vivi. 

The first method allows you to copy an online video's URL from the Web and paste it into your Vivi app. The video will play through the Vivi and your teacher computer is free for other tasks, such as gathering additional information to share with students, monitoring a student chat about the video being shown, etc. View a training video about this feature here.

The second method is for you to play a video directly from your own device, rather than from the Internet. This is done by simply navigating to the video on your device through the Vivi app and clicking play! You will still have access to your computer screen for other tasks with this method.

The third method is called "Movie Mode" by Vivi. This option screenmirrors the video from your computer. When choosing Movie Movie mode as an option, there is a very short delay before the video begins to stream to allow for some buffering ahead of time so the video will play smoothly. To see more in-depth overviews of showing videos., check out this training video from Vivi.

Some of the options for showing videos through the Vivi

PAUSING A SCREEN

If you are mirroring your screen, and need to gather some additional resources for students, you can freeze a piece of content, like a Problem of the Day or a paragraph to read. While the content is "frozen", you are free to use your computer for gathering additional items of interest for students, opening a different app to showcase something else, etc. To learn more about the pause feature in Vivi, check out this video!

CAPTURING AND ANNOTATING

The capturing and annotation component of Vivi is very cool! First, you can mirror a piece of content from your computer screen via the Vivi app -- say projecting an unlabeled image of the parts of a flower or pausing a video you are currently showing. Students can then capture the image/video screenshot, use their Vivi app to pick the annotation tool, and annotate their own personal version of the image or video screen capture.

There are three choices to pick from when providing students with an image to annotate -- what is showing on their screen, an image from your device's photos, or a blank whiteboard students can create on.

Below is a sample of the student view of the annotation tools.

Student annotating an image captured with the Vivi annotation tool.

When students are done with their annotations, they can either download the annotated image to their device and submit it to you, or copy it and paste it into another document, like a shared Google Slide or another document of their own. To see this feature in action, view this training video!


MY EXPERIENCE

I wanted to put the Vivi through its paces, so I set up my Mac laptop as the "teacher device" and my iPad as the "student device". I attached the Vivi via HDMI to a television and via Ethernet to my Internet connection.

I printed out this useful PDF with a labeled overview of the features of the teacher dashboard in the Vivi app that provides a simple explanation of each of the teacher tools.

I logged in as a student in the app with no problem, but needed a presenter code (which would be supplied by your IT department) to log in as a teacher on my laptop, so I knew I had to open the admin portal.

The company had set me up as an admin, so I opened the admin portal from my computer and had to put in a change of PW to create my own so I could log-in. The default options in the portal were already turned on, such as allowing me to direct-play videos, share links in the app, etc.

I then plugged in the Vivi and it took a minute to show up on the television screen because it was setting up, but was ready to go in no time. I went back to the admin portal and noticed the Vivi I had plugged in was now showing up as a room, and, as an admin, I could change the splash image, manage the locations of the boxes, push out an emergency broadcast, and a ton more customization  options. Everything seemed quite straightforward and the user guides included were very detailed if I needed help, but I really did not!

On my "teacher device", I tried out all the features of screen mirroring, the different options to play videos, to supply the students with a static image to annotate, and pausing the mirroring. I found a feature I had missed, which was the ability to share a URL with all the students. The shared URL showed up in their Vivi app, and they just clicked on it!

I then turned to my "student device" and requested control access, and went through all those options available to students. One thing I learned -- if your students are using iPads -- is to have students turn on AirPlay and pick the classroom Vivi to mirror to. Another option I appreciated finding was, when a student has control and is sharing a video through their Vivi app, you can pause their video from YOUR teacher Vivi app if necessary. Just in case you want to discuss something...or something not quite right is on the screen!

The set-up and administration of the Vivi was straightforward, and the classroom use by teachers and students was simple. The mirroring from the devices was instantaneous, the streaming did not hiccup at all, and the pass-off of control from teacher to student was very easy!

If you are moving to televisions or wall-mounted displays in your classroom, take a look at the Vivi to allow freedom for you from the front of the room and the ability of students to share with others from anywhere in the room. Vivi is a winner!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall

Who does not want to share resources wherever they are? Whether showcasing a Web page, a blogs, or a content-rich video, you need to become familiar with the many ways to project and mirror your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, iPod Touch) to be able to share the resources with larger groups of educators or students.

The first thing you need to do is to open the Safari browser on the tablet, and go to http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ (On a side note, if you are going to want to download clips from DES, try using the mobile browser, iCab Mobile. Here is a quick overview by Mark Hammons on how that is done.) Once you open Discovery Education Streaming in the browser window, you just log in to locate your resource. You can zoom in to have the video fill the screen.

