SLAM!
Oh how I love a little competitive fun. Have you ever heard of an App Slam? It's a friendly sharing of favorite apps followed by a vote to see which app gets the most votes.
Having an App Slam is a great way to have students guide and personalize their own learning and it also incorporates a lot of creative thinking and technology.
Here is how it works:
Students (or teachers) choose an app that they think is a winner.
They then create a demonstration (video, live demo, example or other)
The demo slam
- is short (1-3 minutes) in length,
- highlights the features of the app,
- demonstrates how to use the app, and
- ends with the word SLAM.
Here is a Thinglink with some awesome examples of App Slams:
and here is a popular App Slam from two young ladies who are showing how amazing Google Translate is:
So as you can see, the idea is not just to share an app, but to do it creatively and convincingly.
In a classroom or school, teachers could use a tournament bracket creator such as this one to organize the app slam. For voting on the apps, teachers could use Poll Everywhere or Plickers to collect the student's votes.
What I love about App Slams is that students demonstrate how an application can be used to help solve a problem or take learning to another level.
I highly recommend having a friendly App Slam with your students or even between educators to grow awareness of the amazing apps that are out there.
Comments