Video Slideshows Using Voice Record Pro and iMovie on iPads for a PSA Science Project

Our Go Beyond Challenge is wrapping up this week, as I prepare to show everything we've done at the MACUL Conference in Michigan. This post highlights a project I did with Katie Bryant in middle school Science. 

Katie wanted to have her class create public service announcements about the declining sturgeon population. This is a project she has done at previous schools, but we tried it in a new way, using a combination of Google Slides and iPads. It's a subject that's important to her and the students. They have a sturgeon in a classroom aquarium, which they will release into the wild later this school year.

Students worked in pairs on this project. Three examples of their videos can be found below. First, here's the process the class went through to create their videos:

1. Katie gave the class an introduction about the topic and allowed them to research. They started out knowing they'd be making videos that the community would watch.
2. Using Chromebooks, they wrote scripts in Google Docs, then made a slideshow in Google Slides. We emphasized that they could not just read their slides in this project. Slides should have little or no text. 
3. Students then opened their slideshows on the iPad using the Google Slides app. They took a screenshot of each slide, as a simple way to transfer each one into Photos on the device.
4. Next, students recorded their scripts using the Voice Record Pro app on an iPad. I've used this app for years for quick, easy audio recording, and it's only improved over time. See below for why we started with this app. These recordings were usually 30 - 60 seconds long.
5. Using the process explained below, students transferred their audio from Voice Record Pro to iMovie.
6. They added images from Photos to the audio track in iMovie. It was very intuitive for them to adjust the length of each image to fit their narration.
7. Videos were exported from iMovie and uploaded to Google Drive using the Google Drive app. From there, students could turn them in on Google Classroom, using their Chromebooks. 

If you're familiar with iMovie on the iPad, you might wonder why we bothered with the Voice Record Pro app. Well, I tried recording narration directly into the video using iMovie, but it required the pictures, or at least one picture, to already be in the project. It seemed backwards to add all the images, guess how long they should be, record audio, then adjust the length of each image.

So the video below shows an overview of our process for recording and transferring to iMovie. Students recorded their script from beginning to end using Voice Record Pro. Then we converted it to mp3 (since iMovie wouldn't accept the original file format). We exported that into iMovie. 

Most students did not have experience with iMovie prior to this project, but they picked up the video editing process quickly. Unlike other processes I've used, adding the images to their narration and adjusting the timing of the images was probably the fastest part of this project.

Some students did an extra step of adding music. Unfortunately this wasn't as easy as I hoped. When we first tried to add music, iMovie replaced the students' narration. So we had to do it in two stages. We exported their video (without music). We then created a new iMovie project consisting of that exported video, plus the audio soundtrack. This is pretty intuitive if you're used to iMovie, but it involved just enough taps that some students got confused. Also, they often had the music louder than the narration, so this was something I eventually encouraged them to skip.

Example Videos

Reflections

With some weather related school closing and other schedule disruptions, this project took a few days longer than we hoped. We also had some snags with the Google Slides app not updating properly on the iPads. Katie was very flexible with all of this, and she's happy to try the project again next year. 

She told me the best thing about the project is it's real to the students. The problem is real, with some of the fishing taking place fairly close to our area. Katie has a sturgeon in the classroom that the students see every day. They knew they were creating for a real audience.

The script and slides took a little longer than we expected, but the big surprise for me was how the audio recording posed such a challenge. First, it was a little tricky finding quiet places to record. There's always some unexpected background noise in a school. We got help from teachers on prep, using their classrooms or the library. And a few groups took entirely too long to record. Even though the scripts were short, they'd mess up something and end up doing many, many takes. Some editing of the audio is possible in iMovie, but (using the process I outlined above) it is best if they can get a good recording from start to finish rather than try to edit it afterward. 

We asked students what they liked and didn't like about the project. As we could have guessed, writing the script was far from their favorite. Most students prefer to do an outline at best, then "wing it", but that was not an option for them on this project. Many liked researching the topic, making the slides or recording with iMovie best. I took the opportunity to show them how to use Word Art and add drop shadows in Google Slides, since that was new to many of them.

If we do this again, we will:

• Not assume the iPads are ready to go. 
• Be sure partners share the work on the different devices, so everyone gets a chance to experience the tech procedures.
• Make a better outline of steps for students, so they can be more self-directed on the tech part.
• Coach the students better about volume and pacing as they read the scripts.

Six Things We Learned So Far In Our Middle School MACUL Grant Project

Updates 2/19/2018:  Lots of new things have been added since I wrote this in December.

• Free resources for teachers
• 10 takeaways from a related book on how to learn best
• Our finished Learning Journey series
• Our recorded conversation about the project

I've written here and here about our middle school math project funded with a MACUL grant. We've been making learning videos for and with students in 6th grade math. We post the final videos at Room10LearningChats.com.

Since I'm an instructional tech coordinator and not a classroom teacher, I've been working with Brenda June's students. This exciting project that has required us to stretch as professionals. We meet several times a week to plan videos and discuss what we are learning.

As you'll read below, it has been challenging at times. Our goal now is to glean the many excellent things we are learning from it so teachers can do the same without spending all the time we have. We will share those insights here, in our videos and at the MACUL Conference in March.

Here's a summary of big ideas and some practical insights we've learned so far.

1)  Students love making videos for other students. When I wrote the grant proposal, I hoped this would be the case with most students. But when we started out, the enthusiasm I saw in class surprised me. Initially we kicked off the project in every one of Brenda's classes. Out of more than one hundred students, I only saw slight resistance from one student when we asked them to make their first video. Within minutes, even that student was engaged in the task.

Before we had anything like an audience for our videos, students excitedly ended their lessons with phrases like, "Thanks for watching," and, "Be sure to see our other videos."

