Aurasma Examples

I wanted to show you some of the results from all the great work the 5th graders did on the Aurasma Civil War project. The video below shows what the final project looks like for people who walk the halls at Harrison Hill and use the Aurasma app to check out the kids' work.

Several examples are in the video including work done by Special Ed and ELL students. Some of the students were comfortable putting their faces on the video, while others just prefered to show their artwork while they talked about it. Regardless, every student loved this project and they all did an excellent job!

Aurasma Part 2: Bulletin Board

Alrighty... so in my last post I showed you how awesome the Aurasma app is, and so today I want to show you how you can use it to create your own Augmented Reality Bulletin Board.

If you remember, the task I gave the 5th graders at Harrison Hill (and you if you were playing along at home) was:

• Draw a picture of something having to do with the Civil War. It could be a general, a battle, or any person who was a significant figure during the Civil War. 
• Record a short video of yourself talking about your picture and the significance it holds to the Civil War. 

In the video below, I walk you through the steps of taking that picture and video and putting them together to create one AMAZING "Aura" where your picture comes to life! It really is a pretty simple process, and I think you'll catch on quickly. In the video, I also show you how to create a simple login that you can share with your class so that all of your work can be shared under the same "Channel". This will make viewing of your students' projects much easier for people when they see your beautiful bulletin board displayed.

So now all you have to do is put up your students' work and let others enjoy! It is also a good idea to post instructions on how to view your bulletin board for those who may not be familiar with Aurasma. Here is an example of what that might look like:

Thanks again for checking out 54tech. Please subscribe if you haven't done so already and leave me any comments or questions that you might have. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Aurasma is Au-some!

Yes, I've heard of Aurasma for a few years now, but it wasn't until recently that I really took the time to dive into this app to see how great it is... This week's 54tech post is Part 1 of a two-part series showing how Aurasma can be used in your classroom. The video below is just a quick overview of how Aurasma works. 

With Aurasma you can simply make boring pictures come to life using Augmented Reality. This technology isn't exactly new, but is becoming increasingly popular. With Aurasma, you can create your own "Auras" that can be shared with everyone in your class or even around the world.

Check out the video and let me know what you think. I'm doing a pretty simple (yet very cool) project with some 5th Graders at Harrison Hill on the Civil War. 

Feel free to participate in the project if you'd like. All you need to do is create a picture on regular (non-digital-tree-wasting paper) and a short video of yourself talking about your picture and save that video to the Camera Roll on your iPad. Your picture doesn't even have to be about the Civil War if you don't want it to be. 

Next week, I'll show you how to take that picture you drew and the video you made and link them together so others can view your Aura (your own Augmented Reality) using the Aurasma app. What fun!!

I'm Back!

It has been wayyyyyy too long since my last post. Call it a case of Spring Fever combined with a lot of other stuff going on. At any rate, I'm back and ready to give you a few thing that I hope you'll enjoy.

First of all, one of the reasons for my extended absence from the Blogosphere was due to Spring Break. If you are looking for a beautiful place to go next year, let me highly recommend Anna Maria Island in Florida! We went with my folks and my sister's family and had a great time. Between the beach and the pool, there wasn't a whole lot of time to work on my blog :)

Here's the fam "chillin" in the hot tub.

Ok, back to reality... So just a couple things I thought I'd share with you that I found really cool recently. First of all, check out this awesome Venn Diagram that students in Shannon Harris' class created at Holland Elementary. They have been using both Kahoot and Socrative this year in her classroom and decided to compare and contrast the benefits of each of these amazing "clicker apps".

Such a great idea and the students did an excellent job of capturing the most important features of these apps. If you are not familiar with either Kahoot or Socrative, check out the links below... and if you'd ever like me to do a 54tech post about either of them, let me know in the comment section below!
Kahoot: https://getkahoot.com/
Socrative: http://www.socrative.com/

Here is the other thing I'd encourage you to check out... Once a month several of us have been doing a "Hangout" in the evening to discuss some of the things we've been learning about related to technology in education. Here is the latest installment from March:

These videos are typically about 20 minutes long but packed full of information, including ideas from teachers and coaches from around the district. If you would be interested in participating in one of these Hangouts, please let me know ASAP. We will be doing another one in the next week or so and would love for you to join us!

Well, that's all I've got for now. Look for another post by the end of the week. I've got an app that I'm really excited about diving a little deeper into and hope to have a new tutorial for you soon.

Don't forget to subscribe to my blog if you haven't done so already (top-left side of this page)... and as always, leave me a comment or question below if you so desire!