May 2013
4 posts
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DoInk Animation and Drawing App User Spotlight:...
Lars Spilger is a public relations consultant and copywriter from Germany. We love that he writes his own music and animates videos for them using the DoInk Animation and Drawing app on the iPad.
Tell us about yourself. What is a typical day like?
Opening my eyes, think about current or possible new creative projects, having a coffee, think about current or possible new creative projects,...
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STEM to STEAM: Using Art to Teach Math at...
In an effort to boost math scores, Jefferson Elementary in Pasadena, CA is using art to teach math http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2013/05/10/13613/for-pasadena-school-arts-plus-math-is-really-addin/?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer7df1e For example, they have students “work on art projects that help them learn place value and the...
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Choosing an Art Creation App for the Classroom:...
Recently a teacher tweeted us to explain the difference between DoInk www.doink.com and two ipad drawing apps. Great question, though not easy to explain in 140 characters. The simplest response is that DoInk is an animation app which makes it different from a drawing-only app. But of course, drawing is useful in creating animations so DoInk also includes drawing tools. DoInk’s creation...
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Why DoInk is Co-sponsoring EdCamp Boston at the...
DoInk www.doink.com is a small Boston company that develops creative learning apps (drawing and animation tools) primarily used in Education. Our company consists of two people. Our software developer (and co-founder) is a PhD from MIT with an expertise in Computer Graphics and Math. His background is extremely useful in creating imaging intensive algorithms like those that make up DoInk’s...
April 2013
4 posts
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STEM to STEAM: Drawing as a Learning Tool in...
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....
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Edudemic Suggests Teachers Focus on "Verb, not...
Greg Kulowiec wrote an interesting article in Edudemic http://edudemic.com/2013/04/ipads-in-education/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed titled “Why (Not How) We Should use iPads in Education”. Greg believes that the focus of iPad use should be about how to use it, not why…that the “device itself is never as important as what can be done with it.”...
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Inspire Creative Writing in Students with Photos...
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...
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Creative Way to Celebrate National Poetry Month:...
April is National Poetry Month when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets come together to celebrate poetry and its significance in American culture. One way to celebrate is this lesson on the Teaching Channel in which an English teacher reads a poem and students “draw what they hear.” What a wonderful way for students to use their auditory, visual and artistic skills...
March 2013
6 posts
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"100 Best Apps for Teachers" chosen by Rasmussen...
Schools are undergoing a digital transformation with ipads and tablets proliferating the classroom. Trying to determine what apps to use can be overwhelming. Rasmussen College, a “regionally accredited private college specializing in high-demand educational programs” posted a list yesterday http://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/blogs/main/100-apps-for-teachers/ of 100 apps for...
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STEM to STEAM: Using Art to Teach Science
One of the popular phrases in education today is STEM, an abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. A new movement called STEAM is gaining traction where the added “A” is for Art to be combined with the hard sciences. As John Maeda, the President from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) said in an Edutopoia article...
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How to Animate and Draw on the iPad with DoInk...
This tutorial is a quick tour of the vector drawing tools available in Version 3.0 of 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. Version 3.0 includes photo import, a text tool and a new user interface. All of the creation tools have been moved to the bottom of the screen to maximize canvas area and...
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Why IT (Instructional Technology) Curriculum...
Nick Jackson http://largerama.creativeblogs.net/ an Educational Designer for the University of South Australia and a former educator at a secondary school in Yorkshire, England made a presentation on the significance of animation in an IT (instructional Technology) curriculum. He posted this animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYX6iM-5hU&list=UUruPX1AqTFgvuQEECkihOqw&index=5 as a...
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Is the DoInk iPad App the "Missing Piece" to those...
Carol Broos, a music teacher got us thinking. She tweeted 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 was “the missing piece for many of us who feel challenged to create art work. It got me to draw!” In fact, she created this very cool video ...
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Version 3.0 of the DoInk Animation and Drawing App...
Version 3.0 of 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 now available in iTunes for download. Its new features include photo import, a text tool, and a new user interface designed to maximize workspace. We’ve also added “Help” bubbles to aid new users. The 90 second video...
February 2013
6 posts
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Can The Best Apps In Education Fit On One Screen?
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...
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Building App Awareness in Schools One Teacher At A...
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...
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Creative Ways to Teach English to Deliver...
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...
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Valentine's Day Activities using Doink to...
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...
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Students Create Animated Food Chains using Doink...
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...
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Great List of Tools for Students to Create Book...
Mrs. Holzweiss, a member of our Doink/Edmodo community http://www.edmodo.com/publisher?uid=5406085 has created an “excellent guide to learning about and sharing book trailers and book talks” called “Jumping off the Page.” This link http://jumpingoffthepage.weebly.com/technolog… is especially helpful, as it lists technology tools which can be used to create book...
January 2013
10 posts
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DoInk to be at the "Across Boundaries: Innovaton...
