Creating Digital Storybooks on the Fly with Sonic Pics

Sonic Pics is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that allows you to create a narrated slideshow. Using the camera roll on your device you can choose which pictures to include in the slideshow. You can then record an audio descrition of each picture and send the slideshow to You Tube or your computer over wifi.

This would be a useful app in a school setting. It would allow students to very quickly record Digital Storybooks and then send them to their teachers. You could use this app in a world language, social studies, English, math, or science class. This app just provides another reason why I think the iPod Touch is a compelling device for schools.

Digital Storybooks and Narrated Photo Albums using Yodio and Cell Phones

Yodio is a service that allows you to create digital storybooks or narrated photo albums using your phone. Take a picture, upload it to Yodio, call in your narration and you are almost done. Some of the world language teachers at my school are using Yodio for PBA activities with their classes. The students were directed to choose a picture or pictures and then describe it using the target language. One of the teachers provided class time for students to get the project started. These students used their cell phones to call into their Yodio accounts and record the narration for the picture. You can use any kind of phone with Yodio, it does not have to be a cell phone. Another teacher had the students complete the project at home. Yodio is a free service that provides a very nice platform for world langauge teachers to record students speaking in the target language for practice or for formal assessments. The Yodio below is one the teacher created to demonstrate to the class what she wanted.