What?

Parents often ask about great ways to use technology at home. At Burley, we truly believe in the power of creativity and the ideas and vision of our kids. The Family Creativity Challenges will expose you to new tech tools and techniques, connect home and school technology use, and bring creative fun to your family. Each month, we'll post directions for a simple digital project. When you're finished, you'll post your work on a moderated web page. Together, we'll watch the creative energy grow! 

Who?

These challenges are open to all Burley students and their families. The Burley Technology Committee is overseeing this project, with a healthy dose of input from students, especially those in Ms. Skibba's Creative Tech Zone club.

How?

You can create one project as a family, or each child can create and share their own. Kids who love a particular technique should feel free to share up to 3 projects per challenge if they wish!

Complete the challenges using any phone, tablet, or computer. We will provide directions and support for iPad/iPhone apps like those we use at school. Unfortunately, we don't have the capacity for researching and supporting every possible app or platform -- but students are very inventive about solving digital challenges! If you find a different app or technique that works well, we encourage you to share in the comments to help other families.

Each challenge has its own SHARE page. Kids will upload their work, give it a title, and their initials and room number. To protect student privacy, please do not post first or last names. If a project is created by siblings working together, you can enter everyone's initials and room numbers.

Are there resources to help me?

The directions will include labeled screen shots, written steps, and, when needed, a video tutorial. Depending on their grade level, kids may already know the apps and techniques! Also, many of the challenges are connected to skills and activities in the free Everyone Can Create books published by Apple Education. We encourage you to download the books (for iPad, iPhone, or Mac) and build your creative knowledge and skill with Photo, Video, Drawing, and Music. 

Wait, I don't have an iPad...

No problem! You can complete many of the challenges using any phone, tablet, or computer. Because we use iPads at Burley, we've geared our directions toward iPads. All the iPad apps work on an iPhone, too, and there are creative apps for other types of tablets and phones -- though we don't have first-hand experience using those with students like we do with the iOS (iPad/iPhone) apps. When possible, we'll offer tips for participation if you don't have an iOS device, and we invite you to post your ideas and solutions as comments.

Are the SHARE pages public?

Yes. Anyone can see them. Remember to only write initials and room numbers, and if a student's face appears in one of the project, be sure not to include their name in any of the project content. We are moderating all posts and will only approve them if they follow these guidelines.

Other questions or comments?

Please contact Carolyn Skibba at caskibba @ cps.edu.