As you'll see in my next point, this is not the dream project to solve all the challenges of teaching math in middle school. Still, the idea of helping others learn and sharing their work with a wider audience changed class from the "got to do this" mindset to "get to do this".

2)  It's harder than I expected to do this on a large scale. There's no way around it. This is a challenge and we are trying to figure out exactly what we recommend for other teachers to try. I did learn a few practical things that I'll list below, but student created tutorials take a lot of time and effort.

I make a lot of video tutorials and I've worked with students for years to make them in class. I didn't think technical problems would take so much time. On top of that, it's difficult to find time during class for students to get free to record a tutorial. Some of this is unique to our situation. I wrote the original proposal for a different class at the elementary level, but that teacher ended up in a new position. Brenda was glad to try this project, but we almost certainly would have written different details for use in her secondary classroom.

Here are just a few unexpected things I ran into:

• We want to focus on why more than how in our lessons, but it requires students multiple takes just to successfully show how to do the problems. As I mentioned, attitudes have been great, but it surprised me how long it would take to work through a multi-step problem without a mistake. 
• The microphone was picking up far more than just our narration, and sometimes not even our narration! After recording our first "polished" tutorial, we realized every time the students touched the table, it was being recorded as a loud thud by the microphone. Add another 15 minutes (1/4 of class time) to that one!
• Even if the explanation and math work is perfect, students might mumble, misspeak or write illegibly. There's a lot to get right!
• Editing takes longer than expected because of the mistakes. We've improved in this greatly, but our student created tutorials are much simpler and less polished than I originally envisioned. I thought I'd be able to get by with students doing most editing in iMovie on an iPad or WeVideo on Chromebooks. Instead I've had to do the editing and some of it has been very complex. I need higher end software too. More on this below.

3)  Focused discussion with colleagues is invaluable. This has been a key takeaway, as Brenda and I have had to spend hours working together on this project. We already knew collaboration is valuable, since we met almost weekly last year and have done many other projects together. This one has been particularly helpful, though, because we want our Learning Chats to focus on how to learn deeply.

Brenda and I read Mathematical Mindsets and a lot of other research about good teaching. She has spent her career constantly improving how she teaches and she's been focused on excellent discussion techniques in class for the past year. This project came at a good time, since she is excited about what her questions in class have uncovered and how we can address the misconceptions and gaps the students have in their learning.

It might not be completely clear in the videos we've completed so far, but what we've discovered and how we see it impacting students has been invigorating. Our most popular video so far touches on some of this. Be sure to watch The Learning Journey if you haven't seen it already. Part 2 should be available soon.

4)  You can see (and hear) students' misconceptions by having record their explanations. We suspected this of course. I mention it here because it's another sign that we're onto something important. When we first started the project, we had every student make a quick, informal video tutorial. Had they done their work only on paper, many of the problems would have looked correct. Hearing the thinking (or lack of thinking) behind each of their steps gave us much more insight. 

5)  Practice before recording is the key. This will also seem obvious, but it is worth mentioning. Anyone who has made a video knows that better preparation for recording saves a ton of time in editing. More than that, though, the practice I do with students before recording a Learning Chat gives me an opportunity to ask good questions and get them thinking about why they are doing what they do. A good example of this came from our tutorial about multiplying fractions. The discussion we had before recording that required the students to think more deeply than they were about the process. It also was one of our easiest to produce.

6)  We know better which tools work and which don't. Here are some specifics:

• We decided on Educreations for informal tutorials in class. We tried Show Me first, but went with Educreations in the end when we wanted every student to record their work. We ran into fewer technical challenges with it. You can see two examples at the bottom of this page. It costs about $12 a month for the premium version that allows for easy sharing with the teachers.
• I used to love Explain Everything on the iPad and I expected this would be the main tool for all of our polished tutorials. Well, they have added a lot of features since I used it and that has added to the complexity. It's still a great tool, but it's too complicated for the students. It posed challenges for me and Brenda as well. And it's over three times as expensive as it was when I bought it years ago. For now, I set up the problems and pages in Google Slides and then transfer them over to Explain Everything for the students to write on during recording. If they only write on it rather than construct all the slides with it, it serves its purpose well.
• I absolutely love Camtasia for editing. It's expensive, but I get a free copy as a Google Certified Trainer. I've used it for years to make screen recordings, but recently I've started using it for all types of video. The animation features are excellent and the ability to quickly work with multiple layers is extremely helpful. I highly recommend it if you create professional tutorials or videos.
• We use the iRig Studio microphone with an iPad to record narration. I like it, but as I mentioned above, it picks up every tap or movement on the table. I'm sure there are some shock mounts that would help, but our low budget approach has been to set it on a folded cloth, such as a towel or (in a pinch) a student's hoodie or stocking cap. 

So that's a summary of what we've gained so far. I look forward to creating many more videos over the next eight weeks as we prepare to share in our MACUL presentation!

Short Music Video Project for Middle School

Here's a quick music video project we did for our middle school Computers class. We used iPads with the Pixlr app, GarageBand and iMovie.

The video that students produce will be very short and the song will be very simple. Here's a sample one I made with my family. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, but students will probably take at least two class periods to work through everything.

All of the directions can be found in this document. It links to the sample video and to four tutorials. We assigned it in Google Classroom and the students were editing pictures and making songs in no time!

Here are a two notes:

• I made the tutorials as a series of slides rather than capturing the iPad while I used the apps. It was a shortcut that leaves out some details, but I like the students to have to explore and learn the apps rather than watching every single tap.
• Our iPads are shared between classes, so each one has a generic Google account on it. We encourage students not to sign in on them with their own accounts. That's why the final steps explain that the students must share the files with their account. If you have a different setup, you will want to modify those last steps.

