My Attempt to Encourage Creativity - The Quadratic Formula Song (All Over 2a)

I'm working with a group of middle school students and I told them the final project for the class will be an educational music video.  They were not so sure they liked the idea of singing or being in a video.  In an effort to encourage them, I took the plunge and finished an idea I had been working on.  So here goes.

(The chord sheet for the Quadratic Formula song is here if you're interested.  If you perform this in class, I'd love to hear about it!)



It's not easy for me to play something like this for the students, but I wanted to take the step and encourage them to do something better.

I'm not sure if it looks like it, but the video itself took a long time to create.  We won't have time for something that complex in class, but I think they can do better at making a complete song as opposed to a short chorus like I wrote.

For anyone interested in the process, here's a rough outline of what I did and the software I used.

I knew I wanted to make a song about the quadratic formula.  I obviously didn't write any lyrics.  The formula was the chorus.

I used VoiceBand on my iPad to improvise a melody over a click track.  If it's not apparent, I don't sing that well and the pitch correction in VoiceBand helps me end up with something workable.

From there, I put it in UJam.  I was going to create the whole song in UJam and I might still do that.  When I saw some of the simple chords that came out of one version, though, I realized I could play that on guitar.  I changed what UJam gave me for chords.  I also played around with the melody and rhythm quite a bit after that initial idea.

I programmed the bass, drums and a simple guitar part in the GarageBand app on my iPad.  I recorded my actual guitar using the iRig guitar adapter.  I recorded the vocals (including the spoken part) with the iRig Mic Cast.

To polish the vocals a little more I used GSnap in Audacity for pitch correction.

The song was not done at this point, but I had an idea of how I wanted it to flow.  I started gathering video. Almost all of the video was created or captured with my iPad.  For the stop motion segment in the middle I used Stop Animator.  For the other animated sequences I used DoodleCast Pro.  There's also a short segment of a screen capture where I grabbed the Daum Equation Editor using Screencast-o-matic.com.

I couldn't get a good mix of the audio on the iPad, so I exported each track and converted them to .wav format using Zamzar.com.  I brought them into my very old version of Music Creator.  I'm sure an updated version would do a lot more, but I just use my old version because it lets me split, copy and paste right on the beats of the song.  I could do this on the iPad or the MacBook with GarageBand, but I'm used to years of playing around with Music Creator.

I'm not a sound engineer by any stretch, but after getting a mix I could live with, it was time to tackle the video editing.

I used iMovie on my daughters MacBook to add a few effects to the clips of me playing the guitar.  Other than those, all the video was done in Corel VideoStudio.  As I wrote previously, I was unhappy with Corel's customer service awhile back, but I do still love that video editing software.  I am always amazed at the level of control and effects that I can achieve for relatively little cost and effort.

When it's all said and done, it took way longer than I hoped (easily over 20 hours, but I lost count) and it's far from perfect.  I am happy with it as a first effort and I look forward to seeing how it encourages my students.

Fast, Simple Video for the Classroom - Drive and WeVideo

I can't remember how I came across this, but I saw a post recently that pointed out the Google Drive iPad app will take photos and video directly from the camera.  I didn't notice that before, but it makes for some quick, easy video capture from the iPad and transfer to a computer.

To go directly to Drive, it's this easy from the + symbol in the Drive app...

Then on a computer, work with the WeVideo Chrome app to edit.  It's going to be best with short clips or just still pictures since it can take some time to upload to Drive.  And WeVideo can be a little slow on uploads and previews too, but it's so easy to pull the clips and photos directly from Drive.  It's great to have all these tools integrated so there's no need for cables or SD cards.

The themes in WeVideo are fun and I like the tone they give a video, much like Instagram or Aviary will give a photo.

Here's an example I made after just taking some quick clips and pictures of my game collection.  The music and old film effects are all part of the theme.  I imagine this as a great classroom project where a student reads her poetry or reflective writing over some appropriate images.  (And I just learned the embed code from a video shared from Drive can be found in the File menu when you open the video.)


(Click here if the embedded video from Drive isn't working on your device.)

And since WeVideo is working from Drive the project can be shared in the editing process.  It's a good time to be alive!

I've got some classes starting next week where I will give this a try with students.

