Creatability: Bite-Sized Interactive Toys Get Students of All Abilities Creating and Experimenting

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The lesson introduces Creatability, a collection of interactive and accessible tools from Google that allows users of all abilities to engage with music and art in creative ways. Participants can experiment with various tools, such as motion tracking and sound canvases, to create music and art through movement and interaction. The lesson emphasizes the open-ended nature of these tools, making them suitable for diverse learning environments and encouraging creativity, coding exploration, and collaborative projects.

Creatability: Fun Interactive Tools for Everyone!

Hey there! Today, we’re diving into something super cool called Creatability. It’s part of a collection of experiments from Google that you can find online. These are free tools that let you play around with music and drawing in fun and creative ways. Let’s explore what makes Creatability so awesome!

What is Creatability?

Creatability is a set of creative tools designed for everyone, no matter their abilities. It’s all about experimenting with music and art in a way that’s easy and fun. You can use these tools to draw, make music, and even use your body to interact with them!

Cool Tools to Try

There are lots of different experiments you can try out. Here are a few examples:

  • Motion Tracking: Use your body to create music or art. It’s like dancing and drawing at the same time!
  • Body Synth: Make music with your movements. It’s a great way to get active and creative.
  • Sound Canvas: Draw sounds on a virtual canvas. You can create your own musical masterpiece.
  • Keyboard: Play music using your face, body, mouse, or keyboard. It’s a fun way to explore different sounds.

Why It’s Great for Learning

Creatability is open-ended, meaning you can use it in many different ways. Even if your class isn’t about music or art, you can still find creative ways to use these tools. Younger kids can jump right in and play, while older kids can experiment with changing musical scales and notes.

Plus, if you have a camera, you can use it to interact with the tools, which is a fun way to take a break between lessons and get moving.

Get Creative with Coding

For those interested in coding, Creatability offers open-source code. This means you can even create your own experiments! If you’re into coding, you can explore how these tools work and maybe even make your own version.

Sharing and Learning

Creatability also provides information on how data is collected and shared. If you’re curious about building projects like these, you can learn more about it. There’s even a chance to get involved with GitHub, a platform where you can create and share your own tools.

Using Creatability in Class

Imagine playing with these tools and then writing about your experiences. It could be a great way to spark creative writing! You can also think about how these tools make learning accessible to everyone.

For those who like making videos, you can use a screen recording tool to capture your experiments and include them in projects or presentations. There’s so much potential for creativity!

Explore More!

Creatability is just one of the many experiments you can find on the Google experiments website. If you’re curious, go check it out and see what other fun tools you can discover. And remember, learning can be fun and exciting when you have the right tools!

  1. How do you think Creatability can change the way people interact with music and art, especially those with different abilities?
  2. Which Creatability tool do you find most intriguing and why? How would you use it in a creative project?
  3. Reflect on a time when you used technology to enhance your creativity. How does that experience compare to the possibilities offered by Creatability?
  4. In what ways do you think Creatability can be integrated into educational settings to enhance learning experiences?
  5. How might the open-source nature of Creatability inspire individuals interested in coding and technology?
  6. Discuss the potential impact of using motion tracking and body movement in creating art and music. How does this change the traditional approach?
  7. How can Creatability tools be used to promote inclusivity and accessibility in creative fields?
  8. What are some ways you could document and share your experiences with Creatability to inspire others?
  1. Explore Motion Tracking

    Try using the motion tracking tool to create art or music with your body. Move around and see how your movements can turn into creative expressions. Think about how different movements produce different results and share your favorite creation with the class.

  2. Create a Sound Canvas

    Use the Sound Canvas tool to draw sounds on a virtual canvas. Experiment with different shapes and colors to see how they affect the sounds you create. Challenge yourself to make a short musical piece and present it to your classmates.

  3. Body Synth Challenge

    Get active with the Body Synth tool by making music through your movements. Try to create a rhythm or melody using different parts of your body. Record a short video of your performance and discuss how movement can be used as a musical instrument.

  4. Keyboard Exploration

    Experiment with the Keyboard tool by playing music using your face, body, mouse, or keyboard. Explore the different sounds you can make and try to play a simple tune. Share your experience and discuss how technology can change the way we interact with music.

