Pictello is a wonderful APP designed to create talking stories, picture books, or albums. Each Pictello page can include a picture, text (which can be read as text-to-speech), and/or recorded sound. The uses for Pictello are limitless. You just have to search for “Pictello” on the Internet and you can find uses such as:
- Stories to teach social skills or to recall events.
- Photo albums to allow non-speaking people to share their news and interests.
- Sharing important events and memories with family who live far away.
- Talking books.
- Teaching narrative skills as part of a literacy or language skills curriculum.
- Schedules, Task instructions, etc.
- Share stories or write group stories using iPad on a VGA monitor or interactive white board (VGA adapter required).
- Create multilingual stories using text-to-speech or voice recordings.
I could definitely find MANY uses for Pictello in my classroom! Some of the ideas I thought of are:
1. Use to create visual step-by-step math instructions for students who are auditory learners or those with memory difficulties. Students could create these themselves or classroom/resource/learning centre teachers could create the instructions for the students. Students could then have access to these at home for review.
2. Use as reference for routines developed and implemented within the classroom. For example, I do mental math on a daily basis in my classroom which has become a regular routine for my students. It would be great to use Pictello to outline this routine for students who need the support, as well as for substitute teachers who may be in my classroom and are unfamiliar with the daily routine. Other examples would be routines such as fire drills, isolation drills, transition times, etc. A Pictello story could outline the steps for students who need a reminder or a “heads up” before the event takes place.
3. Use as a visual medical alert system. For those students in the school/class who have severe allergies, it would be very beneficial to have a picture and text/voice that describes the condition and what to do in an emergency. This would also be useful for substitutes in the classroom.
4. Use as a visual agenda. Students who have difficulty writing could use this APP to record their homework, etc. They could take a picture of the page in the text book, or another visual cue, and type in what to do, or record their voice to give instructions. Students who are non-verbal could get the teacher(s) to record a video that indicates what is for homework.
5. Use for visual study aid or “cheat sheet”. Students could record video with or without text to use to help them study for tests/assessments. Each page could cover a different topic/concept with recorded voice and/or visual examples to help the student remember the important information. It could be used during an assessment as a “cheat sheet” of sorts. These study aids could be created by the teacher and/or the student.
6. Use as a way to assess student learning. Students could create a visual presentation using Pictello that demonstrates particular outcome(s). It could be submitted to the teacher for assessment. MANY of my students have adaptations that require them to have oral assessment or oral elaboration to further express knowledge. This would be an excellent way for students to elaborate orally. It could be saved and viewed at a later date by the teacher if he/she was not able to sit down one-on-one with the student right away.
It could also be used as a visual, recordable journal (for assessment – formative or summative) to communicate comprehension of information.