Later on, when you employ many of these methods, you will have to turn on AirPlay Mirroring on your iPad. Until you are connected to an AirPlay device, you do not see the AirPlay icon. To locate the AirPlay icon on the iPad, you double-tap on the home screen, and swipe right in the bottom task bar until you see the icon (shown a 1 below). First, tap on the icon. Secondly, chose the computer you are projecting to (the AirPlay device in this case is KathysMacMini). Thirdly, turn mirroring on.

There are quite a few different options for projecting your iOS device. These options work with the newer iPads and iOS devices. However, most of them require you to be on the same WiFi network as another device. In some  schools, districts, and conference centers, the networks are not set up for this. There is a way to create a private (ad-hoc) network between a computer and a iPad if need be. The devices can then connect to each other wirelessly, but not to the network in the building and probably not to the Internet.

Directions for creating an ad-hoc network on a Mac computer.

1. Go up to the WiFi symbol on the taskbar on the desktop or laptop.
2. Pick “Create Network” and you get the “Create a computer-to-computer” network box.
3. Give it a name, pick either channel 1, 2, or 11, and secure it with a password if you want to.
4. On the iPad, go to Settings:Wi-Fi and pick the ad-hoc network from the list to connect to it.

Directions for creating an ad-hoc network on a Windows computer.

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Options for mirroring

VGA and HDMI Dongles

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globalx/8417435426/

If you do not need to roam with your iPad, Apple sells adapters (commonly called dongles) that come in VGA and HMDI for both the 30-pin and Lightning ports, and also in DVI for the 30-pin connector. When your iPad is hooked up via a dongle to a projector, monitor, or TV, everything you do on the iPad is projected onto the screen. Teachers often ask if they can project onto the interactive whiteboard. The answer is yes, since all you are doing is replacing the input to the whiteboard with an iPad. However, will not be able to control the iPad from the whiteboard. There is a Smart Notebook app for the iPad available, but it is really intended for showcasing your Smart Notebooks.

AppleTV

Of course, the $99 AppleTV, hooked up via an HDMI cable to a television, monitor, or projector with an HDMI port, allows you to mirror your iPad to the screen wirelessly, over the WiFi network. Both the iPad and the AppleTV need to be on the same WiFi network. The sound comes over to the TV, monitor, or projector, too. However, there is no built-in way to record what goes on.

Reflector

Reflector is my first choice for mirroring the iPad. It works like this. Reflector is a desktop software program that is available for both the Mac and Windows operating systems. The cost is $14.99 for a license for one computer and $45.99 for a license for five computers. Once you install the software, Reflector turns your computer desktop into an AirPlay device. This means, you can wirelessly stream your iPad’s screen and it will show up on the computer desktop.  Another cool feature is that multiple iPads can be projected to the computer desktop at one time. This is fun if students are all showcasing a photo or created image!

The great thing about Reflector is it not only mirrors, but also moves the sound from your iPad over to the desktop speakers. You are free to roam around the classroom. And, the bonus feature is you can have Reflector record what is going on on the projected iPad screen and save it for future viewings. Watch a short video I made with Reflector and DES: Airplay with Reflector

AirServer

AirServer is similar to Reflector and works on both Apple and Windows operating systems. The cost is $14.99 for a license for 5 computers, or there is an education option for 3 licenses for $11.99. It, too, runs on the computer, turning the computer into an AirPlay device with the iPad’s audio being transferred to the computer. And it still requires the iPad and computer to be on the same WiFi or ad-hoc wireless network. The only thing that is lacking is the ability to record. (If you have Tech Smith’s Camtasia or Adobe’s Captivate, you can use either of those programs to record the mirrored iPad on the computer.)

iTools

Itools is a recent entry into the iPad mirroring arena. It does not allow you to be wireless but it allows you to connect your iPad to a comptuer USB port via the iPad’s USB cable and project your iPad onto the  computer screen. I can get the desktop software to install on the Mac, and can use some of the functions, but I have tried the mirroring function on three different machines and cannot get it to work. I tried it on Windows 8, and it gave me the message “the iOS on your Apple Device is not supported” when I tried to display the iPad’s screen. (I currently have 6.1.3.)  However, some educators are having good luck with it, so give it a try!

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You can see there are many ways to mirror the iPad. When it is imperative that it works, carry an iPad VGA dongle (or an AppleTV and the Kanex ATV Pro connector if you want to roam with the iPad). This set-up will always work. You can experiment with both Reflector and AirServer and try to use them, too, but sometimes even the ad-hoc network does not work and the iPad and computer cannot see one another.