Saturday 24 August 2013

Augmented Reality allows teacher to come home from school


Last night I was cooking dinner and watching my 7 year old struggle with her Mathematics homework.
It was related to weight and categorising objects from lightest to heaviest. It was the all too common problem for parents. When to step in? What have they covered in class? not to mention the bigger question of whether or not young students should have to do homework at all!!!

Anyway, back to the dilemma. It was then that I realised it would be so beneficial for the teacher to come home with my daughter so that both Isobel and I could ask questions.

In my role as Primary ICT Coordinator I am exposed to new technologies on a daily basis. My mind automatically looked at Augmented Reality as a solution to meet my daughters problem. So I started the process of putting together a worksheet that would allow a virtual teacher into my home, using Augmented Reality to put the process all together.



Whilst not perfect and still having to deal with the entire class personalisation, the result was amazing. My daughter was able to engage fully with the homework task, receiving instant feedback on each problem. The situation was also personalised, having already seen what my daughter was having problems with.

Watching her interact with the work sheet gave me an insight of where we can fully utilise Augmented Reality in Education. Our children learn differently than I did as a child and we need to explore such technologies and the potential they have for making a significant contribution to the way students learn.

Paul Hamilton
appsbypaulhamilton@gmail.com

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Is this the future of Education?


Is this the future of Education? Year 2 students uses Augmented Reality blended with Virtual reality to complete her Mathematics homework.

The aspects that work here are:

Personalised learning
Instant feedback for student
Flipped Classroom
Engagement in learning process
Caters for all ability levels

It certainly ticks a few boxes. For those wondering how I did this? I used 3 educational apps for iPad. Explain everything to do the tutorials, tellagami to do the virtual avatar and Aurasma to put the Augmented Reality together.

To find out more about Augmented Reality in Education download my free iBook from the iBookstore at:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/augmented-reality-in-education/id641019829?ls=1

Paul

Saturday 17 August 2013

Let's get our little students learning to code

Let's get little ones learning to code. Get them off these so called educational Apps and let them experience the magic of programming and making the characters on our iPad react to our commands. Follow up with older learners with Hopscotch App and GamePress App!
http://youtu.be/mqo9K4Dw31M


Saturday 10 August 2013

When the teacher gets in the way of learning

Do students learn differently than we did? Absolutely.

Sometimes I feel I am holding them back as a teacher, and this feeling was never more prevalent than this afternoon with my own daughter Rachel. In Year 7 she saw me creating some online tutorials about a new App called GamePress. It is an App that allows students to create their own games and learn to code at the same time.

learning to code


I allowed her to sit down on the iPad and follow my instructions/tutorials on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/appsbypaulhamilton/videos

Before I knew it she was learning in a way that illustrated the power of the flipped classroom and the power of video instruction in the younger generations.

Let's keep an open mind teachers:






Monday 5 August 2013

Tellagami Project building momentum

I have been overwhelmed with the response to the Tellagami Project. I thought it would be a wonderful platform for teachers and edtech leaders to share what they believe in and what they are doing in classrooms. The messages I'm getting at the moment are amazing and I hope I can share with the world.

Why Tellagami? I love the App. I use it with my students all the time and thought I would get adults having the same benefits as my students.

The Global aspect of this project is what is most pleasing. Powerful messages from across the world, all speaking from the heart and with passion.


I have started putting together all the Gami's and I think everyone will be surprised with how it turns out. Here is the opening credits teaser.



Still time to get your message/Gami in? Absolutely. Details of procedure can be at:
http://appsbypaulhamilton.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/collaborative-tellagami-project-looking.html


Friday 2 August 2013

Collaborative Tellagami Project - Looking for Edtech Gurus

Hi everyone

Looking for EDtech Gurus to be part of a project that pulls together some of the most inspirational messages for the Edtech community. You have an opportunity to inspire others in what will be a sought after and influential short movie. What I require:

1) Short 30 sec Gami using the Tellagami App or website:
2) Must follow the below format
3) Let you passion come though in your short speech
4) Email movie file (from camera roll) to appsbypaulhamilton@gmail.com
5) All movies will be put together by Paul into a short film (presentation)
6) please change the avatar as much as possible to avoid duplicates

Template for narration is simple:
My name is............(insert name) and I am............(what you do). I believe..........(insert statement that defines you and how you believe technology plays a part in education).

So what do you need:
Tellagami App
Create a short Gami using your own voice (it's really easy!!!)
please change the avatar as much as possible to avoid duplicates
Make sure you save to camera roll first and then email me straight from camera roll.

Quick tutorial here on how to make a GAMI
Link to App HERE
Link to website HERE

Example structure here









Tellagami App applications

On Thursday I gave a PD on the Tellagami App. My staff then started brainstorming some applications for using Tellagami with their students in the classroom.

You see I believe the magic of Apps lies in the imagination of the teacher, not the App itself.

This is what the teachers came up with:


Mathematics - students take a photo of a specific shape or angle and then use as a background in Tellagami. Students then communicate through avatar the elements/characteristics of this shape/angle. Great way to demonstrate knowledge.

Science, field work. Take photo of creek, pollution.....and use App to give news report on what has happened and what is required to rectify.

What about getting guest speakers to email text and use Tellagami to do a virtual presentation??

Short narrative films, especially in Year 11 when students have to create a short film. Would be better to use recorded voice so we can leverage vocal qualities. Also useful in analytical tasks where students have to deconstruct representations of characters/places/events, etc.


Integration within the App “Explain Everything” - unlimited possibilities across multiple Learning Areas.  Students could take a snapshot of a page in EE, using this as a background and then have the Tellagami introduce the topic/elaborate on a part or summarise at the


Science; predictions with reasoning or observations told by the tellagami and placed over images of investigations in process. An excellent chance for personal reflection post investigation too I think!


History; showing a comparison between two groups of people (Eg aboriginals and white settlers) - video documentary style presentation of the two opinions or perspectives of events in history?

Literacy: reading responses to a set piece of text - photo of the text as background with types or spoken short responses, questioning (question stems) from a set text, summarising, reflecting and even reviewing through the lens of different audiences for the same text (girls vs boys, preps vs upper primary etc)