Daily Archives: May 30, 2022

TikTok, It’s Origami Time!

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TikTok is commonly known for its popular dances and random videos posted by social media influencers. One side of TikTok that I really enjoy is the educational videos. I often find teachers on TikTok discussing classroom layouts, lesson ideas and class management strategies.

This week I decided to explore the social media platform of TikTok to find origami tutorials! I was hopeful because TikTok only allows videos to be posted, so I figured that this would be a great way to expand my folding skills as opposed to simply reading instructions. 

Screenshot of my search

First I began the search. I typed in “Origami tutorials” within the search bar and hit enter. The following photo is what I came across.

After I started scrolling through, I found myself feeling a little bit disappointed. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was hoping to begin creating more animals. Many of the videos that  I found were showing how to create boxes, envelopes, or shapes I have already made before. Eventually I did end up finding a few tutorials that I was excited to try:

  1. The paper dinosaurs: This tutorial posted by Origammaray, was very fun to follow. My first attempt I felt was going okay until I had my finished product. My folds looked a little bit rough around the edges, and for some reason the legs stuck out to the side too much. Therefore, the dinosaur I created was not able to stand firmly like the one in the tutorial appeared to be doing. 
Dinosaur

After looking at my creation, I decided to attempt the dino one more time. This time I used a small (sticky note size) piece of paper. To my surprise, I think I found using a smaller piece of paper to be easier to work with! My second attempt turned out better and stronger than the first, plus the dino was able to stand strong on its two back legs! One thing I would like to improve on is making the two front little arms more defiant as they are barely noticeable in my opinion. 

Swan
  1. Swan: I created a paper swan using a tutorial form an account called kimigami. This was a good tutorial, but did not require many folds and I found it was more simple than I was hoping for. This would have been a great video to watch and follow during my first week of the learning project! This being said, I was happy to follow along and I think that the finished product turned out just like the tutorial.
Turtle
  1. Sea turtles: I found a really cute tutorial while searching origami on how to make a turtle. This was a video I couldn’t pass by without trying! The TikTok was created by kimigami, the same creator that I used for the swan, and it was a very straightforward tutorial. The shell for some reason was uneven, so I had to fold in different amounts on each side. Im thinking that this mistake was due to an uneven fold. I found the finished product to be really cute and I enjoyed making this creation. I found the turtle to be simple to make and would work great for anyone at the beginner level, or young students within the classroom. 
Cute baby turtle

Because I found using a smaller piece of paper easier for making the dinosaur, I decided to use the small paper once again to create a baby turtle. One thing that was a little bit tricky was folding the head of the creature as I didn’t have a lot of paper to work with. Overall I am happy with the results.

This week I explored a new (to me) video editing tool called InShot. Using this tool/app, I created a video that demonstrates my Origami skills and provides a tutorial for viewers to follow along with the turtle making process.

NOTE: please see my blog post titled “Exploring New Tools” for a review on the editing tool that I used. 

Review on TikTok:

TikTok is an okay tool to use to find information on how to do things. I found the videos for origami were very simple, so if you are wanting to utilize this app, I would recommend using it for a beginner level. I did find myself having to sort through many videos to find ones that I would like to create, or that didn’t just show how to create boxes/containers. Because of this, I would rate TikTok a 6/10 as a resource for learning the skill of origami. I also do not think that this resource is great for tutorials as many of the videos are quite short, meaning that they are fast paced. Similar to what I said last week, I would still recommend “paper kawaii” as the tool to use when teaching students as it requires less time to sort through tutorials to find what you would like to create.

Extra:

This week’s TikTok exploration went well, but I was looking for more of a challenge. I decided to revisit the paper kawaii website from week one and attempt the lotus flower once again. I used the same paper as I did in week one and had the same results (ripped paper, not able to make the folds). I personally think that the paper rips because there are too many folds in one area. I thought that perhaps by using a larger piece of paper (30cmx30cm instead of 15×15) it might fix my problem because then I would have a larger piece to work with. 

After attempting with a larger piece of paper, I found it to be difficult getting the first folds started, and I ran into the same problem with my paper ripping when trying to make the petals. This paper lotus is a challenge for me and my goal is to be able to create this by the end of the learning project.

