TECH PLAY 3

TECH PLAY 3

I am excited about this project because I choice to find apps that can be associated with the Creating portion of Bloom's Taxonomy. The three apps that I played around with were:

1.) iMovie

- a movie application that allows Apple users to create movies on their iPhones or iPads.

This app teaches creativity through proper editing and storytelling.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• create movies and trailers using a non linear editing format.
• add your own pictures, videos, and/or audio
• video duration can be as long/short as your want it to be.
• transitions between clips like fades in, screen flips, horizontal stripes fading out, etc.

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• There are no video tutorials to show you features and functions of this program.
• Hard to get the hang of when you first start using it.

Over I like tghis application because woth all the pictures and video take I take on my phone, I can then instantly start editing them together into a movie instead of having to sync to the computer then use a video editing program, like iMovie, to create the video.

2.) Toontastic Jr. Pirates 

- a storytelling app that allows you to make your own pirate-themed animated movies.

You must buy Toontastic Jr., but the themed versions are FREE.

This app teaches storytelling concepts through imaginative play.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• Be creative in your storytelling process
• add your voice to the narration
• add pre-selected music
• animate/move the characters with the touch of your finger
• select a beginning, middle and end scenario 

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• Your duration for each scene is pre determined. You must fit all you content into the timeframe.
• no closeup/zoom in ability
• you are forced to a specific story theme. Only pirate theme characters. Can't change characters.
• you don't have much time to get your thoughts together before the app to record your voice.
• cant add additioinal characters or background scenes.
• cant change the direction of the characters stance, left facing or right facing.

3.) Puppet Pals

- a storytelling app that allows you to make animated movies by selceting your choice of characters and scenes.

This app teaches storytelling concepts through imaginative play.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• can pause your recordings and then continue on at your own pace.
• can change the size of the characters by zooming in to make them bigger and zoopming out to make them smaller.
• can change the facing position of your characters, left facing or right facing.
• pre-created scenes and characters along with the choice to add pictures from your phone's photo gallery for characters and background scenes.

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• characters don't show movement of legs walking and arms swinging as you move the character along the scene.
• cant add pre-selected or uploaded music unless it is recorded thru the microphone of the phone as part of the narration.

Final conclusions

As I played with these three (3) different apps, I noticed the similarities are they all have create a final movie production. Now Toontastic Jr. and Puppet Pals have common similarities like:

• you moving the characters around the screen during recording
• they have pre selected scenes and characters
• they are animated
• have 3 stages of a movie: beginning-middle-end.
• allow you to be very creative. 

iMovie stands out as different from the other two (2) because it allows you to create real life movies from real life video clips and photos.

I would like for my students to utilize iMovie while in my class to create a student lead movie production. Students would be very interested in beimng able to show off their creativity skills when given a certain prompt to create a storyline. The thing with iMovie is that you will need to gather your own characters, find background scenes, and record using a video camera. 

I think the two animated apps (Toontastic and Puppet Pals) would be a cool tool to use in writing/reading classes. It would allow the students to bring their writings to life using their own imaginations.

TPACK MODEL

I feel that tese apps all fall in the TPCK because after the content has been presented to the students through teaching and content alignment, the teacher gives his/her expectations for the assignment, and the students then take technology to produce the final product, a video file, displaying the expectations and content needed to madter the assignment.