January 2006 — Kids on Technology

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Animating the Learning Environment

by Paola Luconi Galva

This month's student contributor describes how animation and simulation software helps her and her fellow students to think and work creatively.

AT MY SCHOOL, we use animation/simulation tools in many different ways. My teachers have us use the software mostly during our technology lessons, and we have learned many things while using the tools. For example, I've learned how to type, how to access the menus in a program, basic programming concepts, and the most important thing is that I've learned how to work in groups.

We also help the younger children in our school to learn about different topics by letting them play the games we make. In my case, I created a game that teaches about vowels and their sounds. The game lets children listen to the different words that begin with a particular vowel. (For example, with the letter "a," they can click on a word such as apple and listen to the pronunciation.) Then they are tested when they have to drag the vowel to the words that begin with "a."

Another girl in my class made a game that teaches facts about the planets and the universe. This is a matching game where the younger students move planets to the correct rings. We mostly use CREATE Together from Bytes of Learning (www.bytesoflearning.com) and Kid Pix from Riverdeep (www.riverdeep.com) to make our games.

We learn by creating. Our teachers let us choose a topic we like and make games to share information with our classmates. Last year, we worked with our grammar teacher in the lab. We used nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and we made a project where we had information and games. We used the games to practice grammar, and some of my classmates who were not good at grammar benefited because they were learning in such a different and active way.