Tag Archive | iPad
May 16, 2013  

Creating Silhouette Art with the iPad

silhouette

I would be the first to raise my hand in a Superdome full of people if the following question was asked, “Who is the worst art teacher out there?”  But if I can find a way to integrate art and technology, my lessons are sometimes fairly successful.  This was one of those activities.

To complete this project we used the iPad camera, Tracing Paper Lite (free), and TypeDrawing ($2.99).  There is a web site, Texter, that performs like TypeDrawing, and is free.  However it does not have the font choices and the ability to import a picture as a background.

The students took pictures of each other in profile on the iPads.  Then they opened Tracing Paper Lite, imported their pictures, and traced their silhouettes.  If traced so that the silhouette has no openings, the students can then fill it with black paint.  Because they were using Tracing Paper Lite, which did not have an easy way to export their silhouettes, I had them take screen shots (be sure to get rid of the grid in the background first), and crop them in the Photo Album.  Then they opened TypeDrawing (here is a SnapGuide to using this app), imported the silhouettes, and added the traits that they felt characterized them.

I have seen this done without the use of technology, but the students enjoyed the freedom TypeDrawing gave to personalize the fonts, the colors, and even the direction of the words.  Does anyone else have ideas for how this could be used?

April 9, 2013  

Robots for iPad App

A couple of days ago, I received my daily update from my “Apps Gone Free” app.  I noticed the “Robots for iPad” app, and thought it sounded intriguing, but didn’t have wi-fi at the time to download it.  I remembered it yesterday, and decided to give it a try.  I am so glad I did!

“Robots for iPad” is only available for free this week, as it is National Robotics Week (April 6-14, 2013) here in the States.  If you’re reading this post after that time period, I still think it’s worth the 99 cent regular download cost.

The app shows different types of robots from all over the world.  You can filter them by country, type, date, or size.  You can also view just the featured ones, or random robots.  Once you click on a robot’s picture, you will see a description of the robot and its purpose.  There are also additional photos, and it looks like they all have videos included as well.

In addition to the summaries of the robots, you can also read robotics news, play a game, and learn more about the study of robotics.

F.Y.I. – this app is rated 9+ for “Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes.  I haven’t had a chance to look at all of the robots, yet, but have not found anything I wouldn’t want my own child to see.

Don’t forget to download Robots for free before the end of this week!

A Screen Shot of Part of the Robots Gallery

A Screen Shot of Part of the Robots Gallery

My favorite robot, Paro, was designed to be a therapeutic tool used in hospitals in nursing homes. This is a picture of some Paros recharging with their pacifiers.

My favorite robot, Paro, was designed to be a therapeutic tool used in hospitals in nursing homes. This is a picture of some Paros recharging with their pacifiers.

Paro giving comfort to an elderly woman

Paro giving comfort to an elderly woman

February 14, 2013  

Puppet Pals 2

Screen Shot 2013-02-13 at 7.40.45 PM

I have posted before about the iPad app, Puppet Pals, here and here. Yesterday, I was reading a post by Lisa Johnson at techchef4u.com, and saw that there is a brand new Puppet Pals 2 app that was just released in January. So, of course, I had to try it out.  Just like the original version, there is a free app, and you can also buy an “All Access Pass” for $4.99.  Because I downloaded it to a school iPad, I stuck with the free version.  Here are the new features as described in the iTunes store:

• Characters walk and talk!
• Use your own photos for heads!
• Fully pose-able limbs!
• Ride a wide variety of vehicles (camels, giraffes, planes, cars and more)
• Tons of musical soundtracks to set the mood
• Explore different terrains and settings
• Experience low gravity on the moon

So far, I have found that the free version does not allow you to add your own photos (you can add that feature for $1.99, which might be well worth it – allowing you to create as many of your own puppets from photos as you like), and the characters (the set of 3 “Pure Genius” characters – Einstein, Van Gogh, and Twain – costs .99), rides, and locations are limited.  The Puppet Shop is fun to look through, though…

One of the best new features is that, if you touch a character while recording, his or her mouth will move along with your words.  The movement of limbs is a vast improvement, too.