It's really easy to add some class content to this project. Just have students sing a simple chorus or make a short rap about what they're studying. They could hold signs in the pictures or use text features of Pixlr or iMovie too.

I'll be glad to hear feedback if you get a chance to try this fun activity with your students!

Math Video Lessons - Grant Funded Project for Middle School

This year I'll be working with Brenda June's 6th grade math classes to create video lessons. It's a plan I submitted in May as a proposal for a MACUL grant. I was excited to learn they accepted our proposal. Brenda and I started working with the classes last week.

I will be reporting regularly on the progress, so I won't go into great detail here. The basic idea of the grant is we will post several video lessons that have been created by me, Mrs. June and the students. In building our video portal site, we will also be developing a classroom brand.

The photo above shows the equipment we were able to purchase with the grant. We have two iPads along with tripods and mounts. We also got an iRig Studio microphone and a Dell Chromebook.

We will be using the Explain Everything app to record the tutorials and then edit in some standard bumpers to the beginning and the end uisng iMovie. We hope to incorporate live video in time too. Besides math videos, we will make some that feature growth mindset and study skill tips.

Last week we took two class periods to work on a very basic video lesson. We use the ShowMe app on the middle school's set of iPads. Normally we won't work with the whole class at one time as we create the videos, but we wanted everyone to see the process form start to finish. As we suspected, a lot of the lessons were rough, but I was very impressed with the students' excitement as they worked!

Next up, we will decide on a name for our video lessons and we will begin building the site for the portal. Brenda and I will get things rolling with a few lessons. We will start working with the first group of students soon.

How to Use the Google Drive App to Transfer Photos or Video from a Phone or Tablet

This is an essential skill for showing off the learning that takes only a few minutes to master, yet I regularly encounter teachers and students who can't do it. Take a minute to watch the video if you're still using USB cables or email (or worst of all, text messages) to get your files to a computer.

If you have photos or video on your phone (or you want to take some) to bring them into projects or share them with others, learn to use the Google Drive app. It's so easy!

It's the bridge from the real world to your projects. I've seen teachers get excited when they realize the possibilities this opens up for creative classroom projects.

This short video tutorial shows everything you need to know.

Classroom activity for introducing students to iMovie on iPad

A couple months ago I wrote about a video creation challenge we used at the high school to help students learn to make videos on an iPad. Here's a similar assignment that we used with middle school students.

I always say students don't need much direction on how to use tech tools. They just need to know what's possible. I put that philosophy to the test with this assignment. I just listed some requirements for the video, but very few "how-to" directions.

I'm happy to say the activity worked very well! After the teacher assigned it, both of us received some videos shared to us in Google Drive*. Students had fun working through the activity and figuring out iMovie for iPad on their own.

Click here to get a copy of the assignment. It will make a copy in your Google Drive.

*I'd show their projects, but the videos were less than interesting! Step one was to learn how to make a video. The rest of the class was about making an interesting one.

How to use the Google Slides mobile app to make comics from real life photos

A lot of teachers have been using my process for creating comics with Google tools. I was thrilled to find it can now be easily done using the Slides mobile app! The best part of this is now you can bring in the real world pictures very easily.

If you haven't seen the general process and possible final products, you can read all about it on this page from my Education On Air presentation from a few weeks ago.

That process starts on a Chromebook or a computer and it uses either Google Drawings or Slides.

Now you can start in the Slides mobile app. I did this on an iPad, but the Android app will be similar.

First, start a new Slides presentation.

On a blank slide, click the + sign and select Image.

Choose to get the image From Photos or From Camera. Notice that if you use the camera, this is an amazingly simple way to immediately bring the real world into your creations!

Crop, resize and move the image as necessary.

To add comic elements, click the + again and select Shape this time.

Select Callouts and scroll down to the three comic elements. Choose the one you want.

From there, it's just a matter of placing the thought or word bubble, dragging the point to the character who is speaking or thinking and then entering the text. Here's my sample taken from a game I was playing with my son.

A few things to consider:

• While the tools are easy to use on the app, you might prefer to just use the app to bring the pictures into the Slides presentation. Then you (and any collaborators) can open that presentation on a Chromebook or computer for easy editing. 
• See my two-minute tutorial on creating the comics using a computer. The first steps are now replaced by the import process above, but the rest of the video shows the details of adding and editing the comic elements.
• You can change the background color of the slides by editing the presentation on a computer or Chromebook at any time.
• See the Projects page of my website for possible end products we make such as PDFs, virtual books or videos.

Three Simple Tutorials for Creative Project Based Learning

I'm preparing for a P^3BL session I'll lead this weekend and all that work is filtering into my Teaching Like an Artist blog. I didn't realize I hadn't updated this one in over two weeks!

Here are three tutorials for short digital projects that are worth pointing out:
Narrated Image Slideshows using Pixlr and Videolicious on iPad - These make great ways to present spoken poems or short stories.
Narrated Image Slideshows using iMovie and GarageBand for iPad - This is another method for creating slideshows. By using Garageband for the narration it also allows the opportunity to make up simple music too.
Quick Songwriting with UJam - I have created other tutorials for UJam on this blog, but this one shows the simplest way to turn a short tune into an mp3 of a fully arranged song.

Using Google Drawings for Comic Creation

I was reminded recently that Google Drawings has Callouts in the shapes of speech and thought bubbles. Used in conjunction with the app on a mobile device, this makes a great tool for collaborative comic creation.

I put together this quick sample using a few pictures I had on my iPad from a PD day in our district. Ideally the pictures would be of actors or maybe toys or other objects set up according to a script.

Here's the process:
1)  Take pictures of the actors or objects for the comic. You could draw these on paper and take pictures or make them in a graphics program too.

