Excellent Creative Learning Apps
I hope you don’t mind but I’ve noticed that a few of us in the group have young children and so I thought I’d share a couple of apps that my kids love and that I find to be of high quality. One is NFBPixstop which is a FREE app created by the National Film board of Canada. This app allows students to create their own short stop-motion films with ease. I took five minutes to show my kids how to make a film and they have been creating ever since.
Here is a link to an example:
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Another outstanding app is Toontastic. It costs $2.99 but is well worth it. This app allows students to create a cartoon. It guides children through developing a story line, picking music, moving characters, and so on. Using the “Story Arc” children set up each scene and can either draw their own backgrounds and/or characters or use ready made ones.
Here is an example that my seven year old did yesterday.
http://toontube.launchpadtoys.com/104872
Posted in: General
kstackhouse 6:50 am on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for the ideas. I know my kids will love these! I am also trying to think of how I could use the first one in my class.
tomwhyte1 7:09 am on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My own children use my iPad quite extensively, some for games – Angry Birds… But sometimes for various learning activities – I find the new “game” Bade Piggies an excellent game, but problem solving challenge as well. They also love the puzzle apps, and especially a book series called Deskplorers… As they need to understand the story plot, and solve problems to progress the plot.
Eva Ziemsen 8:00 am on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Love the animation app here. I would use this with film students, not just young kids. I used to take my students to the NFB to create claymation PSAs. Now I can have them do this in-class. Film students will take this app to a whole new level. Thanks for sharing.
melissaayers 8:44 am on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for sharing those apps Jen, I love the toontastic one – its a really great example of how technology can change the way learners learn. Being able to easily bring their stories to life with animation instead of just using the more traditional text and images is a great benefit/advancement I believe and no doubt a lot more fun.
stammik 11:36 am on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great suggestion Jen. I’ve tried this one in my classes and the kids loved its simplicity and immediate results. Plus you can’t beat the free price 🙂
avninder 2:00 pm on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I haven’t let my 13 month old use my phone yet but I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time. I’ve heard that PBS kids has some good educational apps. Jen – the video your daughter made is so cute.