Introducing the iPad to my nephew

During my trip to Brazil, I introduced my 4-year-old nephew to the iPad, and, consequently, to the concept of digital storytelling. I showed him the PuppetPals and Sock Puppets apps, which had the power to engage for a long time a very active and energetic boy! It was very interesting to realize how digital storytelling is indeed a very powerful tool to teach kids the concept of narration and foster their creativity and imagination. At the same time, those apps are so easy to create stories with, that kids have all the freedom to do their projects without depending much on an adult. By the way, I am just not posting one of the many stories he created since they are all in Portuguese.

So, based on my personal experience, I would recommend introducing kids to such apps, since, besides evolving the abilities related to storytelling, they will give you

a rest for several minutes. (lol).

And by the way, an iPad gets everybody amazed, doesn't it? My nephew loved it more than the Wii I brought him, and my dad joked that I should had bought him one, since "the FreeCell app is so much better than the one we play on computer"!

Technical problems

BlogPress refuses to work, so my only option was to post the previous review using the Blogger website, which i prefer when I actually have my laptop, but it is not ideal when using iPad. For some reason I don't understand, the website does not allow me to select an image from the iPad to illustrate my review. Therefore, when I finally have my laptop again, I will be able to do it. I just needed to share my frustration here!

Storyrobe review

Storyrobe is an user-friendly application that enables you to create a digital story in 3 steps. The first step is the selection of images, and it gives the option to choose a picture from your album, use your iPad to take new ones or record a video, or even use a story that Storyrobe users share. After you put in order the images that will be used, it is time to press record and start the narration. There is also one control to select the next image, therefore they will go along with your narration perfectly. After recording, there is the option to edit your story or publish on YouTube or for others users to see. This is a very intuitive app and makes digital storytelling an easier task. The drawbacks however are that (1) each story needs to be limited to 3 minutes, (2) if you use another user's story, your narration will be over when that story is over, (3) if published, your story will be available for other to see even if you delete it in your iPad, and (4) the app closes unexpectedly a couple of times. But, overall, it is a nice application that can be used to create simple and fast stories.

Storyrobe can potentially be included in classrooms as a tool to facilitate learning and engage students. Students have the chance to create entertaining and/or content-based digital stories to explore certain subjects, and they even have the opportunity to include original pictures or videos to illustrate their narration. A very positive aspect of this app is won't require additional time to teach students technical skills.

Door Scene II

Last week, we were supposed to complete the second part of the Door Scene video. Our group had to come up with a storyboard for the scene, obeying to same requirements of the previous week's project. Honestly, I couldn't come up with a new story, so I ended up making the storyboard for the same story from last week ( what a shame!). I mean, I had some ideas, but they were, hum, not genial, let's put it like that! But I tried to make a decent storyboard using the neuannotate app. I liked that app, by the way, however, it does not have resources to make a good drawing, and the typing box is a little problematic. But it nice to have an app that allows you to open and make annotation on PDF files.

But I digress. After selecting the best storyline from each group, we had to switch storylines with another group, therefore, we all would record somebody else's creation. I liked the twist, because we had the opportunity to evaluate how efficient and clear our storyboards were, based on the final videos. It is easier when you are recording your own, because you can explain what is obscure, and add details that were absent in the storyboard. But when you don't have the opportunity to elaborate using your voice, then you have exactly what you created. And it can be confusing or too general.
This time, my group was much faster, and wrapped it up well before the time allocated for the activity, which didn't happen last week. Perhaps that is because once you have a storyline, a clear one, you just do what you are supposed to, and do not have to think about changes, or it could be that the fact that we recorded a video last week served as a kind of "practice". Or maybe we were just tired. Anyways, it was a much faster and straight forward process.
In sum, I found it an interesting activity, not only it made us use the iPad to shoot a video, but it also gave us an opportunity to elaborate, collaborate, and evaluate the quality of the storyboards we produced.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad