Home : Inform Toontastic Afraid of Programming in Code? Try Scratch For Arduino I’m an Arduino novice. I’ve used my starter kit for a few simplistic projects with my 12-year-old, but outside of that I haven’t ventured further due to my fear of code. Sure, I can knock out some HTML and CSS with the best of them, but when it comes to actual programming, I’m pretty useless. Scratch 4 Arduino could just change that. It’s not coding; but it allows novices like me to build exciting Arduino projects with a visual interface. It’s not going to teach you how to how to program, but it does teach fundamental principles that are useful should you decide to progress to “real” programming. In short, he was well on his way to building something useful while I was still fumbling through the instructions trying to make sense of it all. What is Scratch 4 Arduino? Scratch 4 Arduino – or S4A – is a modification of a visual code builder built by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Lab. What Makes it Different From Learning to Code? A Stepping Stone to Programming? Where to Start
14 iPad Apps for Storytelling in the Classroom Storytelling continues to gain popularity as an educational activity as it stimulates a deep thinking process, it provides opportunities for reflection and it enhances and enriches the learning experience for our students. Storytelling is a very powerful way of communicating with our peers and portrays to others who we are and what our own stories are. It also provides an opportunity to connect with a group by creating a shared experience. This is vital in any community but more so in an educational setting where we are nurturing and fostering creativity. So here are a number of apps that provide the tools for students to participate in the long and rich history of storytelling. Just because it is in a digital format does not make it any less rich to either the audience or within the medium. Sock Puppets:Sock Puppets lets you add Puppets, props, scenery, and backgrounds and start creating. Doodlecast: Storyrobe: StoryPatch: ComicStrip:
The Top 17 Free Digital Stotytelling Apps for The iPad 1-StoryKit This is an awesome iOS app that allows users to easily create an electronic storybook via illustrations by drawing on the screen, using pictures and text, and recording audio to attach to stories. 2- Talking Tom & Ben News This is fun app to use. 3- I Tell a Story This is a free app that allows users to narrate and record their stories with their own voice and language. 4- Scholastic Storia This is an app that is designed to help kids learn and love to read in a fun and interactive way. 5- Talking Tom Cat This is a cool app that lets you interact with Tom, your pet. 6- Toontastic This app allows kids to draw, animate and share their own cartoons through imaginative play. 7- Our Story This app lets young learners take part in fun games that can help them develop their reading skills. 8- Bunsella Bedtimes Story This is an app that allows parents to narrate a bedtime story for their child,add their photos, then compile their voice-over to the images. 9- Idea Sketch 10- Sock Puppets
8 Free iPad Reading Apps for Young Learners Again the iPad. You might have noticed a surge in posts about iPad apps here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. This is not because I favour iPad over other tablets but because of the huge number of emails I got from readers asking for apps that work on the iPad. I personally love both iOS and Android systems and am familiar with both of them. Back to our sheep. 1- iPlay & Sing This is an app designed for pre-school, under-5, and non-readers. This is a learning-to-read platform for young kids. 3- ABC Alphabet Phonics This is an awesome educational game that helps kids rapidly learn the ABC by sight, sound, and touch. 4- Find The Words This is a cool puzzle game that whose objective is to find and mark all the words inside the box and these words are found ,an effect sound with animation is played. 5- Aesop Quest This is another cool learning game where the player must remember elements of a story to complete a level. 6- Read Me Stories 7- Scholastic Reading Timer 8- Kids Can Spell
Create Simple Narrated Photostories with Pixntell Pixntell is an iPad app for quickly creating simple narrated photostories. To create a story using Pixntell all that you need to do is start a new project, select some images, place them in order, and then start talking about each of your pictures. You control the timing for each image. If you want to talk about your first picture for twenty seconds, your second picture for just three seconds, and your third picture for fifteen seconds, you can do that. Applications for Education The free version of Pixntell limits you to five pictures per project. You could have students use Pixntell to create short image-based stories about themselves.
6 Great Apps to Create Word Clouds on your iPad Word cloud tools are great for bringing into focus the main elements in a learning activity. You can use them to deconstruct a text or to pull out the main characters in a story or a book. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already featured a detailed guide on how teachers can use these tools in education and here are some of the ideas mentioned there: Make great wordsalads out of documents that matter (or not) to you! With WordSalad you can make beautiful word clouds, super customized with different fonts, colors and words layouts. Unleash your creativity by making beautiful word clouds on your iPad. Visual Poetry lets you make beautiful text collages.Type your text or phrase and watch it instantly arranged as a mosaic in a variety of shapes and styles. 24 symbols are included or you can draw you own shapes. Make beautiful tag clouds from your iPhone and iPad! Create stunning word collages on your iPhone and iPad!