2)  Upload the pictures to Google Drive using the app (if using a mobile device) or with the computer (if you created them in a graphics program on a computer).

3)  Using a computer, create a new Drawing in Google Drive. Share it with anyone who will be working on the same project.

4)  Set the background color.

5)  Add each picture and edit/arrange them. I found this order worked best overall. You'd repeat this for each frame of your comic on the page:

• Import the picture.
• Crop it with the crop tool.
• Resize it as necessary.
• Set the line width and color if you want borders.
• Move it to the correct place.
• Add the Callouts from the Object dropdown. You'll see speech bubbles in a few shapes and a thought bubble. 

• "Draw" the speech or thought bubble on your picture. 
• Drag the "tail" of it to the person talking or thinking.
• Type the text in the speech or thought bubble(s).
• Resize and move the bubble and text as necessary.

6)  Add any other text boxes or text to the Drawing.

7)  Download as a jpg image and share with others if necessary.

8)  Copy or import the image file into a shared Google Document. There it can be a page of a book made up of a series of such pages/images. You could put it in a Google Presentation too if it's more likely to be displayed that way.

Smart Jams Music Video Project - Outline and Video Tutorials

These are my video tutorials and outline for the Smart Jams Music Video Project. If you have any questions about this process, don't hesitate to contact me by email. I want to improve this page so many teachers and students can create a similar project.

All information about the project and our pilot can be found on my Music Creation in the Classroom page on this blog.

It will help to see and hear some examples first:

• Some examples of videos from the Smart Jams project
• Audio for all 24 songs we created

The process can vary depending on complexity, but the heart of the project involves songwriting, recording the song and then creating a full arrangement using UJam.com and GarageBand.

Step 1:  Write the lyrics

The first step is to write a short song. When we do these, they are really just choruses of about four to eight lines.

Step 2:  Record vocals

Next, make a recording of someone singing or rapping the song. We do those by playing a beat in headphones for the performer and just his or her voice is recorded. For the beat, I use Smart Drums in GarageBand for iPad. You could also use Easy Beats LE for a free option. On a computer you could use DrumBot.

To record, we use Audacity on a computer and export the track to mp3.

Tip:  Name the file with the song's tempo in it.  For example, if the beat the performer sang to was 90 beats per minute, save the file as mathsong90.mp3.  This will help greatly in later steps.

Step 3:  Adjust timing of audio recording (if necessary)

If the recording is perfect, you can probably skip these first two tutorials and go right to the UJam step below, but I have found most student recordings need some cleaning up to adjust timing.

This short tutorial shows how to transfer the file to your iPad so you can adjust timing using GarageBand for iPad.


Then this next tutorial shows how I would split the tracks into segments (sometimes as small as a syllable) and move them to adjust the timing. You can do this with GarageBand on a Mac, or any other program that allows for easy trimming and moving of audio tracks. I prefer GarageBand for iPad because I can work on the audio files whenever I get the chance.

In case you're wondering about the time it takes to fix up a file, it depends how rough it was. For short songs that were performed well, this would be done in less than two minutes, if it was necessary at all. In other cases I would work for an hour or more over a series of sessions to polish them up.

As a general rule, have students practice ahead of time as much as possible and get a good recording. Short songs are better than long ones! This process will not be able to do much to fix a really bad recording.

Step 4:  Export to mp3

Next you need to export the file in mp3 format. This will be easy if you're using most programs that work with files on a computer, since they usually export to mp3. On the iPad, I exported from GarageBand to Voice Record Pro. From there I could convert to mp3 format and email the file to myself for the next step. (Note: If your program will not export to mp3 you can also use wav format.)

Step 5:  Get two or more arrangements from UJam

This next tutorial is about what makes the project truly impressive. It shows the steps I would usually do to create at least two different background tracks with full instrumentation using UJam.com. This is an amazing online resource and with some practice I could usually put together two background tracks in about 10 minutes. The trick is to not get distracted by all the options!


One suggestion when letting the students do this part of the process: Share the audio file(s) on Google Drive and let them work on the song outside of class. That should allow them to stick to a deadline in class, knowing they can always explore other options at home.

Alternate approach:
As another option rather than UJam, just download one of our Smart Jams Song Starters from SoundCloud and improvise a melody over it. Import the Song Starter into Audacity and record your vocal track separately. Let me know if you like the Song Starter idea, but need more styles and variations.

Step 6:  Mix tracks and arrange

The final tutorial shows how I combined the background tracks from UJam with the vocal performance using GarageBand. I did this on a Mac, but you could easily do the same thing with GarageBand for iPad. Audacity would also work, though it's not as easy to adjust right to the measures and loops aren't as readily available.

Step 7: Make the video

At this point you will have a good audio version of the song.  If you want to move on to video, you can tackle that in a number of ways. Here are some general tips.

Quick videos using Video Star:
The Video Star app for iPad is a fun (and free) tool that allows you to play a song while you record video. None of the sound you make while recording will be in the video. Only the song will be heard. It's ideal if you want to lip sync, but the many effects can make an entertaining music video even if you're not singing along with every line.

To use this method, once you export the song from GarageBand, send it to iPad (even if it's already on the iPad) by email. Check your email with the iPad app. Tap and hold the attachment link for the file in the message and you should get an Open With... options. One of those should be the Video Star app. The song will open in Video Star and you can begin recording right away.

Video slideshows using the iPad or computer:
Students can make great videos combining pictures. These styles of videos usually play the pictures in different ways over background music, which in this case would be the song the students created.

iMovie is a great option on the iPad. If you don't want to buy it, Splice and Loopster are good options that will accomplish the same thing.

If you are using a Mac, use iMovie to combine the pictures. For a PC, try Movie Maker or WeVideo. In all of these cases, you can easily add text and effects to the pictures as well.

