Lifecards

Lifecards
by Vivid Apps

Lets give our students or child(ren) opportunities to be creative.  A child’s day to day life in the classroom is so structured and provides little opportunities to showcase their creative side and to have fun.  However, with the integration of technology and mobile learning, fun is back in business!  Applicable2U randomly stumbled upon this educational app and couldn’t be happier.  Lifecards is a multi-purpose app for teachers, parents and students.  As Applicable2U begins to explore any app, our first thought is how can this fit into my curriculum or daily life?

Lifecards is just as the name says, they are cards that anyone can make that deal with your daily life.  With the help of various templates, users can now create newspapers, scrapbook like pages, holiday cards, birthday or party invitations, stationery, and announcements are just some of the amazing things this app has to offer.  My teacher brain is now screaming CURRICULUM, CURRICULUM!!!  Our fourth grade studies national landmarks and monuments which is incorporated with letter writing. Students are expected to use a graphic organizer to collect research via books and online resources.  Their research is then shared through a friendly letter to their teacher via a template that is designed by the instructional technology specialist in iWorks: Pages.   Technology, yes!  But lacks creativity.  Today’s exploration of Lifecards has changed our typical end product!

Lifecards is accessible on both the iPad and the iTouch. Once in the app, select a category and an appropriate template,  user will have a variety of options.  Text boxes can be manipulated by adding additional boxes for content, changing font style, color and size.  Photos can be added once imported into your Photo Library.  In addition, photos can be altered with various affects such as: grayscale, sepia, and comic.  Speech bubbles, stickers and additional text boxes can also be incorporated and manipulated to fit the page based on its size and rotation.  Cards can be trashed or saved by a distinct name and added to your “My Cards” folder.  Yes, the iTouch experience was a bit tedious due to the small screen, but still positive. We are excited for the arrival of our new iPad2 and how Lifecards can be incorporated further in the classroom and its larger screen.  If a classroom has a 1:1 situation, connect student iPads to a projector and have students present their Lifecard to the whole class.  The possibilities are endless!  So how can a classroom then share out their end product?  This is where I was afraid that Applicable2U was going to be disappointed, DEFINITELY NOT!!  We were pleasantly surprised! Sharing of your final product like a postcard or class newsletter can be done via email as a PDF, added to Facebook, Flickr and  Twitter if  incorporating as a classroom tool.  Well done, Vivid Apps!

If you are a classroom teacher that has Apple devices, or a parent that likes to design various types of cards, then Applicable2U thinks Lifecards applies to you!  If you would like to learn more about Vivid Apps, be sure to visit theirwebsite.  The $1.99 that you will spend to download Lifecards from your iTunes library is well worth the money and you can start creating your own real “life” cards today.

Reviewers website: www.applicable2u.wordpress.com

Tales2Go App

App Title:  Tales2Go

Grade Level: K-8

Cost: Free app, $24.99 for a one-year subscription

Purpose: A+

Purpose Rationale: Tales2Go is an awesome subscription-based audiobook app that is bringing back good old fashioned storytelling in a whole new way. Instead of downloading individual audiobooks or borrowing CD audiobooks from the library, teachers and parents can choose to stream from a multitude of story choices instantly to their iPod Touches, iPhones, and iPads. And the Tales2Go library continues to grow with its popularity. This app’s motto is “Storytime, anytime” and it certainly lives up to it!

Program Functionality: A-

Program Functionality Rationale: Tales2Go is easy to install and it quickly guides the user through an account set-up process. In no time at all, the app offers you a wide variety of stories (and even some songs!) for your listening pleasure. Users are given a variety of ways to search through the stories, whether it be by Age, Series, Books, or Storyteller to name a few. If you are looking for something specific, that is easy to do too with the ‘Search’ function. Tales2Go puts itself at the head of the class with features like ‘Bookmarks’ and ‘Favorites’. The Tales2Go app is a free download in the App store and initially comes with a free 30 day trial. After the trial ends, users will need to purchase a year-long subscription in order to continue utilizing the app. It is important to note that it is $24.99 per device per year, not per iTunes account. This is currently the biggest downfall to the app. Many iPod and iPhone users expect to share apps with their family members and users should know that that is not an option with Tales2Go.

Overall Educational Value: A+

Overall Educational Value Rationale: This app has a wealth of educational value for teachers due to the ease, accessibility, and choices of audiobooks available. Tales2Go is an excellent way to differentiate instruction, accommodate students, and engage children when teaching literature. Some students are auditory learners who need to hear information in order to properly comprehend it and other students struggle with decoding to the point that it impedes their comprehension skills; Tales2Go is a great way to accommodate these students and many other students. The app is a very engaging way for children to interact with literature, mainly because of the use of professional storytellers. Another great benefit is being able to use the stories in conjunction with the actual book since the storyteller can model excellent proper inflection, emotion, and tone of voice for students. 

Recommendation: If you are a parent, teacher, or school district looking for a audiobook app that will allow you to access thousands of stories with the tap of your finger, I highly recommend Tales2Go for your home, classroom, and school use. The subscription is a bit pricey when you look at it for school-wide use, but when compared with purchasing and storing the individual stories on their own, Tales2Go can be considered an excellent deal per device. I would highly suggest that a school begin with one or two devices in the library that could be signed out for classroom use. Also, special education teachers and administrators should certainly consider Tales2Go as an adaptive technology option for certain students with disabilities.

Classroom Use Examples/Ideas: There are a variety of ways for teachers to utilize Tales2Go in the classroom. The app can be used to support a book by reading along as you listen to the story. This is a great technique for modeling reading, focusing on comprehension, and engaging more students. Tales2Go is also a great option for accessing literature in a quick and easy manner; it can easily be used for storytimes or as a classroom ‘free-time’ activity. Tales2Go could also be a part of a cool visualizing activity where students draw or write about  the scene they just heard the storyteller describe. You can even let Tales2Go be a teacher’s ‘substitute’ and read to the class while the teacher monitors and assists students with the activity.

Developer: Tales2Go

Developer Website: www.tales2go.com

iTunes Link: Tales2Go on iTunes 

Reviewer Name: Meg Wilson

Reviewer Blog: www.iPodsibilities.com 

Reviewer Twitter: http://twitter.com/iPodsibilities  

Other: Don’t forget to check out our Ning (Online Community) devoted to helping teachers utilize these devices to the their fullest.  Please leave a comment if you agree, disagree, or have other creative uses for this app in the classroom, etc.