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The week before winter break is always more than just a little hectic. My strategy for containing some of that chaos in the library was to provide a technology based activity that was creative, engaging, and most importantly, fun. It is the holidays, after all! When I found the StoryBots Christmas app, I knew I'd found the tool I needed to accomplish my goal and get in some extra technology practice while having a lot of holiday fun. And fun, it was... (Think amusing kid selfies atop oddly animated cartoon bodies.)
StoryBots is a Web 2.0 tool and iPad app that allows the user to become part of a ready-made video or story. I used the technology in a collaborative and cooperative lesson that had students working together in groups of 4-5 to create and cast their group videos. Working as a group, they had to cooperatively take their own or each other's photo and then individually manipulate them into the space for the face on the app. Then they had to collaboratively cast the video by choosing who would be which character.
I completed this lesson this week with every grade level, kindergarten through fifth grade, with the exception of first grade, which I did not have because of special activities. The kindergartners required a bit more hands-on assistance at first, but quickly picked up the art of taking their own photo and placing it appropriately. With the help of the kindergarten assistants, I walked them through the first round of videos, instructing them on using the app/iPad camera to take their photos and then using two fingers to pinch and manipulate their photo into the correct place. I was thrilled to see that with the time they had left after finishing and viewing their first video, they were taking their own photos and casting a second video all by themselves. Their ability to pick up technology is always so amazing to me.
The only drawback wasn't really a drawback at all, but actually a positive. StoryBots is a KidSafe app/tool from JibJab Bros. and as so, requires an email login. I simply set up my own account and then logged the iPads the students would be using on with my account. We used no more than 8 iPads in each class, 4-5 students per iPad, so the process wasn't as daunting as it sounds. The positive part was that because each group was using the same account (mine), every photo head synced to each iPad, which allowed students to see their classmates photos as well as their own. It also allowed me to go in and pull faces from each class to create a video to share with each of their classroom teachers, introducing the app while showing them what their students had been doing in the media center this week. Needless to say, the videos were a huge success with students and quite a hit with their teachers as well. Overall, it was a very fun holiday activity that required students to work cooperatively in groups and practice and/or add to their technology skills.
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