Pic Collage for Sharing Visuals

As teachers, we are always very reflective of our practices and of how to best meet our students’ needs. With the implementation of 1:1 technology district-wide this year, this reflection often leads us to think about how we can incorporate technology to augment and modify lessons that we have executed in the past.

When thinking about her freshmen Written and Oral Communication class, Ms. Joy Ruckoldt wanted to improve a lesson that requires the students to give their first speech in class. For this speech, students “introduce” themselves to the class by sharing three images and a quote that represent them. In previous school years, the students shared these visuals in a variety of ways: putting items in a bag, pasting the pictures on a Kleenex box, etc. These different methods did the trick, but still left something to be desired.

Enter +PicCollage. This year, Ms. Ruckoldt asked her students to use this free app to create their visuals. As before, the students were asked to share three photos (or online images) and a quote that represent them. The students then used Pic Collage to create a collage with their four visuals.

Ms. Ruckoldt reported that the app was super user-friendly and that the students very easily created their collages. They were engaged and able to upload their own pictures, find images on the Internet, and import their quotes.  

But the biggest change occurred during the actual student speeches in class. When it came time to present, the students connected their iPad to the classroom via Apple TV. In doing so, the visual changed from something small in the students’ hands to a large visual on the big screen. Students were able to zoom in on the specific image and expound on it. Their fellow classmates were engaged being able to connect the speeches with the images on screen. The students also reported feeling a little more comfortable presenting as they knew their classmates were looking at the screen and not necessarily staring at them. Mrs. Ruckoldt said that the students were generally interested in each other’s work in a way that they hadn’t been in previous years and that she felt the activity was very successful.

Here are some ideas for using Pic Collage in the classroom (source, source)

• have students create an inspiration board to start the writing process
• have students create holiday cards to send out to staff members
• have students demonstrate understanding of sequence of events by creating a story collage
• have students make collages of real-life geometry in the school (planes, angles, etc.)
• have students create visual biographies for a character or famous person

Have you used Pic Collage in your classroom? Share your ideas in the comments section. Need some more support? Check out the tutorial below or talk to Dawn or one of your DTCs!