Apps for Teacher Librarians Part 3: Photo Editing

I tried to link to tutorials where I could. Most of them are not educators ... but I liked how they explained things. For now I will concentrate on ideas for educational use and let them do the nuts and bolts explaining of the app.


Pixlr-o-matic (free) & Pixlr-o-matic+ ($.99) Yeah ... not so much on the educational. Unless you're trying to age a photo to make it look like it was taken a long time ago. But the effects are super cool and the more you play with your iPad the better your tech instincts will get at everything. Check this out.



PicCollage. This one is great for making collages of student work or photos to post on a teacher website (if you have permission to post photos of kids). Or kids could make collages on different topics. (PS ... DROPBOX Plug here. It's the best way I've found of moving pics on and off of an iPad!) (PS #2 1/16 addition ... nice post on using PicCollage to make a visual dictionary.)



CaptionCard for adding text to a photo (like credits, perhaps?) while it's still on the iPad. On a desktop Ribbet, Picmonkey, or iPiccy are easier. Not that CC isn't easy ... it's just very basic. But the others look nicer.

Diptic (I got it when it was free but it's regularly $.99) Here's a tutorial.
I need to get back in to making book collages. Remember this? I was so excited to be on Free Tech 4 Teachers. How much of a nerd can I be?

Frame Magic is similar to Diptic. Maybe even a little cleaner layout. Available on iTouches (with cameras, obviously) and iPads. There is a lite version (free), a regular version ($.99). and a premium version ($1.99) I have the regular version. Pretty sure I actually got that one for free. Watch and you don't have to deal with "lite" versions with annoying ads.

Dr. Seuss Camera Grinch edition ($1.99) ... not really editing but kind of fun! And easy. Worth paying for.
Dr. Seuss Camera Cat in the Hat edition (also $1.99)
Dr. Seuss Camera Happy Birthday edition (FREE ... you've been waiting for me to say that again, haven't you)
These need no explanation as to why I might mention them. ;)

Mad Lips. ($2.99) Worth paying for. Sort of like Blabberize but you can export the videos to the iPad camera roll. Have the kids research a person. Or animal! The talk as if they WERE that person or animal. Or YOU make a video of instructions for something. Kids click and play. Laught. And then follow directions! Saw Tony Vincent use it at iPadpalooza. Fun! (If I were brave I would post one that I've done here. But I'm not brave enough yet to share with grown ups. ;) I'm working on it!)

Match a Photo. ($1.99 but I'm pretty sure I got this when it was free, too.) You can make simple Memory games here ... import pictures or jpgs of vocab words or what have you.

And actually for MUCH more than photo editing ... SKITCH. Skitch can be awesome for labeling pictures, annotating PDFs and webpages ... seriously. Maybe one day I'll write up a full "tutorial" (cause hey, I'd have some to learn before then, too!) but for now check out some how-tos on Skitch from the Evernote site here. Plus? It's FREE! I love it so much I paid for the Mac edition. Before Evernote bought it and then started giving it away for free. ;)

You know, after this post I'm thinking another one on ways to find out when apps go free might be in order. Cause paid apps do go free for promotional periods. I think it might even be a requirement for a set amount of time each year but don't quote me on that.