Overview
Pic Collage is a simple and free app for both phone and tablet that can turn photos and images into real works of art. With pre-made collage templates and backgrounds, the app is unique in how easy it is for students to manipulate their photos into beautiful layouts and patterns. The app also features built-in effects and stickers that give students the ability to truly personalize their work, providing endless classroom uses, applications and fun.
Pricing: Free
Compatibility: Tablet/Mobile
Access: iTunes/Android
Privacy: Standalone app
A Quick Look
This video from the team at Pic Collage shows just how easy it is to create very professional and eye-popping collages using the tool. You can certainly see that the app was created with students, children and teens in mind.
In Practice
1. Create a visual story
A big part of working on a project, exercise or experiment is documenting the process. While this is not a particularly engaging task using notes and records, it can be whole lot of fun (and often more useful) when done visually. Ask your students to use a phone or tablet to photograph each step involved in their next project or science experiment. At the end of the task they can use the app to collage, annotate and decorate the images and produce a much more interesting, colorful and shareable final product.
2. The VERB collage
This idea from educator Zack Linson is a brilliant activity for younger students and a great way to inject some extra learning and fun into your normal lesson. Have your students pair up and take each others photograph doing different actions. Using Pic Collage your students can then bring all of their photos together, labelling each action with the matching verb. This idea is a brilliant one for sharing with parents and could of course be translated into all sorts of word, math or science collages.
3. Poster from the past
This idea is for the history buffs or drama teachers. Ask your students to recreate a poster from the past. This could be a famous character from history, a well known event or simply a poster referencing a particular area of study or interest. This can be as simple or involved as you like. Students can go as far as recreating scenes with props and costumes or they can simply use tools such as Flickr and Google Image Search to find appropriate imagery.
4. Magazine cover
Because Pic Collage can turn simple pictures into very professional looking works, try using the tool for digital publishing with your class. Have your students collect and analyse magazine covers that catch their attention. What is it that makes a certain cover more appealing than another? Ask your students to use these ideas to design their own magazine cover using Pic Collage. The cover could even be used later as an eye-catching front to written material or follow on work.
5. Make that sale
To turn simple collages into a much broader activity and learning experience, try this idea from educator Chad Stevens. Ask each of your students to design their own product, idea or invention and use Pic Collage to create the advertisement or flyer for the item. Students must decide on a fair selling price for their product and put together a ‘pitch’ to present to the class. The real fun begins when students are given one hundred (play) dollars they must spend on each others products. They can buy one expensive product or many cheap ones, it is completely up to them, but they are not allowed to buy their own. At the end of the exercise, it’s time to do the math and see who has made the most profit!
Links and Next Steps
- Pic Collage Knowledge Base – Official help and FAQ for Pic Collage
- How to Use PicCollage – Blog post and video from educator Richard Byrne
- PicCollage in the Classroom – Pinterest board of ideas for students
- Verbs with Pic Collage – Great lesson idea from teacher Zack Linson
- Using the App Pic Collage in the Primary Classroom
- More than just making posters – Examples from Mr P’s ICT blog
- Commemorative Stamp Created Through Pic Collage App – Blog and in-class videos
What other ways have you used Pic Collage with your students. Let us know your ideas in the comments below.
Feature image courtesy of Flickr, Purple Sherbet Photography.