Tech Play 3

 

There were so many different Creativity tools to choose from to explore I had a hard time deciding on the ones I felt would best suit the subject area that I taught.  I narrowed it down to three that I really felt would be best adaptable for my subject.  The first app that I reviewed was called iMovie. This app has a small cost associated with its use but, I found it would be usable for students to make mini-movies depicting events that occur in nature or chemical reactions and even watching microbes grow.  They can hypothesize what will be the outcome of each and how to alter the end products.

This app can help students to produce very detailed movies with titles and production information.  Students can work in teams to produce their own unique productions. The recent discovery of seven new exoplanets (earthlike planets) in the Trappist-1 dwarf star system would be a perfect example of a type of study they might pursue. It would make a powerful statement when incorporated into the e-portfolio to show how events happen in science. They would even be able to produce time-lapsed videos, which show many reaction simulations in the lab. In science one of the goals is to have students manipulate different parts of the experiment to see how it will perform in other circumstances.  This will give the student creative license to observe how the changes can be made using varying components.

This type of experimentation fits well into the TPACK model by augmenting the teacher’s content, pedagogy and the student’s general knowledge. The saying by Sir William Henry Bragg “The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them” fits well into today’s technology driven classroom. This tool will further allow students to explore and create, which is what science is all about. Our new frontier is the many new technological tools that are being invented and created today.

More and more schools have adopted the use of iPads in the class because they are cost effective compared to laptops. With the focus of BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) many families can afford an iPhone or android phone for each student to have their own devices.

The second creative tool is the reel/director.  This app does not have a fee associated with its use. But, it has a few draw backs that might be a problem for youngsters. It would work well for those who are interested in creating a movie of their scientific exploits. They can create the movie, edit, join with other video clips made by classmates and create something different and distinctive. It’s an excellent video editing app, but I think this will only be of interest for those students who are really into movie making as a future endeavor. Though it captured my imagination for enjoyment I could not readily see how I would be able to incorporate this app easily into the science classroom. It has a lot of nice features, but I think it would best be served as a tool for the teacher to document events of the class. Or just maybe have a group develop a movie of the class’ research or science projects during the school year.

I will admit that this app does not seem to be something I would easily want to incorporate in the class probably because of my lack of vision.  But who knows, I might allow students to see how they would best use this tool. Besides, it still fits into the TPACK model because it allows for so much freedom of creativity and depending on what the pedagogical focus it might serve well.

The third app that was reviewed is a comicbook app.  It has a 4.5-star rating for ease of use. It offers excellent graphic effects and for the student who wants to create on the level of a comic book it will be an outstanding tool. It has a small cost but early adopters got it for free during the Beta trail introductory tests. That’s how my daughter got a copy and says she loves it. The reviews listed on the internet support her comments. Many apps can be added to your arsenal of new apps in their trail periods and then you are grandfathered in at no cost. This is a good idea since so many applications are being added to the market daily. Comibook is available for use with the IPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You can create a cartoon-like comic book format to relate to any aspect of your learning life.  It’s fun and easy.

You can create motivational posters, Comic Chats and add all kinds of comic book type features.; like Booms, Bams, Kabooms, Puff, Sproing, Crash, Ziosh, Zzip, Splack and Spat packs that give you all kinds of creative looks. You can tell a whole comedic story. You can make what you are learning fun and exciting for yourself and others.  You can show expressions in word features that remind you of old Batman comics. This app can fit into the TPACK model for content, pedagogy and technology. I really enjoyed this appl because of the many graphic tools that it offers. This is the app I can see using on and off throughout my tech journey.  It’s fun and has great potential for student use and freedom of individuality. They can create a whole story to tell about their learning exploits and what they have learned along with the processes they followed to learn them.  Then they can share that knowledge with other students.  This will make learning fun in a new imaginative way. There are many resourceful ways to use this tool in teaching science. Currently there are more than 1.6 million users of this app.