Week Five (Part Two) - Breaking Down the Walls

The second part of this week, was for us to establish our own Group Four Tool/s. I decided to investigate Animation and Simulation programs as I believe I will use these types of programs often in my Drama classes. They offer “complex interactions and abstract concepts” (Fasso, 2012) and assist with breaking down the boundaries of the classroom. These programs replace the ‘real thing’ when activities become too expensive or as a result of being too problematic to achieve.The program that I looked at was Zooburst. 

Zooburst

Zooburst is an online program that allows creators to produce an interactive, 3D pop-up book. Text and pictures can be utilised to devise these virtual books.

“Zooburst is a valuable educational tool to use in the classroom because it contains several powerful features that support student learning” (Ed Tech, 2011). Firstly, it is a safe space for students as access as teachers can assign students usernames and passwords. It also incorporates augmented reality which “has strong potential to provide both powerful, contextual, in situ (unchanged) learning experiences and serendipitous, exploration and discovery of the connected nature of information in the real world” (The New Media Consortium, 2010).

Even though this tool seems childish, I would use Zooburst in my classroom to return students back to the basics. They would be required to generate a story with minimal characters and focus on character subtext (what the character is thinking) while the main story unfolds around them. 

http://www.zooburst.com/zb_books-viewer.php?book=zb02_4f851bc1dbadd

Plus	Minus	Interesting
-Simple to navigate -Enables interaction -Engages students -Provides artistic learning opportunities -Enhances, supports and transforms learning -Teacher can monitor progress	-Limited images supplied on site -If Internet is inoperative, content cannot be accessed -Website might be blocked on school computer base -No Internet access at home for some students, so work cannot be completed -May become distracting with creative features	-Can be modified to be 3D -Can be embedded into websites/blogs etc. -Has no sound function

 

There are also many other Animation and Simulation websites and software devices available.

A Software program called Stage Struck is a device that I used in High School Drama. It enables the creator to construct a scene of their choice and direct and produce it like a real Director and Producer would do. There are options to select scripts, generate backdrops, sets and props, decide actors/characters, costumes and other visual details. My favourite features were voice and movement commands. The way a line was presented could be altered and where an actor moved on stage could be regulated. Stage Struck is a fun and innovative way to direct plays using technology.

Even though Stage Struck was introduced before the year 2000, I am sure it would still be a popular learning tool in schools. There have most likely been other programs devised and expanded to cater for Drama student’s needs, which I am eager to uncover.

References

Ed Tech. (2011). Zooburst. Retrieved from
http://innovations.oise.utoronto.ca/edtech/index.php/ZooBurst

Fasso, W. (2012). Group 4 tools. Retrieved from CQUniversity, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254738

 

The New Media Consortium. (2010). Four to five years: Augmentend reality. Retrieved from http://wp.ncm.org/horizon-k12-2010/chapters/augmented-reality/