Technology to Promote Creating
Elementari
Content Areas: interactive storytelling, creative writing, coding
Grade Levels: Primary School
Elementari offers methods of engaging students in writing and coding through creating interactive stories. Through elements of art, literacy, computational thinking, and collaboration, students are able to turn their ideas into physical creativity. Elementari provides all of the tools necessary to bring reality to imaginary, boasting over 10,000 illustrations and sounds that can be used by young writers. Beyond writing and coding their own interactive stories, Elementari can aid students in the inspiration step of their creating. With remixing tools, students can put their own creative spin on the stories written by others, introducing a collaborative expansion to the original story. The page to credit the original creators is even automatically generated! The opportunity to provide students with a tool to interactively engage with the writing process has the potential to encourage feelings of excitment and interest towards writing and coding for fun. With the creative freedom Elementari offers, as well as the opportunity to publish stories, students can create a writing project for which they take great pride.
AutoDesk SketchBook
Content Areas: digital art
Grade Levels: Middle-Secondary School (reality: all ages)
We've all heard of ProCreate for the Apple iPad, but what if purchasing an iPad is beyond financial practicality? What if you want to "test the waters" of digital art before committing to high end tools, like an iPad? Whatever the reason, Autodesk Sketchbook may be the answer you're looking for when it comes to digital art and the "to be or not to be" of ProCreate. Though less involved than ProCreate, Autodesk Sketchbook offers many of the same benefits for digital art as are associated with it's IOS cousin. From features such as layers and blend modes, to a plethora of brush options, to dynamic symmetry, Autodesk Sketchbook provides not only a wonderful introduction into digital art creation, but also a platform with which digital art creators can enjoy well into their career.
Blender
Content Areas: 3D creations
Grade Levels: Upper Secondary School - On
Blender is a free and open source 3D creation platform that enables exploration into the world of 3D modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, and video editing, as well as 2D animation. The power of such a tool offers a wide range of application but the most notable may be the opportunity for students to visualize and communicate valuable learning concepts. In many cases, and especially in STEM classes, students may encounter concepts that are abstract or invisible to the naked eye and is incredibly challenging, if not impossible, to observe. The use of a 3D creation platform opens the door for students to develop meaningful connections between the content they're learning and how they understand a given concept. The ability to see that which is typically unseen has the potential to create meaning where observeration had previously been technologically limited. Blender also offers methods of testing ideas and hypotheses, such that students can embrace their natural curiosity and create 3D models to visualize the question for which they seek the answer.
Canva
Content Areas: graphic design
Grade Levels: Upper Secondary - On
Canva provides an online design and publishing environment with which students can explore graphic design and elements of communicating valueable information. With a seemingly endless amount of designs, Canva offers a tool for creating engaging and informative posters, flyers, and presentations, giving the user complete control over the unique design elements of their project, without requiring an extensive background in graphic design.