storytelling

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Tips 2012 Professional Learning #23:iPads as a productive tool

Investigate, Communicate, Create: Using an iPad as a productive tool in the classroom. Presenter: Dr Jenny Lane

We have a great group of over 250 teachers attending our session tonight. I do apologise to all those teachers who were disappointed because they did not manage to secure a seat to this presentation. I will be repeating this session next term. Thanks to all the teachers for attending this session and a special thank you to those who volunteered to share the amazing productive work happening in their classes and in their schools.

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Tips2013: Teachers’ Voices #4:Miss D & the Superstars

Add your own images to create personalised puppets

Add your own images to create personalised puppets

Miss D and her class the Superstars have been taking a journey back in time this term to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their school.

 

“The students worked in small groups using the Puppet Pals app on the iPads kindly lent to us by Dr Jenny Lane from Edith Cowan University. Our class has been lucky enough to take part in the TPACK Project, which is researching the integration of iPads into classrooms to help teachers successfully integrate this technology in the future.

Our class has loved using the iPads,  movies made with the Puppet Pals app show how our class has been reflecting on their learning in History this term and having lots of fun at the same time.”

Tamara Doig

 

 

 

Create your own animated puppet show

Create your own animated puppet show

Puppet Pals can be used for digital storytelling. Students develop a storyboard, create scripts with dialogue, design their puppets and select backdrops for the story.

This is a great tool for learning a second language because students have to narrate their story. The stories shared recorded and shared

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Tips 2012 Professional Learning #10: Explore ECU with iPads

Welcome to the Clontarf Girls

For the Explore ECU Program today we welcomed the year 10 & 11 Clontarf Girls to spend a day experiencing University life with us on campus. We are going to be using technology in a fun way in to support learning.

Clontarf was one of the schools in Perth that the Queen visited when she was in Australia see the pictures on their website. Clontarf is a unique sporting academy with a specialist curriculum to develop the leadership skills of Aboriginal girls.

We had lots of fun – watch this space …

Clontarf girls become movie producers at ECU

I was very fortunate to work with this delightful group of enthusiastic fun loving students. For many of the group it was the first time they experienced using an iPad. There was much laughter and excitement as they became movie directors for the day. We discussed creative ways of using mobile learning tools like phones and tablet computers for learning.

“Focus, action, shoot, let the camera roll”

For some more details on this event, click here.

We are celebrating NAIDOC Week at our university. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held in Australia in July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by all Australians. At Edith Cowan University we participated in a range of activities and to support our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.

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Tips 2012 Professional Learning #9:Celebration of learning

I spent today enjoying a celebration of learning with Sarah and the fabulous teachers at Settlers School. It is always great to share ideas about teaching and learning with the teachers in the DET iPad Project.

It was such an inspiration to listen to Year 1 students confidently explaining to teachers and principals how they use apps to structure their story writing. These students were clearly enjoying their learning. One teacher commented ” when they are using the iPads the students are so motivated – they never get bored”.

I loved the use of peer tutors, where students who feel confident volunteer to help other students in the class. Using the iPads to record and review their own reading, the students did self assessments using a rubric to rate their progress.

The ShowMe screencasting app was used for number work. The students recorded their thinking processes and computations while solving number problems. They then projected their “show me” screencast on to the whiteboard and shared their strategies with the class. The tasks catered for students learning needs by providing a range of activities with students working at their ability level.

Well done to all the teachers and students for sharing such exciting work, and to Sarah and the team leaders for setting such a great example of transformative teaching.

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Tips2012: Teachers’ Voices #3: Phil`s i-Story

Using iPads to teach English as a second language

Phil Rice is a teacher of adult ESL learners in the state of Delaware, USA. He has taught English Composition and multiple levels of ESL classes. He enjoys using technology to teach and help students to teach themselves. Phil is an avid user of iPads in his ESL classes, and he has shared some of the activities he uses in his teaching
Show me

Show Me

 Phil sent in this i-Story in response to a posting we did on using the Show Me screen casting app to read that post Tips2012 App Guide: Show Me. The Show Me app was also used for ESL teaching  in Schools in India as mentioned in Jude`s i-Story.
With ShowMe, teachers can…

1) Create an online lesson for an in-class topic. Record the main ideas of your lesson and give students a link or post your creation to an online social media site.

2) Have students create a narrated visual presentation on a topic using your/their iPad and show it in class as opposed to a “stand in front of the class” type presentation.

3) Create a Vocab Map using Skitch / DoodleBuddy and ShowMe together. Pick a picture that is related to a topic you are teaching and annotate it with Skitch showing the vocabulary for the picture. Then, upload the photo and use it on ShowMe to narrate and pronounce the vocab.

4) Download the presentation and upload it to YouTube so students have instant access to your ShowMes!

These are just a few uses for ShowMe. I use it all the time, and I’m sure that you will too once you get used to it.

Thanks Phil for sharing your i-Story.

You can visit Phil`s blog, ESL Commando, to find more ideas for using ICT in ESL classes.

Tips2012: i-Kids make a difference:#1:Jude`s i-Story

 

Jude the “Living Statue”:  A boy who makes a difference…. 

      

This inspiring i-Story started with some emails in response to the TIPS2012 blog. Jude and his mum Tania asked questions about using iPads in schools in India and how to cope in settings with no WiFi network.

