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Comic Life, DerManDar, iMovie, WolframAlpha Please use one or more of these apps for an authentic instructional purpose with students and share your idea on the March Forum by Friday, April 13. Besides telling what your students did in the lesson, it is also helpful to include a sentence or two about how you thought the lesson went (such as kids loved it, students were engaged, or how you might have done it differently in hindsight, etc.) Below is a reminder of the paid apps and what your students can do with them: WolframAlpha - a great reference app covering dozens of domains such as sports, earth science, weather, people and history with information on millions of topics. Comic Life - easily turns photos into a comic book allowing your students to create a comic book on any topic. Students in Kierstyn Hacker's class at Wilson created awesome books on WWII using Comic Life - check with her for more info on how easy and engaging the project was. Dermandar - allows your students to take panoramic pictures; has web gallery to view thousands of public panoramas iMovie - Your students can make a movie in minutes by easily adding photos, music and sound effects. Choose from 8 themes if you want to include a matching set of titles and transitions and a movie soundtrack. |
I really loved using Comic Life and so did the students! I used it with them as an end of the unit project of World War II. They had to include pictures and information about different aspects of WWII for each of the pages. Since I did not have wireless internet in my classroom for the kids to use to get pictures, I had them use the camera on the iPad to take pictures of WWII things from their books and the WWII Kids Discover Magazines. The final product was great and filled with pictures and captions. We then connected the the iPads to the projector for the groups to present. I would suggest doing projects with Comic Life in groups of 2 students. I also used iMovie for my writing celebration. I took pictures of the students holding their drafts and then recorded their voices telling why they chose to write about their topic. I put it all together in a movie/slideshow with sound,I then played the iMovie slideshow with the recordings for the parents in the celebration. They loved it! It was very easy to use too! |
I used Wolfram Alpha with my students during their research for an Adopt An Element project. I was impressed with how easy it was to use and the wealth of information that was available. It definitely saved a lot of time because students were able to get reliable answers to specific questions immediately. They loved it and it forced me to learn how to cite an App as a reference, which I then taught them!
My concern with this App is that it may be enabling to students. With the Common Core Standards, we are focused on helping the students look at resources with a critical eye and evaluate their sources. When they search on the internet, this is forced to happen. However I found Wolfram Alpha to be so efficient that students did not have to evaluate sources, or even read through sources to find information. |
Similar to Kierstyn, I used comic life as a research project during our colonial America unit. Students used books that we read at the guided reading table as well as their social studies books and the Internet to gather information about people, events, and the way of life during colonial times. Kierstyn also gave me the tip about having the students take pictures of things in their books to use in the comics since we didn't have wireless Internet in our room. Students worked in pairs. For the most part, my students were very engaged. It took them a little bit to figure out how to use the program. Kierstyn's sixth graders came in a couple days to give them tips and help them with things I couldn't figure out  . Soon after, my students were using it with ease. I think I might use this program again at the end of the year during writer's workshop and have the students write stories in comic format. I think they would have fun taking pictures of themselves and making up a story to go along with it. |
Jenny, you raised a concern about students using Wolfram Alpha since it doesn't require them to evaluate whether it is a valid source or not. Actually, I think we want students using Wolfram Alpha since it has an expert knowledge base. It's great that you are thinking about helping students differentiate information that comes from a trusted source like Wolfram Alpha rather than information from a source not so trusted like Wikipedia. Once they obtain accurate information, then they can begin using that information and apply higher order thinking skills as the CCSS require them to do. That way they are not spinning their wheels with hours of research for literal level information from sources that are not trusted. I think it's great your students were so successful in quickly obtaining information from this app and that you taught them how to cite an app as a source! |
We are using imovie to make a movie trailer. This is so easy to use !! I do have a confession. I took the ipad home, handed it to my boys and said make a movie and show me how to use it. They had a imovie made about their Lego Kingdom in about 15 minutes. In class, we are making our trailer about the chicken eggs that we have been hatching. We took pictures with the chicks in the eggs, hatching, peeping.... We are going tomorrow to Lisa McKenzie's house to get some live shots of hens laying eggs and the chicken coop for a field trip. The kids are really excited to go. I am going to try and upload the trailer to our computer when I get it done. |