Videolicious Updated App - Great features for the classroom

I wrote earlier in the year about the Videolicious app.  Even though it was limited in some ways, I loved how it could be used for a quick news story.  They updated it this month and now I absolutely love it.  It could be a wonderful tool for digital storytelling and I can't believe it's still free.  It's for the iPhone, but it works great on the iPad 2 that I use.

A sample video is below, but here are the good points...

New features:

• You can control the timing of the images while you narrate!  Lack of control on timing was the biggest drawback to the original version.  (Now the only potential problem is you can't control panning of the pictures.)
• It adds some filters.  I haven't tried them all, but it's a nice touch.
• You can import a "story" rather than recording yourself at the moment.  This is a great addition as well.  It essentially lets you record a video, then overlay pictures or clips over it as you control the timing.
• You can also just skip this, which amounts to showing your pictures or clips with some background music.

As someone who has worked with home video equipment for over 25 years, I am amazed at how simply this app can turn out a polished video combining narration, music and images or clips.  It's actually for the iPhone, but it seems to work great on the iPad.  Check it out for any of these possible uses in the classroom:

• Commercials for your classroom projects or the start of the school year.
• Project highlights from students after they complete their work.
• News stories for video announcements.
• Any type of digital storytelling.

Here's a video I put together to show the basic features.  The app won't help with bad narration or a shaky hand while recording!  I tried to do this as quickly as possible to show how easily one can create a video.  It's an overview of my Pegged game, which you might also find useful for a lesson activity this school year.

My Story - iPad app for digital storytelling

I originally posted this because they were doing a free special for the app.  I see it now is listed for $1.99.

The My Story app reminds me a lot of what I liked about StoryRobe and StoryKit, but it's all combined in one polished app made for iPad.

I have only had a little time to explore it so far, but I wanted to point it out as a useful tool for making a nice ebook.  Pages can diplay a picture and text and narration can be recorded as well.  I could see this being appropriate for any elementary students.  While the secondary students could certainly use it, by that time I'd like to see them doing more with video.

It allows the user to import or take pictures.  Some editing can be done with paint tools, though I found I had to write or draw slowly.  It lagged after making a mark or two.

Narration is simple to record or delete page by page.

The files are in epub format.  I am able to open them easily in iBook on my iPad.  The app itself will display them too.  There are other sharing options, but if you don't have something on your computer to open epub files you'll only get a file you can't view.

Music Creation for the Classroom

Update 4/3/2013:  Since writing this, I compiled several music resources on a new post at the blog.  I also have two more examples of videos I made using a process similar to the one below:

• The post the compiles all my music project tips and ideas.
• A scientific method rap I made with a middle school class
• My quadratic formula song that I created as an example to encourage the students

In most tech projects I see, the teacher encourages students to find background music online.  I can understand this, since it lets students use their favorite songs and it is a quick solution.  There are so many great tools available for creating music easily, though, I hope we can find more ways to let the students create their music.  I experimented (with my wife's help) to make a sample song to see how easily students could write an original song and incorporate it in a video.  The results are in the clip below.

Here's the process I used:
I've been playing around with VoiceBand and GarageBand on the iPad.  I love GarageBand as a songwriting tool and it could definitely be useful in the classroom for recording audio.  Since it requires some understanding of music theory, though, it's going to take some time for a student to make a song.

VoiceBand (only $1.99) is a fun option, though I haven't had much luck in recording a full arrangement on it yet.  Instead, I use it to improvise vocal tracks and melodies.  The pitch correction feature works well for someone like me who doesn't have the best ear.

From there, I email myself the vocal and bring it into UJAM on the computer.  UJAM is a lot of fun.  It automatically chooses the chords to fit the melody and then you can pick from a variety of styles.  There are limitations (like only one chord per measure), but I haven't found anything else that so quickly turns a melody into a fully arranged song.

(You can record directly into UJAM with your computer and it has pitch correction as well.  But I like the idea of recording with the iPad when inspiration strikes.)

The chords can be tweaked if you don't like what UJAM picked automatically.  You also have some flexibility for which instruments are included.  The only drawback I see for the classroom is some students could play with this thing for hours!  I suggest firm guidelines on options for styles and a tight schedule.

