Creating with iPad

I often get asked about ways in which iPad can be effectively used to enhance learning. I thought it fitting to create something using iPad to show what this powerful device is capable of.

Made with Explain Everything

iPads for Assessment in Gym

I love seeing our teachers becoming creative and experimenting with different ways to use iPads in the classroom. This week, two of our teachers came up with a creative way to use iPads in Physical Education.

As we all probably know, assessment in Phys. Ed. is sometimes tricky, especially in something like gymnastics. This simple idea these grade 4 teachers had is to have the students film their routine that they were assigned with.

After sufficient practice time, students chose when they were ready to record their routine. The idea would be to record it, then in iMovie record a voice over that explains what they are doing in their routine.

 

The students loved the performance factor of being recorded on video. It added an added sense of ownership and accountability.

iPad for Video Recording

One of the greatest uses of iPad in the classroom is for recording video. In our school, we have been trialling a green screen. Our students' are loving it!

We have been working on developing a standard workflow when recording and video on our iPads and then editing on a computer. Here's what we have come up with so far...

   

On the iPad

1. Record video using iPad
2. Connect to CBE LAWN network (for our district)
3. Log into Google Drive App.
4. Create, or find shared folder that whole class can access. This is a good idea as one person can remained logged in to save time. They can then upload multiple videos.
5. Upload video to the Google Drive shared folder
6. Delete video off iPad once uploaded

On the Computer

1. Log into Computer
2. Log into Google Drive in Safari
3. Find the Shared folder
4. Access the uploaded video files
5. Download to computer and begin the editing process.

All done without wires!

The nice thing about this workflow is that when one iPad is being used, it can speed up the process without having plug it into a computer after every video has been recorded.

Finding Text Features and Explaining

Doceri is a screen recording App that allows the user to take pictures and then discuss or explain their understanding of what the picture is about.

In this class we used Doceri to explain our understanding about text features in non-fiction books. Students took pictures of the text feature and then explained what they thought/knew about that particular text feature.

Doceri seems to be a little tricky to use to start with. The navigation of the App is a little tricky to follow. However, once used to it, the App itself is incredibly powerful as it has the ability to post/share on screen using a computer and projector. So far we have only used it on the iPad and then exported it to the Camera Roll to take it off the iPad.

The idea behind this project was to gather a a collection of explanations of different text features and then share them with each other by posting their explanation on their class blog. The posts should soon be created  and posted in which I will link to from this blog post. Here is one example of what these Grade 4 and 5 students made using Doceri.

DoInk Animation

What: DoInk Animation and Drawing App for iPad
Who: Grade 5 & 6
What: Experimental Play - Learning the App

One of our Grade 5 & 6 Classes is learning to animate using a couple of different kinds of applications. The first App we learned to use is DoInk Animation and Drawing. The class were assigned an iPad each and experimented by playing with it for a a total of three sessions (approx. 2hrs in total). We're really amazed how well our students picked this up and what they achieved in such a short time.


Here are some examples of what they produced:

Where Next?

The next project is to learn how to animate using Keynote. We will play with that for a few days and see what we can make with a different kind of affect.

The last animation App we will experiment with is Stop Motion Studio Pro HD for iPad. The students will manipulate 'real' objects and animate them into short videos.

After the experimental phase we will have a project to animate a property/principle of air to show an understand 'what makes air work'.

I can't wait to share the final results.

Gr3 - Social - Goods & Services

Technology:

Green Screen
iPad Video App

Student Goal: 

Describe the importance of the goods that come from certain countries around our world. Also, to make a connection between those goods and the natural resources from that land.

Learning Task:

Student explored the goods that come from the four different countries of focus in the grade 3 Social Studies Curriculum (Peru, Tunisia, India and Ukraine). They then found suitable back ground pictures to use for their green screen video.

Gr3 - Measurement - Video

iPod App:

Camera App

Student Learning Goal: 

To find out what we know about measurement.

Learning Task:

Through a process of investigation, students were asked to measure a variety of objects using a unit of measurement of their choice. They were also required to video their measuring techniques as well as input the data into a shared Google document.

The process gave both teachers and students a great amount of information. It showed the misconceptions that students had about measuring things. It also showed us what they could do well. After looking at videos, we discussed what was done well in each video and what was tricky about measuring.

Where we want to go next: After seeing the holes in knowledge about measurement, we could do some purposeful and targeted teaching around those misunderstandings. We also thought it could be a great idea to go through this process again to make ‘expert’ videos (the kind of video you might find on a Home Depot ‘how to’ website) on how to measure using standard forms of measurement.