Thursday, November 21, 2013

Video Slideshow App Ideas

This week I have been working a lot with how apps like 30 Hands and Shadow Puppet can be utilized. Last week I worked with Mrs. Erexson's second graders to take a picture of a passage in their text and record it being read aloud. This task can be used with any fluency skill. After discussing it with Mrs. Erexson, she has had the students make use of 30 hands a few more times and her comment was that she likes that she is essentially able to check-in and monitor with students that she missed during class. It gives also gives the students a sense of accountability as they need to have evidence that they are completing the task of practicing fluency. This would be extremely difficult without an app like 30 Hands.

I am providing an example, but want the view to keep in mind that this is the first time the student has ever used the application. We were more focused on getting accustomed to the app than the actual fluency skill. As the students get more familiar with the app, the focus turns more toward the skill.

Shadow Puppet will perform virtually the same task. There are a couple things I like better about Shadow Puppet like the ease of use and logical progression within the app. However, 30 Hands provides a great tool that allows the student to annotate the photos within the app itself instead of using an outside app. Both are equally useful tools.

This week I had first graders upload pictures demonstrating cause and effect. They looked at the pictures and had to come up with an idea of what caused the effect in the picture. This was also their very first time using Shadow Puppet. I will post this video in the future. At this point, the students have not been able to upload it.

This week, I began working with sixth graders on the use of Snag-It by Tech Smith on their PC laptops. This is a powerful photo editing tool as well as a screen casting tool. So much more can be done with this program than the apps I listed, but it can be utilized in a similar fashion.

So here are some ideas I have for these picture slideshow apps:
1. Practice fluency
2. Explain a math problem.
3. Demonstrate anything involving manipulatives or physical resources as evidence of what was accomplished.
4. Create step-by-step directions
5. Create a timeline
6. Demonstrate mastery of a reading comprehension strategy by taking a picture of the text and giving an explanation
7. Take pictures and provide evidence of various phonetic rules
8. Go on a geometry shape scavenger hunt
9. Make a book review
10. Record the events in a science experiment