Five App Smashing Ideas for your Classroom
App smashing happens when you combine the power of more than one app to create
something incredible. Below are five creative “go to” apps and fun ideas on how to smash them together with other fantastic apps to take awesome to a whole new level!
something incredible. Below are five creative “go to” apps and fun ideas on how to smash them together with other fantastic apps to take awesome to a whole new level!
App
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How You can Use it
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App Smashing Ideas
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The fun begins by selecting video and deciding upon one or two Avatars. Then choose a background and record a narration. The videos can be saved to Photos (Camera Roll) or uploaded directly to YouTube.
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Buddy Poke + iMovie + YouTube
Import the clips into iMovie. Have students add a video introduction,
add music, text, and a conclusion. Upload to YouTube and share on a playlist.
Idea:
Record vocabulary definitions. Create a separate video for each definition. Put them together in iMovie and use the movie as a study tool.
Click to view an example from Mrs. Evon's 4th grade class.
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Create engaging notes in Notability. Explore all the paper choices. Graph paper is a great choice to align line objects, especially math problems. Even use Notability to “color” with the variety of colors in the palate.
Annotate images easily in either Notability or Skitch. Images can be imported from camera roll. You can also annotate PDF’s imported from Drive or Dropbox. |
Notability/Skitch + Explain Everything/iMovie + YouTube
Go on a photo scavenger hunt. Import the images into Skitch, and annotate them. Drop the images into iMovie and let the creating continue.
Idea:
Mr. Sims had his students find real world examples of geometry. App smashing with iMovie and even including Garageband to make music resulted in this great project! Click here to see an example.
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Create a thinglink on any topic. As users move their mouse of an image, text
pops up giving the user details and facts about the image. |
Thinglink + Kidblog
Write a blog post on http://www.kidblog.org
and embed the image created at Thinglink into the post. Combine with Twitter and share on #comments4kids and see what happens when the world leaves a comment or two for your students.
Idea:
Create a thinglink over a state for a unit on state facts. Write a blog post
with details about the state and include the Thinglink image.
Create a Thinglink on a historical event. Add it to iMovie upload to YouTube and share your learning with the world.
Click here to see Cooper’s project. He was in Mrs. Geldes class. |
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Let your imagination run wild and create digital story demonstrating mastery of a curriculum objective. Explain Everything allows you to
import a variety of material: photos, websites, video, and files. Easily add slides with narration. |
Explain Everything + iMovie + YouTube
Export the Explain Everything files to iMovie to add title slides, transitions, and special effects then upload to YouTube. A great way to showcase student work and an engaging way to share with others.
Idea:
Instead of and/or in addition to students writing a formal science lab report,
create an oral presentation with Explain Everything. Have students create and upload content to their own YouTube channel. As the school year continues, the evidence learning will grow.Click here to see an example from Mrs. Sykora’s HAL students. |
Record stop motion animations over a curriculum topic with narrations. Students find this a fun way to explain a curriculum topic and share
with others. |
Stop Motion + iMovie + YouTube
Import the Stop Motion videos into iMovie. Snazz it up with a video introduction, titles, music, and more.
Idea:
Share the video on YouTube, then link to online newsletters to easily share with the world.
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Written by Ann Feldmann
@annfeldmann1
I enjoyed learning about the power of combining apps. I truly had not even considered these possibilities. The Tellegami is one that I would love to try. I think that high schoolers would have fun creating an Avatar. It would be super useful for those students who struggle with presenting information, and also for students with limited verbal skills. I also would like to try Thinglink. When I viewed the Cooper's Project, it showed me how it could be used in place of a traditional powerpoint.
ReplyDeleteI, too, enjoyed watching all of the videos. What creative kids! I absolutely love Explain Everything, but I had not even thought of using Tellegami and iMovie together. I'm pretty familiar with iMovie, but the Tellegami app is one that I would have to explore a little more. I know that my 8th graders would really love creating their own Avatars, especially if they can pick the voice for the Avatar as well. I can see how pairing this with a math lesson could make it really fun. Thank you for the great ideas!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching the videos as well. I have used Tellegami with vocabulary words from our story for the week. After I showed my gami to my students, I told them that they could try and make one themselves. I would like to try notability and skitch. I think it would make learning more meaningful to them. I am excited to try these new ideas.
ReplyDeleteI haven't used Tellagami before, but since we practice a lot of vocabulary in my class, this could be a fun way for my students to study new words. If they all create one or two Tellagami each for their lists of new words, then we could combine them into an iMovie to study online through YouTube. Fun idea!
ReplyDeleteI really like the different app smashing ideas that are provided in this post. This gives me some ideas as to what I can have my students do in various areas of the curriculum. My students have enjoyed using the Tellagami app, but I haven't tried it with iMovie. I may try this app smash with our vocabulary next week! Great and creative ideas!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the descriptions, I really liked the tellegami + iMovie + YouTube smash up with the vocabulary. Since language learning is a lot about building a strong vocabulary base, teachers could use this method of delivery to mix up the vocabulary instruction or have students do something similar to the examples shared as a way to introduce them to the new terms. In fact, for every section of new vocabulary terms, each teacher has a presentation (prezi or PPT) with images where students write down the second language term, draw a picture of the object or concept and identify which part of speech it is. The tellegami vocab videos are simply a digitized version of this note taking process.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. This is something that I never even thought you would be able to do. I like that you have the ability to combine apps because it allows you to teach the uses of several different apps at once. I have used something very similar to Tellegami prior to taking this class for another class. I like it because it is a way to present a speech using a technology other than powerpoint.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about combining apps to create a final product! I love this idea! Very innovative and creative. I like the ability to use several difference resources to create a project. I really like the Tellegami app as it is a way for students that dislike speeches or are non-verbal to present a speech to the class. I can't wait to try app smashing in my classroom!
ReplyDeleteWorking with all of these apps together has been a blast! I had always heard of app smashing but never knew what is was. I think the toughest part for me is getting over being scared of the unknown. I have had to learn to jump in and experiment with these apps. It has been a blast! Thanks for all of the info!
ReplyDeleteTellegami used to be one of the apps listed in this blog post. I really liked that app, but noticed that it was replaced with BuddyPoke. Even though the graphics in this app aren't as nice, it has the ability to add more than one character, and the characters are more age appropriate for younger students. I'll have to try using this app with some of the middle schoolers.
ReplyDeleteI can use explain everything, and stop motion to explain locomotor movements or fundamental sports skills in PE. The graphics and images may be rough but the ability to see good and poor examples would help the students gain a deeper understanding of skills. I could also share snapshots of video with the PT's to help diagnose or work on skills for struggling students.
ReplyDeleteI need to learn to use Explain Everything; everyone who uses it raves about it in the classroom. I like Notability for the things I have tried in my English class.
ReplyDeleteI haven't used Thinglink yet. Excited to explore and introduce this app to students. I could use it to have them demonstrate their understanding of main idea and detail after reading text.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this type of information. We hope you will share some more information about it. This is very helpful for me & for other who looking for free movie maker. Visit our site & download it.
ReplyDelete