Stop Motion-A Picture Movie

In today’s world technology is just a normal aspect of our world. We wake up everyday and at some point will use that technology for social media, research or the apps available. That is exactly what the app Stop Creation is, it is technology. I have recently explored and made creations with this interactive and free version of the app.

The app Stop Creation is an app where you take still pictures that can run as a movie. The app allows users to add music, voice over and  adjust the speed at which the movie is played. The app also allowing users to share their creations through email, drop box, YouTube, and icloud.

This app was a simple app to navigate around. It is simply a point and shoot type of deal. You set up your scene and choose when to take a photo and when and how fast to move objects in and out of the frame. It was also kind of fun to use. The process is cool. When taking the pictures it doesn’t look like anything but when they are put together. A story ends up being told without any words. Even though this app was fun and exciting it also had its drawbacks.

There was a couple drawbacks that I found with this app. First you need an iPad or iPhone to use the program. If you don’t have either of these that stops the whole process from continuing. Second is that is challenging to find a method in which to share the project where the sound shares as well. My experience with sharing was that I tried through email. It went through but no music. I tried YouTube as well, but it said I didn’t have a linked account, once again not working. I also tried icloud. The video went through but again no sound. I have saved to the camera roll and that only saves a black picture. Also a drawback was that the free version was limited to its options. For example the free version didn’t allow for theme changes or image adding. But I think for what my students would need it for the free version would suffice.

However this app would serve a purpose in my classroom. I think that it would work great when students have to create projects with a presentation. For example if they are reading a book and then have to present how they interpret it. Stop motion would provide a good method of doing so. Stop motion could be a new and inventive alternative to the slideshow of pictures method. Students are so creative and this app allow them to do that. Creativity is key. So I would definitely use this for group projects in my classroom.

COOL TOOLS FOR MY CLASSROOM!

In today’s world we have access to an abundant amount of web resources to use both personally and for school. I think that you could go on for a while naming all of these resources. From presentation tools to pictures tools and drawing tools and audio, graphing, quizzing, etc. The possibilities are end less. For me after exploring through many sites/ tools, I have found three that I think would be very useful and interesting to use. As a pre-service teacher I am always looking for new and creative resources that I could use one day in my own classroom. The top three I have chosen are “Google Docs, Prezi, and Picasa.”

I think there is definitely a possibility of being able to use all three web 2.0 sites in a classroom. First is the Google Docs. Google docs is obviously a program from Google. This program allows students to collaborate on projects together without having to be physically right beside each other. The program requires you to have a Google account and that’s about it. Students can work on documents, PowerPoint, etc on separate computers in separate locations. This is pretty amazing when you think about it. I would use this in my classroom for what I just described above, collaboration among students.

Prezi is another really neat method of presentation to use. Sometimes PowerPoint and even smart notebook can get tedious, so Prezi a innovative alternate. Like Smart Notebook Prezi is more interactive. It has more movement and flow compared to the static square ppt. So I would use this program just as it is meant to be used for. For presentations/ lessons. Or the students could use it if comfortable with it could use it for their presentations.  Ensuring a place for this site in my classroom.

The final of my top three is Picasa brought to us by Google. Picasa is a photo program that stores your photos and has the ability to edit. I think this would work great in my classroom. First of all I want to teacher little kids. And you have to teach them what similarities and differences are. I think edited photos are a great visual way to show that. Not only is it good for students things like that but also a great place to store photos for children’s portfolio’s. Or if your a teacher on a year book committee. the program may work for that.  The Picasa program like the other two could have a place in my classroom.

I chose each of these web sites because I have personally used all of them and I think that they do a stand up job for being free resources. They are easy to use, widely accessible on most devices. And mostly they are new and inventive and interactive. These three were chosen because they work, especially well in a classroom setting.

I am sure there are more plenty useful sites available on “Cool Tools for School.” But on a personal preference, Google Docs, Prezi, and Picasa are right at the top.

