“Clockwork Brain” is a fun, free app for iDevices. Sprocket, the robot, gives easy instructions for each of the mini-games that come in the free version. Included are:
You can earn access to trials of the other mini-games offered in the “in-app purchases” by collecting tokens within the game. (Be sure to restrict in-app purchases if you do not want your little one to start buying up more game packs.)
The steampunk look differentiates “Clockwork Brain” from other apps of its type. I also like that it is not another “skill and drill” app, and provokes some different types of thinking. If you are really feeling adventurous, you can set the language to something other than your native tongue, and try to learn some new words while you’re playing!
It’s another Fun Friday, and I think you are really going to like today’s resource.
I first found out about SpaceTeam by reading iGamemom. She has a great review of the app (which is free) here.
Before I launch into how we used it in class, I will warn you that this app has a 9+ age rating. So far, my daughter and I have played it numerous times, as have my students. We have not seen anything objectionable about this app. If you do try it, and you see a reason for that rating, please let me know.
SpaceTeam must be played using 2-4 iDevices in the same room. You can use iPod Touches or iPads. Once a player opens the app, it will automatically connect with up to 3 other devices. You must “beam” yourselves up to a spaceship. On your screen will appear a dashboard. This dashboard looks different for every player, and has different components, as well. Instructions will appear on your screen above the dashboard, telling you to do things like, “turn off the novacrit,” or other commands. If you don’t have that component on your screen, you must direct the other member(s) to do this. If everyone is successful in conveying and following instructions, then your team goes on to the next level.
This game is particularly fascinating to observe. The kids start talking gibberish, basically, and only the partner with that component can interpret it. Although, sometimes, the directions are silly, like, “Change the litterbox!” Listening to that being called out in desperation can be quite amusing. Also, they encounter asteroids sometimes, and have to shake their devices to avoid them.
Believe it or not, even though this makes a fun party game, it is also educational. I had my 4th grade group evaluate their experiences after playing, and extend their comments about the game to the more general difficulties people often have with communicating: too many people talking at once, not hearing what you expect to hear (if someone pronounced the words in a different way), how yelling at people does not ensure that you will be understood, etc…
One caution I would give you if you have multiple teams playing at the same time is to start off with groups of four, one at a time. Since four is the max, then you will not have to worry about teams mixing with each other. My 5th graders tried playing in pairs with our old iPods, and their teams kept switching. Once we tried the groups of 4, though, it went great. However, it was quite loud!
First of all, did you know that TED, the fabulous producer of videos with “Ideas Worth Spreading”, now produces ebooks? If you did, why didn’t you tell me? Fortunately, I read the San Antonio’s Express News on Sunday, and found out about it when they published a brief review of one of the ebooks you can find at TED, Things Don’t Have to Be Complicated.
Things Don’t Have to Be Complicated is a book of Six-Word Memoirs collected by Larry Smith. If you have not been introduced to Six-Word Memoirs, yet, I highly recommend that you read my original post on this topic, as it includes some other resources in which you may be interested.
In this new publication, which can be downloaded for Kindle, iBooks, or Nook for $2.99, Mr. Smith collected memoirs from students of all ages (grade school to grad school), and included the pictures that they drew to accompany them. Some of them, like “Hey, my swimming lessons paid off,” by Charlotte Berkenbile (8) in Keller, Texas, are amusing. Others, like “My alarm clock killed my dreams,” by Shawn Budlong (13) in Rockford, Illinois, are more thought-provoking. Some of the illustrations are just as moving as the text.
I highly recommend this very affordable download. If you are working with younger kids (K-3), you probably won’t want to show them the whole book, but select a few pieces as examples. For older kids, there are many possible discussion starters in here, and definitely inspiration for them to create their own Six-Word Memoirs.
(By the way, TED Books also offers an app and a subscription. If you subscribe for $4.99/month, you have immediate access to all of the current ebooks, and will receive a new ebook every two weeks.)
My holiday series of “Gifts for the Gifted” concludes today with a post on apps that you might want to pre-load on that new iDevice you’re about to set under the tree. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. New apps are released weekly, of course, and there are quite a few older apps that I may not have had the pleasure to try, yet. I will give you some resources for finding apps that might fit your specific needs at the end of this post.
These apps are great for elementary age children, and do not require much reading. If I have previously reviewed the app on my blog, I have included a link so that you can learn more about it.
