Tag: ColAR

Apps, Art, Augmented Reality, Fun Friday, Games, K-5, Motivation, Student Products, Teaching Tools

colAR App Pumpkin Page

Terri Eichholz
Augmented Pumpkins with the colAR app
Augmented Pumpkins with the colAR app

UPDATE 10/12/2021: This particular page is no longer available, and colAR is now QuiverVision. However, you can still download an augmented reality pumpkin page here (do a search for Halloween once you reach the page, and you should see two downloads.  Unfortunately, they are no longer free).

I tweeted about this a couple of days ago (Don’t follow me, yet?  Please do!  @terrieichholz), but I was so excited that I tweeted an uncolored page.  Knowing today would be Phun Phriday, I decided to spend last night making a more presentable page for blog purposes.  I wanted to get a sample from one of my students, but they haven’t had time, what with all of their bumping into walls and doing victory dances this week.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of entertaining yourself with the colAR app, yet, I strongly urge you to download it right away.  It is available on both mobile platforms for free.  The free version allows you to augment certain coloring pages, and there is an in-app purchase of $2.99 to unlock the rest of the pages.  However, the new pumpkin page is free.  Just make sure, if you already have the app, that you have the most updated version.

colAR allows you to download coloring pages from their website, then scan them with the app to make them “come to life.”  They created a special Dot Day page that I blogged about earlier this year.

If you haven’t used colAR with your students before, I highly recommend you have them color a page first, and then surprise them with the augmented reality version.  If you do it in the reverse order they may, like me, rush through their coloring just to get to the digital fun.

Drew Minock and Brad Waid over at Two Guys and Some iPads have used colAR to inspire creative writing with their students.  Once the students see their pumpkins dancing around, I’m sure the kids could come up with some unique stories!

There are a lot of pumpkins on the sheet, so you might have kids work on the sheets in groups – each coloring their own pumpkin.  For older kids, you could have them design the pumpkins to represent mystery historical characters or different artists and/or art styles.  In a modification of this idea that I just saw on Not Just Child’s Play (which she attributes to Ian Byrd), you could have them decorate the pumpkins from the perspective of different book characters.

I know many of you don’t celebrate Halloween, but be sure to check out some of the other pages offered by colAR.  The novelty will definitely “hook” your students, spark their imaginations, and motivate them to think creatively.

Brad Waid's Augmented Reality Inspired Creative Writing Bulletin Board
Brad Waid’s (1 of the 2 Guys and Some iPads) Augmented Reality Inspired Creative Writing Bulletin Board
Apps, Art, Creative Thinking, Education, K-12, Student Products, Teaching Tools

International Dot Day and Augmented Reality Fun!

Terri Eichholz
use ColAR to augment your Dot!
use ColAR to augment your Dot!

International Dot Day is coming up on September 15th!

In addition to all of the other exciting activities that you can do to celebrate International Dot Day, inspired by Peter Reynolds’ book, The Dot, you can now use the amazing ColAR app to really bring 3 dimensions to the party!

ColAR has released a special PDF that you can print and have your students color using their most creative design skills.  Once they have completed their dots, you can use the free ColAR app (available in iTunes or Google Play) to scan it (if you already have the app, you may need to update it for it to work with this project).  The dot will appear to jump off the page, and you can admire it from different perspectives as you move your iDevice or Android around the screen.  Click here for more instructions, and to download the PDF.

My daughter and I had great fun with the ColAR app this summer.  Unfortunately, you must pay for the full version now to use all of the pages they offer, but you can do a couple of free ones plus the Dot Day one with the free app.

Even though I am not meeting with my students yet as we are testing for the GT program, I plan to pass these out to my test-takers to take home and decorate.  Then, we can take a break from testing to “play” with their dots – and I can use their artistic creations to add some color to my room!

If you are interested in more ideas for International Dot Day, click here!

Apps, Art, Creative Thinking, Education, Fun Friday, K-12, Motivation, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Websites

Fun Friday Art

Terri Eichholz
from ColAR Pinterest Board
from:  ColAR Pinterest Board

Yesterday, before we went to the hair salon, I told my daughter to “bring your crayons.”  She looked at me with one raised eyebrow.  She is ten, and doesn’t really “color” anymore.  “It’s a surprise,” I said.

While I was getting my hair colored, so was the two-dimensional young lady on one of the coloring sheets I provided my skeptical daughter.  The real fun came when we used the ColAR app on my iPad to bring her drawing to life.  Before we knew it, we were demonstrating the app to the owner of the hair salon and 4 other customers.  A shy, five-year-old girl delightedly took one of the other sheets I offered, and giggled excitedly when we made her teddy bear, complete with the monogrammed t-shirt she had designed, gesturing to her from the page.

ColAR is an augmented reality app (available on both iTunes and Google Play) that has been touted on several websites in the last 24 hours, but I first read about it on Larry Ferlazzo’s “Website of the Day.”  On the website, there are several coloring pages that you can print out to use with the app.  Once a picture is colored, you use the app on your device to scan the colored picture, and it will become a virtual 3-d picture.  I like Larry’s idea to have students write stories about the drawings, as I’m sure young students would be totally motivated to create original writing once they see their pictures move.

ColAR is limited right now.  There are only 6 coloring pages at the moment – but you can see from their Pinterest board that kids can come up with many variations for those pages.  The app is free, but be forewarned.  To “unlock” all of the current pages, at this time you need to make an in-app upgrade to the full version.  The full version is free until 7/28/13.  However, if you have an institutional iPad (in other words, one belonging to a school district), in-app purchases may be blocked – even if they are free.  I ran into this problem on my school iPad, but was able to access everything on my personal one, thankfully – or I would have had some explaining to do to my daughter!

For more on Augmented Reality, you might want to visit this post, as well as Richard Byrne’s post on augmented reality in education.  Also, here is another use of an augmented reality app “for fun.”