For a sample, I wrote four lines about imagining more creativity in class.  I showed them to my wife and let her play around with them for about five minutes.  I also let her hear a sample melody I was thinking of, but I wanted her to improvise her own.

We did two takes (probably about a minute total on this) as she improvised a melody for those lyrics.  I was happy with what we recorded.  She wanted to do another take, but for the purpose of the experiment I wanted to see how quickly I could get this done.

I emailed it to my desktop computer and played around with it in UJAM for about 15 minutes.  I'm familiar with most options there, so it didn't take long to pick a style, tweak one chord and add a couple instruments.

I then downloaded the resulting file and copied it to the iPad again.  I pulled it into iMovie and added some pictures I had taken of tech projects in the last months of school.  It actually took me about as long to dig through all my pictures and make the video as it did to record the song.

Here's the final result.  The song is not going to win awards for originality, but hopefully you can see how easy it is to use these inspiring tools.  (You can hear the metronome in the measure before the vocals come in and I wanted to add some echoes on a couple phrases.  If I had taken 15 more minutes with Audacity it would have been easy to accomplish that.)

Explain Everything - iPad app for flipped teaching

I have posted previously about some free iPad apps that can be used for flipped teaching.  I recently broke down and paid the $2.99 to buy Explain Everything.  I was told it is the ultimate app for video tutorials, supplying all the things that those free ones were lacking.

From what I've seen so far, that's been mostly accurate.  I really like the laser pointer feature and the entire app is intuitive and easy to use.  I am glad I purchased it and I'm sure I will use it more than I do the free ones as I get more comfortable working around the couple quirks.

Here are the pros and cons I see at this point:

Pros:

• Presentations can be shown live or narrated then exported as a video to the Camera Roll (or to other usual locations).
• Laser Pointer allows for pointing out areas of the screen during recording or presenting.
• Web browsers can display online content.  (I didn't use this much yet, but it looks like a great feature if it works even with complex websites.)
• Can import pictures or even entire presentations (PowerPoint is an option) from Dropbox or Evernote.  (I haven't experimented with importing from Evernote and see my note below about Dropbox.)

Cons:

• It's not free.
• I can't get it to import anything from Dropbox!  It might be me, but so far I can't even get one picture to import correctly.
• When re-sizing objects it is too easy to rotate them at the same time.  It would be good to have a snap feature at every 90 degrees for objects.  I simply gave up trying to straighten a couple rectangular images perfectly .
• Like all the free apps I mentioned previously, there's still no way (that I can see) to undo or edit part of the audio recording.  Since you can export to the Camera Roll, though, it's easy enough to edit the mistakes out in iMovie or another editor.  That's what I did in the sample below.
• Note on 9/4/12:  Noooo!  It did the same thing I ran into with other slide creation apps.  Today I put together four slides for a presentation.  Before I had a chance to record I had to do something else, but I left Explain Everything open.  When I came back to the iPad and turned it on I tried to edit it and the app shut down immediately.  I lost all my work.  Educreations used to do this to me and I made a note about it in that review.  It could be attributed to any number of factors beyond the app itself, but I wanted to pass it along.

Here's my first attempt at a video tutorial using the app. It explains how to use the Say Anything flipchart in the classroom. For purposes of this overview of Explain Everything, you'll see all the important features of this app in the first two or three slides.

iMovie for Digital Stories and Flipped Teaching

In the past I made a few suggestions for using iPad apps for digital storytelling and flipped teaching.  I also have been trying to squeeze the most out of a few free video editors.  Then someone finally convinced me to spend the $4.99 on iMovie.  I'm very impressed with it so far.

I made the short video slideshow below that describes an experience* I had with some creativity games at the middle school level.  I love how intuitive is to arrange the pictures, set the length and adjust the pan/zoom settings.  Narration is equally as simple--just talk while the pictures go by.  Keep what worked and do the other parts over.

I haven't used the app to record any lessons for flipped teaching yet, but it makes a portable recording studio and I can't see why it wouldn't be perfect.  Cutting out a part of a clip is a swipe down to split it and a hold and drag to remove or rearrange it.  Prop the iPad up to record you presentation at the board, edit and upload to YouTube.  I am amazed at the power and creativity that this app allows.

