Reflection on Creativity Tools
Describe and discuss the various tools you explored: what you liked or disliked about each one. Consider whether you liked or disliked it for your own personal use or for your students’ use. Select one tool from those you explored to continue to reflect on.
The tools I chose to explore were Google Slides, Google Docs, Prezi, VoiceThread, iMovie, FlipGrid, and NearPod.
Google Slides is a presentation-making program that allows users to add slides much like in Microsoft’s Powerpoint. The difference between Powerpoint and Google Slides is that Google Slides are hosted online and, therefore, do not take up space on your computer when you make them. You can add music, transitions, videos (from Youtube or other areas), pictures, and more. I’ve used Google Slides frequently in my own classroom to go through and pace lessons with students as well as for students to use to give presentations in class. I really like this program because I can access the presentation from any computer and collaborate with other teachers on making a slideshow. I can also share it to other teachers who can modify for themselves and grow the slideshow.
Google Docs is a tool much like Microsoft Word where students can word process. This tool is supplemented by the fact that Google tools are hosted online by adding in a commenting feature and sharing feature (which my students use very often in my classroom). Much like Microsoft Word, students can highlight, bold, italicize, etc their documents and even organize them into sections. I like this tool for my students and for me personally, because I can access the documents from any computer.
Prezi is another presentation tool that I’ve used a bit in the past but that I’ve had hesitation devoting time to after experimentation. Much like Google Slides and Powerpoint, Prezi allows users to organize the information they want to present into sub-sections and add different media like videos and pictures. Prezi is unique in that it will create a map or a diagram of the ideas you are presenting for the viewer to see before and after the presentation, which could be useful for tying information together. I’m not certain about using this tool with my students because they might find it less intuitive, but I think it is an “okay” alternative presentation tool to Google Slides. All of my students have Google emails via the school, so they find Google tools most useful.
Voice Thread was a new tool I hadn’t looked at before that looked like it had a lot of neat new possibilities for me in my classroom as well as for my students. I’ve had students create their own movies with iMovie (more on that later) but what I really liked about Voice Thread was its ability to let users comment on certain parts of a media presentation and also highlight (or draw) during the video. I’d really like to try this tool out in my classroom and see about having students do a speaking component to a presentation in the future. Basically, Voice Thread allows users to upload some video or media component and then add comments and drawings to the media (either via a microphone, video, or just text). What an interesting tool!
iMovie is a video organizing and presenting app that many of my students have used in the past when I’ve assigned a video presentation component to their research modules. iMovie is very easy and intuitive to use, making it a favorite among students I’ve taught in the past. iMovie has a lot of pre-set formats that make movie-making easy so long as users have the videos they need. It is also very easy to use via the phone to create interesting transitions from video clip to video clip and then to send those videos off to other users.
FlipGrid is a tool that I haven’t yet used in my classroom but that was mentioned to me in a presentation by Penny Kittle that I was able to attend last year. FlipGrid allows users to record short videos and post them to a board for others to see and comment on. They can be used for students to record a short verbal response to a question or to do (as I’d like to in my classroom) a video Book Review. What is nice about FlipGrid is that it limits the amount of time that the videos can be (similarly to the app, SnapChat, which is so popular with students), so the teacher can make sure that students focus on the most important parts of what they want to say. FlipGrid allows them to re-record if they do not like their initial video.
NearPod is another presentation program, though it seems to be aimed more at educators than student users. The difference between NearPod and the other presentation tools I explored was that NearPod has some built-in engagement strategies such as quizzes and notepads. For example, in one of my presentations on NearPod, I added in an area for students to post “sticky notes” to tell me how their first day of school was. Because students can join a NearPod and follow along with you on their phones, they were able to answer in real time and their “sticky notes” posted to my Promethean board during class for all of class to see. What I didn’t like much about NearPod was the difficulty in making a simple slide with information (like text or a picture) posted on it. Since I’m used to making presentations easily with Google Slides, NearPod’s downfall in this area eventually made me abandon it. Something I might play with in the future is the feature to add my presentations from Google Slides into a NearPod. It would be really interesting to just upload my Google Slides presentations (that I’ve already made) into NearPod and use just the engagement strategies with my students so that they can follow along with me.
Analyze how the creativity tool that you selected might support learning, using the TPACK model. Specifically, describe the content goals/objectives, pedagogical approach(es), and technological affordances of some student work that you might design using the creativity tool you selected.
The tool that I’d like to focus on for this section of my reflection is Voice Thread, the tool that allows users to upload a video or media presentation and then insert comments (audio, video, or text) and drawings into the media. I could see using this creativity tool in order to allow students to create an analysis of a narrative or informational text. There are a lot of videos on YouTube or online of a text being read aloud. For example, my students recently annotated and answered analysis questions on the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe. We listened to audio of this story and I posted some video versions I found of this story. Students could have made a Video Thread of the reading and inserted comments (audio to practice speaking skills, which is in our TEKS, or text to practice writing skills, which are also in our TEKS). They also could have made a Video Thread comparing one of the video versions to the text of the story, itself. As far as content goals, analysis of a literary fiction text is one that would definitely be accomplished here. We analyze stories for diction, tone, figurative language, structure, and theme. Students could stop and make a comment at each of the structural sections of the story (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution), proving they know how to identify and analyze a narrative for these elements. Pedagogically, this approach to analysis would be great for students because it would allow them to work together to create something they could show others. They would be engaged because they could practice verbal skills, writing skills, and reading skills. Students could practice using this tool to utilize each of these skills to prove content knowledge. This technology affords for students to not only create their own media but also to analyze their media in a multitude of ways. It affords them the ability to use text to insert comments, use audio to record comments, and use video to showcase comments.
Identify other ways that students could use the creativity tool you selected.
Other ways that student could use this tool is to create their own video as a project and then review each other’s videos. Foe example, at the end of our research paper unit, I normally have students record a video as part of their performance-based assessment. In order to make their videos as good as they can be, we could use Video Thread to allow groups to critique each other’s videos and then allow time for revisions.
Explain why it might be important to know about and use creativity tools? What do they offer that other tools (i.e., drill and practice, tutorials, instructional games, etc.) do not offer? Reflect on any tools that you did not like for your own personal use. Can you find any value in using, learning to use, or allowing your students to use tools that you don’t care for personally?
Creativity tools are very important because they allow for users to take ownership of their own learning to use the product they are creating in order to learn by design (a concept in one of our previous readings by Mishra & Koehler). When users are focused on the activity of creation, they can flex their minds and push themselves into problem-solving mode. Other tools like drill and practice do not engage students in the same way. When students just practice, they are doing the same actions over and over again, and lose engagement. Instructional games, while good for engagement, do not offer the type of problem-solving mindset that creation does. As far as my own personal use, I did not really enjoy NearPod as much (as I mentioned earlier, because of its frustrating slide-creating feature), though I could see myself learning more about it and integrating my Google Slides creations into it and adding in engagment activities. I don’t see this being a good creation tool for students, however. In the past, students have used movie-making or video-making tools that I haven’t been a huge fan of, but I’ve allowed their use because students liked them. I can see allowing students to use tools I don’t like for the sake of creation because part of the act of creating means exploring and playing on your own. I can see how learning to use some of these tools would be useful for me, though if students can use them without me, I’m a bit happier that way! I’m always happy to learn to use a tool that students think is useful, because then they will be invested in my using it.