DoInk http://www.doink.com is one of ten companies highlighted at this Friday and Saturday’s education conference, “Across Boundaries: Innovation and the Future of Education” at the MIT Tang Center in Boston. The conference organizers asked us to create a one minute video showing how Doink is used in education which is below. We hope you will join us at MIT for this exciting...
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Videos with Mixed Media are Effective, as well as...
Videos using mixed media can be tremendously effective in articulating a point, as well as interesting to watch. A great example is this YouTube video in which the user combined animations he created using the DoInk Animation and Drawing app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animation-drawing/id364762290?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4, with illustrations created using the Paper app and iMovie to...
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Create iPad Animations to Prove the Pythagorean...
I admit that I never understood the Pythagorean Theorem a^2 + b^2 = c^2 until I watched this animation. Mathematical symbols mean very little to me, but seeing a moving version of the proof made me understand why this theorem is true. Students can prove this theorem using a traditional method of paper, pen and scissors or use the DoInk Animation and Drawing app...
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Results of 5th and 6th Graders Learning to...
Steve Clark http://www.marlboroughipads.blogspot.ca/2013/01/doink-animation.html a Learning Leader at Marlborough School in Calgary’s NE wrote on his blog yesterday about the experience of his Grade 5 & 6 classes learning to animate with the DoInk Animation and Drawing app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animation-drawing/id364762290?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 on the iPad. He wrote...
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Create iPad Animations using the DoInk Animation...
Animations offer a visual approach to learning and can be a great tool for studying science. This is an example of a science project in which a student can make a simple animation on the iPad showing the Water Cycle and then interact with classmates to explain and clarify what they learned. The DoInk Animation and Drawing app...
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How to Create an iPhone Animation in 90 Seconds...
Animation is a great medium for creative learning and visualization, but the criticism is that animating can be difficult and time consuming. This is not the case with the Doink Express app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 as it has thousands of art props which can be remixed to create an animation. To show how easy this can be, we created the...
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Creating Art is Good for the Soul
Alex Mathers writes http://www.redlemonclub.com/motivation/how-not-being-creative-is-harming-your-very-survival/ that “not being creative is harming (our) very survival.” He states that “what holds people back from enjoying life, seeing success and moving ahead, is a little thing known as reactivity.” His says “when we react to situations or problems… we are...
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iPad Animations Created with the DoInk Animation...
In the book, “Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement” http://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Instruction-that-Works-Research-Based/dp/0131195034 Marzano explains that humans store knowledge in linguistic and visual form. For concepts that are hard to explain in writing, creating non-linguistic representations such as animations can...
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DoInk Animation and Drawing App for the iPad...
One of our favorite reviews for the DoInk ipad app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-animati… is from YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) who selected it as their App of the Week. Their review http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2012/05/16/yalsa-app-of-the-week-doink/ said, “Many teens, and probably quite a few librarians, will find DoInk an app that they could spend hours...
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Teach Poetry by having Students Create Animations...
Poetry can be one of the more difficult literary forms to teach because children view it as an alien mode of expression. This is unfortunate since poetry is a great outlet for self expression, expanding one’s vocabulary, learning word economy, inspiring and improving other types of writing. One way to make poetry accessible to students is to have them break poems down into small sections...
December 2012
7 posts
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Warm Wishes for the Holidays from Doink!
Hope you’re enjoying your very well deserved time off! Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a very Happy New Year! Animation created with Doink Express App https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 on the iPhone using remixed art “props.” Do something creative every day!
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Create Holiday Animated Greetings, Jokes or...
Students are full of energy and excitement this time of year, thinking about what gifts they’ll receive and their fast approaching time off from school. So why not grab their attention with a creative activity that plays off of holiday themes? Have them create animated greetings, holiday jokes, and funny stories using Doink Express...
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Studying Vocabulary using Doink Express App on the...
There are a number of strategies for learning new vocabulary that can be accomplished with the Doink Express app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doink-express/id414067189?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The above clip is an example of six of those strategies. Doink Express enables a student to record their voice (or other sounds) for 1) Oral repetition. It enables the user to 2) Type the word and its...
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"Solomon Sire and the Fantastic Fib" illustrated...
Priscilla Alpaugh http://www.priscillaalpaugh.com/ one of our favorite Doink ipad artists has illustrated an awesome book about character building titled, “Solomon Sire and the Fantastic Fib”. We love Priscilla’s art work and thrilled that her book was released in time for the holidays. For more information on this book and/or to pre-order, check out...
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Animate over Video using the DoInk Animation and...
Carol Broos, a music teacher created this very cool video on the iPad about “being transliterate, meaning being able to literate across a variety of media, both visual and auditory.” She used the DoInk Animation and Drawing App on the iPad www.doink.com for her drawings and animations, GarageBand for the music and iMovie to pull it all together. Very cool that her video taught us a...
