Fotobabble- Photos with voices!

Fotobabble enables students to attach their thoughts to a single image to relate a short story or inform a listener about a topic related to a visual. It's free! It's a photo, with a voice.  You can access it on the web, or if you have iPads in your classroom, you can download the free app.  Students young and old, enjoy creating projects or blogs with Fotobabble, as it's a fun and easy way to make a "talking" picture. Students can customize projects with different backgrounds, and slideshows are also included with this tool.

There are many ways to engage students with the help of Fotobabble. This tool is often used for students to make their bio's at the beginning of the school year.  Using Fotobabble for a reading assignment has the students drawing pictures of the story they read, making recordings of their summary, and then sharing their Fotobabble with the class, exposing all of the students to a variety of stories.

If you are interested in learning more about Fotobabble, Saker Alexander just posted this video for his students who are using the tool for the first time. 

Making time for students with FACETIME

By Stockton University student Allison Caruso

FaceTime is Apple's video calling service that is somewhat similar to Skype and Google Hangouts. FaceTime makes it possible to conduct one-on-one video or audio calls between Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac Notebooks and Desktops. Thus, you may go between any Mac device with a camera to another Apple device. Apple’s FaceTime service is free to use if you are an owner of any of the Apple products listed above. However, this service does require an Apple ID and Wi-Fi. FaceTime is typically an automatic feature already installed in your Apple product for your convenience. Nevertheless, if you do not have FaceTime for any reason you can go to the Apple Store and download this application for ninety-nine cents.

In regard to FaceTime’s implementation in the classroom, this web 2.0 tool can be utilized to help my students collaborate with one another, share experiences, and aid those who cannot physically attend school due to illness or other extenuating circumstances stay in contact with the class. I would also try and utilize this tool outside of my own classroom to help students with homework, keep parents that cannot attend crucial meetings and presentations informed, and possibly to connect with other classrooms around the world so that my students are able to expand their own personal learning networks in a way they never thought possible.

Here are a few links to videos (descriptions underneath link) that show how other teachers are using FaceTime in their classrooms:

https://youtu.be/FpGDUA0IUzw

-“A girl from Danbury, Ohio born with multi intestinal atresia has no immune system and cannot interact with other children.So Danbury schools is utilizing an iPad and FaceTime to bring her into the classroom.”

https://youtu.be/cQgHznzKdMM

- “Mrs. Ramsdell's class did a Facetime call with student Nicholas Bowditch who is in the hospital. Students not only sent well wishes to Nicholas but also got him caught up on what he has missed.”

https://youtu.be/sPF5tEIdNPM

-“Ms. Kroschel's Western Civilization class uses Facetime to talk to St. Cloud State's Professor Kim in the Netherlands.”