As we were diving deeper into the school year, we noticed that our students were engaging in more in-depth projects that developed over time, or they were eager to share a process that was continually evolving. We also were noticing that some students who engaged in research projects where they created a ‘ChatterPix’, seemed to be looking for something more. When reflecting about what content-creation app might be best suited for these needs, we thought of Pic Collage. Pic Collage is an app that we were all very familiar with ourselves, as we have used it for our own documentation. However, passing the app over to the students was something we hadn’t done much of. We knew that at this point in the school year, many of our students were becoming increasingly able to record their thoughts and observations in writing with phonetic spelling, and thought the text feature in Pic Collage may be a motivating way for them to ‘write’. We also knew that the photo collage capabilities would be able to capture multiple moments of a process and the evolution of a project. In using Pic Collage with our students, we found it very easy for them to use and navigate independently with minimal introductory instruction. The icons to add text and photos are easy to find, and don’t require reading skills. Moving, manipulating, and enlarging text is done with simple finger motions, and there is an undo button in the top corner to fix any mistakes that might occur. We used this app in a variety of different ways with our students, including:
When students were finished with Pic Collage projects, they had the option to ‘app smash’ it into Explain Everything or Draw and Tell as a way for them to further explain their thinking. The novelty of introducing another app seemed to help motivate our students. We also noticed that our students who were reluctant to put their ideas on paper, seemed more comfortable using this app as a writing tool. Check out some of our student's work samples below. After an exploration at the paint table, a few girls got together to share their learning. They each chose a picture and helped each other sound out the words for the caption. "The paint table is fun. We put paint on the paint table. The shaving cream is sticky. The shaving cream is soft." A student who is interested in sports has enjoyed sharing his knowledge of his favourite sports teams in pic collage. For this project, he worked with a teacher to find safe to use images. Then he worked independently to type titles and captions for each of the images he chose. "Blue Jays. The blue jays symbol is a blue jay. The jersey is a blue jay. The mascot is jay and junior. They play (at the) in the rogers centre. Donaldson won the first few games."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
We are a group of Kindergarten educators in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2017
Categories |