In social studies, my students have been learning about the Roaring Twenties. Part of that unit includes a bit on silent film so we looked at clips of Charlie Chaplin and talked about entertainment back then. We then used iMovie to create our own silent movie. The kids came up with a plan, parts, scripted their movements and practiced. It took them awhile to fully realize just how much Chaplin used facial expressions and body language instead of speech to get viewers to understand his movies and find them funny. Right now, my class is in the process of editing and adding music and sound effects. It was a great project that they really got into. iMovie so far has been pretty easy to use. We are not completely finished with the editing phase, but so far it hasn't been complicated or difficult. |
We are using iMovie during our intervention time for our enrichment students. Groups had to choose a topic, determine questions they wanted to answer, and research using books or the internet to find the answers to these questions. They also had to come up with a final project to share their findings. One group of students wanted to research tornados and decided they wanted to be "storm chasers" and make a video for their final project. They are using iMovie to record different "scenes" of their storm chasing that answers their questions. For example, one was a talk show format and another was a few of them pretending to be out chasing a tornado while a “news crew” interviewed them to share answers to their questions. Very creative, I thought. The scenes are coming together nicely and soon we will add music and sound to the videos. Using this iMovie is a learning experience for us all and the students love it so far. They can't wait to finish shooting their scenes to they can start adding music and sound. |
Since we've had our iPads this semester, I have been taking some candid pictures of my students at both schools in Music class. During the week before break, I used Comic Life to make a "Music at Altman" "comic book" with pictures and captions that I plan on showing during our Open House next month. I plan on hooking up my iPad to the SMART Board in my classroom and allowing parents to scroll through the "comic book" as they please so that they can get an idea of what Music is like at Altman. I also plan on doing this at Smith. Hopefully, this is a fun alternative to a PowerPoint presentation that catalogs the year in a fun way! |
With my high reading group I used Comic Life. After they read a story I gave each of them an I pad and they had to create a reading response using Comic Life. I will admit it took them awhile to catch on to the program and they got stuck a lot and had many questions. In the end they understood the program and they turned out nicely. It was a nice change for them too. They are so use to writing their response in their journal; this gave them a different opportunity to present a response. They have to turn in one response a week so, I am giving this as an option for them weekly. |
We used Comic Life in our classroom to demonstrate subtraction problems. Students demonstrated subtraction with objects, pictures, and story problems (depending on our differentiated groups). As always, the kids were excited to use the iPad! |
We just finished up a writing unit on "All Abouts." I've decided to extend the activity by having my students write autobiographies as an end of the year project. I've been working one-on-one with a student to try out making a page for their autobiography using Comic Life. This particular student is making a comic of all of his favorite school activities. He has used the iPad to take pictures of some of his favorite things to do at school and then has been adding captions. He is a student that stuggles to write and can get very discouraged, but just the idea of using the iPad to write really motivated him. He caught on right away to the different aspects of comic life such as taking his own picture and inserting it and adding thought bubbles! I'm excited to try this out with more of my students! |
We used the Dermandar app to take pictures of different locations around our school (such as: cafeteria, playground, classroom, library, gym, front of school). We then used the panoramic pictures of the areas within our school with a small group of struggling students as part of an Oral Language intervention group. The students loved seeing pictures of the school and how the pictures rotated as if they were actually in the rooms. This activity sparked great conversation and gave our students a lot of good practice using descriptive language. |
We just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and decided instead of making a trailer for the movie, it would be more fun to make a parody of the movie. We made a time line of major scenes that we wanted to reenact. I assigned each group a scene to complete with props and dialogue. We picked our major actors and actresses and held a dress rehearsal. I have never done anything like this before so I was a little nervous about how this would work, but it went beautifully. Imovie made it so easy to edit and retake scenes. I can see using this again with reader's theatre. There is a lot that the app can do. There is still a lot that I am not familiar with, but can't wait to do again. It helped that I had a student in class that was familiar with the app. The class loved it and everyone was on board. |
I unfortunately haven't been able to use them with a big group yet. Our school is trying to install the imovie and comiclife on all of our iPads. But, my 8th grade students will be using comiclife to create a scene from the book they are reading during independent reading time. When I told students about it (before I realized the app wasn't installed), they were extremely excited. Most students were interested and really wanted more opportunities to use the iPads. Next week I am using the app with my intervention students for a test run (as long as the app gets installed this week.) I will post again when I use the app! |
My students were able to use the iMovie app. We went to a farm for an animal unit we were doing and we all took turns using the iPad to record their favorite things about the farm. We then all worked together to create our own trailer of what we saw. We came up with a title and other quotations to add to our movie. The students loved making this and seeing themselves.
