Creating Digitally

Throughout this project, we are finding that hands on experiences are engaging and can result in deep learning experiences and perseverance. But these hands on experiences don’t have to create something concrete and tangible. We are using our devices to make digital creations.

One of our digital making tasks included using green screen technology to create video advertisements. With the intermediates in groups, each member was assigned a career: script writer, storyboard creator, actor, camera operator, post-production editor and special effects coordinator. This gave every student the opportunity to lead the group. This project involved a lot of collaboration and problem-solving, and many students found that more challenging than the actual task of making a commercial. Because students were responsible for a certain part of the project, it was easy to assess. Students also assessed all members of their group for collaborating/showing respect, fair contribution and working to the best of their ability every day. Their final reflections revolved around sharing what they are proud of, what didn’t work well and what they would do differently next  time.

Barriers to the green screen project: there is no free app that I know of. The Do Ink app that we used is quite functional and easy enough for our grade threes to manage independently.  It’s $3.99, but you can couple that with a dollar store green tablecloth and you’ve got a great centre. There ended up being a line up to use the green screen during this project, so I think I’ll invest in a few more copies of the app.

Here’s one of our advertisements. These students are english language learners, so they spent a lot of time rehearsing their lines.  Shoe Advertisement

Another digital task that we used in our makerspace is creating stop motion animations. The free Stop Motion Studio is a fantastic tool that is so easy to use, our grade ones are creating some decent animations. It has a lot of other features though, that can make it challenging and satisfying for our grade eights too. Because we are getting close to the end of the year, I didn’t want to make this project too intensive, so I left the choice of media wide open here. Some students chose to make claymations, others used artistic drawings and Lego people. Some used themselves and yet others used toys that were borrowed from the kinder classes. The only limits were that there had to be about 400 slides in their production. Stop Motion Claymation

A very engaging project; almost all the grade eights, whose minds are straying towards graduation, are focussed and excited. To cap this off, we are having an animator come in to answer questions and talk about animation as a career option.