Be forewarned – your students will want to fully explore this before actually doing an assignment with it.  They will need at least 15 minutes to giggle over combining different character heads with different bodies, such as Shakespeare’s head on a ballerina’s body.  And they will probably want to play every music sample, too.

Another thing I like about Puppet Pals 2 is the section that is included for Parents and Teachers with suggestions, tips and tricks.

Of course I wish the free version offered all of the bells and whistles, but I have to admit that there is a lot that can be done even with the limited resources on this version.  If your students produce any great samples, I would love to see them!  E-mail me at teichh@neisd.net.

 

February 13, 2013  

My Album

Yesterday, I was browsing through the day’s Apps Gone Free (using the app on my iPhone), and was intrigued by the description of “My Album“.  Always a bargain hunter, I was even more interested when I saw that this free app was usually priced at $4.99.  I quickly downloaded it to our school iPad, and started to play with its many features.  I was very impressed. “My Album” allows you to create virtual scrapbook “albums” with as many pages as you like.  On each page, you can add backgrounds, pictures, clip art, text, and even drawing.  You can resize and rotate the pictures, use your own photos as backgrounds or the ones in the app, and choose from dozens of fonts for your text.  The best thing about the app is the many ways that you can share your albums and/or pages.  You can e-mail them in jpg or pdf formats, save them to your iPad Photos, or save them as pdf’s on the iPad.  Oh, and you can include music on your pages (I haven’t explored this feature, yet.)

This is a lot of great stuff in one app.  Your students could use this for creating presentations.  You could use it to keep records of daily class activities in an album to be shared on a blog or printed at the end of the year.  There are lots of ways you can use this in the classroom.

The Help menu is fantastic – with short videos that explain each feature.  You can also go to the developer’s website for a longer video that shows all of the app’s abilities.

I don’t know how long this app will be free.  There is a free version of it in the iTunes store, as well, but I am not certain how it differs from this one.  Get the full version today, if you can!

Page #2

 

February 5, 2013  

Bridges

My second grade gifted and talented students are currently studying bridges.  We have been using the PBS Building Big site, which has some great interactive labs and suggested classroom activities.  We have also been using the K’Nex Bridges kits, and will be exploring the “Bridge that Gap” challenge (Here are some other K’Nex Challenges).  There is also a Structures Curriculum packet that is a free download from K’Nex.  Here you can find a great compilation of famous bridges. One of my favorite new resources, though, is a pair of iPad apps that allow the students to learn about different materials and types of bridges by making their own and testing them.  They are very similar.  One is called, “Bridge Constructor Playground.”  This one gives a tutorial that slowly introduces the different types of materials and methods.  Users can build virtual bridges and test them with cars and trucks.  What I like about this app is that you can have many different answers for each phase.  What I don’t like about the free version is that it has an advertisement between each level.  (The kids quickly learned to hit the “x” every time, though. ) The other app is merely called, “Bridge Constructor.”  In this one, you are given different scenarios and budgets for your designs, and must stay within those constraints to meet the challenge.  There is a free version of this app, as well, and it did not appear to have as many ads as the “Playground” version did.

We are going to add some depth and complexity to our lesson by talking about multiple perspectives and the ethics of building bridges.  The 2nd graders truly seem to be enjoying this portion of our “Structures” unit, and we may have a hard time moving on!

February 1, 2013  

Clockwork Brain

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“Clockwork Brain” is a fun, free app for iDevices.  Sprocket, the robot, gives easy instructions for each of the mini-games that come in the free version.  Included are:

★ Scrolling Silhouettes: Trains Visual/Spatial Ability
★ Anagrams: Trains Language Processing
★ Missing Tiles: Trains Arithmetic
★ Chase the Numbers: Trains Memory
★ Size Matters (Unlockable Bonus): Trains Visual/Spatial Ability

You can earn access to trials of the other mini-games offered in the “in-app purchases” by collecting tokens within the game.  (Be sure to restrict in-app purchases if you do not want your little one to start buying up more game packs.)

The steampunk look differentiates “Clockwork Brain” from other apps of its type.  I also like that it is not another “skill and drill” app, and provokes some different types of thinking.  If you are really feeling adventurous, you can set the language to something other than your native tongue, and try to learn some new words while you’re playing!

