Virtual Flat Stanley – 7089

Summary

Second grade students read Flat Stanley and then created a flat version of themselves similar to Flat Stanley (Flat Twins). They Skyped with a school from Iowa to discuss their plans and brainstorm ways to share their learning experiences in new ways, and later they were able to meet with the author of the Flat Stanley series to ask questions and gain context for their project. Over a three week period students took photographs and wrote journal entries about their flat twin’s adventure. Students organized photos and writing and created a script describing their adventure. Using the iPads each student recorded a video describing their adventures. With the assistance of librarian, students uploaded component parts to the Aurasma platform, where images and videos created an ‘aura’ for each Flat Twin. Flat twins were exchanged with the school in Iowa. We used Aurasma to scan their new flat friends and learn about their adventures with their Flat Twins.

TIPC Ratings

This lesson falls into the Ideal/Target range. Students researched Flat Stanley author Josh Greenhut, generated questions for the author and had an opportunity to have them answered during their Skype session. Students also utilized Google Earth to research the school and area where they were sending their Flat Friends. Students also used Skype to interact with students from our partner school in Iowa to make decisions regarding how they would share information with each other about the project. After synthesizing their adventures into a script, then creating and uploading vlogs to and augmented Reality App, students used this app to display and interact with their information, as well as to share their work with people outside our school.

This lesson falls into the Ideal/Target range. Students were engaged in communication with others outside their school environment and time zone via video chatting (Skype) with multiple locations. Students had the opportunity to reflect on the Flat Stanley series to assist with the generation of questions/suggestions to the author. Students and teachers collaborated with our partner school (via Skype-students and teachers and Twitter-teachers) to work out details and make selections of appropriate processes, strategies, and tools to send and receive information about their Flat Friends. Students were also challenged to communicate their winter adventures in multiple formats beginning with a graphic organizer, scripts and finally a video recording. Students reflected on suggestions and steps in the process in between Skype sessions and made decisions based on assessing their experience throughout the process.

This lesson falls into the Ideal/Target range. Students and teachers collaborated with our partner school in Iowa (via multiple Skype sessions) to select the most appropriate digital tool that would allow them to share their work. After much discussion, the decision was made to utilize the power of augmented reality to synthesize the learning experiences and allow for ease of sharing outside of our school. We also had to develop strategies that would scaffold and streamline the process of creating and manipulating the content. After shooting the videos, students and teachers had to problem solve to find a viable solution to transfer the volume of trigger images and videos from multiple devices to the app so that they could be combined and used with the scanning app. Students tried a variety of methods, assessed each to decide on the best for their needs, and then trained each other on how to use them. Individually, students were challenged to to think critically to imagine and plan their winter adventures with their 2D Flat Twin. Reflection was essential throughout the process in order to continue moving forward with the project to the next steps, or to revise the process to make it more efficient.

This lesson falls into the Ideal/Target range. During the project, students were given a wide variety of found materials to select from in order to creatively design their flat twin. Students also created meaningful original journal entries and vlogs to display their creative adventures. These two elements were synthesized using an innovative tool incorporating augmented reality, which allowed them to share their learning experiences. Throughout the project, students and teachers were challenged to try various tools and strategies to facilitate the sharing of content, experiencing failure and discovering success along the way. As a result, the protocol for similar learning experiences has been developed and will be applied to future projects.

Student Artifact

Skyping with Author Josh Greenhut and our Friends from Iowa from on Vimeo.

Download Files

Download Files

Download Files