Question: I am thinking that a different type of paper might be better for this creation. Do you have any ideas on what kind of paper I can use that can be folded many times without ripping?  

  • Small piece of paper
  • Large piece of paper

Tech resources used:

What I learned:

  • Using a smaller piece of paper can sometimes be easier and can create stronger shapes
  • TikTok has some good origami resources, but you may have to search and sort through videos to find ones you want
  • InShot is a great tool to use to edit videos
  • Using a larger piece of paper did not help make the lotus flower any easier to create
  • I have realized that for many of the origami figures, the same folds are used at the beginning (fold diagonally both ways, then fold in half one way and the other way). Because of this I think that I am getting faster at the beginning steps! I can notice my improvements each week and I look forward to moving onto more interesting shapes that require more folds (as well as eventually master the lotus flower)

Exploring New Tools

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This week the EDTC class was tasked with finding a tool that can be used to document progress for our learning projects. I took a look at Animoto, shotcut and InShot. InShot is the tool that I ended up going with, and below I created an in depth review of how to use it!

Animoto seemed to be a great resource, until I began using it. For some reason I was unable to drag photos or videos into the area it said to (i’m thinking that this was a glitch on my end). Another thing I wanted to include was a voice over, but the free version did not allow for this. Lastly, Using the free version, I was unable to create a video over 30 seconds in length. 

Note: Voice over is only available if you pay $16 a month

Next, I chose to explore Shotcut. WOW was this overwhelming. I think that this would be an excellent tool for an individual who has more experience with video editing. For me, I was completely lost and didn’t even know how to add more than one clip! Shotcut is extremely advanced and was way outside of my comfort level.

Here is a screenshot. Apparently I had a voiceover, but it wouldn’t play. I was so confused!

Lastly, I decided to download an app on my Iphone called “InShot”. This app was free and incredible to use! I would highly recommend this to anyone who is wanting to edit a video in a simple way, looking to edit a photo, or wants to make a collage, as the app is very straightforward to use. I also love how one can speed up and slow down videos, as well as include voice over, music, sound effects, pictures, stickers and gifs. You can also make different edits such as cuts, filters and crops. 

How to use:

  1. Download the app
  2. Open the app. Three different options will appear “video” “photo” or “collage”
  3. When entering it asks if you want to allow access to photos and videos. Click “allow”
  4. Once you allow photos and videos to be accessed, you can then choose which items you would like to upload. When the items of your choice are uploaded, you can begin editing! (see the uploaded video below on how to complete the process).

Note: If you click the “video” option when entering the app a green square will appear that says “new”. Click on the green square and then choose which videos/ photos you would like to use.

Once the video, photo or collage is to your liking, you can save it to your device. Save by selecting the square with an arrow located at the top right corner of the screen. The app also provides an option to upload onto different platforms such as twitter, instagram, facebook and YouTube. If I were to rate this app, I would give it a 9/10 for meeting basic editing needs for an individual who is exploring video edits for the first time. I took one mark off due to the fact that ads do pop up within the app.

The following is a screen recording taken on my iphone on how to use the InShot app to edit a video:

The following video is a  brief overview on how to edit a photo and create a collage:

I then edited and created a tutorial on how to make an origami turtle! The turtle is a creation that I learned this week using the platform of TikTok for my learning project. 

Note: Please see my learning project update this week for more details!

Classroom use: As a teacher I would definitely use this as a resource in the classroom. I can create tutorials to show students how to complete things such as assignment expectations, and possibly different art projects (just an idea). I would also recommend this app to students as it is free to download on google play, as well as the apple app store. Students can use this editing tool to complete projects as it is straightforward and requires little instruction! This app allows you to easily save the edited materials to devices which makes using this tool even better! By being able to record audio right on the app, as well as search gifs and stickers, it will save students time as they will not have to continuously upload different attachments. One thing that teachers have to keep in mind is that ads do appear within the app when using.

Question: Is there a way to ensure ads don’t appear when using an app?

Where this app/tool fits in the SAMR model:

When looking at the SAMR model, I believe that the implementation of InShot within the classroom would fall under the category of substitution. I say this, because it is a video editing tool that can be used as a way to present information to the class. Instead of reading about how to do something, students can watch a video that the teacher created demonstrating how it is done.