My Thoughts on Technology and Education

 

I was recently interviewed by the wonderul people at Chromville about my thoughts on technology and education. Here's an exerpt:

Why must education work hand in hand with technology? 

We need to teach to the way today’s children learn and prepare them for the quickly changing job market that they will be faced with upon graduation. Technology integration is no longer an option.  There are many resources and tools available that teach the skills required for today’s learners and future workforce.

To read the full interview click HERE. 

Chromville - Augmented Reality in the Classroom

During a recent Twitter chat, I learned about a new augmented reality app called Chromville. A group of very creative people in Spain have come up with an imaginary world that you can bring to life using this FREE iOS and Android app!  
My students enjoyed visiting the website, Chromville.com, to print the coloring sheets and read about the history of the villages. They selected their favorite character to color and experience in 3D. We are now diligently working on stories to go with our characters. This has been a perfect opportunity to work on the writing process by brainstorming ideas and getting creative! 

The app brings the coloring sheet to life. The animated characters and scenery are inspiring!

The characters and scenery become animated right on the students' desks!

As an added bonus, the students were able to Skype with the Chromville creators all the way from Spain! We were able to ask questions and learn more about the magical world and how it was created! We learned that artists and programmers must work together to create the 3D animation, come up with the stories, and make the app. Some of the students also shared their ideas for the stories they are working on.

We were also treated to a demonstration of another one of their projects: Imascono - Augmented Reality Apparel. The t-shirt image triggers different heads. This one is a power ranger, but we also saw a chameleon and a gorilla!

This good-looking group of geniuses are the creative energy behind Chromville. I can't wait to see what else they have in store for us! 



Resources:
Chromville Home: http://chromville.com/
Chromville Instructions: http://chromville.com/?page_id=4031
Download coloring pages: http://chromville.com/?page_id=3528

Imascono Home: http://imascono.com/?lang=en
Imascono video: http://youtu.be/D21BEqJ2Ew8

Augmented Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day party was pretty typical: First we played Valentine Jingo (like bingo), ate too many cookies, and then exchanged our cards. But....Today's party ended like no other! Using the Heart Cam app my students got to take a look at what a real heart looks like. This clever app uses augmented reality to create the illusion of an open chest cavity and a beating heart. Using the printed trigger page, the students were initially shocked at what they saw, but then had fun zooming in and taking a good look at what their own heart might look like.

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Low Tech and High Tech Dot Days

This is the first year that I celebrated International Dot Day in my classroom.  We actually celebrated it on two days: Monday September 16 and Friday September 20.

The Monday celebration was very "low-tech". A guest came and read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and discussed how we can encourage each other and make our mark in the world.  Then we painted with our never-before-used-paint-sets. The students really enjoyed creating their own dot and making their mark. The dots made a beautiful hall display.

On Friday, we went "high-tech" by inviting guests to bring their Apple and Android devices so we could bring dots to life using the augmented reality app ColAR.  The students colored dots on special color sheets printed from the ColAR app site. When we aimed the devices at the color sheet, the dots became spinnng, bouncing spheres that multplied and changed sizes!

Use these two images to check out ColAR app. Just go to the site and download the app to your Apple or Android device.  Once dowloaded, click on play, aim it at one of the images, and watch it come to life! Make sure the whole image is in your screen. It will turn purple and then come to life!

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resources: http://mrsmorgansstars.edublogs.org/