Pixie 2-the software drawing program for me

I started using the software drawing program Pixie 2 from tech4learning a few months ago. I needed a creative drawing program for projects that my students could use to integrate into all subjects of the curriculum. In the past our school district has used most versions of Kid Pix. There are lots of drawing programs out there and I have looked at a few of them. I was ready for something new. Our labs were being upgraded and I needed something that would work with Macintosh Leopard (10.5) and this was shown to me at a conference to try out. I had looked at the free program Kerpoof but it did not have all of the bells and whistles that I wanted although it is a good program. Our school district has now ordered licenses of Pixie 2 for every computer in for both of my computer labs.

My goal was to become very familiar with the tools, menus and features so that when school starts I am very comfortable using it. I have spent lots of time creating things. Below is a short 2 minute tutorial that I made about the tools. It does not show how to use them instead what they are... I will get more in depth with another video a different time.

I like Pixie 2 a lot. It has many saving options which we will be using this year to showcase the students work. It was simple to add audio. It is easy to change the font in the text boxes, find, resize and move the stickers and best of all you can have lots of slides open all at the same time and move between each copying and pasting to your hearts content! I would say that the program is one of the nicest that I have worked with in terms of how easy it is to use and how many features that is has. I think that my kindergartners will find it simple to navigate around in and my 2nd graders will be amazed at the wonderful things that they will be able to create.

I have not been real successful in getting the video to upload on teachertube. The first one I made did upload successfully and it was saved as an .MP4 but I was not happy with the quality. See what you think. On my computer the .MOV was better but not so great uploaded here.

***WARNING***

My daughter would not let me use my "teacher" voice to narrate it. I am sorry in advance if the voice is annoying to your ears :) I have never been good at impressions.