Ken Robinson: How to escape educations death valley

Ken Robinson’s talks are always entertaining and thought provoking. Watch this TED Talk in which Ken Robinson discusses the following topics:

  • Disengagement
  • Children are diverse
  • Education focuses on a narrow spectrum
  • ADHD
  • Broad curriculum
  • Curiosity
  • A creative profession
  • Standardised testing
  • Creativity is important
  • Individualise teaching and learning
  • Engage students
  • Teachers need discretion and autonomy

Visual Poetry App

Richard Byrne has a blog called “iPad Apps for Schools”. He contributes regularly and reviews a wide range of educational apps. One of his more recent app reviews was for an app called Visual Poetry which I thought sounded useful for presenting student writing. The app allows the user to create custom word clouds with their text (not just poetry). The app is .99c. I would be interested if anyone would like to download it and see if they think it would be worthwhile putting it on the PBAS iPads.

Click here to read Richards review of the app.

Click here to visit iTunes to view the app.

visual poetry 1

Adding audio to a single image using FotoBabble

In my previous post I talked about an app called WordFoto which allows students to generate a word list and apply those words to a photo. The photo is then made up entirely of words (none of the original image remains). If you would like to view this post click here.

In this post I would like to show you how to take this photo created in WordFoto and add some audio to it using a second app called FotoBabble. After creating an image and applying a set of words to it in WordFoto this image is saved to the camera roll on the iPad. Open FotoBabble and import that image. Once the image is in FotoBabble students can add audio to explain the image and the concepts they have learnt.

The example below has been created by me but is a task my 7/8 Health class will be undertaking this term. The task will be to select an image representing smoking and create a word list in WordFoto and apply those words to the photo. Students will then save this image into the camera roll and import it into FotoBabble. In FotoBabble they will have to record an explanation of 3 words from their list that appear in the photo and why they have used them. My example is quite short for the purpose of this post, students work will be more detailed.

As well as adding audio there are a number of basic formating options within the app including: the ability to enhance the photo, add effects, add frame (free download in app), add stickers (very basic – in app purchase required to get more), rotate the image and add themed wall paper as a background.

Note: Once the audio is completed the image/audio needs to be uploaded to the Fotobabble website. For this to occur a class account needs to be created under the teachers name. Students then use the user name and password to log in on their iPad and upload their work. This works through our school wireless system and is fairly quick and painless.

Combine language and photos – WordFoto

Use the iPad app WordFoto to create an image made up of key words describing that image or the concept represented. The app is fairly simple to use requiring the student to take a photo in the app or import an image from the camera roll on the iPad. Once the image is in WordFoto you can apply a word set to the photo. The photo is then made up entirely of those words. Words are in different sizes, shades and colour to ensure the image is still recognisable.

The app allows the student to manipulate the following:

  • Put in your own word list (up to 10 words).
  • Crop the image.
  • Select from one of the 8 preset styles.
  • Select custom styles and modify background, foreground, shadows, highlights, brightness, contrast, saturation and fonts.

In health my Year 7/8 class are doing a topic on tobacco and alcohol. Two tasks I will be asking students to do are to look at what chemicals are in cigarettes and what are the impacts of smoking. To extend the research work students will do in these two areas they will be asked to take a photo of a smoking image (I have printed about 15 high quality colour images from the Internet) and apply a selection of words about the negative impacts of smoking and the contents of cigarettes, i.e. Death, Cancer, Rat Poison, Expensive etc. This is a quick and easy task to do that will help to reinforce some key words relating to smoking tobacco. The final product is professional looking and will be emailed to me so that it can be printed and put up in the classroom.

Below are two images that I created. The first picture is using one of the smoking images I have printed for students while the second is from a magazine for the purpose of creating an example for this post.

 

Do schools kill creativity?

This talk by Sir Ken Robinson at the 2006 TED Conference is a fantastically entering and funny but more importantly thought provoking talk. It is one of if the most watched TED talks ever with 3,974,014 views. I have seen it a few times over the past couple of years and it makes me think about how a pedagogical scaffold like Blooms, which places creativity at the top of higher order thinking skills, is often at odds with the way schools educate students. Ken Robinson’s talk is about how he believes schools kill creativity.

Why is it that every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects, mathematics and languages at the top and on the bottom are the arts? Ken Robinson 2006

LEGO Digital Designer

I have just come across this great LEGO creating software. This is free software that can be downloaded onto MAC or Windows machines. There is a PDF manual that can be saved from the website as well giving hints and tips about the tools available within the program.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM AND PDF MANUAL.

This software would be great for doing some design tech work with your students. There are no instructions on how to build particular items so students could design and create their own models or bring in instructions from LEGO models they have at home and use these to build models within this program. It does take a little while to get used to the program but in half an hour with the use of the manual I created the car below, not brilliant I know but it demonstrates that in minimal time students could begin creating. The other positive is that most students are familiar with LEGO and the way it works so this should increase their ability to learn and understand the program.

The program allows you to take screen shots from any angle and save them to your computer. A great tool for students to present their completed model.

If you are interested in the program download it and have a play at home or if you have kids let them have a go and see what they think. If you would like to use it with your class I see no reason why we can’t convince ‘the school’ to put this program into one of the suites or onto the new laptops. Creativity, planning, design, building, working with a partner, presenting a product the possibilities for use in the classroom are wide ranging. On top of this I think the students would really enjoy using the program. My suggestion is that this program would be useful from Year 3/4 and up.

If you are looking to develop and broaden your pedagogy this program also offers the opportunity to explore a variety of methods including:

Use prior knowledge, collaborative, teacher modeling, student led, open ended task, goal setting, self paced, scaffolding, teacher feedback, skill transference, risk taking, share learning, , creative thinking, critical thinking, reflection, individual, group, explicit teaching of collaboration, explicit teaching of higher order thinking, authentic problem, multimedia, self evaluation, peer evaluation, explicit teaching of peer assessment, explicit teaching of self assessment, communication through practical, communication through art, communication through writing.

The Value of Creative Play

I came across this video during the holidays which reminded me of how important play is for children. The video is about Caine a young boy in East L.A. who builds a cardboard amusement arcade at his fathers used car parts store. Credit to his father for encouraging Caine’s imagination, creativity and play. How do we foster creativity at P.B.A.S.?

This is a brilliant video, I guarantee it will make you smile!