And now for the not so free apps that I highly recommend are worth the current price:
Puppet Pals Director’s Pass($2.99) – this paid version offers a lot more characters plus the opportunity to use your own pictures as characters or backgrounds
Last week, I posted a couple of articles on how to use the free Aurasma app (Using the Aurasma App and Using the Aurasma App, Continued). I also recently posted some Holiday Cards that I created with the app (and the help of a few other free apps). I promised to gives some ideas about how Aurasma can be used in the classroom, but we are still not there quite yet…
First of all, let’s talk about sharing. You can use the Aurasma app to create an “aura”, and the newest version of Aurasma actually allows you to make your aura public. This means that you don’t have to use the actual device you created the aura with to see the aura when you scan a trigger image. (If this all sounds uber-technical, you might want to scan my first article, Using the Aurasma App.) There are three basic ways to share your auras:
You can share by e-mailing the link to someone. As long as they also have Aurasma and the trigger image, they will be able to view your aura. You could also create a QR code with the link, and post it. But that seems a bit redundant to me, seeing as the whole reason I want to use Aurasma is because I think it’s more aesthetically pleasing than QR codes.
You can also share by making your aura public when you save it, and then making sure the other devices are logged in to the same Aurasma account. This is a recent upgrade to the Aurasma app, which makes things much easier if you are using multiple devices in your own classroom, and you just want the students on those devices to see the aura.
Another way that you can share is to create an Aurasma channel. This is the way I chose to share the Holiday Cards referenced above. With this method, anyone who is subscribed to your channel can view the auras you create. This would be ideal for a school-wide setting. You could have parents subscribe to the channel, so they can scan auras anywhere in the school with their own devices (as long as they have the Aurasma app). FYI, even though my instructions are iOS-leaning, Aurasma is also available as an Android app.
Things may have changed with Aurasma’s recent upgrade, but the following instructions for obtaining a channel are from Aurasma’s Forum:
“I recommend that you use the Aurasma Developer Studio, which will enable you to put all Auras into a single channel. If you don’t have a login for the Developer Studio, please fill out and submit this form : http://www.aurasma.com/partners/advertiser
Please don’t be put off by “advertiser” – we have many users who work in education. Note that use of Developer Studio is 100% free, because our goal is to get as many people as possible using the Aurasma platform.
Once you have a channel with all your Auras in, you can share this with everyone you want to be able to see this. You can get a sharing link for your channel that you can post via email, on a web page etc. When opened on a device running Aurasma, this link will subscribe Aurasma to that channel, and all the Auras in that channel will be downloaded to, and start working on that device. Note that any Auras you subsequently add to that channel will also be received.”
Aurasma Developer Studio is web-based, so you would use your desktop computer to create auras if you go this route. However, it looks like the recent upgrade allows you to add things to your channel through the app, so you may not need to use the Studio once you have gotten a channel assigned to you.
So, to recap, the easiest way for you to share your auras would be to go to the above Aurasma Partners link and request a channel. Once you have the channel assigned, make sure you save the auras you create on your device to that channel. Then, tell anyone who wants to see them to subscribe to your channel. It sounds complicated, but once you do it once, it becomes quite easy to share the auras.
Yesterday, I posted instructions on using the free Aurasma app on your iDevice. Included in these instructions were how to use the plethora of “Overlays” provided within the app. Once, you create an “Aura” these “Overlays” are short animations or videos that can will appear on top of a trigger image when you use Aurasma on your device to scan the trigger image.
But you are not limited to the “Overlays” provided by Aurasma, numerous and entertaining though they may be. You can also add your own “Overlays” within the app. For example, suppose you have a student who has created a work of art. You would like to display the art on a bulletin board, but you really want people to see and hear the child describing her artwork as they are viewing it on the board. You could do this with a QR code, of course, as I explained in this post, but you could also use Aurasma, which will make it appear as though the student is actually standing in front of the artwork as she explains it. Another way you might use a “homemade” overlay would be with a textbook picture or a worksheet. You could have a video that explains a certain concept or gives hints, and it will appear every time a user holds their device over the trigger image. Here is how you could do this:
1.) First, decide what your trigger image is going to be. In the first example, it would be the child’s artwork.
2.) Then, decide what you want to happen when the image is scanned. In this case, we want a video of the child explaining her work to appear.
3.) Using your iDevice that has the Aurasma app, videotape the above scene with your camera app, and save it to your Photos.
4.) Open the Aurasma app. Tap on the Aurasma logo.
5.) Tap on the +. Near the bottom of the “Create” window, tap on the “Device” tab.
6.) Tap on the large +, and choose “Photo Album”.
7.) Find the video you created and choose it. Select “Use”.
8.) After it process, give the Overlay a name, and tap on “Finish”.
9.) You will be asked if you want to create an Aura with that Overlay. Tap on “OK”.
10.) Take a picture of the artwork.
11.) Choose where you want the Overlay to appear on the artwork.
12.) After it processes, add details (see my previous post for more info on this).
13.) Once it is done, it will give you a message that the Aura has been added to your device. After that, whenever you use the Aurasma app to scan that art, the video will appear over it.
Below, you can view a short video on ways Aurasma can be used in education. Next week, I will give some more ideas on how this app can be used in the classroom. (You can find it at http://youtu.be/5qRcIek4NY0 if the video does not show below.)
