Lakeview Students Use iPads to Create Presentations

Gifted education students at Lakeview recently learned how to create narrated slide show presentations on the iPads using the iPad app called Explain Everything.  5th grade students will soon be watching the Yukon High School's production of Annie Get Your Gun.  Each group was assigned a specific person from the musical to research: Annie Oakley, Frank Butler, Buffalo Bill, etc. The students conducted research in the computer lab and wrote scripts highlighting important events in their assigned person's life.  The students then selected images from the internet on the iPads and took screen shots to use in their presentations.  The images were loaded onto the Explain Everything app and students read and recorded the information from their scripts. The students were able to time the slide transitions so they were synchronized with the information they were sharing.   The research, script writing, photo selection, editing, and recording were all done during one 2 1/2 hour gifted session.  

The finished presentations were posted on a website on posterous for parents to view at home and for the 5th grade classroom teachers to use to share the information with their classes before they attend the musical.  Some classes even brought the "in progress" presentations on iPads to the principal, music teacher, librarian etc. to share their new found information and technological skills. 

Since the fourth graders  needed to learn how to use the new app, but were not going to attend the musical, they had a slightly different project.  They followed the same steps as listed above, but they had a different topic.  They were allowed to selected any person in history that they felt was the coolest/most interesting person ever and their assignment was to give specific facts about that person's life that would convince anyone watching the presentation that they WERE the neatest person ever!  The variety of student selected subjects for these mini-biographies was impressive.  Students made presentations on Homer, Amelia Earhart, Houdini, DaVinci, Sacagawea, Neil Armstrong, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Walt Disney, and many others.

Check out these and other media projects by Lakeview students on the Lakeview Gifted Projects website on Posterous.

Creative Commons licensed image of Walt Disney from the Orange County Archives.