If you want to edit the pictures ahead of time, I can't say enough good about Pixlr. It has a website (use the Express version), iPad app and Android app.

Another option is to create a full video made up of video clips, pictures, effects and text. This can become very time consuming and the details are well beyond the scope of this outline. I may add some more tips or another post about this process. For now, I will just suggest using iMovie on a Mac (which is what I used for almost all the Smart Jams examples) or Corel VideoStudio (which I used for The Area and Perimeter Song and The Quadratic Formula Song).

If you have questions or comments about the process, please include them below so I can improve this series of tutorials.

Stick Around App - puzzles for learning

Image from Tony Vincent's website: http://learninginhand.com/

I was glad to receive a promo code for Stick Around from Tony Vincent, the app's inventor. I had heard positive things about it from others on Twitter. I also was excited to see it because it was developed by the same team that made Explain Everything, one of my favorite apps creating tutorials. I installed it right away and tried out a few of the sample puzzles that came with it.

The educational value of the puzzles is immediately evident. Each puzzle requires the user to move the "stickers" to the correct place on the background image. As an example, a sticker in the one sample has the term "cell membrane" on it. The goal is to move it, as well as the other 10 stickers in that puzzle, so all parts of the pictured cell are labeled. Some stickers have an arrow so you can easily point to the correct area of the background image.

The action of positioning stickers also allows for "sort in order" questions and for arranging items in Venn diagrams.

When a user thinks the stickers are in the right place, he or she can press the Check button. The app indicates whether or not it is correct. If so, a badge is displayed and the user can save a picture of the completed puzzle to the Camera Roll. From there it would be easy to send to the teacher or share in other ways.

To me, the big benefit of Stick Around is the ability to create your own puzzles and share them with others. While this obviously will let a teacher make puzzles that fit her students' needs perfectly and quality puzzles will be easily shared among all users, it also makes for a great project option. Students can create puzzles as a final stage of a PBL activity. One of my favorite types of assignments in technology classes is to have older students create content for younger students. This app will be perfect for that and I hope to try it with some students in the near future.

I took some time to explore the puzzle creation features. Most tools are intuitive and anyone who has used Explain Everything will recognize similarities in the interfaces. Whether you've got the app or you're still considering it, be sure to check out Tony Vincent's tutorials. They are well done and I learned some things about setting up stickers that I might have missed at first glance.

Here are my favorite features so far:

• Imported pictures can be used as backgrounds or as stickers and you can trim them to any shape. Having your picture or photos of the classroom in the puzzle adds to the fun for students. You (and they) can make the learning relate to their world and their personal interests.
• Stickers can include additional text notes or hyperlinks to web pages so students can find related information. 
• You can even record audio on a sticker. Stickers with recordings have a small Play button that users can tap to hear what you recorded. This makes it easy to add short comments to a sticker that might be helpful for completing the puzzle or maybe for additional information.

And here are a few things I noticed that were negatives or possible obstacles. I'm sure all of these can be easily addressed in an update if enough users also find them worth mentioning.

• Answer regions (where the stickers have to be for correct placement) cannot be touching. That makes sense, but I found in my custom puzzle they actually had to be spaced apart more than I expected. Since my puzzle was based on an photo, I didn't have a lot of choice as to where two of my regions were. I had to move them apart more and more until the app would finally accept them. This is not a big deal, but you need to keep it in mind before spending a lot of time on a puzzle only to find your regions will be too close. In the future, I'll make and test any regions that might be close, then finish the rest of my puzzle once I know those work.
• I'm normally not into the bells and whistles of educational apps, but I was surprised there weren't more sound effects for actions while a puzzle is completed. Sounds of picking up and placing stickers would have been a nice touch, though obviously not essential. Also, when a puzzle is checked, there's no sound for correct or incorrect submissions. In fact, the message for an incorrect attempt looks like a system dialogue box, simply indicating the puzzle was not solved correctly. There is an image of a medal for correct solutions, but compared to most interactive learning experiences the students are used to, these features didn't seem to get much attention from the developer.
• I want to work with this more to see how much of a problem it is, but the one sticker I made from a photo did not seem to work right when I added an arrow to it. It was fine at first, but when I came back to it later, the arrow was missing. When the app checked for a correct solution, it didn't seem to matter any longer where I placed that sticker in the puzzle. When I edited the puzzle and added the arrow again, it then showed up behind the information/edit box, so I couldn't even tap or drag it to stretch or position it. I need to experiment with that more to see if it happens frequently with image stickers or if something else caused it.

All things considered, I'm very happy to have Stick Around as another learning tool for my students. I plan to share this information with all teachers in my district, since I'm sure the app can be useful in all grades and subject areas.

I will be working with a high school Digital Media class next week and I look forward to having students create puzzles and share them. I will update this post as I see the app in action, both for solving and creating puzzles.

Samples from the Smart Jams Math and Music Project for Elementary Students

Just before Thanksgiving break I recorded a few of the math songs the students wrote. Two samples are posted below, but first here is important information to consider if you do this project.

As I mentioned in another post, the songwriting was probably the hardest part of this for students. The second hardest part is getting them to sing or rap on the beat. In most cases we get close in the recording then I adjust some phrases in editing.

Here are a few other things to note:

• Students are not making full songs. We are doing short choruses. See my music page for full information on the project. 
• I'm still working on the background tracks and we haven't started recording any video yet. These are just quick audio files from GarageBand on the iPad to offer as a preview. 
• In the final version the chorus will play at least three times. A sample problem will be worked out on screen while the chorus plays to help the steps make sense.