I also love that songs from GarageBand (another $4.99 app that still fascinates me) are easily exported directly into iMovie.  I put a simple loop in the background of the video below just to try it out.



*Two notes about the classroom experience:

• My designated camera person did a good job, but she missed all the opportunities showing the class laughed A LOT as we played!
• I will have a followup post soon about the creativity exercises I mention in the video.

Critical Thinking Activity - Free Games Giveaway

I wrote a post a couple months ago about a critical thinking activity I used to use in class where students would play several board or card games and write about the results.  I am giving away some of those games to two random winners.  A winner can choose the hi-tech or no-tech prize package.  Here are the details.

Hi-Tech -If there’s an iPad in the classroom, consider choosing these two games if you win. In both cases the iPad makes the games easier to learn and they can be played in a shorter time.

Hey, That’s My Fish - After playing this on the iPad I will probably never go back to the board game!  This is a very simple, fun game of picking up the most fish on an ever shrinking ice flow.  

Through the Desert - This game is a little more heavy on the strategy than the first, but again it is greatly improved by letting the iPad handle the details.  Players earn points by placing colored camels on hexes.  Points come from connecting to water holes and oases as well as by making the longest chains in each color.

No-Tech - If you prefer actual board and card games (the way I always ran the activity) you can choose two copies of What’s It To Ya?.

What’s It To Ya? - This is the original edition of my game Oh, Really!.  I used to use it in class to start lessons on life goals.  This article is probably the best source to see how I use it in class.  Two copies of this game will provide enough cards for 16 players to play and you could break that up into four groups of four easily.  With some index cards you can easily make additional cards so four groups of eight can play.  

And since I’m flexible - If you win and you already have some or both of the games we can talk about a substitute given a comparable price and educational value.

To enter:
Leave a brief comment on this post according to the directions below and be sure to follow this blog by clicking “Join This Site” in the upper right of this page.  I will pick two random entries from the comments below and as long as they meet all requirements here they will win the prize of their choice*.

I’m basing this giveaway on my Oh, Really! (What’s It to Ya?) game where players must rank items in order of importance.  So to enter, add a comment below and list the five sets of skills below in order from most important to be taught in school down to least important (in your opinion).  Just write the bold words in your list.  Also, include one brief sentence or so about your rankings overall.  There are no right or wrong answers, so as long as you list them, explain yourself and follow the blog you are eligible for the drawing*.

The skills to be ranked are:

• Technology - Using computers, other devices and technology resources to find, process and present information effectively
• Social - Getting along with others
• Math - Math basics and beyond, as required by state and national standards
• Communication - Presenting information effectively in writing, public speaking or other forms
• Learning - Skills for learning how to learn

Since this blog is frequented by game designers, educators and many others I look forward to seeing a varied list of rankings!

*More details for the prize giveaway:

• The drawing will take place on April 30, 2012.  
• Use an email address or provide information when you comment so that I can contact you if your entry is selected.
• Two eligible comments on this post will be randomly selected.  If the authors have followed the blog and met the requirements above in their comments they will be contacted to choose their prize package from those above.
• For the no-tech prize option, the winner must be in the 48 continental United States.
• For the hi-tech prize option, the winner will receive the apps as a gift in iTunes.
• This is an informal drawing and prize giveaway.  I reserve the right to adapt the rules in a fair manner if necessary.  For example a winning entry may be disqualified if the entrant does not respond in a reasonable timeframe or if an reasonable substitute cannot be agreed upon for a prize.  
• If a selected entry is found to be incomplete or if it is later disqualified, another entry will be drawn until I have given away two prize packages.
• The winners will be announced as a comment on this blog post.

Blurb Mobile for Digital Storytelling

Someone pointed out Blurb Mobile to me yesterday as a possible app for digital storytelling. I really like it so far.  Presentations can be created from pictures and one video.  The limits on the number of pictures or videos can be changed by paying for the full version.

Most interesting to me is that it plays the presentation in two ways.  One plays the audio and then the user can flick through the pictures manually.  The other converts it to a video that plays each picture an equal time throughout the length of the audio clip.

After using other apps I have talked about, here are some thoughts...

