Tech Play 3- Creativity Tools

The creativity tools that I looked at this week include, Puppet Pals, Prezi, and DoInk. I liked Puppet Pals because it seems like it would be easy for my kindergartners to use and would likely capture their interest. It is probably not something I would personally use, however I feel like my young students would love it and with the Fairy Tale characters provided, it can relate closely to one of our units.

Prezi is likely something I would personally use, however I'm not sure it would be the best choice for young students. I can see myself using it at open house events, parent education presentations and when presenting PD seminars.

DoInk also seemed like it would be a fun app for my students to explore. Children love to see themselves in pictures and videos, so creating these videos to present to their classmates would be a create way for them to share their learning.

With Puppet Pals, students can meet ELA objectives in story-telling and also Fine Arts objectives in drama by creating the scenes etc. This would be an effective group activity as many students can participate and they can take turns adding voices and such to their story. I can definitely see my students getting excited about this and creating stories to share with classmates and parents. I believe it is perfectly suited for Pre-K/K students.

I think it is important to know about creativity tools so that we can introduce our students to various ways of demonstrating their learning. Unlike things such as drill and practice and instructional games, with creativity tools students can add their personal touch to work which makes it more meaningful to them. I can certainly see value in allowing students to use apps that I don't personally care for. They should have freedom to express themselves and choices in how they communicate what they have learned. As teachers, we learn from our students everyday so they may have an app to share with us which could be a great way for us to learn something new as well. By allowing students choices, we can more effectively reach students with different learning styles.