Kahootz - More than just Software

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My Safety Rule

Use of 2d text and 2d speech bubble.
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Interactive Storytelling - The viewer must
choose which way the story will go.
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Activity Background

View Project		Teacher and School

	Project link coming soon View Storyboard		Jen Cole Southmoor Primary School, Victoria, Australia.
View Kahootz Xpression		View Kahootz Movie

	Author : Angus Download Kahootz Xpression To download and view a Kahootz Xpression, you must have Kahootz Software or Demo Version.		Quicktime Movie (236 KB) A section taken from the featured Xpression.
Key Learning Areas		Theme

	ICT, English		Safety, Stories with a moral
Year Level		Student Age

	Years 3 - 5		8 - 11 years
Ability Level		Class Size

	Mixed		25 students
Computer Access		Duration

	1 per student in a computer lab		One hour a week for one term It should be noted however that the previous term had been taken up with experimenting with Kahootz and being taught specific skills such as: navigating within worlds; positioning and resizing objects; changing swatches; creating keypoint animations with some degree of timing control, etc. Thus although the students only worked on their Safety Stories for one term, they were introduced to Kahootz and worked with it for a full term before beginning their own projects.

Rationale

Students were given the challenge of extending their higher order thinking skills - planning, creating, analyzing, problem solving, logical thinking, trial and error, etc by creating a Kahootz Xpression that taught a safety rule. Their Xpression could be a simple linear story or an interactive 'you choose' tale'. This activity was conducted with a number of classes from grades 3 to 5.

Student Tasks

At grade 3 level it was expected that students would use simple keypoint animations, scene linking, and the notepad area to create speech bubbles etc.

At grade 4 level students were expected to: be more attuned to perspective and portray more accurately relative sizes of objects; experiment with the timing of keypoint animations and linked sounds; use swatching to change the feeling of a scene, clothing of characters etc; and use action buttons.

At grade 5 level students were expected to better control the timing of their keypoint animations so as to have two or more actions occurring at different intervals within the same scene - eg a person to walk over to someone before their speech bubble appeared, or a sound to occur only when a particular action happened, or an arrow button to appear after a sequence of actions had played out etc. They were also expected to manipulate the dimensions and swatches of shapes to 'create' new objects they needed that weren't in the libraries, and to group objects - eg person riding a bike or in a car, person with a dog on a leash etc.

The moral of the story.
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The arrow has a clickable link attached.
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Involvement for Xpression Participant

	Students began by brainstorming safety rules they knew and consequences of following or not following them. Each then chose a rule from the list to work on.

	Students created a storyboard plan of the interactive or linear story they would use to teach their safety rule. The storyboard was created in 'Word' and this was open on their computers as they worked on their Kahootz Xpressions. They flipped back and forth between the two, 'hiding' their Kahootz files when they needed to check their storyboards.




	While students worked on their own stories they also roamed from time to time, checking out what others were doing, asking their friends how they had 'done' things, etc.


	Now and then different students' works were displayed with the projector and the class as a whole discussed what they liked about the Xpressions and/or suggested possible solutions to problems other students were having.


	Occasional whole-class teaching sessions were provided to show students how to use specific techniques to solve problems. This raised their awareness of a new technique at a time they were likely to need it.

Each participant needs to:

	Create a storyboard plan for teaching a safety rule in a logical story form.
	Create an animated title scene including their name, linked to the start of their story by either an action button or a timed interval. Adding a sound effect is optional.


	Go on to complete their Kahootz Xpression, which follows the storyboard plan.

	Other expectations geared to different ages and abilities are covered under the 'Student Tasks' heading.

Learning Outcomes for Student Creator

	These are numerous and varied depending upon the ages of the students and the depth of their creations.

	In general skills, understandings and attitudes were developed in areas of:
	Planning, creating, analyzing and modifying - ie strategic, logical and creative thinking.

	Manipulating 3-D worlds and objects in a range of ways.
	Using scale, dimensions and perspective.
	Sequencing,timing, mathematical thinking.
	Persistence and patience.

Collaborative Potential

	This particular project was not set up to be collaborative. However incidental collaboration occurred when students observed each other's work, explained to their friends how they did things and discussed in groups ideas for solving problems they had encountered.
	There is also potential to make such a project more collaborative if desired. For example students doing 'Choose your own' forking stories could email these back and forth to a partner - each student being responsible for constructing a different fork and consequence.