Videos

Videolicious, where have you been all my teaching life? What a fantastic and easy tool! I used it for our video assignment (I made a brief video about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Don't laugh - I take my food seriously). You can do EVERYTHING from your iPhone. I took some pictures then selected them from the Videolicious app. From there, I put the pictures in the order I wanted and edited them to make them fit the screen. Then, I provided the audio about the pictures.

With children, it would be fun to include the audio and video of them talking, but I didn't think video of me was necessary! The finishing touch was adding music. You can use the Videolicious music options OR choose music from your own library. After a quick upload, the video was ready.

In my classroom, the ways to use this tool are seemingly endless. It would be a great way to share with parents information about a big project or a field trip. Parents often say they'd like to be a "fly on the wall." Here is one way you can allow them that chance. It would also be a wonderful way to share with parents "a day in the life" of their child. Take pictures of what the children do in school and have the children narrate what they do. The beauty of Videolicious is that the videos are short, so children have to get "to the gist" of what it is they are trying to share. What a fantastic tool to share information with your students OR to have your students share information with you.

Check out my video here.

Tellagami is just plain fun! I experimented with it and created a cartoon version of myself at Fenway Park in Boston. I then added a "hello" message and sent it to my husband (he thought it was pretty cool). While the app is free, you do have to pay when you create a message. I'm not sure if you have to pay every time you create a new cartoon, but if so, it might get too expensive to use in a class. However, you could use it to create a fun, engaging welcome message on a blog or website. I may just do that (once I figure out how to upload it to a website).

Finally, I investigated Pixiclip. This teaching tool has many possibilities. It reminded me of the Tedx talk with Garr Reynolds. I always intrigued when presentations have slides that are interactive. By interactive, I mean that the slides have what looks like handwriting on them - which certainly adds emphasis. I could see using this in conjunction with a smartboard. A teacher can put an image or text on a smartboard via a pixiclip. With the help of the pixiclip tools, a teacher can highlight important information and SAVE the slide. What a great way to review information or share it absent students.