Creating with Pic Collage

Pic Collage is a fantastic FREE app perfect for students of any age to use in creative ways.  The three main buttons make it an easy to navigate and intuitive to use.  Collages save to Photos where the images are available for "app smashing".  

This week I introduced the Pic Collage app to Mr. Myers (@mrmyers1), 8th grade history teacher, and his students.  Myers is one of our 38 #ipadacademy teachers in #bpsne #iPadAcademy.   

Student challenge

A collage created by a 4th period student.

1  Save 10-12  images from the website, The US-Mexican War   
2. Use the Pic Collage app to construct a visually appealing display of the images.
3. Add text to identify the events and people in the images.  Refer to the website for facts about the image.
4. Save the collage to photos. 
5. Upload the image to Google Drive gClass hand in folders.
6. Use the Reflector app on the computer to "hop on" airplay and share/discuss with the class.  

Unexpected Outcomes

1.  As students organized and constructed the collages, they began to wonder and question. 
2.  These questions led students to spontaneously research historical information over this event.
3.  Student sidebar discussions centered on the War with Mexico.  The informal conversations continued as they worked.
4.  This prior knowledge was beneficial the next day when they learned more about this topic.

Give Pic Collage a try. The price is right, FREE. As I like to say, "If it's free, it's meant to be."

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein

Written by Ann Feldmann
@annfeldmann1

Tactilize App - The Nitty Gritty

I’ve been tweeting out great things recently about using the app Tactilize.  It’s such a great app because the students can put interactive content all on one card.  The cards look like they cost an ad agency thousands to put together, but anyone can have great looking, informative cards in a few minutes on one topic.  Furthermore, viewers can like your card so the experience becomes social for students.  

Over at Bellevue West High School, Mrs. Carlson had her students create a card on a company which they have been studying.  She called them recruiting cards.  Students researched a company and then made a Tactilize card on why it is a great company to work for.  This process took about a week including all the research and uploading videos, and editing their cards.  

We ran into two obstacles during our project.  Once the students “published” their cards they could not go back and edit it within the app.  (Tactilize founder did reply via Twitter that the update coming soon will allow for in-app editing.) They could, however, edit it online at www.tactilize.com after logging in to their account.  The second issue was that for our students, YouTube is blocked.  In tactilize, you can insert a link to a video.  That video must come from YouTube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion.  So we uploaded their iMovies to Vimeo.  From there we were able to grab the link and put it in their card.  Text, images, frames, and background colors and images were also be added to their cards.  

Once we got over these hurdles and the students felt good about their cards, it was time to share.  Mrs. Carlson decided to do a gallery walk in the cafeteria.  Groups placed their ipads around the cafeteria and the class rotated to the tables, listened and watched their cards, and then provided feedback via a Google spreadsheet.  There were two columns in the spreadsheet.  One was titled Could be better if, and the other was what worked well.  I watched as these kids becomes responsible for getting to each card and provided critical feedback to each other on their iPads.  

One student exalted after the session, “Hey Mrs. Carlson, that was really fun!  We enjoyed that.”  Another exclaimed, “This is such a great way to share and learn!”.  I couldn’t have agreed more.  It was exciting to see students fully engaged, using critical thinking, and being responsible for their learning.  

What worked well?  Just about everything!  Could have been better if?  Can’t think of a thing!  

Students' Tactilize Card on the Company HubSpot

Written by:  Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps