As the school year is drawing to a close, lots of student projects are still streaming in. I’ve noticed that many of these projects really have no technology involvement. And that’s OK. Technology should not be used for technology’s sake. If a student built diorama or growing a live plant gets the job done for the content objective, that’s fine. However, what I would like to propose is how we can document this great learning that is taking place with these projects. Sure, pictures can be snapped and stuck in a portfolio binder or made into a quick slideshow to be viewed by the class or even parents who visit during an end of the year sharing day. Putting together a slideshow in iPhoto is fairly simple. Music can be added. Great. But what if you wanted to take it a step further without a whole lot more work? Even get the students involved in capturing their learning? Allowing more student reflection to take place in the process?

Today, I read a blog post on Richard Byrne’s iPad Apps for School about 30hands. This is an app for iPads and Touches that lets you create slideshows quickly and share them easily. What I envision is having students snap pictures of their projects or portfolio items using our iPod Touches and then recording their voices explaining their projects and learning. This app allows the user to make simple drawings as well right in the app. Therefore, diagrams and important points can be made into visuals right in the presentation (usually we have to find another drawing app or hand draw and snap a picture of it to insert). The app also seems to be very forgiving of mistakes. Perfect for younger students! The presentations can be sent to Camera Roll and uploaded to our Dropbox account for easy sharing from a computer/projector set up. These presentations also could be posted and shared on a wiki or blog. All without an account to 30hands. Again, perfect for elementary age students.

Here is a tutorial of the app:

You also can download a similar tutorial to watch right within the app. It even highlights updates to the app.

So something to think about in these last few weeks… The Touches are waiting to help you!