Pic Collage: Another Favorite "Evergreen" App

I believe that using images helps most learners understand concepts better. Because of my belief, I use many sources of multimedia in my lab. Since getting our iPads in January, I have developed several academic tasks using Pic Collage.

Pic Collage is easy to use; after modelling the use of a few features, students are able to quickly create some worthwhile projects.

Our third graders study the civilization of ancient Egypt. This collage shows some of the important concepts they had been reading and discussing in their classroom.

After a review of image search parameters, students found copyright free images and saved them to their camera roll. Within Pic Collage, they chose layouts and imported the photos. They labelled each with the text feature and designed the textboxes. Lastly, they selected a background.

Students benefit from viewing examples with effective and poor elements of effective visual design. I encourage them to think about the use of space, size of elements, and legibility.






I am working with the fourth grade teachers to teach some geography of the United States. We are spending a few days learning about each of the regions. The textbook they use features the historic changes in agriculture in the Midwest region.

In this collage, the students took photographs of the images in their textbook with their iPad camera. I taught them how to crop images in the Photos app. I also provided a sentence prompt which they completed for each image they chose.

They arranged the photographs chronologically and added the text which they had written on their papers.



I plan to use this app with my first graders next rotation. They can take photographs of themselves showing either emotions or actions, then write their own labels.

Catching Up!

Where have the past four months gone? We became a 1:1 iPad school in January. As the Technology Integrationist for my school, I have been extremely busy. Too busy for writing blog posts, so it seems. I am attempting to catch up a bit now, highlighting some of my favorite work done in my lab and in the classrooms I support.

One of my favorite apps is Educreations. This app belongs in the category of "Evergreen apps", a term I was introduced to by Tom Daccord at ISTE 2014. Evergreen apps are non-subject apps that can be used to create. The creation features in Educreations include drawing, writing, using images and speaking.

Here are some examples:

4th graders were working with unit conversions

1st graders illustrated fact families

K's wrote a number, then those that come before/after

1st graders worked on addition

 

Recording and reflections on a poem

All work is saved as videos, allowing for voice narration. Using a free classroom account, teachers can model tasks for students. The recordings are easily shared with students. These lessons can be a great way to provide support for work in centers or to individual students based on their needs. All student work gets sent to the teacher.

I think of Educreations as a digital whiteboard with loads of extras. In the SAMR model, it definitely can be used for Redefinition of tasks.