Writing on the iPad using Tellagami

Today we took it to another step and did our writing directly on to the iPad using their text to voice option. Previously we had been writing on paper as a prompt to speaking. Today it was all on the iPad.

The boys, by now, are quite familiar with the Tellagami app so were able to quickly find their backgrounds and personalise their character.

When searching for images the boys are using Google Images fro the time being- one step at a time to use Creative Commons Images. I made up a new rule- you had to chose your background image from the first few rows of images as the boys were spending way to looking perusing and talking about the merits of each image and whether they wanted to use it or not.

I was able to bring my own Access Point to the internet so I knew we would be able to get strong wireless which this activity needed.

In the first group the boys turned up with dead flat iPads and no chargers. The joys of Monday morning! We paired up and shared iPads which has its pluses and minuses. Because they were working together on one iPad there HAD to be a dialogue. But then we had to resort to Paper, Scissors, Rock to decide on a story topic if it looked like developing into a full blown argument.

Tellagami from Writing Boys on Vimeo.

Reflections: 

• Having my own Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point is absolutely brilliant. A bit of a pain to take to and from school each visit but well worth it.
• We now have a room we can use on a longer term basis rather than moving around each week. This is great.
• I am getting better at the boys' names but as we write using Tellagami I now longer know who is talking because it masks the natural voices. We must make sure to include our names in the video.
• One of the boys said he had downloaded the app on his family owned iPad with his mother's help and was experimenting with it at home as well. I must remember to let him know he can upload to Dropittome from home as well if he would like to share a finished artefact with me.
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