OPPORTUNITY: Introduce a diverse group of middle-schoolers to a new way of telling the stories of different cultures
STUDENT LEARNINGS:
- programming and app development skills
- storytelling and writing about different cultures
- confidence and ability to create interactive experiences from beginning to end
After one week of writing and storytelling lessons, focused on global adventures, students turned their attention to app development.
With just their iPad, the class created seven interactive book apps in less than one week.
“The power of the iPad is that it can be a complete mobile production studio,” says Kristin Harris, Demibooks Composer instructor.
Harris kicked off the app development session by introducing students to a demo project she made in Composer Pro about the fish and water lilies in her garden. This gave students an idea of the simple animations and video clips they could incorporate into their own apps. They were then taught to use Procreate and Voice Record Pro to make illustrations, voice effects, and narrations for import into Composer Pro.
It didn’t take long before these middle-schoolers started talking about programming, using if-then statements to set up page turns and a variety of other behaviors, transforms, and functions. And because Composer allows users to preview apps as they work, the immediate feedback made it easy to understand the effects of each programming decision.
Students created animated characters, such as kicking Bruce Lee. One student even incorporated a game into her book.
The class ended Friday afternoon with child presenting their apps to a lively group of parents and supporters.
“There is no question in my mind that not only did we encouraged some writers and artist on their careers but everyone who participated in this program has a new sense of confidence and accomplishment,” said Harris, who saw even the students who expressed real hesitation become full-fledged author/illustrators.
Thanks to Patrick Gusman, director of Start Up Middle School, Geeta Raj of Global Sleepover, and Kristin Harris, program sponsors, Lynn Chen, and the junior counselors who made this pilot a hug success!
Kristin Reiber Harris is an artist, animator and media producer as well as an educator. Information about her work is available on her website, www.KristinHarrisDesign.com. She has two apps in the app store, Duck Takes A Ride: An Art Story and ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet.
<!--[if gte mso 9]>