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Tech Space |
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The Tech Clubs are all voluntary and drop in, so numbers can vary. Last week there were 14 students at the Grade 4 lunchtime Tech Club, doing some great programming using Repeat, but this week only 6. This was our deadline to make online animoto videos using video and photos taken by the students this term using the floor robots. The aim is to then share them with the whole school at the Science Expo Assembly. A couple of the students worked with a partner so we ended up with four robotics videos. Here they are:
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I am convinced that students don't use cameras enough at school. They can certainly add some creativity to display projects, as well as documenting practical work, such as art, drama etc. Once the Gr4 students understood how Animoto worked I sent them round the school in pairs during their lunch hour to take pictures of what they saw. I was delighted with some of the more unusual photos, taken from different angles. Of course there were a lot of standard 'posed' photos as well. I then showed the videos before Assembly as all the classes entered the gym. Examples below! After much blood, sweat and tears (yes, folks - 'my' blood, sweat and tears!!) our Gr4 Author/Tech project is complete. It has been uploaded to Apple for publishing, and the printed books are being shipped as I type. There was quite a large learning curve for me, and lessons I've learnt I hope to apply in the future. One hurdle I had to overcome was using PhotoShop to take out the backgrounds of the images that students would use for their digital collage. It took a while for me to realise that jpeg images would not maintain background transparency, so all images had to be converted to png format. Another issue I had to address was page orientation. The original Hanoch Piven books we used for inspiration were in portrait orientation, whereas Apple only provide landscape orientation. Here is the final product! For the last couple of weeks some of the Gr4 Tech Club students have been using both the Pr0-Bot pictures and video (much of which was student shot) to make Animoto videos. There was a pleasing synergy to this process as it used skills from all three terms of the Gr4 Tech Co-curricular program (digital cameras in term1, Animoto in term 2 and Pro-Bot programming in term 3). See below for an example:
I've spent quite a bit of time setting up the co-curricular clubs, and I'm really quite excited about starting them. The Grade Two students can come on Monday lunchtimes to use the floor robots (4 x ProBots, 2 x Roamers, and a BeeBot)and play some control games (Road & Motion Planning) on the IT Centre computers. Grade Four students may come on Tuesday lunchtimes to produce Animoto videos. Grade Three students are continuing with 2Paint a Picture projects. Grade Five/Six students may come after school on Thursdays to work on Personized Multimedia story Creation with 2CASS.
I was thrilled with what the students produced today. We used big huge labs to add effects to chosen pictures.
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AuthorAfter many years in the Archives
March 2018
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