Tech Play #3- Creativity Tools

Using creativity tools this week has allowed me to gain perspective on what I can introduce new to both students and staff when I go back to work. One of the tools that I looked at this week is Puppet Pals which is an Apple App.

When I started out testing this tool the first age group that I had in mind was students in grades 1 & 2. The reason being is because they still have interest in Puppet shows and like. After I began playing with the tool I saw how it could also be beneficial to students in upper grades as well.

First I would began with these simple instructions: Create a puppet show using a character you have read about or someone in history that you have had unanswered questions about. I thought about some of the questions that I would like answered and proceeded to figuring out the direction that I wanted to go with the Puppet Pal. I chose the talk show route. I used Oprah Winfrey and had her to interview Martin Luther King Jr. One of the questions that I wanted to know was if he was alive today does he think that his dream has been realized? What does he think about Obama being president? For the younger students I began using the people within the community scene because I know that in first or second grade the Social Studies TEKS addresses this skill. I wanted to think about a time when they had to call on the police or a doctor to help them with a situation. 

The neat thing about this App is that students can use their own voices to record their show. This is a perfect opportunity to work together to allow students to demonstrate what they have learned about a specific person or character. The student can impose their face onto the body of a character. The possibilities for what the students can come up with are endless.


The affordances with the Puppet Pal App of course is the fact that it is not offered on any other plateform other than Apple Products. The App itself is free, but there are in-app purchases that have to be made in order for you to be able to have more of a selection to choose from as far as backgrounds and characters are concerned. Also you are limited to what is on your Tablet or phone to work with(e.g Photos can be used to add characters or backgrounds, but because there is not a port to use flash drive or pics from other devices). The other downside to creating things with this App is who is going to be able to view all this creativity that the student has displayed. This could be motivating to others if they could view it.

It is important to know about creativity tools because they put in context the meaning of the task for the student. It allows you to see in-depth thinking and reasoning that the student must exude in order to complete the task. These tools also enable students to make real-world connections to the task that they are performing.

Reflection 2- The World of Eportfolios

This week's assignment was to play with/setup an Eportfolio. I must admit I was a little nervous about the assignment at first seeing as though I had to do something like this for a similar class and used the Google sites for it. Due to me having trouble with loading different pieces of technology I got frustrated and moved on to doing a simpler task. The website that I chose to use for my Eportfolio was Wix. The school district utilizes this site for the library webpages in the district. Unfortunately, though I never changed the school's website for fear I would mess something up and because I liked how it matched the school's mascot.

Well, I'm quite pleased with this site. I love how it has so many choices of backgrounds for the user (e.g. over 50 )The templates are divided according to what your purpose is for building the site(e.g. Entertainment, Education, Business, etc..) This is important because what is suitable in one profession to have on your website might not be suitable to have on another. You can put in a slideshow which I have one so I hope you like it once you get a chance to see it. I know your thinking well that not a big deal but I 'm not have to preassemble one and upload it to the site. I simply have to add the photos that I want to use and it is built into the template. You can move the pictures up and down to arrange the order in which you want them to appear. You can also do the pages this way.

Another aspect that I like about Wix is that during the setup stage you can link it to just about all of the social media sites, it has an App Market where you can get a lot of apps free like Dropbox and others. One of the best features that Wix has is that it has a SEO(Google). SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is a great feature because it enables you to have ease in finding your Website. Now that doesn't seem like it would be very important if you are just getting started creating all these wonderful technological products, but  take it from a person who has had numerous courses in Educational technology and have lost some of my products to either viruses or not remembering what I have named something. This can be very helpful.

The only problem that I saw with this site is that it would not let me open the webpage on my IPad. This is a problem because so many people are going to tablets because you don't have to do much to get online. If I were a teacher and was assigning my students to create/update their portfolio I would like to be able to have the ease of accessing it on the go versus having to login to a computer and check their progress. Also as a student if I couldn't afford a computer but have a tablet I would hope that I could be able to edit at home instead of having to wait the next day to use the school computer. 

Reflection 1

As a media specialist/librarian I had a book club for the students in 3rd and 4th grade. One of the books that the fourth grade students chose to read was entitled: The Search for Wond-la by Tony DiTerlizzi. Once the students read the book, they had to use selected pages from the book as well as a webcam to uncover Augmented Reality in several places, revealing additional information about Eva Nine’s world. They were also able to play the Spot the Differences game that went along with the book. After they completed these task they had to post their experience with revealing the Augmented Reality and playing the game on the blog.

Wondla-Vision

Content: The students had to be able to remember and understand what they have read. From their they had to take what they have read and use it to decipher the map that would enable them to see the Augmented Reality that was Eva's World.

Pedagogy: The theories that best supports this work I would have to say is both the constructivist and the socialist. The constructivist because this activity brought them together with reading the text and using clues within the text so that they could see the map come together. In terms of the socialist theory it(book) opens a new window of opportunity for others to see what unique features that the book/stimulation has to offer that they may not have known about had their counterparts not engaged in selecting this book to read.(e.g. Other students would come in the library asking about checking out the book & finding out what website to go to see the Augmented Reality/ play the game.)  

Technology: The reason why this technology is a good match is because the students can look at the post and determine if the book is something that they will be interested in reading or something that they may want to pass on.

Other ways, that I have used a blog is by utilizing it as a place to showcase the students work. For instance during National Library Week I uploaded pictures of the PreK- Kindergarten students  favorite books that they have drawn to the blog using Photo Peach. The same students that are in the book club read books from the 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet Nominees and wrote a review of the book that they read. The reviews have also been uploaded to the blog so that students can hear the prospective of their peers to gain insight about selecting books to read. I have also used the blog as a place to download certain documents (e.g. Summer Reading list), Widgets(e.g. Dolch Words),and Links to Reading sites just to name a few.  

As a far as obstacles are concern I can't say that I have ran into any with using Blogger. In the past though when I attempted to use Edublog I found that it was somewhat harder to set up. So I think as long as you the teacher/facilitator test it out obstacles won't be a problem with this type of technology. What makes the blog worth using is that it provides a plateform for students to express their thoughts for all to see. It has the potential to bridge students with various learning communities  and engaging in discussion not just within their classroom, but amongst others within their city, state, even their world. Furthermore, it provides them with a glimpse into the direction in which technology is moving and what role that the movement will have on their life.