Day 88 - Meet The Techie Ladies of BHS - Mira Mehdi - BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on Mira's Blog

I present, the Techie Ladies video. It is finally here. After 2-3 long months of editing and filming, I have finally finished this video. The reason it took so long was not because of my editing capabilities, but because I chose the busiest 2-3 months of my senior year to create it. However, it is finally finished, and the outcome is better than anything I could have ever imagined.

I am a female BHS Help Desk member, with only three other girls (Cat, Kristin, and Kelsey). We are leading the way for young women in technology. We hope our abilities to problem solve, create, and innovate with technology in the classroom are an inspiration to other young girls who are passionate about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)! The Techie Ladies video I made was a parody of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” We used the music in the background, however changed every single word. I had my teacher, Mrs. Scheffer, as well as another AP chorus student, Emily Frost, to record the lyrics. I had them record their voices through the microphone on my Apple headset, and then I put it right into Garage Band to auto-tune… not that is was necessary. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Scheffer was a theater major and so this project was right up her ally. This took about 10 takes but we had a blast making it. After I edited it, I decided to get footage and girls in our high school doing things that corresponded with our lyrics. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard at all. I barely had to have people act since what they were doing, before I approached them, was what we wanted them to do. Everyone’s contributions were great, and I even gave them credit at the end. The making of this video was truly a collaborative effort.

So after 3 long months, here is the final product. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it

Day 172 - Take Your iPad from Consumption to Creation with DoInk! - Mira Mehdi, BHS Junior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

Doink is a new, fun and creative way to make animations on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. It will help your students become content creators and will push their creativity.

Within the Doink app, you can create your own custom piece of art with their vector drawing tools. In addition to just drawing, you can choose among their thousands of free art props, that anyone can use. After you’re done with your animations, you can bring them to life with their remarkable and powerful composition editor! You play all your clips (almost like a flip book) and turn it into an animation! If you’d like to share your masterpiece, you can save it to your camera roll and/or share it via social media with your friends, or with the world!

Here is a sample of the animation I created with the app. It is based off of my TED Ed Club topic, which I am presenting next Monday. It is about the effects of positive thinking.

Another awesome feature in DoInk is the green screen. This is in a separate app but it is still a part of the original DoIink app. We have a green screen right outside the Help Desk, but I personally haven’t used it on the Doink app. But once I get more comfortable using the original DoInk app, I think that the green screen part will add that extra spark to whatever I create. I’m certain this will be an app I will use and promote amongst my classmates a lot more during the 14-15 school year. If you’re ready to explore this awesome app click here to lead yourself to the app store.

Although the app does cost money ($4.99 to be exact), I think it is a powerful tool that can be used in a wide variety of subject areas (my teacher agrees). It is somewhat challenging to learn, however I was able to find a tutorial created by teacher Colin Gallagher (shown below). I suggest doing what Mrs. Scheffer did, get the app, let your students “play” with it, and see what they can create with it. Enjoy!

Day 121 - Augmented Reality Comes to BHS - Mira Mehdi, BHS Junior

This post by  BHS Junior Mira Mehdi originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

Although Aurasma is a relatively new app, as it launched in 2011, it has already received global recognition as the leader in augmented reality. The company has over 20,000 partners and operates in more than 100 countries worldwide.

AURASMA AT BHS:

My Help Desk teacher, Mrs. Scheffer, introduced me to this app. I, along with every other student who saw Aurasma in action, found it fascinating! In fact, every student’s  jaw literally dropped when we demonstrated the app. No joke! Around here, it takes a lot to impress BHS students with technology. So to get this kind of reaction from both students and teachers, I knew I was onto something big! When I first used the app, I was amazed at how it could detect images or objects and be able to make a video and/or image pop up right on the screen. If you think QR codes are cool, wait until you see this! After watching a quick tutorial on how to make my own Aura, I decided to give it a try, plus Mrs. Scheffer didn’t really give me a choice if I’m being honest. However, I’ve really enjoyed learning about this technology and the best part is that I’ve been teaching others how to use it also. Over the past two weeks, I’ve become so good at this technology, that Mrs. Scheffer has now coined me the official “resident Aurasma expert.” Since discovering the app, we’ve created a Burlington Public Schools Channel, which members of the BHS school community can now follow. This channel is where we will be creating and sharing all of our public Auras. And just last week, Mrs. Scheffer came up with the idea to bring an augmented reality experience to this year’s BHS Art Show and Fashion Show. The art and fashion students in Mrs. Chang, Mr. Mistler, and Mr. Ratkevich’s classes have all been creating Auras for their art work which is currently on display in the Lower Library and will be featured in the 41st annual Art Show, this coming Thursday March 20th. To experience the art show through augmented reality, we invite to you follow the public channel Mr. Mistler created which is BHS Art Show14. You will need to have the Aurasma App on either your iPhone, Android, or iPad. The art pieces that offer an augmented reality experience will have an Aurasma logo on the upper left-hand side.

There is a lot of potential for this app to be used in the classroom in a variety of creative ways. If you want to give this technology a try, I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial on to go about creating your very own augmented reality experience.

Step 1: Open the Aurasma App and Create a Channel

Once you’ve opened the app, you’ll have to create a channel, or an account. When you start using Aurasma, you have the choice of making the auras either private or public. If you want to share your auras with others through the app or social networks, I would advice you to make your auras public. In order for the public to view your Auras, they would have to be following your channel, with their own account.

Step 2: Upload an Overlay

Your overlay can be either an image, a video, or a 3D scenes or model. This is what will actually pop-up on the screen, once the trigger image is recognized.

Step 3: Create a Trigger Image

Once you’ve created an overlay, you have to select it. After selecting it, you’re going to have to create your trigger image. The trigger image is the image/object that the device is going to detect. There will be a small spectrum on the bottom of the app that will read either red, yellow, or green. If it’s on red, that means the trigger image will not be able to be detected. If it’s on yellow, it will be detected but will take time. Ideally, you want it to be on green, which means it will definitely be detected, however yellow is fine too. Once it’s on green, or yellow, you have to click the camera button to take the picture. From there, the overlay will pop-up and you will be able to move it around, shape it, and put it wherever you want.

Step 4: Make it Either Public or Private

Once you’ve positioned your overlay onto your trigger image, you’re almost done. Now, you’re going to have to name your Aura. Once named, make it either private or public. If you want to make it private, select that and you’ll be done. If you want to make it public, you’re going to have to add it to a channel by clicking “yes,” next to “add to a channel.” If you have multiple different channels, they will all come up and you’ll have to choose one. If you only have one channel, only that one will come up and you would have to just choose that one.

Real World Applications of Augmented Reality

Augmented reality should not be thought of as just another technology gimmick. Major corporations are implementing this technology to solve problems and improve the customer experience. A variety of industries are on the cutting edge of augmented reality and the museum community in particular has embraced the use of augmented reality to provide visitors with an interactive experience. This was what gave Mrs. Scheffer the idea to bring Aurasma to this year’s art show.

Want to learn more? 

If you are interested in trying this free app for either your iPhone or iPad, check out this comprehensive guide to learn more about Aurasma. For additional video tutorials and demos, check out the Aurasma YouTube channel. If you have any questions about this app, or want to discuss the creative ways you could integrate this technology into your curriculum, come down to Help Desk and meet with me or Mrs. Scheffer to explore how to bring learning to life for your students using Aurasma!