iMovie Trailers

The iMovie App for the iPad is a wonderful, multi-media app.  It allows students to tap into the imperative 'Four  Cs' of a 21st Century education - collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.   

Students were given flexibility to choose any type of trailer.  

They worked together to plan, add text, act, and record. Such vibrant creativity and enthusiasm on display in class! Check out the pics from today:

Collaboration is a critical 21st Century skill! 

Check out this trailer:

Stop Motion Videos

Amazing class today! Using only the iPad app, iStopMotion, students learned to create comprehensive stop motion videos.  We used this one-stop application (which combines a camera, sound, animation and speed variables) to produce a video. This stop motion animation technique - which once was a very difficult and time consuming process - now takes only minutes to see the results …. and is great fun!  Check out a few samples from our class below!

iStopMotion is a wonderful app to use for school projects.  I highly recommend its use as a visual alternative to book reports, biographies, demonstrating science experiments, and portraying historical events.  Technology, when used appropriately, can be a wonderful tool to be innovative!  I encourage you to urge your child(ren) to engage in this type of creativity and critical thinking when they are given the opportunity to demonstrate learning!

Digital Book Publishing

What great authors and illustrators we have in this class! I loved reading all the wonderful fiction and non-fiction books that our students designed during the hour.  We had such a wide variety of topics! Regardless of which topic ended up being chosen, each child used their imagination and creativity skills to produce a beautiful digital book full of text, pictures, and their own voice reading each page!  Digital writing is always one of my favorite days of a session; I only wish there was more time to complete the book!

If your child would like to continue publishing these books at home,  I recommend the apps, My Story or Book Creator (there are also lots of other book creation apps in the app store - these just happen to be my favorite).

In the app, My Story, students first set up 'author' pages to store their own books.  After, they proceed to the blank pages, adding more as needed.  They have all sorts of digital art tools at their disposal built within the app; however, for those  children who do not enjoy drawing - personal photos, stock photos, internet pictures, stamps, and stickers are easily accessible.  Additionally, students can access different type fonts to include text on each page.  Finally - my favorite part! - the children can read and record their voice for each page!  What a personal touch when you share these stories with family and friends!  Check out this great story created in class this week!

For older children (and adults!) I definitely recommend the app, Book Creator.  It is somewhat pricey at $4.99; however, I find it very easy to use and has all the functionality you will ever need to publish a professional-looking book.  It is also fairly simple to transfer your completed book to the iBooks app on your device or share with a friend.

Digital Storytelling, Part II

During the last class, the students used two favorite applications to create cartoons.




They first used ABCya Animate to create animation through their drawings.  Check out the tutorial here to practice more at home.

Next, the students used Toontastic (recently purchased by Google!) to produce cartoon videos.  This app is very easy to use because it guides children through the steps of a fictional story.  Starting with the setting and characters, the story increases in problems through the climate, conflict, and climax - and then, finally, a resolution. 

Art Maker is another favorite for kids of all ages!

Creativity is unlimited when using this app! You can design movies, pictures, books - all with a set of movable props, setting options, and, of course, a microphone.  Students were so engaged in using this app that it was challenging to move on to the next! What a great way to turn a super fun activity into educational lesson! Have your child recreate their favorite book using this app!

Check out some of the fantastic screen shots below from the students' videos:

Digital Storytelling

The students put forth a remarkable effort to be creative!   We had lots of fun using ChatterPix and Puppet Pals to present information.

ChatterPix Kids is a free app that allows children to upload or draw a picture and then record sound.

The directions were simple - choose a background, draw a line for a moving mouth, and start speaking! The kids quickly took to the assignment and before we knew it, we had a classroom filled with silly talking iPads!  Although our objective was to have fun, an app like chatterbox could easily be used for book reports, history presentations, and many more academic projects!

Click play to check out some of our creative videos:

The class also focused on the iPad App, Puppet Pals, today.  Puppet Pals is one of my favorite Apps! In Puppet Pals, children can create simple animated movies with a choice of characters and settings.  Students can even turn their own photos into characters in their story!  Students use their own voice to record the conversations between characters.  Because of its versatile nature, children can use this app for pure fun and enjoyment, as well as a great educational tool for school.

The App itself is free; however, in order to purchase more stock characters, customized characters, and additional settings you would need to purchase the 'Director's Pass' for $4.99.  I think it is well worth the price!

I loved watching the children's videos.  Your children are so creative and imaginative! Here are a few samples of videos from the class!

Next week we will continue to focus on digital storytelling using a variety of Apps.  There are so many amazing Apps in this category - it is difficult to choose only a few!  

Welcome!

Welcome to Digital Kids: Innovate and Create! Our first class kicked off yesterday and we had a spectacular time!  I am really looking forward to many exciting classes to follow!

         

Much of yesterday was spent talking about class expectations, meeting each other, assigning iPads, and learning about what we will be doing in the weeks ahead.  We were able to jump into a few apps in the remaining time…and easily two of my favorites!

The first, and one of the most versatile apps on the iPad, was Drawing Pad.

Students used the digital markers, paint, crayons, and color pencils to design beautiful pieces of art.  They even had a little fun with the digital stickers and stamps! I really like how some of the students added their own photos to personalize their pictures.  

Some examples from the class:

 The second App we explored was another of my favorites, PicCollage.

PicCollage is a fantastic app for creating a collage of a family vacation, a poster on a particular subject, or a flyer for your team's end-of-the-season party.  Students used photos from the classroom and of themselves - supplemented with stickers, text, and backgrounds to create gorgeous designs.  

On a side note, over the next few weeks you will see that 'sharing' with an audience is an important objective weaved into our curriculum (thank you for providing an email address!).   I know that digital technology often worries parents (myself included!) because of the interactive nature of it.  In this class, students will learn how to share information safely with friends and family, and to take precautions when participating amongst a global audience. We want to students to feel comfortable using digital technology; however, first and foremost, they must be safe, protected, and making a positive contribution to our digital world.  I encourage you to keep up the conversation at home, as well.