Sample 1:  Long Division

Sample 2. Reducing Fractions

Tiny Tap App for Digital Storytelling...Or Flipped Teaching

Update 3/7/2014: I just updated the app and I was very happy to see they added a "Jump" option to the Sound Board activity! This allows you to make a region of the screen a sound AND a link to a new page. Story lines can now branch, making for "choose your own adventure" style, interactive fiction. This was the feature I was waiting for, so multiply the positive of this original post by at least five!

Tiny Tap is a free app for iPad that allows the user to create very simple games. I installed it at least a year ago and used it with a few young children, including first graders. Recently I discovered newer features that could make it excellent for digital storytelling or maybe even flipped teaching or blended learning.

The primary activity in the games is to tap the correct part of the picture. You can record an audio prompt, such as, "Tap Grandma's picture." When the user taps Grandma a success sound is played and a balloon rises on the screen. I have found students enjoy playing the simple activities.  As soon as I show them how to make them, they immediately want to make their own questions by choosing the "answer area" on their pictures.

At some point the app was updated and I noticed it had a few more bells and whistles. One time when I tried to show someone how to use it, I ran into trouble with getting the imported picture to "stick". I didn't have time to figure it out and I didn't come back to it for many months.

But this week at the family Thanksgiving dinner I decided I'd show it to my nephew. He is in kindergarten now, so I was curious if the app would be simple enough for him to make a game. (I knew he'd be able to play one I made, but I was hoping to encourage some creativity rather than just another gaming experience.)

I learned that with a little assistance he picked it up quickly. I also discovered they added two other types of activities. Now instead of every page being a guessing game, there is also:

• Sound Board - A picture is displayed and you can enclose areas that are "buttons". For each one, you can record narration or a sound.
• Say Something - This allows you to add narration to a page.

By using Say Something, the app becomes a very nice tool for telling a story involving pictures and narration. 

It is easy to import the pictures. (I learned that to stick the picture in place after importing it from the camera or Camera Roll you have to double tap it and choose "Stick".) Once imported, they can be resized and arranged. There are a few simple art tools to write or draw on the page.

Next, you can add one of the activities. Once I showed my nephew how to add a question he was excited. He made a few pages with ease. There are a few steps, so I had to remind him where to click the first few times.

I love the potential for a narrated story that has guessing activities or a Sound Board in it. Imagine a story about a toy coming to life and hiding. The question pages would provide fun for the child to identify the hiding place, possibly based on carefully listening to the previous pages. The Sound Board pages offer a lot of room for creative uses, such as an exploration to gain clues by tapping different areas or just a "play area" where objects might make fun sounds.

Besides making simple lessons (flipped teaching or blended learning for lower elementary?) I imagine teachers could use this to teach procedures in the room at the start of a school year. Pictures and narration would explain things first, then question pages could quiz them.

If you make an account you can share the activities. This should allow you to load a creation on multiple devices. They also can be shared on Facebook too, so it could make a great end product parents and family could see from home.  (Sharing requires the user to "tap and hold", so it's unlikely a young user is going to share or access something without an adult's assistance.)

If you make any fun creations like these using Tiny Tap, I'd be glad to hear it! Please share as a comment or by email.

Equipment from the MACUL grant

Last week I received the equipment I purchased with the MACUL grant.  I'm really excited to tear into the project this week with Crystal Owen, the music teacher at our upper elementary. 

The grant covered the purchase of:

-An iPad Mini

-A USB mic "podcasting bundle"

-iRig Cast microphone

-iRig guitar interface

-Three apps--Explain Everything, GarageBand and iMovie

Apps for Six-word Memoirs

The 11th grade ELA teacher recently asked me to help with a project where students would summarize their recently completed memoirs into just six words, then add those words to a photo of themselves.  This notion allegedly stems from a challenge made to Ernest Hemingway when he was asked to write just such a short story.

Any search will bring up a ton of examples and challenges related to the idea. I like this project as we are doing it because students are always eager to present their passions in fun ways and the technology is just a tool, not taking the spotlight.

Our first task was to create a video of examples from the teaching staff.  I used those memoirs and photos to zero in on a good, flexible way for students to make their memoirs. Students will be using their own devices or possibly computers in the lab this upcoming week. 

I started with the Aviary app (available on Android and iOS) on my iPad because it is simple, but has a lot of good features for adjustments and effects. It is usually my go-to app for quick classroom projects involving photo editing. I made the first few memoirs with it, but soon grew tired of the one available font. Here's an example where I simply cropped the picture and added text using Aviary.

This led me to try Pixlr Express, another app I have on my iPad, but rarely use. I always liked the control it offers, but with control comes more options. aviary had been my preference as it fell between Instagram and Pixlr for control and simplicity. 

After editing several of these memoirs on my iPad and computer, though, I have to say I am very impressed with Pixlr. I am now recommending that to the students for their devices for this project. Since the same tool is available on their website as well, it makes a perfect option all students can use after seeing just an example or two.  As you'll see on the website, there are three versions.  I recommend the Express version as a good blend between ease of use and control of the final result.

Here's my six-word memoir for this project. Most of the look of the photo came from the room's lighting rather than a feature of Pixlr. I really appreciate the variety of fonts and the ability to adjust the strength of any effect with the slider. The only downside I had to get used to was it is easy to accidentally apply a bit of text before moving it in place. There's an undo button, but it still requires the user to start that piece of text from scratch. 

Teach anything with just three apps?

I am a minimalist. I love finding ways to do more with a lot less. I hope someone speaks at my funeral about how I touched the world in a significant way using only what fits with me in the casket. It could make a great visual.  If nothing else, I’ll be clutching my iPad.

