According to Pic Collage this is “THE coolest collage maker in town!” And although I cannot agree with that definitively (because I really haven’t tried all the collage makers out there) I will say that it’s a pretty awesome app.  Like most of the best apps, Pic Collage does one thing very well and that one thing is exactly what you would expect.  Pic Collage helps you make collages.  The app is extremely easy to navigate, if you want to rotate a photo, or change it’s size you do just what you would would naturally want to do (touch the photo and turn it with your fingers or  grab a corner of the photo and pull outwards to expand).  A couple fun features to point out are that you can include videos off of YouTube into the college and stickers from their sticker bank. Sharing your collage is really easy as well because the app connects to instagram, facebook, twitter, iMessage, email or if you’d rather go old school, you  can even save them to your photos and print them off or get them professionally printed as a greeting card through the pic collage app.

Concerns

In terms of digital citizenship if you are not using photos that students have taken themselves, citing within the Pic Collage app might be difficult unless the citation is already attached to the photo.

Sample Uses

This is a simple way to have students create a visual reflection piece about a project or trip.  If students go on a field trip, have them take their iPads and then put their photos in a collage to email home to mom and dad to show what they learned on the trip. In our grade 2 plants unit we are talking about how certain plans have similar characteristics and that scientists notice those characteristics and that is how they go about classifying living things.  Students are going to go on a walk around the neighborhood, take photos of living things and then try to sort them into groups using Pic Collage by their observable characteristics.

Do I plan to use it?

Yup!  We’ve got it written into our grade 2 plants unit already!

Commitment and Learning Curve

LOW!  This is super simple and your students will get it right away.  The website also has easy to use customer service and a whole list of FAQ’s that can help you learn a few little tricks that you might be wondering (like making your own stickers, putting an image inside a shape, etc.)

Best for ES MS or HS?  

ES/MS

Cost  

Free!  - As long as you are willing to put up with add.  It cost $1.99 to get rid of that.

Website Link:

iOS App -https://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/pic-collage-photo-video-text/id448639966?mt=8 Website - http://pic-collage.com/