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Kid Pix Studio Deluxe Broderbund 1-800-685-6322 http://kidpix.com Grades PreK- 8+ Reviewed By: Sarah Torchio Software Description: Kid Pix Studio Deluxe is an interactive, engaging, painting program that has many different educational uses. Students of all ages can use their creativity to illustrate pictures, type text, make slideshows, and make many other animated projects. Students can even use the speech menu to have the computer read the text they have written. There are two parts of this program: The Paint Zone and The Slideshow. In The Paint Zone students can use the Wacky Pencil to draw free-form lines. They can also click on the Line, Rectangle or Oval to draw different shapes or designs. Painting tools such as the Wacky Brush, Paint Can and Electric Mixer allow students opportunities for creativity. Text can be added by using Talking Alphabet Stamps or the Typewriter. The Slideshow has many tools to aide students in making their own animated pictures. Students can create their own slideshow by using tools called Moopies, Stampimator, Digital Puppets and Wacky TV. There are several special effect features. The opportunities this program provides are endless!! Accuracy of Content: The content of Kid Pix Studio Deluxe is appropriate for grades PreK-8+, but even adults can use this program to create slideshows that resemble Power Point. The content is appropriate for its intended audience and is fairly simple to use. Directions and written tutorials are provided. Teachers should model for students how to use this software. Otherwise, students may not know everything that Kid Pix Studio Deluxe can do and will not take advantage of all its uses. Technical Quality: This software is extremely easy to install. Little to no computer experience is needed. It is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh servers. When first reading the directions and tutorial in the manual, it was somewhat confusing and overwhelming with all the multitude of possibilities. After exploring this program hands-on, however, I found it much easier to use and understand. There is a help button that explains everything both orally and written. I find the program to run somewhat smoothly. When I created a picture in The Paint Zone, and tried to transfer it over to The Slide Show, the program would cause my computer to freeze up and take a long time to transfer the pictures. I eventually was able to make a slide show by creating one picture at a time and save it to my Desktop. I then opened The Slide Show and inserted the saved pictures into it. This worked much better. Graphics, sounds and animation are of high quality. Some of the graphics tend to become fuzzy if they are enlarged too much, but students can experiment with different sizes. Students can erase work with a handy eraser, or undo mistakes by clicking on the Undo Guy. Students can move text or objects on the screen by using a Moving Van, or can erase the entire picture at once with the Dynamite Stick. Each icon serves a purpose and is conducive to learning for students of all ages. Use of Technology: Numerous Connecticut Framework Standards can be met using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. Visual, auditory and tactile learners will all have success with this program. Students who are very creative or who love art will especially love this program. Through teacher modeling, students will learn how to use this program to enhance their learning in all content areas. This program can be used for problem solving, counting, maps, graphs, letter recognition, visualizing, writing and illustrating stories, reports, biographies, and much, much more!! Students can use computer skills such as saving documents, cutting, pasting, and changing font. There are a variety of pictures available through the Rubber Stamps, Wacky Brushes, Electric Mixers, Moopies, Stampimators and Digital Puppets. There are also 16 prerecorded sound options, and students can even record their own sounds if a microphone is available! Role of Students: Students become empowered learners while using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. This software is very individualized to any students’ learning need. This program allows students to work, be creative and have fun according to their individual learning levels. Teachers can use this program at all levels of learning in all content areas. Students can construct products that teachers can use for assessment purposes if desired. These products can be constructed in The Paint Zone where students can draw a picture and write text to support what they have drawn. One way a teacher can use this is to read a chapter from a book and have students draw a picture of a scene they visualized. They can then write text to explain their visualization. Products can be constructed and assessed in The Slide Show. Students can make graphs, animated book reports or reviews, or retell a story to demonstrate understanding. These are only a couple of examples. Students can work on projects individually or in small groups with this software. Different learning styles can be mixed to enhance student performance. For example, a teacher could pair up an artistic student, an auditory student, and a visual learner. The artistic student could be responsible for all drawings, the auditory learner could provide the sound effects and animation, and the visual learner could write the appropriate text. This may work well for students who do not enjoy art. They would not get frustrated about the drawing because their job would be something enjoyable to them, such as writing. Students will learn from each other while using this program. Role of Teacher: To maximize student learning and progress, teachers should model and guide students through lessons using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe at first. Before exploring this program, I had always discouraged my students from using it because I thought it was simply an art program that was not very educational. After using and exploring this program, it is very apparent that it has a multitude of uses. A slide show could be created to introduce all possibilities of this program. It would be best if students had their own computers, but pairs or small groups of students on a computer would also work. Younger children should be limited to what is introduced. One concept at a time would be best for grades PreK-2. The Smart Board might compliment this software program nicely. The software manual includes many useful resources for teachers. A variety of lesson plans are included for grade levels PreK-8. Lesson plans are in all content areas and use all tools of Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. All lessons are also included on a Resource Disc. Book titles and website addresses are provided by the publishers. The book titles include teacher resource books, and children’s books to accompany the provided lesson plans. The provided websites contain graphics and information that are useful to both teachers and students. Websites are in all content areas, including art. Assessment rubrics are also provided for teachers to evaluate a multimedia project. Classroom Usage: This software program has a variety of educational uses. Students can benefit from this program by whole class, small group, or independent learning. Individual usage may be best in The Paint Zone, but small groups may be best in The Slide Show. Again, all Kid Pix Studio Deluxe supports all content areas. Teachers and students can create graphic organizers to use in language arts, science, or social studies. After students complete the graphic organizers using the text features, they can illustrate them using Kid Pix Studio. One example of this is comparing and contrasting character traits and then illustrating the character with the given traits. This program can be used to make bar graphs and pie graphs to present information in math, science, or social studies. Students could draw characters in stories they have read, and then use the Alphabet Text to write and hear what the characters are saying. Students can create slide shows of maps or reports. These can be animated. Sound effects and sound options can be used to compliment their reports. Students can research topics and present their research in a Slide Show. They can put their pictures into the Slide Show, record sounds, and record their voices on the pictures. Students can also classify objects with Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. These are only a limited number of ways in which this software can be used. The possibilities are endless- especially with middle school students! Critical Summary: Kid Pix Studio Deluxe is a fun and creative educational tool that will motivate and engage all learners. Students will have fun applying their artistic talents and can experiment with their creativity. Teachers can use this software to accompany all different levels of learning and all content strands. This program can be used to support most of the Connecticut Framework Standards. Overall Rating 8 out of 10 Explanation of Rating: I was very impressed with this program. I had no idea this program had so many uses; it is not just merely an art program. It can be used to support and enrich many different lessons and activities. Students of all ages can have fun and learn many computer skills using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. My only complaint is that I had to restart my computer a few times at first when I was trying to figure out how to transfer pictures from The Paint Zone to The Slide Show. After I came up with a solution, however, the program ran much easier.
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