  5. Creative Writing with Creatability

    After exploring the Creatability tools, write a short story or poem about your experience. Describe how these tools made you feel and what you learned. Share your writing with the class and discuss how creativity can be expressed in different forms.

Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:

Hello, everybody! Hello, YouTube! It’s Tanner and Chrissy from Common Sense Education, reporting in once again as we do every Tuesday here on the Common Sense Education channel with interesting learning tools and media for your classroom. Chrissy, what do you have to discuss today?

Today, Tanner, I have Creatability as part of the collections with experiments from Google. If you go to that web address, it’ll take you to a wonderful place of free tools and experiments, and within that collection, there is Creatability.

Let me first go to our reviews so you can check out what we have here. We gave it four stars; it covers K-12 and it’s totally free. Here’s the situation: it is basically a series of creative tools mostly focused on drawing and music. They are extremely accessible to all different abilities.

As I scroll down, you can see that there are a variety of experiments that kids can explore. Some include motion tracking, the Body Synth, the Sound Canvas, and the Keyboard. For instance, with the Keyboard, you can play using your face, body, mouse, or keys. There are many different ways to interact with these tools. There’s a tutorial, or you can just jump right in and start playing.

There are a lot of different sounds kids can explore, and what I really like about this tool is that it’s super open-ended. There are tons of things you could think of to do in the classroom with this tool, even if your class has nothing to do with music and art. I think there are many angles from which you could approach a tool like this, and it also applies to different grade levels. You could see younger kids just jumping in and playing around, while older kids with a bit more experience in music can change the scale from pentatonic to major or minor, and adjust the root note, etc.

Many of these tools incorporate camera tracking, so if you have a camera in the classroom, you can use your body to interact with the keys. It’s probably a good way to burn off energy or switch up between lessons.

There are a lot of different things you can do and explore. It involves creating, and because there’s some open-source code involved, kids can actually get involved and create their own experiments as well. For older kids with some coding experience, there are ways for them to participate too.

At the bottom, there’s a bit more information about what data is collected and how it’s shared, as well as how students can build projects like this. If kids want to get involved with GitHub, they can also create some tools.

One thing I imagine is that if I let kids play around and then write about their experiences, it could lead to some great writing prompts. You could address it from an accessibility angle. There are lots of creative ways to use this free collection of cool tools that kids may not have experienced before. Sometimes, just breaking things up and getting kids excited is enough.

So that is Creatability. Do you know if they’ve added to the library of options since you’ve been looking at that tool?

From what I’ve seen, it looks like it hasn’t changed much since we reviewed it, but it’s not the only experiment available on that site. There are other things you can explore as well. I focused on this one mainly because of its accessibility.

It seems like that would pair well with a screen recording tool like Screencastify, so students could play around with the experiments, screen record them, and then incorporate them into other projects or presentations. For advanced students involved in maker spaces or Arduino projects, there’s huge potential in those contexts.

So that was experiments.withgoogle.com. Go check that out, or you can visit commonsense.org/education for more reviews like that one. And of course, like, subscribe, and watch our videos to help increase our presence in the Google ecosystem!

This version removes informal language, filler words, and maintains a professional tone while preserving the main ideas.

CreativityThe ability to use imagination to create something new or original. – In art class, we use our creativity to make unique paintings.

MusicSounds that are arranged in a way that is pleasant or exciting to listen to. – We used a computer program to compose our own music for the school play.

ArtCreative work that expresses ideas or emotions, such as painting, sculpture, or design. – The art museum had a special exhibit of digital art created on computers.

ToolsInstruments or software used to perform tasks or create things. – We learned how to use digital tools to edit photos in our computer class.

CodingWriting instructions for computers to perform specific tasks. – Our teacher showed us how coding can be used to create fun animations.

ExperimentsTests or trials to discover something new or to test a theory. – We did experiments with different colors to see how they mix on the computer screen.

DrawingThe act of making pictures or designs using lines and shapes. – I used a tablet to practice drawing digital illustrations in art class.

LearningThe process of gaining knowledge or skills through study or experience. – We are learning how to use new software to create digital art projects.

InteractiveAllowing a two-way flow of information between a computer and a user. – The interactive art exhibit let us change the colors of the lights with a computer program.

GoogleA popular search engine used to find information on the internet. – We used Google to find images of famous paintings for our art project.

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