Reflections on Technology Tool

                                                Technology Integration Tool - Educreations 

What I did and student engagement:

I began using Ipads and Educreations with my students a couple weeks ago.  First, I incorporated 2nd grade vocabulary from the basal into an Educreation activity that was described in detail on my previous blog.  This past week the students used the Ipad camera and Educreations to modify a story from their basal called, "Helping Out".  They took pictures that showed "helping out" around ORE. Next they organized the pictures and wrote a sentence for each page.  They had to incorporate the weekly vocab. words within the sentences as well.  Lastly, they practiced and recorded their voices reading the story.  The project took much longer than I had anticipated but the end product was really well done.  I emailed them to their classroom teachers and they loved them.  Some showed them to the whole class while others posted them on their schoology page.  These activities are engaged the students and providing higher level technology integration into my groups.  Overall, I am engaged and happy with how I am accomplishing my goal so far and so are the kids.

Implementation fears:  I didn't have any fears per say, more just working through the unknown with the kids.  There is always a learning curve when trying something new.  Through trial and error, I learned how to use the app efficiently and figured out ways to keep the kids engaged while working with each smaller groups.

Enhancing by way of SAMR model:  Redefinition - new tasks that were previously inconceivable.  Redefinition was my goal and my goal was accomplished.  Yes, kids could recreate stories in the past, but they couldn't take current photos, words, and their voice and put it all together to create a techno book.  As a result of this, I have a couple girls wanting to make their own book.  When I give them some free time on the Ipads, they ask if they can work on their book.  I am pleasantly surprised by their interest level.

Do differently:  Next time I have the kids do vocab words or a story, I will have them take the pictures, write a sentence and then they will type the sentences into the video.  Last time I wrote the sentences with their help.   Also, I would like to get more Ipads so they each could have their own to make a video instead of having to share.  I will have to ask a grade level if I can borrow from their carts. 

The next Tech activity I did was with the 3rd and 4th graders who attend Adventure Reading, our new after school program.  The lead teachers and I had the students read a book and then use Animoto to share the elements of the story.  The students would take a picture of the page in the book that the setting was found on. Then the students would add a text frame telling what the setting was.  From there they would move to the Title, characters, problem, and solution.  Once finished, they would put the slides in order and add a sound track and video design.  What a fun activity.  The kids loved it and wanted to make more than the one that was planned for the day.  The only problem was that the app was not a full version so the kids had to pick four pictures to use instead of adding all the elements.  As a result, the story review was only half done.  It seems to happen often with technology...what is planned is sometimes difficult to make happen because of glitches that get in the way.