9: Coloring with Quiver

          Quiver is an app that transforms a coloring page into a 3D, animated interaction.  Users simply visit the Quiver site and print off Quiver coloring pages.  The user then colors the page.  When the user opens the Quiver app over the completed coloring page, the page comes to life.  See the below video for an example:

Please note that the coloring pages must be printed from the Quiver website for the animations to work.  

The Quiver app can be downloaded from the app store and the Quiver coloring pages can be found here: http://www.quivervision.com/.

I can see educators use Quiver to extend a lesson.  Here is an example from Common Sense Media (2015) of how a teacher uses Quiver:

"I have used Quiver, formerly ColAR Mix, with my elementary students. We would use these coloring pages when they tied into what we were covering to extend a lesson. For example, we used the dragon coloring page after reading a story about a dragon and the design a shoe page after we learned about how shoes are made. Students loved seeing their 2D art become 3D when using this app."

Coloring pages aren't the most rigorous activity out there.  I would suggest using Quiver with younger students to close out a unit of study with a bang.  I don't see how Quiver would benefit older students, but I would love to hear suggestions if any are out there!

Quiver Education - 3D Coloring App Teacher Review. (2015, November 29). Retrieved November 12, 2018, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/app/quiver-3d-coloring-app-teacher-review/4092031

8: Old Toy, New Trick: Epic Lego Wall

Diana Rendina's Epic Lego Wall is a new-to-me concept that I can see implementing in my school library.  

Full disclosure: I am uncharmed by Lego.  I have stepped on hundreds of Legos though my baby-sitting years and I have scooped countless Legos from the washing machine after my stepchildren ran their laundry.  However, I respect Lego's lasting appeal and I am drawn to Lego's approachability in the myriad of makerspace tech and tools. But how to implement Lego in the library?  The Epic Lego Wall.



A pro of the Epic Lego Wall?  Its vertical execution.  Something about the up-and-down of the Epic Lego Wall suggests collaboration to me in a way that horizontally executed Lego work spaces does not.  I think it's that the "huddle and hoard" element is missing.  You know, when you see a child claim rights to a selection of communal Legos and then the child hunkers their shoulders down over his or her Lego stash to communicate a physical boundary to potential Lego snatchers. 

 The vertical board insists on left-to-right-to-up-to-down orientation which, to me, promotes Lego interaction.  You'll note I did not say "Lego sharing".  I am a realist.

Another pro of the Epic Lego Wall is its fluidity of creation. In my world of mostly fixed schedule school library, maker spaces compete for time with book checkout and back-to-back classes.  I like the idea of starting with a maker space that does not require project completion because there is no project.  The maker space  just exists there, waiting for a creator to begin building or begin prying Legos off the wall in order to build differently.  

Epic Lego wall is universally approachable and worthwhile to all school libraries.  Instead of allowing students to create with Lego for their allotted 40 minute library period and then put the Legos away, the Epic Lego Wall gives makers an audience for their creativity.   As Colin Angevine and Josh Weisgrau (2016) state, 

"The magic of the makerspace does not come from the tools in the room; instead the learning theory that guides makerspaces is founded upon the unique power of learning through creating shareable work."

The Epic Lego Wall never ends, there is no finished product, no circuit has to light up, no characters must be coded correctly for it to be a "success."  The Epic Lego Wall is  there to create simply for the sake of creating.  In our highly anxious world of education, I imagine that as a relief for our students. 

Site: http://renovatedlearning.com/2014/09/12/the-epic-library-lego-wall-how-to-build-one/

Situating Makerspaces in Schools. (2016, June 06). Retrieved November 01, 2018, from http://hybridpedagogy.org/situating-makerspaces-in-schools/