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Create Beautiful Drawings on the iPad with DoInk...
We love when Doinkers e-mail us the art they create using the DoInk Animation and Drawing App http://www.doink.com Check out this beautiful starry night drawing created on the iPad by the incomparable Eklia. Awesome, don’t you think?
November 2012
6 posts
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Create Animations using Doink iPad App to Study...
Chad Kafka, a Technology Coach for Franklin Park schools in WI created a geometry animation project for his 7th grade Math team. They had just “completed a unit on geometric transformations which included looking at shapes and understanding what the following were: Rotation, Reflection, Dilation (change in size), and Translation.” He had the “students show a shape performing these operations”...
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Students use Doink Animation apps to "Show What...
As Tony Vincent’s “Learning in Hand” blog http://learninginhand.com/show says, having students “show what they know” with web & mobile apps can “turn students into teachers.” Animation apps like those provide by Doink http://www.doink.com can be a great way to engage students in science, motivate them to explore concepts and to “show what they...
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Creative Ideas for using the Doink Express App in...
“Every teacher knows how the holiday season can be one of the most difficult in the classroom. Children are full of Thanksgiving and Christmas excitement and, for most, the thoughts at the forefront of their minds will be solely to do with what gifts they’ll receive, the prospect of some time off school to see friends and family, and lots of home-cooked food! So, why not play on these...
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Show What You Know using Web and Mobile Apps in...
Yesterday Tony Vincent of “Learning in Hand”, posted in his educator’s resource for mobile learning, an infographic http://learninginhand.com/show showing the “hottest online and mobile tools for showing, explaining, and retelling” in education. He wrote, “Nowadays teachers and students have a variety of ways to show what they know and to express...
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Create Animations on the iPhone or iPodTouch using...
Studies have shown that students who use simulations (like animation) and video to connect science instruction to real-world problems outperformed students who use traditional instructional methods alone http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=148. Students learn best by doing – particularly in science. This video shows four examples of how the Doink Express app http://www.doink.com was used:...
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Digital Storytelling using Do Ink Animation and...
We love seeing Students create visual masterpieces on the iPad using the Do Ink Animation and Drawing App http://www.doink.com The story of the Flying Boat was created by two elementary students complete with dinosaurs, flying raptors and the Statue of Liberty. Why, of course! The iPad and the Do Ink app makes digital storytelling fun and engaging for students of all grade levels. Great for...
October 2012
12 posts
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Happy Halloween!
Nothing like William Shakespeare to set a ghoulish mood for Halloween.Who doesn’t love reciting the ingredients in the dreadful witches’ brew in MacBeths “Witches’ Song.” What a great way to introduce students to Shakespeare. Have them animate this scene using the Doink Express app http://www.doink.com for some creative learning fun. Happy Halloween from Doink!
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Create Book Trailers with Doink Express App: Edgar...
Book Trailers are an excellent way to communicate the excitement of reading while promoting a favorite book. This book trailer is for Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It was made with the Doink Express app www.doink.com on the iPhone (also works on the iPodTouch) using photos, sound, text and animated props. Its a fun mood piece, just in time for Halloween. Spooky!
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Create Animations on the iPhone using Doink...
Looking for a fun creative activity for Halloween? Animate scenes, poems and stories on your iPhone or iPodTouch using the Doink Express App http://www.doink.com This “Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate” animation was created on an iphone using art “props” in Doink Express. Wicked cute. Appy Halloween!
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Art Teachers Trained to Create Art on the iPad... →
Tricia Fuglestad conducted an iPad workshop http://drydenart.weebly.com/1/post/2012/10/ipad-workshop-in-westfield-in.html this week for art teachers from the Westfield Washington Schools in Indiana. Each of these art teachers received 30 iPads “for their art rooms and needed training ASAP to learn how to teach their students to create on iPads.” Tricia taught them how to use the Do Ink...
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Doink Express App Version 2.0 Available Now in...
Version 2.0 of the Doink Express App www.doink.com is now available in iTunes. WE STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO UPGRADE TO THIS NEW VERSION. At some point (fairly soon), the original version of Doink Express will stop working properly. Version 2.0 is a significant change for Doink Express. Most of the social features have been removed, including the ability to follow other users, view their animations,...
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Digital Storytelling using Doink Express App on...
To introduce students to Digital Storytelling, a fun project is using the Doink Express App http://www.doink.com to animate nursery rhymes like the “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Nursery rhymes are short, so good for short attention spans, yet full of awesome imagery. This kind of storytelling project is a great way to get students to think about how to use text, images and animations to tell...
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Science Project using Doink Express App on the...
Life Cycle projects in Science class are popular using the Doink Express app http://www.doink.com Fun to create because photos and animations can be combined with students’ own drawings. In this example, the life cycle of a frog was created in four drawings which were then added to “stock” backgrounds available in Doink Express. First, eggs were created and added to a...
