Create Digital Postcards

Last November, at the iPad Summit in Boston, a couple of people mentioned using postcard apps with their students. With the semester ending and holidays coming, I forgot to look into it. A few days ago, I came across an excellent post called, Creating Postcard Summaries, from the blog, Teach Thru Technology (well worth reading). That was a great reminder to check it out! I like the app mentioned in the post, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard.

The app allows the user to either take a photo, choose from album (camera roll), or choose from the built-in nature photos (beautiful images as seen in the screenshot below).

 The app is well-designed and intuitive. There are “stickers” that can be added to the back of the card. The writing section is large enough for students to write a couple of paragraphs – excellent for summarizing.

 Of course you can mail your cards – this costs as little as $1.50 for delivery in the U.S. But what I like is that the photocards can be emailed or saved to the camera roll. We would have students email to the teacher so she could collect them for assessment.

 Here’s a finished card.

 Think about all the writing that could be done using this app!

  • character studies
  • information about a place (take a screenshot of a place in Google Earth!)
  • biographies
  • historical events
  • describe a science experiment
  • document field trips

Paul Wagner, author of the Teach Thru Technology blog, includes another app in his Creating Postcard Summaries post:

 This would be a great app to make a collage of several photos, save to the camera roll, then pull into the Photocard app. I practiced with it by pulling in a screenshot of Washington, DC in Google Earth that had been labeled using Skitch. I then added photos taken in DC. Next step was to write a bit about the city.

Both apps are very easy to use and would be a fun way to encourage writing.

3 Comments on Create Digital Postcards

  1. Paul Wagner
    January 8, 2013 at 7:05 am (11 years ago)

    Thanks for the Teach Thru Technology props! I appreciate the mention. I just pushed this again at a training yesterday…the teachers were excited to get started.

    Reply
  2. Karen
    January 8, 2013 at 7:56 am (11 years ago)

    You are welcome! I was very excited to come across your blog – excellent resources with insightful reviews. Thanks for your hard work!

    Reply

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