I wanted to take a moment to share with all the digital story lovers out in the world this great new app that I have started to use. The app is called Postcard and as you would suspect, allows you to generate and create Postcards. I know what you are thinking, how can this be considered a DS app? Allow me to explain.
As a Social Studies teacher I find myself having students engage in a variety of projects and in class activities. The first assignment I had students complete was to create a series of postcards from soldiers on Sherman’s March to the Sea during the Civil War. The idea was that the soldiers would write home about what the experience was like, what they saw and how they felt. This type of activity is something I have had the students create every year since.
The Postcard app is user friendly and easy to use. You can up load images, chose from a liberty of images in the app or draw your own image. For written text, a person simple types what they want to say and hits return. I like the typing feature because it is easy to read and allows you the normal features of Microsoft word like changing fonts or text size.
Digital Story telling is about creating a story. A postcard or a series of postcards is a unique way to develop student understanding of a concept while engaging a student to think critically about the material. So send a postcard or better yet have a student or children create their own and send it to you.
Sounds like a cute app - love the idea for your S.S. classroom on having students write postcards as if they were the soldiers & writing about experiences - great activity or assessment!
ReplyDeleteThis app sounds like a fun and engaging application of your existing assignment! Administrators always say to be sure that the use of technology in the classroom is not just a "bell and whistle," but is truly tied to the content that you are trying to teach. This is a perfect example of properly utilizing technology in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great app and a fun and engaging assignment to go along with it. It is tough to squeeze technology into our classrooms with all that is going on in the world of standards based curricula, so it is great to see a simple and effective way to use technology in the class.
ReplyDeleteDan, this is a great app that can be used for students of various ages. Students can create real authentic assignments and they can learn about letter writing in an easy and funny way. Your review on iEAR can be found here: http://bit.ly/rADfTu
ReplyDeleteI wanted to take a moment to share with all the digital story lovers out in the world this great new app that I have started to use. The app is called Postcard and as you would suspect, allows you to generate and create Postcards. postcard app
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