I’ve been exploring the new PuppetMaster app and I am enchanted. I see serious potential for this free, intuitive, open-ended tool to encourage creativity across a wide range of ages, from pre-school to adult! PuppetMaster allows children to animate anything and to record their action and sound to create movies. It encourages the creation of visual art in any medium and […]
Toontastic 3D: New and free from Google Education
January 14, 2017 by 1 Comment
Check out Toontastic 3D, a wonderful, free, open-ended digital storytelling app just launched by Google Education for tablet, phone and Chromebook. You may be familiar with Toontastic launched in 2011 or Toontastic Jr. Now, with the help of Google, the platform is impressively redesigned for Android, iPad and iPhone. The new app allows students to […]
Adobe Spark: rebranded apps & a platform-agnostic website for free student creation
May 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
A little over a month ago, I posted about my affection for the growing Adobe suite of tools/apps in Smashing Adobe. A couple of years ago, I kinda raved about Adobe Voice in Adobe Voice: Elegant, easy(!) storytelling. This week Adobe announced an official smashing of its apps with its integrated Adobe Spark, designed as […]
Book Art with Christina and Ruth
December 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
One of the sessions I truly regretted missing at the recent NJASL Fall Conference was the very popular, hands-on Fold a Word: Book Art in Your Library session with Christina Cucci and Ruth Quiles. So, I asked my new friends if they’d consider a do-over to share. They graciously accepted that invitation in this Hangout. […]
MIT App inventor
November 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A few years back, in a powerful TEDx talk, Heidi Hayes Jacobs suggested, I think every student should design an app. I can’t think of a more practical, more challenging way to see if students could solve a specific problem, get it out there and make a difference to help people. Or don’t. Instead, […]
Making inside the space and outside the box
December 19, 2014 by 2 Comments
AASL’s new mission: empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning. I keep thinking about how this mission also applies to learning that is is informal and interest-driven. A couple of days back, Michelle Luhtala, Shannon Miller and I brainstormed informally about informal learning, and makerspaces, and where we are all going. Michelle was preparing for […]
Three things Emily shared
November 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Among the Valenza family traditions are the little app share sessions I have with my daughter. Emily, an art teacher in Boston, regularly introduces me to tools and platforms I don’t find elsewhere in my network. Here are some of Emily’s current faves from this Thanksgiving: Koma Koma: Anyone, from kindergarten to adult, can use […]
ds106 Assignment Bank
April 21, 2014 by 1 Comment
For years, I’ve been a fan of Alan Levine’s (@cogdog) 50 Ways to Tell a Digital Story and his groundbreaking, open kick-butt DS106 (digital storytelling) course. I recently rediscovered the DS106 Assignment Bank and I see it as a truly inspiring resource for inspiring K12 creativity. This collection presents an array of options for student […]
The first ever (?) cell phone carnival!
November 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Tammy Pirmann and our STEM 1 Class hosted, what we think, may be the first ever Cell Phone Carnival. Tammy, K12 Coordinator for Computer Science, is also our high school STEM teacher. The curriculum for her two mixed-grade classes called for a Rube Goldberg-type of machine as the students’ first project. But […]
Dot Day: Ask your students to make a mark!
September 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
My dear, very smart, and seriously good friend Angela Maiers asked me to help spread the news about Dot Day. I am happy to oblige and I hope that you will join in spreading the word as well about a project that asks students to make their mark. Angela shares: Every year on September 15, […]
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