One of my students’ favorite apps to use in the media center is 3DBear. 3DBear is an augmented reality app. Being augmented reality, it allows you to insert objects and characters into your environment. You then have the option of taking a photograph or recording your creation.
My students love 3DBear. It is hands down the one app that every grade asks to use. It is the one app that every grade says they look forward to using when we set goals for the upcoming year.
My students love how interactive 3DBear is. Whether they are in PreK or Gade 5, they enjoy being able to augment their environment. They love being able to insert different assets into their environment. Some of their favorites include the dancing animals, dinosaurs, and the holiday elements that get released throughout the year.
I love that 3DBear engages them. It is through this engagement, I can sneak in some skills. I tend to build in media literacy and design skills when they are using the app. I also try to connect what I’m teaching to something they have already learned in the classroom. However, if I were still a classroom teacher, I would be using 3DBear with my students as part of authentic assessments.
Before I share some quick ways to use 3DBear, let’s talk about where to begin. Whenever I have a new app to use with students I do so with Guided Discovery and/or Interactive Modeling.
I start off by modeling for students how to get into the app and start a new project. Once they can do this, they are ready to explore or discover what the app can do. That is where the magic happens.
After showing them how to get into the app, and ensuring that they have created a new project, I then send them on their way to explore it. I give them 1-2 minutes just to begin with. This is plenty of time for them to learn how to add in an asset. They typically also figure out how to search for an asset. I have a few students share out what they have discovered and demonstrate it to the group, if needed. Then, I give them about 5-10 minutes to do some more exploring. I challenge them to figure out how they can position, resize, layer, or rotate assets. Again they share out.
Using Guided Discovery when introducing apps, especially an app like 3DBear, is powerful. If I were to teach the children how to do all of this, the chances that most of them would tune me out (no matter how much they love me) are great. I’d spend a ridiculous amount of time, individually reteaching what I taught to the entire group.
Instead, students construct their own understanding of how to use the app. This makes it more likely that they’ll remember what to do. It taps into their natural child-like need to play and be inquisitive. Something that we so frequently about missing in education.
This also builds in an element of personalized learning for students. They are moving at their own pace as they uncover how to use the app. Students are also diving deeper into the app’s functionality as they uncover how to precisely lay an asset, or what rotation may do to different objects.
In addition to this, students learn that I am by no means no expert. Or, at the very least, that we are all experts. They learn to rely on and go to each other for help. This process allows them to identify classmates who are really good at searching for, placing, rotating, or resizing assets. It builds a great deal of independence
Once students know how to use 3DBear, they are ready to use it in meaningful ways. They are ready to use it in ways that also meet your curriculum needs. The good news is that there an infinite number of ways to support your curriculum while engaging the students with 3DBear.
Retell a Story: I remember how hard it was to engage my third and fourth grade students in retelling a story. Even most avid readers and writers dreaded it or did not do it well. With 3DBear they can find a comfy spot, pop in some characters and begin to tell what happened in the story as they record. Two of my favorite lessons to do this are:
Animated Report: At the end of a research unit, my Kinder, 1st and 2nd graders had the option to create an animated report with 3DBear. It was so much fun watching them choose the assets that matched their topic; there were a lot of dinosaurs and planets! I also loved seeing how much enjoyment they got from recording what they learned while making the report.
Real World Solutions: 3DBear has so many possibilities for creation. It is a great way to engage students in design thinking and real world problem solving. My 1st graders have used 3DBear to create an accessible playground. Just imagine how invested they were as went out to the playground and they used a blend of nature, then environment, and 3DBear to design what they considered to be an inclusive playground.
Animated Greeting Cards: At first glance, greeting cards may seem a little mushy or not at all curriculum related. Not so. They merge social emotional skills, media literacy, and writing with this one quick task. Students learn how to write with purpose, design something with meaning, and make someone’s day. My fourth and fifth graders LOVE creating augmented greeting cards and then sharing them with others.
Numeracy & Literacy: There are so many ways to develop early literacy and numeracy skills. When I can support what they classroom teachers are teaching while also teaching media literacy it is a win-win. I always use 3DBear with my PreK students to support their learning of shapes and letter sound relationships. This is an image of my PreK kiddos lettering the playground with 3DBear! Two of my favorite activities are:
When I decide to use an app, there are a few things that I consider. I always wonder if it will be engaging for my students. Typically, if I love it they do as well. I determine if it is applicable for many purposes and can be used outside of the media center. Lastly, I try to figure out how long it will take me to teach students to use. If the answer is less than a class period, I’m in.
Quite frankly, 3DBear meets all of that criteria. I learned how to use it over the weekend. After I figured out how to get started, I handed it over to my son who was 3 at the time. That Monday, I was using it with students!
Grab more quick ideas with the complete guide below!
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