Week 5

DVolver Movie Maker's scenarios are not really suitable for primary school students, it is aimed more for adults. However, while I was using DVolver I could see how it would be useful for developing primary students literacy skills whilst exploring with animation. It could also be used as a great tool for preparing / drafting a class role play.

ZIMMER TWINS is a fun and easy to use animation program that is much more suited for primary kids. It uses storyboarding to build up an animation. This would be a great introduction to animation's INSPIRE - PLAN - CREATE moto.
There are so many options you can play with and this would really encourage kids to draw on their imagination and creativity when storyboarding.

BUILD YOUR WILD SELF was a very funny program that would work perfectly in lower primary and could tie into english, humanities, and science domains of the curriculum. Each students 'Wild profiles' would make a colourful classroom display.

REBUS STORY is a cloze but uses pictures rather than words. A handy activity to break up writing in English while still developing literacy, particularly for those students who are reluctant with writing.

Today we also looked at Xtranormal, a fabulous animation software where the characters can even lip sync!
Ziptales is a great program that is targeted towards Grade 3 & 4 students who are excellent at writing.
catchmentdetox.net.au (ABC Science) is fantastic for challenging students to think about sustainability in the environment.

Finally, Greg got us to play the word game 'Ode to a spell checker' using Microsoft Word. We turned off our computer screens and typed text that Greg read aloud to us. Once finished we turned on our screens and looked at what we had really typed.... I was surprised I didn't have too many mistakes, considering that I am not a whiz at touch typing! I think this kind of activity is a good eye opener for primary students to remember that they still need to learn how to spell because they will not always have access to a spell checker.