Interactive Classrooms~~~Google Forms, Poll Everywhere, and Socrative

There are a variety of interactive systems out there made available not only to teachers but to students as well. These different interactive websites are a great way to get students involved, in a way that engages them. Most of them have grown up with technology like cell phones, tablet, laptops, etc., so incorporating these devices into class can prove to be a powerful thing. I have learned about seven interactive websites this week, but three really seem to stand out to me. Those sites are Google Forms, Poll Everywhere, and Socrative. These were the top three websites in my eyes. These sites can be analyzed in terms of teacher use, student use, flexibility/ variety of questions and diagnostic/ feedback.
GOOGLE FORMS
The Google Forms interactive site is very simple to set up, especially if you already a have google account made. If not create a g-mail account, look under the more section, click on google forms and your in. Because the account is linked to your email there is no need for a “teacher account.” When you get to the point of creating questions, it is simple and takes up little time. You choose the type of question you want (i.e. multiple choice, scale, etc.). All questions are typed in not imported from another place. In order to get these questions out to the class, you need a list of their emails. This is how the questions are sent out. Another great thing is this is free and it also gets done what it needs to.

In terms of student use the google forms site is very simple. Most students will have an email from their school so opening up their email and opening up the questions is no problem. As a way to know which students have completed the task, just insert a question where students put in their name. If not it can be an anonymous questionnaire. These questions can be accessed both on a desktop or a personal device. However there is one distracting element to this, that is students may be distracted by their phone if they are using that or something on their computer.

Google Forms is a fairly flexible in terms of the types of question that can be asked. There is nine types in total. With that you can create any question with more or less answers. With no word/ question limit it provides a way for both teacher and student to explain ideas fully. Which then can help if student are gone and in a different location.

The teacher view after question responses have been submitted is a chart of information. Which can be shown as an example to the class. At any time as the link to the chart is a live link, shown in real time. The link/ report is also automatically saved into your google drive.

POLL EVERYWHERE
Poll Everywhere is a fairly new website that allows students to text in answers anonymously. For this site there is not teacher account needed, anyone can access it. Making for a really easy account set up. The question aspect of it was simple. Question time is as fast as you can type. Signifying that questions are typed and not imported. Another significant feature of the site is no class list needed. Students simply text a number and a code to join the session and then the letter of the answer they want. The teacher here plays the moderator, in that they control how the session is set up. This like the google forms is free and is use full in what it is designed to do.

In being a student that had the opportunity to use poll everywhere. It seemed simple to use. You access it off your phone or tablet. As a student you remain anonymous, ensuring people answering truthfully. However there may be the distracting element of people text friends will they are participating in this activity.
This website isn’t as good with types of question that can be made, compared to Google Forms. There is only multiple choice and true and false options. But no limit on words or questions. And order doesn’t matter as questions are made separately and put into a list that you click on. You choose question order not the site. The site also allows students elsewhere to answer the question as long as they have the number to text, the code, the question and the order of the answers.

The teacher mode of this site looks slightly different then just the question screen. As students answer, the page adds numbers on to whatever answer they have chosen. Which shows in real time, as soon as students send a text it pops up on the screen. Samples can be shown by the teacher by texting an answer in.

SOCRATIVE
The Socrative interactive website was different from the other two sites mentioned above. First it had two different logins, both a teacher and student login. But it was really easy to create an account. Like Google Forms this site is linked with google and allows you to just us your g-mail account. Once into the site you can create questions about whatever topic you want. Which was simple to do. As I had questions done on the topic I chose. As the questions are done, there is no need for a class list before this point. As students will just need the room name. Another perk of the site is it is free and is able to serve its purpose.

In terms of being a student using this site I found it to be easy to work through. You simply put in the room code and it gets you to the intended quiz.

Questions can be multiple choice, true/ false or short answer. None of these with a word limit or question limit. Like the other sites students don’t need to be in the same physical location. As long as they have the room I.D., they can get into the quiz.

As teachers we have access to the reports of what students are doing, if they completed the test and their results. So the view looks different for a teacher compared to the students. The teacher manages the quizzes and gets to see what all students are doing. Where the students only see one quiz for themselves.

To sum it all up, I think Google Forms is my favorite out of the three interactive websites talked about above. To me Forms seemed to be the easiest to use. It also had the most types of questions that you could create. It also had another good aspect, being the live link. This makes it easier to tell you who has submitted a response. Two more really cool things is that the information automatically goes to a spread sheet. Second that it saves into your google drive. Guaranteeing that it saves somewhere. I feel I would use this the most in my class.