So this brings us to the question of why DoInk, a "lean" company, is co-sponsoring EdCamp Boston at the "startup level"?  We are doing it because EdCamp gives us the rare opportunity to hear first hand, teachers talk about their challenges in the classroom.  It's an amazing opportunity to listen to a passionate group of educators share views on favorite apps, software tools, trends in education, etc. This input is vital to our understanding of the market, what makes a good creative learning app and how we can improve DoInk. Thanks to Dan Callahan for inviting us. We appreciate the opportunity and are glad that we can give back at a startup level. We look forward to EdCamp Boston!

Drawing is an excellent learning tool to study science. This is because the process of drawing requires a student to closely observe and then visualize in their own unique way what they processed. An example of a science project using drawing is the River Otter presentation made with the Doink Express app www.doink.com  The user's interest was piqued when they saw an otter in a local pond. They researched it and then created a presentation using photos from their camera phone, art "props" and a custom drawing made with Doink to communicate what they learned. The otter is a proficient swimmer and skilled predator which can be explained by its unique webbed feet with claws. Though the drawing in the presentation is simple, it required careful observation of the student to draw it. Drawing can help students organize their thoughts, communicate what they learned and be extremely useful in a collaborative learning environment where knowledge is shared in a group. Teachers can assess what students learned and identify misconceptions, if any, through their students' unique visual representations.  Drawing is a great way to encourage reflection, a sense of achievement and to present ideas in science with imagination.

Creating haiku is a fun creative writing project for students because they are short poems that anyone can write to capture a feeling or an image often inspired by nature.  What better time to write haiku than in the Spring? Encourage students to go for a walk and take pictures with their iphones, ipodtouches or ipads. Pictures can be extremely effective in inspiring students to write. Then have them write a haiku about what they saw using their photos for inspiration. They can even combine their photos with their text using the Doink Express app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 to create an animated haiku in minutes.  First, each of the three text elements are written using the text editor in the app and placed on the timeline for three seconds. Then three photos are selected from the "camera roll" and placed on the timeline with the text. Lastly, the voice is recorded by pressing the "microphone" icon in Doink Express. Done! Easy and fast. The video can then be saved to camera roll to post to YouTube, message or e-mail. Creating animated haiku is a fun creative learning project to celebrate Spring, creative writing and National Poetry Month!

A recent Edweek article http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2013/02/all_the_good_apps_fit_on_one_screen.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB suggests educators focus on “creation” apps, not “content” apps in the classroom. Its writer Justin Reich believes “educators shouldn’t think of iPads as repositories of apps, but rather as portable media creation devices.” As a result, he believes “all the apps a student or teacher really needs should be able to fit on one screen of your iPad.” He suggests educators share their favorite apps on Twitter under the hashtag #onescreen so that “we can all see what each other see as the most important tools for making the best possible use of iPads”. Above is an example of a #onescreen shot shared by educator Steve Clark  https://twitter.com/stevewclark/status/302987615232221185/photo/1 We encourage everyone to follow the Twitter conversation as it is a great resource for app discovery. Mr. Lang, an educator in the DoInk Edmodo community http://www.edmodo.com/publisher?uid=5406085 wrote that he stocks his “iPad full of “active” apps, including Doink!” We thought the term “active” excellent for describing apps that encourage students “to show what they know” and appreciate that the DoInk Animation and Drawing app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animation-drawing/id364762290?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 for the iPad is included in this category.

App companies build awareness in schools one teacher at a time. At DoInk, we have seen that there is no set pattern for who our school evangelists are. In one case, it is a Science teacher who discovers DoInk and then introduces it as a school wide creation app to other subject areas or it is an English, Math or ICT person. In this case, it was an art teacher @emeshelle who introduced the DoInk Animation and Drawing app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animati... to Denise Shekleton DShekleton a Science teacher in Iowa. We love this picture of 4th and 5th grade students using DoInk on the iPad for Science inquiry projects. Thanks Denise for tweeting this picture and for all the DoInk evangelists who have helped to spread the word about the DoInk creative learning apps.

Anna Warren, an English Teacher in the UK wrote an article for the Guardian on "10 Creative Ways to Teach English That Deliver Outstanding Results." http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/feb/14/teaching-english-creatively-outstanding-results?CMP=twt_gu We love that her school teaches English using the arts. "Through painting, music composition, a film project, in role drama or sculpture, the kids have had a chance to share vocabulary, ideas and concepts which gives their reading fresh meaning and purpose." They have "found that immersing children in a range of creative activities before reading the text means that they are fully prepared, and excited, about the reading journey ahead of them." An interesting project we have seen using the DoInk Animation and Drawing app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animation-drawing/id364762290?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 for the iPad is having students illustrate a quote or scene from a book chosen by their teacher prior to reading it. For example, this quote and scene from "Charlotte's Web." It's a great way to get students excited about what they are about to read.

Shelly Terrell recently posted ideas for Valentine's Day that encourage creativity in the classroom http://shellyterrell.com/2013/02/06/15-apps-activities-for-valentines-day/ Her ideas included creating short poems and reciting favorite quotes or poems and then illustrating them with pictures (and drawings). The Doink Express App https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 works great for both projects. Another idea popular with students is to create funny videos of pets.  Who doesn't love showing off their one true love on Valentine's Day? Students can take pictures of their pets or use a photo from their camera roll and then draw or animate over them using Doink Express. They can then share their animations and drawings with classmates, send them as e-cards to friends or combine all the clips to create an amusing class video. Happy Valentine's Day!

Studying food chains help students understand how all kinds of animals’ food can be traced back to plants and that the sun is the ultimate source of energy for organisms to stay alive and grow.  There are a number of ways to study food chains. A teacher can draw one with arrows showing who's eating whom on a smartboard or blackboard or have students watch food chain videos. Then students can write about what they have learned. Or  they can "show what they know" by creating their own food chains using a creative learning app like Doink Express https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4. The students can combine photos of examples around them with text and art props to create their own food chains. They can then share them for everyone in the class to see and discuss the similarities and differences. Great for students to understand how living things in nature are connected and how our actions can affect our environment.