Postcard Research
July 9, 2011
- Example PhotoCard created with Bill Atkinson PhotoCard
I recently ran across a free iPad app, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard Lite. Wow what a great find, the photos included in the free app are breath-taking. This app allows the user to create a postcard with a photo of your choosing on the front and text, stickers and address on the back. The more I used the app, the more I thought it had possibilities for my 4th grade classroom. Students could use a photo or drawing they created for the front, or even include an appropriate image from the internet (the caption feature allows you to document where the image came from for credit). On the back they could include a list of interesting facts as I did in the example, or write a short narrative. Since space is limited, word choice becomes increasingly important. There is even an option to include a short voice recording. When the student has completed the postcard to their liking, they add a stamp from the included sticker collection and address it with an e-mail address. The person on the receiving end gets an e-mail with an attached .jpg file and possibly a .m4a file.
I must admit, that since I am “addicted to apps”, I did purchase the $4.99 version of the app. The paid version includes a larger selection of stunning photographs and stickers, but operates much the same. For student projects, I believe the lite version to be quite adequate.
The potential uses for this app in my classroom are endless, and may include such projects as: research of states, animals and people, creative writing, science findings, explanation of math problems, and who knows what else the students and I will come up with as we go along. I can even envision using a word cloud image like those created with wordle and tagxedo with this app.