ComicLife was a little more difficult for my students, but I was able to help them a lot to create comics of their own that described how they felt about their trip to the farm. |
My students have recently used iMovie to create seat belt safety ads using Newton's 3 laws of motion. Students are required to use the Common Core Standards components of an argument paper but in the form of an advertisement (at the time, students were writing an argument paper in social studies so we were trying to reinforce the aspects of this style of writing). I had at least 1 group from each class use my ipad to create a movie trailer or commercial through iMovie, which allows for a lot of awesome and realistic editing options. The students who used it said that it was somewhat confusing to get the clips entered correctly, but once they spent about 30minutes-1hour in the app, they were able to fly through it. Those who watched the trailers in class were very excited about them because it was high interest, realistic, and done by students in their own class. This app kept videos from being dull and lacking effects. It has automatic editing abilities to make the presentation seem as if a professional had made it. The only limitation for this aspect is that some trailers only allow for a few characters and some greatly limit the amount of time. Overall, I was very impressed with the work they did! Being next door to Jenny Abel, I was also able to walk through and see the students using Wolfram as well as comic life. The students were able to quickly explain the apps to me, which showed that they are very user friendly for our kids. |
My class used DerManDar to take some panoramic pictures in the classroom. It's very user-friendly and we plan to use it in different areas of the school (learning center, auditorium, wooden gym, Village Inn, etc.) We also are using Wolfram to gather information for a unit my student teacher is doing on states and regions. Students just type in their state and lots of information is right at their fingertips! One downside to this app is you need Internet access. Another great use of this app is to let students type in the day they were born. This lets them see anniversaries of events that happened on that day in history. |
Comic Life
My students have used Comic Life to retell how the chicks in Jelly Bean and the Unbreakable Egg worked together. Students worked in teams to find three places in the book where the chicks worked together. Then they took pictures and used Comic Life to explain how the chicks were working together. We printed out the poster to show what teamwork looks like. |
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My advisory class has penpals in Rockford, IL. They sent us a photo and the kids had to try to guess which kid was their penpal. In response to their photo we took a picture of our class to send back. I originally used DerManDar because I know with it being panoramic I could take a closer pic. One of my students pointed out the fun of using it. We had a teacher standing on the left side of the group, and then while panning across the group she ran around me to the other side of the group. So in the final pic she appeared on both sides of the picture. Other than being hilarious this would be a really fun feature to use in a variety of classroom problem solving or writing situations.During our reading unit on biographies our class used Comic Life to create their own autobiographies. Each student brought in several photos of themselves from various stages of their life. They picked out a handful which they took individual photos of using the iPad camera. They then inserted these into Comic Life and included a caption for each photo. We hooked up the iPad to the document camera and each student was able to to share their autobiographies with the class on the Smartboard. |
I have one student in a math intervention. We had been working on the concept of area and had moved on to area of irregular shapes. I had her create a Comic Life showing the steps that would help someone find the area of an irregular shape. She really enjoyed it, and I liked how it reinforced the concepts she had been learning in a new and fun way! With this being the first time either of us had used it, I preselected the template for her to use with the number of boxes that I knew she would need. We took one day (30 minutes) to review the process one would go through and then one day (30 minutes) to complete the Comic Life from start to finish. It would have taken more time if she would have had choices and decisions to make. As an interventionist, that was valuable time that I didn't want to lose! |
I used Wolfram Alpha in the Social Studies and Math classrooms. It gives my students a wealth of information on different topics that they are studying and focusing on. I wouldn't use this app frequently though, because I wouldn't want them to become depended on it. There are several other ways to find the information they need, but this is a very easy and simple way for students to look up terms, topics, and people that they are studying in different classrooms. |
My Language Arts group combined with Mrs. Weber's Science group to create an imovie trailor. We were finishing a unit on the iditarod. The students created an imovie trailor about a musher in the iditarod. Some students acted out scenes while others looked up pictures on the Internet. They had so much fun and were so creative. The big challenge was that it was pretty time consuming. It took more class periods than we planned for. Maybe after doing it once, it will go faster next time. They loved watching every ones and were very proud of their own! I will use this app again. |
I used ComicLife to create a one page comic to present a reading strategy to my higher readers. They thought it was humerous. I liked that I was able to have them read the steps I wanted them to take for the day in addition to actually doing their reading work. I was able to manipulate the literacy they were reading and provide them with a new strategy. The students were asking how I did it and I told them that they would be able to create one after they completed their next readings. I am going to have them do a reading response through ComicLife. |
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