My new favourite iPad App for Digital Story Telling

Toontastic 3D

I am a big fan of the new upgraded Toontastic 3D app. This app has had a major update and is now so easy to use and a great way for students to show what they have learned. I have found that this app is a great way for students to present and show their learning on any topic. Before you have students use 

Here are some basics on how to use this app. 

1. You choose the format of the story you want to create: Short Story (3 parts), Classic Story (5 parts) and Science Report (5 parts)

2. You then get to see the different parts of the story. You can edit them and add more parts on this screen too. The next step is to tap on the story you want start with: beginning, middle, end.

3. In this step you need to choose a pre-done template for your background settings. These pre-done templates are: Dolares High School (City), Curiosity Crater (Space), Tunich's Temple (Explorers), Shipshape Cove (Pirates), Cyan Sea (Atlantis), Sneaky Peak (Spy), Camp Whatwasthat (Spooky Camp), & The Fearless Flyer (Airpunks).

Alternatively you can draw your own background.

4.  Now you can choose your character(s) to use in the scene. There is a large selection of characters that you can customize. Part of the customizing is the option to add your photo to their face.

Alternatively you can draw your own characters.

5. Next you are able to start recording and when you move characters and talk the animation will begin. It is best explained by seeing examples and playing around.

Again, download this free app and play around with it.

Below is a great example from my students on what can be done with this flexible app.

Fostering Creation Using iPads for Student created ebooks and iBooks

Publishing digital books today is now really easy. Whether you have 1 iPad or 30 iPads in your classroom, you can guide students to create amazing work. Mobile devices today can be used to weave together audio, video, images, & text in creative ways (App Smashing). 

I put this session together for the Vancouver iOS Summit on January 31, 2014. 

I will show you how to get students away from consuming content to be creators of content and then publishing it as a digital book. Digital creation can engage students at any grade level while enhancing their writing, understanding and critical thinking skills. We will discuss why you should create digital books in your classroom and how to create them with easy apps and techniques. You will see many sample eBooks that students have created to give you ideas and inspiration.

The 5 C's of eBook Publishing

• Collaborate
• Create
• Collect
• Combine
• Circulate

I feature the following favourite apps that I use frequently to App-Smash content for eBooks:

• iBooks Author
• Book Creator
• Comic Life
• iMovie
• Inspiration
• Green Screen

Here is a link to the full presentation on slideshare. Below is the embedded document.

Fostering Creation Using iPads for Student created ebooks and iBooks from J Reid

Digital Story Telling & Portfolio Creation on an iPad or Tablet

Having students publish their school work online has been something I have been interested in over the past five years. Once I started using iPads in the classroom I began to think about educational artifacts that students could be proud of that would last beyond their time in my class.
Last year I began to experiment with publishing eBooks on Apple's iBook Store. My students and I have now published 4 digital books and made several revisions.

Here is a list of books that have been published:

Apple iBook Store:

• Human Rights Abuses : 20th Century
• iBook created by Mr. Reid's History 12 class in 2013 & updated in 2014. 
• War of 1812
• iBook created by Mr. Reid's Grade 9 Social Studies class in 2013.
•  Russian Revolution Comic Book
• iBook created by Mr. Reid’s History 12 class in Fall 2013.
• A Great Adventure: The Age of Exploration
• iBook created by Mr. Reid’s Grade 8 Class in 2014

ePub Books:

• A Great Adventure: The Age of Exploration
• ePub Digital Book created by Mr. Reid’s Grade 8 Class in 2014

Google Play Store

• TBA

Lately I have  greatly influenced by the S.A.M.R. Model by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura. This model has encouraged me to move more and more from Enhancement to Transformation.

Below is a  presentation/workshop that I gave on February 21st, 2013 for a group of public school teachers in SD73 Kamloops.

In this workshop, I focused on powerful apps to use as a teacher for digital story telling in the classroom. These will work if you have 1 or 30 iPads in your classroom. A copy of the presentation can be found here.


Or view my embedded presentation below.

Leave me some feedback on your thoughts, feedback, or ideas.