"Toontastic is a digital storytelling tool that empowers creative writers to draw, animate, and narrate cartoons through imaginative play" (LaunchPad). It has the potential to be an amazing teaching tool as it teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling (conflict, climax, resolution, story arc, etc.). Students are able to digitally tell a story by animating characters, narrating their story using their own voices, adding music. They can then play their creation as if it were a real animated film. Students can save their creations to the iPad's camera role in order to share it with others by means of presentation, email, online submission, etc.Toontastic is extremely simple to use and manipulate. Students simply follow the steps; the app guides participants throughout the entire process. Students may find it challenging if they do not understand the fundamentals of storytelling. Therefore it might be a good idea to first teach a few lessons on the elements of storytelling before beginning to use this tool.
Toontastic is an application that is available for iPads through download from the App Store. It is outlined as a free to try application, with in-app purchases available in order to unlock additional content. Launchpad collects only anonymous identifiers, such as IP addresses, in order to support the internal operations. They do not collect, use, or disclose any personal information from children under the age of 13. Students are able to add their face to their creations and/or record dialogue. Depending on the purpose of the activity, ethnicity/religion of the class, and whether parents have given permission for students’ photos to be taken, this may or may not be a privacy issue when sharing.
The Toontastic application is accessed through flash storage on an iPad. It does not require internet access other than during the initial download. The app does not require information in order to register or to accept user agreements and information guidelines. The only time the App or its designer LaunchPad would require information is if you were to contact them. They require contact by a parental/adult if the individual user is under the age of 13. As LaunchPad promotes the use of its products within the classroom, there are no privacy issues, copyright issues, or fair use issues. In regards to my own potential classroom privacy issues, we would have to ensure that all of our School Board’s rules and regulations are being followed in order to ensure that the safety of my students is not being compromised when sharing their creations.
While interacting with the App, I found myself asking a variety of questions. The three most important questions in my mind were:
- How would I use Toontastic within the classroom?
- How would students of various age groups react to Toontastic?
- What are the limitations of Toontastic?
Toontastic is listed as being designed for children ages of 6 - 8. After playing with the app, I feel that Toontastic is relevant to students in Kindergarten to grade six. It would all depend on the approach an educator places on the App and the expectations for and of the students.
As far as my usage is concerned, I could see myself using Toontastic within a classroom professionally more so than for personal use. I can see it being an excellent learning tool to assist my students in not only getting excited about Language Arts, but also as a potential link to cross curricular studies. LaunchPad, the developers of Toontastic, has also provided a variety of online resources to assist parents and educators in using this application.
Although I think this app is more suitable for junior grades, I can still see myself using it in primary grades as a way to promote student creativity and practice in storytelling. I would use this in junior grades to have students create stories that follow the fundamentals of storytelling. In my opinion, this app would be easy to integrate into my digital repertoire as students, depending on resources and funding, will hopefully already be used to using iPads and Apps within their regular classroom routines. Although Toontasitic does not add greatly to my digital presence, I believe it will add value to my students' educational experiences.If you are interested in downloading Toontastic from the App Store, click here.
If you are interested in exploring online resources from LaunchPad, click here.
Images taken from Google Images.