I was recently musing about what’s the least a teacher would need to teach anything. I tweeted this and it got a little bit of attention:

I think I could teach anything-CCSS, 4 C's, etc-using only an iPad with browser, 30 Hands and iMovie. Kids supply the ideas and style.
— Mike Petty (@mpetty39) August 21, 2013

I was exaggerating somewhat, mostly because I didn’t really go through all the CCSS and I had to fit it in 140 characters. I would certainly need a few other apps, even if just for recording notes while working. I’ll give a slightly longer list of the bare necessities below, but first here was my main thought behind this.

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think all learning should be posed as a creative problem solving activity involving three steps: find information, process it and present the solution.

Elaborating a little more, students need to

• research the problem at hand and gather resources or information that they already know. 
• process all that, getting their brains around it, synthesizing seemingly unrelated ideas, adding in their own thoughts. 
• present it in a way that suits the people who need to hear the solution.

So my tweet assumed that the iPad has a browser and the learner can access the Internet. That can help a lot with the “find it” stage.

30 Hands and iMovie are my favorite apps for narrated slideshows or videos, respectively. They’d be used for the presentation piece.

Being a little more realistic, I’d need some apps that would let them store the things they find. They also would need to process it all. I gave it more thought and made this list of suggested apps. I’m including the two I already mentioned, just to give more detail.

30 Hands - This is a great free tool for slideshows and I have a demo and review about it here. You can use your pictures as backgrounds, add text and draw on the slides. It is very simple to record narration for each slide, then it exports as a movie to the Camera Roll. I love it!

iMovie - I don’t usually by apps that cost $4.99, but this app feels like it’s worth so much more. You can easily add pan and zoom effects to pictures you’ve taken and edit videos you recorded (or even those slideshows you made with 30 Hands). It is also simple to add narration, transitions and titles. It’s a portable video studio.

Google Drive - Information gathered in research and your own thoughts could easily be taken in the Notes app that comes with the iPad. But Google Drive is free, so why not add this to the list? Sure, it’s limited compared to the version you’d have on your desktop computer, but I’m still amazed with how useful it is for productivity.

Doodle Buddy or SketchBook Express - Both of these drawing apps are free. These would be mostly for the presentation part of the process. We use them in school for titles and other graphics. Doodle Buddy is extremely simple. SketchBook has layers and some very good drawing tools making it promising, but possibly more complex than you’d need for most projects.

Inkflow - I haven’t paid for the Plus version of this yet, so for me this is like a stack of paper and a black marker. I love it for flow charts and visual thinking, so it’s definitely a tool for the processing stage of the learning process. You can also export the drawings and notes as jpg or PDF to use them in presentations too. (Side note: When talking at the coffee shop, this app becomes the proverbial napkin on which I illustrate my ramblings.)

Voice Record Pro - This audio recording app is incredibly versatile because of all the apps you can export it to. Files also can be opened in iMovie as the background track. So presentations can be recorded as a speech or conversation, then in iMovie you can add pictures or images you drew using any of the above apps. It also converts to mp3 so you can send it to others in a flexible format. (Bonus: I’m not including Video Star as a “must have”, but if you record yourself playing live music with Voice Record Pro it exports to Video Star so you can lip sync. Fun!) I wish Voice Record Pro had better tools for editing, but for free it is great.

GarageBand - I debated about including this app because original music is usually not necessary in a presentation. Still, there will be some topics where such a projects will be greatly enhanced because of the possibilities of this app. (And for some students it can make all the difference.) Like iMovie, it is $4.99, but whenever I use it I find myself sticking it in people’s faces, raving about how much it does for that small price. All the virtual and Smart instruments are outstanding.  For the basics, it is very intuitive to record and edit tracks.  As with Voice Record Pro, you could use this for any audio recordings. It certainly has more editing capabilities than that app, though sometimes I need iTunes on my computer to get the files where I need them.

So there you have it. I’m going to give my minimalist approach a try this school year as much as possible. I’ll edit this as necessary.

What am I overlooking? Are there any other apps you consider to be the bare necessities?

Six iPad games I recommend for school

I love games of all types and have pride myself on introducing people to excellent titles they have never heard of.  (And when it comes to learning from playing games, I approach it differently than most.  These are not games that will teach students specific skills just by playing them.)

Here are the games I keep in my "School Games" folder of apps on my iPad. Some get played more than others, but I believe these are all great for the classroom. All except one are based on board and card games, which are my favorite types of gaming for thinking and social interaction in and out of the classroom. 

I usually end up play these in math classes, but if time for games arises most can work well any content area--or in the cafeteria or anywhere else I find myself with a group of students. They allow for critical thinking, problem solving and (if played multi-player) practicing communication skills. 

Prices are what I found on iTunes as of 7-19-2013.

Hey, That's My Fish! - $2.99 - This works for 1 - 4 players. Rules are extremely simple and the animations make it all the more engaging. Players compete to get fish points on a shrinking iceberg.  Strategy and tension emerges as players balance getting to the most fish, trapping opponents and maximizing the chances of their own survival. 

Olo - $1.99 - This is the only game here that's not based on an existing non-computer game. It is a two-player action game involving flicking disks of various sizes. It's so intuitive that students can start having fun with it right away, but there's room for skill.  They score points if they stop in the scoring zone and players can reuse them up to three times each if they are flicked or bumped into their shooting zones.  The fun comes in knocking the opponent's disk out of the scoring zones without returning them to the shooting zone where they can be reused. 

Through the Desert - $2.99 - Here's a game I didn't expect to connect with the students from the remedial math class where I tried it, but they really liked it. It has a few more rules than most on the list, but the actions each turn are simple. Put two camels on the board. Points are earned in a variety of ways. The app makes the setup and sometimes cumbersome scoring effortless. If you work with students who like fresh strategy games, be sure to check out this one!