I still really like Storyrobe, but the resolution can be bad if you play the movies full screen on a computer. Also, the fact that the pictures have to be in landscape (or they get cropped) is unfortunate. We found out this week if the iPad gets tipped while taking pictures the picture turns out in portrait even though we had the iPad turned for landscape. If you can live with those, this is still my favorite for simplicity and being able to control when the pictures change.

Videolicious - Still love it. I just wish you could time the images.  I will be putting together some short reports on classroom projects in the next week...as long as I can convince the teachers to narrate!

How to Make Games - Part 2

In this part of the presentation I focus on some vital tips that I learned about the playtest process.  This is certainly the most important and possibly the most enjoyable part of making a game.  I playtested most of my best games with students over the years and the fun of those sessions and the lasting friendships that developed outweigh any success I have achieved as a game designer.  That might be the best lesson to share with students if you are creating games for or with your classes.

After years of working with some talented and successful game designers, I have pulled out just a few practical bits of advice that can be very insightful for testing any game.



I love the Educreations app, which was used to record this presentation.  However, I have found it's not ideal when I like 85% of what I said, then I mess up or can't remember a detail!  Consequently, here are some clarifications:

Blind playtesting - I made it sound like the playtesters at this stage have to find the game components!  I was picturing them finding them in the box like one would after purchasing a game, but it could be misleading.  Basically, this is your late stage testing and you want to provide the testers with a close copy of what they will have if they purchased a published version of your game.

That golden question about what keeps players playing comes from work I did with Kes Sampanthar when we edited the Protospiel playtest sheet.  I am in his debt for that insight.

And it slipped my mind at the moment, but it was an interview with Andrew Parks where I pulled out the idea of changing just one thing at a time in later stages of playtesting.  Take that for what it's worth.  I usually can't so limit myself!

And to elaborate on Protospiel:
The Protospiel website is here.  Check out that site, but also do some searches for it to see how the group has grown and how many published games have been created by attendees over the years.  The original idea came from Stephen Glenn and his friend Dominic Crapuchettes organized the first gathering.  It would be a shame to talk about Protospiel without giving them credit for their early efforts.

The old Protospiel site has some useful resources that didn't get moved over to the new one yet.  You might want to browse those here as well.

And last of all, I have to point out that playtesting at school has one important drawback.  Almost any game seems more fun to students when they are at school!  This is especially true if you try a game during class.  I usually did playtesting at lunch or after school, but even then games seem more fun than the usual business of that environment.  Keep that in mind when you think about dropping several thousand dollars on publishing your creation.  Games need to attract attention when in the vast array of competing products, not just when compared to your lecture on supply and demand.

More on that in the third part, if I get to it.

How to Make Games - Part 1

Here's my first attempt at a presentation about making games.  I talk very generally about how I get ideas and how I begin to develop them.  If there is interest in this, I will follow it up with information on playtesting and publishing the games.



This post also serves as an example of the Educreations app for the iPad.  I love the app, but it can be frustrating when you want to start over on the recording.  I am happy to find out that I can embed the lesson here.  Originally I thought they were only accessible by users registered with your school on the Educreations site.

Creative Classroom Game - Why Did the Chicken...? and Video App Too

This post serves two purposes.  First, I wanted to highlight Why Did the Chicken...?.  It's a terribly simple, fun classroom game that lends itself to creativity.  I played it with many students over the years and we had a ton of laughs with it.  I mentioned it in my previous post as a game that came out of some work that I did with the designer, Kory Heath.

Also, this video was created with the Videolicious app for iPad.  It's a great little tool for making video reports that are 50 seconds or less.  Take some pictures or video, then record yourself talking about it.  The app takes care of the rest.  It is great fun for free.  I can see it coming in handy for quick reports for student news.

Inspiring Creativity

I love my job most when I get to inspire creativity.  One way I do this is to point students to some of my friends or acquaintances who have achieved success in fields that they are interested in.

For example,  my friend Kory Heath has designed some great games, both for the iPhone/iPad and the board and card variety.  I met up with Kory yesterday for the first time in probably four years.  I reflected on his work and realized that for almost a decade now his games have served to entertain my after school game groups and reunions with my former students.  I pass along these links below in hopes that one or more could be an inspiring launch pad for a creative, curious young gamer or programmer.

