Making our own Interactive Avengers Story Cubes

Before I start discussing what we did, it is only right to share where the original idea for this project came from. This blog post by the brilliant @Joe_Moretti gave me the inspiration for this project - AR STORYCUBES PROJECT

I have been using my iPad with my children to support them with their reading journal homework for a while now. My boys struggle with their handwriting and find it very onerous to write even though they have some great ideas.

As discussed by @MrTullock at the Animate2Educate conference last week, technology should be used to enable children to show their knowledge and understanding even if they struggle with an element such as decoding or handwriting or spelling. I loved a quote he shared, and I have linked it in a poster to the story @CarolJAllen shared around the latest BGT winner.

I want to use technology so my children and pupils can create content to express themselves, their knowledge and their understanding.

Making our own Interactive Avengers Story Cube was the perfect example of this. My children are obsessed with Avengers at the minute, so I bought them the origin storybooks. These are great books as they tell the origin story of each superhero as a story rather than comic. If you click the picture below, you can buy the books yourself.

We generated three questions to ask each superhero:

• Who is your alter ego?
• How did you become a superhero?
• What are your superpowers?

Using the app, ChatterKids Pix, the children recorded videos as the characters answering those questions using what they had learned about the superhero from reading the book. They linked the three videos together using the app Apple Clips, where they could add titles and music. 

Their finished videos looked something like this:

They made a similar video for each superhero. Then used the app Foldify to create their own cube:

Once they finished the design and printed it out. I would recommend before cutting and sticking it together, to use app HP reveal to link the videos to each face of the cube. For a detailed guide for how to use the app HP Reveal - click here. The app uses Augmented Reality to link your video content through a trigger image. Once this has been completed they can cut out the cube, fold along the dotted lines and glue the flaps to create their own cube!

Using the app HP Reveal, they can scan each side and the app should load the digital content linked meaning you can watch and learn all about that superhero. 

Once finished, my children wanted to share what they have created and more importantly share how to do it so others can make their own so created this YouTube tutorial video:

As stated in Joe's original post at the top, there are lots of different ways in which this idea can be used:

• The water cycle
• The life cycle of the frog
• Breaking down a maths problem into six parts or six different maths videos… watch an equation come to life …
• A science experiment
• Bringing history to life (can you imagine six sides with a head on each side coming to life using Morpho Booth so that the heads come to life and speak!)
• A Geography cube of the globe where a map comes to life with a video created in Explain Everything. ( A journey cube?)