Ignite Creativity

BEN

SONDGEROTH

60+ Tools & Lessons to Spark Creativity

Contents

Turn your Students into Authors

Leverage the Power of the Microphone

Students as Video Creators

Students as Image Creators

Book Creator

Soundtrap
Vocaroo

The Chromebook Camera
Screencastify
WeVideo
Adobe Spark Video
YouTube Creator Studio
Flipgrid

Google Drawings
Adobe Spark Post

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Introduction from Ben Sondgeroth

Ignite Creativity in

your Classroom

In many of today's classrooms we see students that have been learning in a consumption system their entire school career. They understand that when entering a new class, they are to sit in their seats, listen to the teacher, read the assigned text, answer the questions at the end of the section, and regurgitate all the information on an exam at the end of the unit. While this consumption system has been the norm for decades, it does not challenge the students to become new and innovative thinkers.

The consumption mindset not only applies to the traditional classroom but can carry over into a technology-enriched classroom environment. Students may hope that the educational experience with their school device will mirror how they consume information on their devices. After all, students spend a lot of time consuming content from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. So the question becomes: How can we leverage the consumption mindset to our advantage? The answer starts with turning our students into the creators of the very content they are consuming. We can challenge them to create artifacts focused around the content of our classes and publish those artifacts for others to consume and learn.

Teaching our students to create can have a wide-ranging effect on them. It often goes beyond simply helping them learn the content specific to our classes. Creating media helps students develop a foundation of skills that transfer over to many other areas of life. A recent study shows that employers want workers with an increasingly demanding skill set, including problem-solving, digital literacy, leadership, and creativity.

To that end, by challenging our students to become content creators in our classrooms, we can help foster all of these skills. Technology provides our students the ability to create with voice, video, images, or any combination of the three. This allows students the opportunity to express themselves in ways that may not be possible in a written assignment.

So how do you get started with these concepts? What are some tools that can provide these opportunities for your students to create? Throughout this book, we will explore various tools and ideas that will allow your students to become the creators of content in your classroom.

Turn your students

into authors

BOOK CREATOR

Bring creativity to your classroom

There is perhaps no better way of bringing creativity into the classroom than the process of creating books with your students.

In the past, if teachers had wanted students to create books, they would have to write stories, print and staple. Today teachers can instead utilize the Book Creator iPad or Chrome app to take this process to the next level.

Students can create and publish interactive ebooks and share these with world in seconds. Book Creator ignites creativity around every corner, with the ability to add text, image, video, audio and custom drawings to their pages. If teachers purchase the full version, students will also be able to collaborate on their books. The ability for students to show what they know, think, feel, and understand about a topic in a multitude of creative ways sets Book Creator apart from other education tools.