In an earlier post I talked about my Digital Story Telling class. One of the tools we were using for that class was Bitstrips for Schools. You may already be familiar with Bitstrips through Facebook or by using www.bitstrips.com. For my students, I use Bitstrips for School. There is a charge for this website, but it is worth it to me to be able to monitor what they are doing. Bitstrips for Schools lets you make assignments. As students create their avatars, they are added to a class picture, which I think is hilarious. There are lots of instructional ideas on the website that you can use for assignments. There is also a 30 day free trial, if you want to check it out before making a financial commitment. Here is a little more information about Bitstrips for Schools. Since that time I have introduced the rest of my class to this website. During the month of February we used it to create an avatar and an introductory comic strip introducing ourselves. Now we are using it in connection with health. We have been learning about the digestive system and good nutrition. Students were to create a comic strip about healthy eating. I am pretty impressed with what they have come up with.
You can check out our class gallery and see my students Bitstrips by clicking here.
20 Day Blogging Challenge, Day 14: Share an idea from class this week. Will you do it again?
School is dismissed at 3:00 but on Thursday afternoons until 3:45, you can find sixteen fourth graders in my room, working hard on their writing. Eight of the kids are from my class, and eight are from the other fourth grade. It is completely voluntary, and it was supposed to be for just six sessions in November and December. They are so eager and engaged, that I have extended our sessions until the end of January.
The first website I introduced them to was Voki. I did it by creating this one.
The kids have a ball creating the Avatar. The writing comes into the picture when they want to make it talk. If they don't write their message correctly, it won't say what they want it to say. Our first assignment was to tell about themselves. The second assignment was to create a character and have it tell its story in first person. This one was created by Maya.
You can use Voki for free, but there is a small fee for the Voki Classroom. Learn more about Voki here.
Next we learned how to create a Storybird. Storybird.com allows you to create a digital book. You begin by selecting a collection of art that you would like to use. Then you write a story. These books can be printed into a paper book for a fee, but we are not doing that.
If you are interested in learning more about Storybird, here is a great tutorial by Mike Fisher.
Two of my girls figured out that they could collaborate on a story from separate computers. One student works on a page. When they are finished, they send it back to the other student, who writes the next page. This would be a great way for classrooms to collaborate on a project. Once again, kids became the teachers, because I had no idea you could even do this.
Here is a Storybird written by Margo.
Now we are telling stories by using Bitstrips. With Bitstrips you tell your story through cartooning. There is a fee for Bitstrips for School, but I like the way I can make assignments, and see what the kids are doing. We just started on these. So far, Margo is the only one that has one finished.
My plan is to embed our finished projects into a wiki, so the kids and their parents can see each other's work. I'm not doing real well with that yet and all the Vokis that I embedded previously seem to have disappeared. I guess we will share them in some other way.
This class has been a joy. Everyone is there because they want to be, and I just like watching them work. I will definitely do this again. Watching that enthusiasm is an inspiration for any teacher.
