To Be Determined...

Recently, I learned about the colAR app.  The colAR application makes a child's coloring page come "alive" on a tablet or smartphone.  In other words, a normal coloring page turns into an animated 3D scene.

Today, I tried the application using my Samsung Galaxy s5 smartphone. The kids excitedly picked out the pictures they wanted to color. While they sat down and colored, I downloaded the app. My youngest son finished first so we tried it out right away. It worked great!  He was really excited to see his airplane come alive on the screen.  Then, we were sadly disappointed when the app would not work for my older son's drawing.  Other reviews for the app did mention that the same thing occurred for them.  I had heard many great things about the app despite this review so I ignored it at first glance.  Now, I wish I took it more seriously.

              

Since I purchased the coloring packs offered by the colAR app I contacted Google Play, and they were very helpful.  They offered to help me get a refund, but I decided to contact the company first.  I am hoping this is just a bug that needs to be fixed.  My children love creative activities and technology so this application is a great fit for summer fun.  I am awaiting a response from Puteko Limited, so my full opinion is yet to be determined.

Have you used the colAR app?  What has been your experience?

Principal on the Roof!

The principal of my son's elementary school is camping out on the school roof tonight!  Mr. Stevens encourages home reading by creating unique events if the kids meet the year's reading goal.  The goal was to read at least 500,000 minutes by the end of the school year, and the kids read 504,227 minutes this school year!  He invited families to visit tonight for a short time so the children could send up gifts, giggle, and get excited about their accomplishment.  Mr. Stevens is a great principal who works hard to encourage learning, inspire creativity, build school community, create lasting memories, and most importantly keeps school FUN!!!!

Mary's Final Digital Story

After much hard work and excitement, the children and I finished our digital story.  Once we got passed the technical malfunctions with the computer microphone, the children did a great job narrating their sentences.  They were intrigued by the idea that the computer could record their voice and instantly play it back to them.  They were engaged and motivated to do their best.  It was fairly easy to record the children, and immediately re-record them if they were not loud enough.  The red record bar that showed up helped the children know when to start talking.  We were inspired by Miss Larson's digital story and decided to make a title page.  It took us a few tries to get the title just right, but it was a lot of fun.  

Frozen in Time

This week in class I learned about Voki.  I decided to check it out and play around. I stumbled upon an avatar that looks similar to one of the characters from the hit movie Frozen.  The songs have captivated children and adults.  No matter where I go someone is singing the songs out loud.  Here is the Voki I created...

You can create a free account at Voki and begin creating your own Voki right now!  The tutorial below is a great resource to help you create and publish your Voki