Sixis - $0.99 - This is a push your luck dice game with cards. I don't particularly like it because of some odd rules I never remember and I can't seem to roll the numbers I need!  I have seen students really have fun with it though. 

Can't Stop - $0.99 - This is the classic push your luck dice game. It makes a fun two-player game that my son and I enjoy. I used to have success in the classroom with the original board version and I thought the app would make it all the better. So far I haven't seen it catch students' attention, but there is a lot of potential here, at least for older students. 

Ingenious - $1.99 - I have had a lot of fun with this app and the board game. It is very simple, but has plenty of room for strategy and interesting choices. The app allows two players to compete. I actually have not had a chance to teach students this game yet, but I think it will appeal to many in the upper grade levels.  My big complaint with the app is that it's easy to accidentally place a piece in the wrong place or orientation, but there's no undo on the moves.  

Ra - $3.99 - I keep Ra in my School Games folder, but like Ingenious, I haven't yet used it in class yet. The app does a great job of making a complex, long game very simple and fast.  Each turn can take only seconds most times, but there are a lot of rules and to play well or even to care what's going on, there will have to be some explanation before the first game. So far I haven't been working with a group of students that I felt would sit through that. I absolutely love the game in the traditional form and the app. My son and I can speed through the three rounds of a full game in about 20 minutes on the iPad.

30 Hands - A great free iPad app for narrated slideshows

I used to use Pixntell for a simple, free option for narrated slideshows in the classroom, but now I'm sold on 30 Hands.  I have used it with several students at the middle school level.  It lacks a text tool (update: Text tool added as of 8/6/2013.  Great!) and it won't let you pan and zoom, but for a quick narrated presentation or for digital storytelling it can't be beat.

(Another feature I haven't tested yet came with the last update. It allows you to duplicate a slide. The developer suggests using this for animations.)

Below is an example (created with the app itself) of the basics.  I also included a second example where I talk about some games I've made.

The third video below shows how I transfer slides (usually created in PowerPoint) from my computer to my iPad using the Google Drive app.  That process, in conjunction with 30 Hands, is a great way for students to finalize and publish their work.

Music Creation for the Classroom - Some compiled resources

So much of my blog has been about creativity games, but I realized this week music has shown up now and then.  It has always been a huge part of my personal life and recently I have seen how it can motivate students in school.

When it comes to infusing passion into a lesson, not much can compare to the effect music has on many students.  Some of those who are hardest to reach are also deeply interested in music or musically inclined.

Technology has made it easier that ever for anyone to create something along the lines of a song or music video.

Here are a few thoughts and resources that I have posted previously.

The basics:

• This post sums up a method I use to create original songs and videos in about three hours at the most.
• The main idea behind these projects is to encourage learners to make something that involves passion and creative expression, publish it and learn from it so they can do better next time.  
• It's easy to spend a fortune on good equipment, but in all my efforts with recording I keep it simple.  Even a mediocre musician like me can get a lot of mileage out of free online resources, Audacity for recording and Gsnap for pitch correction.  You'll probably need a mic and headphones too, depending on how you plan to perform and record.
• GarageBand for the iPad is amazing.  For several months I thought of it as just a tool for sketching song ideas.  Lately I have been using it to record short songs like some of those shown below.  I use the iRig Mic Cast microphone and iRig guitar interface with it for recording.

From other posts:

• An overall plan for creating music in the classroom - This was written in the summer when I had some untested ideas.  It still serves as the outline for the projects I have done with students.
• My latest music video with students - Two middle school students wrote this song.  I helped them record it and I edited the video using mostly video and pictures taken under their direction.
• My example of a math music video - When I told students about my ideas, some were afraid to sing or perform on video.  I made this video as an example to encourage them to take the step.
• Scientific Method Rap - This is one example from my first effort to assign a music video project.  The post is the best example here of what worked from start to finish in the classroom.  I did about eight hours of work on this after the students finished, just to see what was possible and how much work it would take.  
• Another rap - This example also came out of the class project above, but without my additional editing.  
• Kevin Honeycutt - Since I first came across Kevin's conference session in 2011 he has been an inspiration to me.  I love how he inspires students to be creative and get their ideas out there.
• Music Video for Tech PD - This is a song we had some fun with for a PD session.  I was encouraging teachers to put some passion in their work and to do something new.  This song was a result.  It also serves as an example of what can be done using just the iPad for recording.

Favorite Free Apps for Video Slideshows, Tutorials and Frustrating Tech in School

This past week was our district technology professional development.  It's my one big show of the year.  The  topic I was given was project based learning, but I used it as a backdrop to challenge everyone to try something new, creative and passionate in their classrooms.

To provide a concrete example we kicked the session off with Tech's a Maybe, a rewritten version of the popular song.  If I get a chance to finalize it, I'll post a recording here.  

I put together a few tutorials and examples based on iPad apps and other processes I use to create narrated video slideshows.  They're posted on the site I created for the district PD, but here are the links by page:

• Examples free apps for video slideshows* - One example was created with Pixntell and the other was with Videolicious.
• iPad tutorials for free apps for video slideshows - How to make a quick narrated slideshow with Pixntell and Videolicious.  There are also tutorials for transferring files using Google Drive and one for Educreations (a good free app for flipped teaching video lessons).
• Tutorials for creating narrated slideshows on a PC - These tutorials are for older versions of PowerPoint and Photo Story, but that's what most lab computers still use in our district.

*A couple notes about pros and cons of these free apps from the tutorial page:

Pixntell is limited to five slides and there are no bells and whistles, but it is a very simple app for making a narrated slideshow.

Videolicious makes a nice looking slideshow that includes pictures, narration and music.  You can even add video clips, though it is not addressed in this tutorial.  

The potential negatives are your video will be limited to one minute and you give up some control on the panning and zooming.