Kory is probably most well known among board game players for his game Zendo.  It is a fascinating inductive puzzle game.  He regularly gets email from teachers who use the game in class.

When it comes to fun games for iOS, these three are recommended:

• Tesla Blocks - This is a review of the most recent game he programmed.  My son has recently been hooked on it.
• Blockhouse - Here's a great twist on a sliding puzzle.  Be sure to look at the article on that page about how he built the game.  It's a good read for any aspiring game designer.
• Werewolf - This is Kory's version of the classic parlor game.  It's a great implementation that I highly recommend.

As a creative individual, Kory always leaves me with much to think about after our conversations.  Here's an interview I did with him several years ago.  It provides a glimpse into our common interests and why I enjoy the chance to work with him.

One story I love to tell about Kory was when we first made contact online.  I had just read and been amazed by his design history of Zendo, so I sent him an email.  I told him his work sounded fascinating and I suggested that he come to Protospiel, a game designer convention that I hosted in Michigan.  He was several states away and the convention was in only a couple days, so I told him he should attend the next year.  He wrote me back almost immediately to inform me he had just finished packing to leave for Protospiel in the morning.  We met that week and had an amazing time talking about possible game ideas.  One of them eventually turned into Why Did the Chicken...?.

Two Apps for Digital Storytelling

I have been working with teachers at all grade levels the past three weeks to do more digital storytelling.  Some teachers are focusing on just narrated video slideshows instead of actual stories.  Either way, having a video at the end of a project is a great way for students and teachers to show off their best work.

We don't have classroom sets of iPads in our district, but several teachers have them and others have iPhones.  So I looked for a couple very simple apps that would allow teachers and students to quickly put together stories that at least have pictures and narration.  Here are the ones I have been using.  Both are for the iPhone, but they work well on the iPad.

Story Kit - I love how this one makes the stories in book form, with separate pages.  It makes it so easy to edit the story in parts, one page at a time.  If you mess up narration you only have to do the page over that you are on.  It also allows for text and some limited drawing.  The downside is that the final stories are best viewed as books just on the device.  You can upload them to a website, but there the book displays on a single webpage with all pages of the story visible at once.

Storyrobe - This app is my preferred one because it outputs to a video in the Camera Roll.  It breaks the process of making a story into three very simple steps.  First you gather pictures and these can be from the Camera Roll or you can take them through the app.  Next you "edit", which amounts to putting the pictures in order.  Finally, record your narration.  As you record (up to three minutes) you can bring up each picture as at the appropriate time in the narration.  There are no transitions or features that allow panning or zooming.  Again, I see this as pure simplicity and I love it for the students who can get distracted by advanced options.  The only downside is there's no way to redo just a part of the audio.  One mistake during recording and you have to do it all over...or just live with the mistake.  It also doesn't seem to save multiple stories, so consider this for projects where the story will be recorded in one sitting.

Three Free iPad Apps for Flipping the Classroom or Just Teaching

I mentioned the strengths of teaching with video in my previous post.  More than just as a tool for teachers, though, many are finding the benefits of having students create video tutorials.  Here are three free apps worth checking out if you want to explore this on an iPad.  I am including just a few thoughts on each.

ShowMe -
There's only one "slide", so to do multiple slides you have to set up the screen, record, pause, clear and set up the next screen.  If you want to undo something you say, you're out of luck for the most part.  There's no way to undo just the audio.  It has a good community for sharing the lessons though.

Educreations -
I like how you can set up you slides ahead of time for presentations in this one, but like ShowMe, there's no way to just undo the audio.  I lost a 12 slide setup twice because of this and eventually decided it's not meant to be PowerPoint.  These can be shared online, but last I checked you shared only with users who signed up in your "school" community.  I didn't see a way to share with the world at large.

Screen Chomp -
This is by TechSmith, makers of Camtasia.  That's my screen capture software of choice, so I was really looking forward to using this app.  It has a fun look that should appeal to younger students.  There's also a way to share them online and you can scroll the screen too using two fingers.  The scrolling makes up for the fact that it doesn't do multiple slides.  The drawbacks are that you can only import one picture and one again, serious audio mistakes are going to require a complete do-over of the whole presentation.  As the TechSmith site states, this is going to be good for bite-sized lessons, sort of like Jing for the iPad.