Skitch, Photo Booth, Animoto and Voki... Oh My!

Today was our third technology time together.  We started our morning by reading our last blog post to refresh our memories about what we have already learned.  We viewed everyone's Animoto video from last week. We thought that everyone did an AWESOME job with their video clips!  

We discovered the difference between a web tool and an app.  Web tools are programs found on the internet and apps are programs that you have to download to use. 

Today we learned about SKITCH.  This is an app on our MacBooks.  Ms Blacker told us that Mr Carnegie, who is the head of technology for our school division, really likes Skitch!  Skitch is an app that allows you to draw, add words, or put arrows onto photos.  

We also learned how to use PHOTO BOOTH which is an app on our laptops.  When learning about this we discovered how funny Ms Blacker can be, she was making silly faces and pretending she was on a roller coaster.  Photo Booth is similar to using a green screen but it is easier because the background is already built in. In Photo Booth you can take pictures or videos.  We liked Photo Booth because the effects are HILARIOUS! 

After Photo Booth we went onto Animoto again.  We learned how to edit our videos, some of us worked on editing previous videos.  Others started a new one.  We used pictures that we took last week or pictures that we took with Photo Booth today. 

Make a video of your own at Animoto.
We also discovered VOKI today!  Voki is a web tool where you can create a talking avatar.  Once you have selected your character you can dress them up.  You type in messages for the character to speak.  You can change the voices to make them sound funny or different or have an accent. 

Today we had a lot of fun with our technology time.  We laughed out loud many times throughout the morning.  It feels good to have those moments when you can laugh with each other.  Our morning was full of joy!  We are looking forward to new projects next Wednesday... stay tuned for what we learn next!!!!

Written as shared writing by the technology students and Ms Blacker

Animoto with Mr. McKiel

Today was our second technology time,  we had a guest teacher!  Mr. McKiel came to our technology class to teach us about a really cool web tool called Animoto.  Animoto is a quick and easy way to turn your photos and video clips into 30 second videos that look like commercials!  Mr. McKiel taught us how to create an Animoto video by using his pictures of Nanuq from when he travelled to Churchill for the Polar Bear Expedition last year.  We were amazed by how little time it took him to make this video!

We were really excited to start our own videos - but first we reviewed the rules of photography that we learned about in September. That was a long time ago but together,  we remembered about all the different rules.  Talking about photography made us even more excited to get started because we really like taking pictures!

We said good-bye to Mr. McKiel and thanked him for teaching us.  Then we went exploring around the school to take some pictures.  Ms Armstrong said that we could go into the new Learning Commons and take pictures of our library space.  After that we crept down the hall and made our way towards the gym.  The gym was empty so we snuck in and snapped some pictures without touching anything.  We then went into our new music room and explored in there.  We found some really colourful things in the music room and Ms Blacker showed us that we could take close ups and fill the frame with all the beautiful colours.  After the music room we explored the hallways.  After recess we spent a few minutes outside snapping pictures.

Then it was time to learn to transfer photos to the laptops,  this was easier than we thought!  Once our photos were loaded we selected about 8 pictures to add to our Animoto clip.  We dragged those pictures to our desktop so they would be easy to access.  Ms Blacker reviewed the steps for making our Animoto clip and then we were able to work.  Ms Blacker asked that we include at least one text slide with a title and our name.  Everyone in our technology group successfully completed an Animoto clip before lunch!

What a great morning!  Now we're not only photographers - we're movie makers too!

Here is an example of a few of the Animoto clips...  Enjoy!

Make your own slide show at Animoto. Make your own slide show at Animoto.
Posted by Ms Blacker (we ran out of time to blog together!)