I directed them to the resources on the blog, and a while later received this email…

Dear Jenny, …

Thank you all so much for supporting Jude “The Living Statue” in raising money for an iPad for an Indian school. He raised a total £220 – which is quite amazing and inspiring, especially as it was all his own idea to do this.

The iPad caused huge amount of excitement and the children kept looking at their fingers  when they were drawing/writing on the iPad, as they couldn’t understand why there wasn’t ink on them!  

Here are some photos of Jude showing the kids at the school how an iPad works.

Jude showing the children in India how to use the iPad

We spent hours at a rather nice hotel in the local town, using their free wifi to download some educational apps.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, and Australian Dr Jenny Lane of iPad project in schools, we found some fantastic apps that can be used without wifi.  Especially good were the animations and puppet shows with self recorded narration, which are great for story telling, imagination and those not confident in speaking English – plus they are lots of fun.

Thank you all again for your support…

Tania & Jude

Tania, Jude`s mother comments “I am amazed he had so much courage to stand on Ledbury Road, which is quite a busy street in Notting Hill.  I am very proud of him and very happy for you to include on your blog – which was so helpful for us.”

Living Statutes

“Living Statues” are people who dress up like a statue and stand motionless on the street, usually on a pedestal.  They are usually painted from head to toe – white, bronze or gold, etc. and will only move, or shake your hand etc when you give them some money.
Jude (Millais) is the great-great-great grandson of the painter John Everett Millais (http://www2.tate.org.uk/ophelia/)

 

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Tips2012:iPad App Guide #34: Doodlecast for Kids

DoodleCast for Kids is an iPhone/iPad drawing app specifically designed for preschool children aged 3-6. The app provides visual (pictures and word bubbles), and audio prompts to support their drawings, and also allows them to create drawings from scratch.

Children can use the different coloured markers to draw, and their voice is automatically recorded once they touch the screen. Their narrated drawings are recorded as videos (up to 3 minutes long) within the app, and these can be easily exported to the iPad camera roll by tapping “Save”.

For: Preschool, and Early Childhood

Cost: $1.99 AUD (Download Link)

Requires WiFi?: No.

Educational Applications

  • Drawing / art
  • Storytelling
  • Encourage imagination and creativity

 Further Reading

Please contribute to our iPad research by completing a short survey, and entering our draw to win an ITunes voucher!

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Tips2012 iPad App Guide #21: Puppet Pals HD

Puppet Pals HD is a highly regarded animation / storytelling app for iPad, which is suitable for K-10 students, and has a variety of educational applications.

To use Puppet Pals, students select characters, settings, and a title; and then narrate a story while animating the characters and props using their fingers. You can create your own backdrops and characters using pictures from your Camera Roll, and export the finished video files to iMovie, YouTube, etc.

The app itself is free, but we highly recommend purchasing the Director’s Pass (about $3 via in-app purchase), which allows you to download and use a wider choice of characters and backdrops, including any future content. 

For: Students (Early Childhood – Secondary), English Language Learners

Cost: Free, but (recommended) Director’s Pass costs $2.99.

Dec 2012 Release – Puppet Pals 2 – $5.49 (Introductory Price)

Requires WiFi?: No.

Educational Applications

  • Create short instructional videos (in different learning areas)
  • Storytelling, News Reports, Historic Retells
  • Help reluctant public speakers present to the class
  • Help ESL students practice their fluency & language skills
  • Check out this website for some great literacy ideas!

Classroom Examples

Further Reading

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Tips2012 iPad App Guide #15: Penultimate

Penultimate is a powerful note-taking app for the iPad, enabling users to create an infinite number of beautiful electronic notebooks using different paper formats.

You can hand-write notes with your finger or stylus (recommended), use different coloured pens, and import photos (from your camera / camera roll). Coming with advanced editing options, this app is ideal for sketching pictures & brainstorming ideas.

Better yet, you can back-up or share your Penultimate notebooks via Dropbox, Evernote, or Email; and project your work on an IWB using an iPad VGA connection cable.

For: Teachers, (Older) Students, Administrators

Cost: $2.99. Some paper formats require an in-app purchase

Download: iTunes Link

Requires WiFi?: No

Educational applications

  • Notetaking
  • Story writing
  • Working out maths problems
  • Record observations in science
  • Storyboarding / scripting movies (using storyboard template)
  • Write music (paid template)

Further Reading

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Tips2012 iPad App Guide #8: Toontastic

Toontastic is a play-based storytelling / animation / cartoon creation iPad app for young children (K-3). It enables children to create stories using their own voice and drawings; and provides them with a safe online environment to share their cartoons with authentic global audiences on ToonTube.

To find out more about Toontastic’s learning goals, please visit their website.

For: Students, particularly (but not restricted to) Early Childhood

Cost: FREE! (Download Link)

Requires WiFi?: No

Educational Applications

  • Reader’s Theatre
  • Cartooning
  • Story Writing (teaches storytelling elements)
  • Develop oral language skills & vocabulary (helpful for ESL)
  • Tell number stories in Maths
  • See the “Toontastic for Teachers” website for more ideas!

Video Tutorial: Toontastic

Further Reading

How do you use Toontastic in your classroom? 

We’d love to hear your thoughts!