The Ingenuity of 10 yr Olds

Today, I learned of a 'do it yourself' invisible folder for your Mac. A Grade 5 student here from Sinarmas World Academy was working on his school laptop and I noticed that he had several invisible folders on his desktop. I asked him about them and he told me that he had made his own version of Camouflage which can be downloaded from Apple.com

Here's what the invisible folder looks like:



It looks like my desktop is empty. But actually I have an invisible folder there. You can click Tab to see it or swipe the mouse over.



See what I mean? Pretty cool huh!

To make this invisible folder, all you do it create a 3 X 3cm square in Photoshop or Pixelmator and make the background transparent by using the magic wand.



Then you export the file as a .gif and drop it into Img2icns software to create a folder out of it.



There you go .... your own invisible folder for secret documents.

Thanks to Riam Tambunan from Grade 5 for this cool technology tip.

Virtual Monas - created by Grade 5

Take at look at the sophisticated work in this Sketchup model that was created by a Grade 5 student. This was done as a reflection exercise after a field trip to the real monument.

Podcasting in Grade 5

The learning in a 1:1 laptop program never ceases to amaze me with how sophisticated and deep it becomes. Here is a podcast created by two Grade 5 boys. The process was to explore the workings of one of the human body systems. Initially as front loading the students watched the Human Body episode from the Magic School Bus and then took one minute of the film and created their own voice over explaining the scientific process. An example of their work in that activity can be seen here in a previous post - Body System Video
This time we wanted to go further. The students at SWA use the LMS Studywiz and were able to upload their podcast images to Studywiz to compare with the other students in the class. They were also asked to draw one image using Artrage. You can download a free trial version here.



The above screen capture was taken from SWA's Studywiz. What you can see here is the title page of the podcast and the student responses. I love the comment "Extraordinary and elegant work" made by Hansen. The students turned their images (online downloads and picture book scans) into slideshow screens ready to be placed into their podcasts as it related to the information being presented. This makes the podcast a multimedia experience. By using Studywiz, the students were abe le to share their work and get feedback from their peers. This helped them to make decisions on what images they would choose for the finished work.
Here is one of the finished podcasts.

Digestion Lesson - 21st Century Style

This film clip was created by Grade 5 and has used parts of the Human Body episode from the Magic School Bus. The Grade 5 students were asked to take 1 minute of film and explain the digestion process by making a Photo Booth movie capture and inserting it into the film using the picture in picture technique. The students were asked to research the digestion process first, to develop the script for their voice over. As well as this the students added a sound track to fit with the action in the film. This clip was made by Ena. Each student in the class made their own movie.

21st Century Learning - Anywhere, Anytime

This film was taken on location on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia. The Grade 5s from SWA went on a four day trip to learn more about how mining impacts the local environment. The students took their school Macbooks with them so that they could record their learning on location. Indeed portable technologies have empowered learning allowing it to be 'just in time'.

Digestion Investigation

Today in Grade 5 the students made an inquiry into the Digestive system. They watched the Magic Schoolbus video to learn more about the digestion process. The kids then transferred the film to their laptops and imported it into iMovie. The students were asked to take one minute of the film and to add their own explanation about it by using a Photo Booth capture and screen in screen editing.
This project will be continued in class tomorrow. The students must select their footage and capture their own explanations using Photo Booth for homework tonight.

Grade 5 making a Keynote about the Padang Earthquake

Today the Grade 5 students made a collaborative presentation. The content was taked from different online sources. The students worked together on this presentation for our school assembly today to raise awareness about the recent earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra. SWA will collect money and goods that are needed for the victims of this terrible disaster.