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.
