Tech Play 3

The creativity tools I chose to explore this week were Toontastic and Voki.com.  Toontastic is a storytelling and creative learning tool that enables kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons with friends and family.  In Toontastic, the child builds a story one scene at a time. He or she starts by selecting a scene type (Setup, Conflict, Challenge, Climax, and Resolution) and then mixing and matching characters, settings, and actions to define the story event for that scene. The goal of this exercise is not to create a script per se, but to establish clear and succinct story events around which the emotive structure will turn. The story arc is then drawn by adjusting energy levels for each scene and by choosing appropriate emotional themes, thereby determining that scene’s background music.  Once the child goes through all the steps of setting up, he/she gives the story a title and sets his/her name as the director. It is a really cool tool to use, the movie even has credits rolling at the end just like a real movie.

Voki is a free tool that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on a blog, profile, or email message. Voki is easy to create and very user friendly.  First, you must create an account using your email address. Then you just follow the steps to creating an avatar. You can customize your character, give it a voice, choose a background and a player, and click Publish.  Voki is a unique way to enhance learning in the classroom.  Students can create a Voki to help answer questions or a concept in class.  They are 30 seconds to 1 minute videos that help students use technology in the classroom.  A teacher may give a question for the students to answer.  The student can create a Voki to answer the questions.  This technology can help engage students in the classroom.  Teachers can also use a voki for read aloud modifications in the classroom by producing them to read the quiz questions.  Voki also provide the use of different languages.  These are just some of the ways Voki can be used in the classroom.  Because Voki.com proved to be the most user friendly of the two creativity tools I explored, I choose to continue using voki.  I will use Voki in the classroom in many ways.  I feel Voki can help students express ideas while being creative.  Students can create their characters to respond to questions or concepts.  It was user friendly which means students can produce videos easily.  Here is an example of a lesson I would assign using voki:

1. Break students into groups (strong readers with slow readers, etc)

2. On the smart board or on students’ computers, upload the Prince Charming on MeeGenius.com

3. Have students follow along with yellow highlighted words-read together until the prince

arrives at the castle.                                                                                      

4. When the prince arrives at the castle, the students read alone.

5. When the group has finished reading, they should work together to list the positive character

traits of Prince charming

6. Find textual support for these traits: “Where in the book does it say these traits? How do you

know”? etc

7. Once each group has listed these positive character traits, student groups work together to

create a character on Voki.com. At the end of the lesson, each group should have answered

these questions:

a. What are the positive character traits the prince shows? (Bravery, Kindness, and

Honesty)

b. Where does he show these traits? What acts does he do to show these traits?

c. Who is your character?

d. What trait does your character have?

e. How does he or she show this positive character trait?

8. This character should represent someone in history or in their lives that possesses these

positive traits.

9. Using text-to-speech, each character should say something that represents this character trait

(bravery: I was not afraid when the house was on fire. I still helped my friends).

10. Students will present their character to the class or teacher, and turn in their group paper.

 

I think using this tool to complete the above assignment incorporates the technology and content portions of the TPACK model.  With this assignment the students are using technology to demonstrate what they know about character traits.

 

Give a young child a couple of toys or a box of crayons and he or she is likely to play for hours, deeply engrossed in an imaginary world. In both art and dramatic play, children construct settings, create fictional characters, and act out fantastic storylines that would be the envy of many Hollywood scriptwriters. Yet, ask that same child to write out a story in a blank notebook or a word processor and you would be lucky to capture a fraction of the depth and splendor of his or her imagination. Play inspires and scaffolds the creative process from an early age, but there is a persistent gap between the origins of imaginative play (ages 4-5) and kids’ adoption of the formal discipline of creative writing (ages 8-10). Creative tools are an excellent way of bridging that gap.  I think is important for students to use creativity tools in the classroom, because it allows students to tap into their own imagination and be creative on class assignments.  By allowing students to be creative, they are taking a certain amount of responsibility for their own learning. When students are allowed to take responsibility for their learning, the learning becomes more meaningful to them. We live in a digital age, our students are exposed to technology on a daily basis. If we are to hold the interests of our students we must expose them to activities beyond written work.