December 21, 2012  

Give the Gift of Awesome Apps

My holiday series of “Gifts for the Gifted” concludes today with a post on apps that you might want to pre-load on that new iDevice you’re about to set under the tree.  This is, by no means, an exhaustive list.  New apps are released weekly, of course, and there are quite a few older apps that I may not have had the pleasure to try, yet.  I will give you some resources for finding apps that might fit your specific needs at the end of this post.

These apps are great for elementary age children, and do not require much reading.  If I have previously reviewed the app on my blog, I have included a link so that you can learn more about it.

We will start with the free ones:

And now for the not so free apps that I highly recommend are worth the current price:

If you are looking for ideas for more apps, here are some of my favorite resources:

You can also check out my Pinterest boards.

And, finally, if you bought a new iPad for your child, you might want to read these reviews of child-friendly iPad cases.

Engage Their Minds will be on hiatus next week, so Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!

December 13, 2012  

Using the Aurasma App, Continued

Aurasma in action at Shaw Wood Primary School

Aurasma in action at Shaw Wood Primary School

Yesterday, I posted instructions on using the free Aurasma app on your iDevice.  Included in these instructions were how to use the plethora of “Overlays” provided within the app.  Once, you create an “Aura” these “Overlays” are short animations or videos that can will appear on top of a trigger image when you use Aurasma on your device to scan the trigger image.

But you are not limited to the “Overlays” provided by Aurasma, numerous and entertaining though they may be.  You can also add your own “Overlays” within the app.  For example, suppose you have a student who has created a work of art.  You would like to display the art on a bulletin board, but you really want people to see and hear the child describing her artwork as they are viewing it on the board.  You could do this with a QR code, of course, as I explained in this post, but you could also use Aurasma, which will make it appear as though the student is actually standing in front of the artwork as she explains it.  Another way you might use a “homemade” overlay would be with a textbook picture or a worksheet.  You could have a video that explains a certain concept or gives hints, and it will appear every time a user holds their device over the trigger image.  Here is how you could do this:

1.)  First, decide what your trigger image is going to be.  In the first example, it would be the child’s artwork.

2.)  Then, decide what you want to happen when the image is scanned.  In this case, we want a video of the child explaining her work to appear.

3.)  Using your iDevice that has the Aurasma app, videotape the above scene with your camera app, and save it to your Photos.

4.)  Open the Aurasma app.  Tap on the Aurasma logo.

5.)  Tap on the +.  Near the bottom of the “Create” window, tap on the “Device” tab.

6.)  Tap on the large +, and choose “Photo Album”.

7.)  Find the video you created and choose it.  Select “Use”.

8.)  After it process, give the Overlay a name, and tap on “Finish”.

9.)  You will be asked if you want to create an Aura with that Overlay.  Tap on “OK”.

10.)  Take a picture of the artwork.

11.)  Choose where you want the Overlay to appear on the artwork.

12.)  After it processes, add details (see my previous post for more info on this).

13.)  Once it is done, it will give you a message that the Aura has been added to your device.  After that, whenever you use the Aurasma app to scan that art, the video will appear over it.

Below, you can view a short video on ways Aurasma can be used in education.  Next week, I will give some more ideas on how this app can be used in the classroom.  (You can find it at http://youtu.be/5qRcIek4NY0 if the video does not show below.)

December 12, 2012  

Using the Aurasma App

Screen Shot 2012-12-11 at 7.49.52 PM

On Monday, I posted a couple of holiday cards that I made using Aurasma Studio.  If you follow the instructions on my post, then you can view “augmented reality” versions of the cards.  I promised that I would give instructions for making the cards shortly.  These are NOT the instructions :)

I found that getting familiar with the free Aurasma app on my iPad and iPhone helped me when I ventured into creating my own channel “auras” using the web-based Aurasma Studio.  So, I’m going to start with the app instructions today.

I believe there is an Android app for Aurasma, but I only know how the iOS one works, so those are the instructions you will find below.  *Aurasma recently updated their app, so some of the instructions may be a little “off”.   You may be asked to register at some point in this process.  Registration is free, but I recommend that you use a fairly generic username and i.d. that you won’t mind sharing with your students.  This will make it easy for you to share the auras you create on multiple devices.

1.)  Download the free Aurasma app from iTunes.

