Ms. Abbee's third graders had a blast pulling in all the information they learned about money and currency and putting it into a cool presentation on Shadow Puppet. The inspiration for this project came from the book Money Madness by David A. Adler. Many technology tools were used on the class set of iPads. I want to highlight each of those.
Photos for Class
Photos for Class is a great resource if you need school appropriate creative commons photos. The attribution is directly posted on the images, and the images are of high quality. I've been thrilled with this site as I have been waiting for a good image safe search since East Noble began their 1:1 technology journey. Ms. Abbee informed me that the students found a few photos that were not class appropriate, but the "report photo" option gives her assurance that the product can be improved.
Crayola Photo Mix-N-Mash
Crayola Photo Mix-N-Mash has become a favorite as students can import pictures, text, and drawings onto a canvas. The flexibility of this tool makes it a winner as students can use a multitude of digital art tools for free. A detailed review of the app can be found here. Ms. Abbee had her students make "slides" for their presentation. The combination of the borders, text and images provided an authentic experience for the students.
Shadow Puppet
Shadow Puppet has been my "go-to app" for recordings. The ease of use, web hosting by Shadow Puppet, and the ability to download your videos to the camera roll as well as other apps make this app a must for every classroom K-12. (More information on how to use Shadow Puppet can be found here.) Ms. Abbee had her students place all their slides from Crayola Photo Mix-N-Mash into Shadow Puppet to record their presentations.
Google Drive
Google Drive provides a fun an exciting opportunity for students to share big video projects such as Money Madness. Ms. Abbee creates a shared folder for the students to access and the students upload their videos for all to view. This creates a video gallery that all students can easily access. The process is so simple that I've done the exact same thing with Kindergarten students. I also helped Ms. Abbee make the Google Drive folder available for parents to view by making a "view-only" link to post on her blog.
TodaysMeet
TodayMeet is a fun way for students to collaborate or back-channel about a topic. Without my prompting, Ms. Abbee created a TodaysMeet room, posted the QR code to the site and had students give feedback about the videos uploaded into Google Drive and the learning experience in general. She plans on using this tool to engage students in class discussions and teach them how to properly read and respond online. (More information on how to get www.todaysmeet.com rolling in your class can be found here.)
Samples
I'll wrap up this post full of quick reviews with several prime examples. I apologize for the volume level of the classroom, but it is an issue that is tough to avoid when there is a time-crunch. I suggested to Ms. Abbee to have a few of the students make a second recording in a quiet location.
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