2.)  When you first open the app, there will be a short introduction.  Tap on “Launch” to clear the screen.

3.)  To use the app on a single device, you must create an “aura”.  Tap on the Aurasma symbol. (It looks like a purple triangle with a notch in the bottom.)

4.)  The first thing you will see are “Super Auras” that were created by Aurasma partners, mostly for advertising.  Ignore those.

5.)  Tap on the +.

6.)  You will be directed to choose an “Overlay”.  For practice, go ahead and choose the “labrador puppy”.

7.)  Then you will be directed to choose a “Trigger Image”.  From experience with my students trying to create these, I have the following tips:  pick something that will not change how it looks any time soon (so, don’t take a picture of someone’s face) and is not very reflective.  A picture printed on a piece of paper is usually good.

8.)  The updated version of Aurasma now has a nifty little toggle at the bottom that will move toward the green end if it is a good image.  Tap on the camera when the image is good.

9.)  Then you get to “Position the Overlay”.  You can move the labrador puppy around on top of the image, make it larger or smaller, and even rotate it.  When you are happy with it, click on the arrow.

10.) You will be asked if you want to make the aura public or private.  Go ahead and choose public.  (This may be a part where you will be prompted to Log In or register.)

11.)  Once the aura is created, you should then be able to hold your iPhone or iPad over the image you used as  a Trigger Image (staying within the Aurasma app), and the labrador puppy will appear.

12.)  If you chose to make the aura public, then any device that is signed in to the account you used to create the aura will be able to view the labrador puppy overlay as well. (This is a brand new feature in the latest update, and I could not find the exact differentiation on the Aurasma site for “public” and “private” images.  However, in my very scientific home testing, it appeared that other accounts could not view the public aura unless signed in to the same account, and devices other than the one on which it was created could not view the aura at all if it had been labeled as “private”.)

Tomorrow, I will give instructions for adding your own overlays to your Aurasma app, rather than using the ones in their library (although those are quite fun!)

December 10, 2012  

Augmented Reality Holiday Cards

About a week and a half ago, I mentioned that I was going to post some holiday activities that could be used with the Aurasma app.  I encountered a couple of technical difficulties – not with the app, just with my desire to make a video without actually using my own voice.  I solved the problem by bringing two more apps on board – Talking Santa for iPad and Talking Penguin 3D (both free). I also created a Powtoon video, but that one is still under construction, so I will try to share it later this week.

Here are the steps for using my new creations:

1.)  Download this free PDF, and print it out in color - Holiday Cards

2.)  Download the free Aurasma app to your iTouch, iPhone, or iPad.

3.)  Within the Aurasma app, you will need to tap on the icon on the top left of your screen that looks a bit like an oil derrick.

4.)  In the “My Auras” window, tap on the arrow pointing right at the bottom, and then select “Search”.  In the search window, type “Hidden Forest”.  (At some point, you will be asked to register.  Go ahead and register; it’s free.)  Subscribe to the channel for “Hidden Forest Elementary”, and then tap “Done”.

5.)  Hold your device over one of the pictures (make sure the volume is turned up), and position it slowly until you see the “Loading” signal like the one below.

loading

6.)  Enjoy the short video!

Each picture has a different video attached to it.  The penguin is a “Happy Holidays” video with a pass for lunch with the teacher, and the Santa one says, “Merry Christmas”, and offers a homework pass.

You could print these out, and make holiday cards out of these for your students.  Then, you could either allow them to view them in the classroom with a device, or send them home with the above instructions – depending on how many of them have access to iDevices.  Or, you can use them as class rewards during the next couple of weeks.

This might seem like a lot of work on your end, but I plan to offer more Aurasma activities in the future, and you will have instant access to them if you are subscribed to the Hidden Forest channel.

I will also soon be posting directions for creating your own Aurasma “auras” – but that’s going to require a few more steps than the ones above!

UPDATE:  Aurasma recently updated its app, so its interface will not look as described above if you have the newest version.  Instead of having the oil derrick/antenna icon, you will have a purple Aurasma logo (a purple “A”) to tap on.  To subscribe to my channel, you can click on the magnifying glass after tapping on the logo, and then follow instructions 4-6.  (The loading signal will look different, though.)

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