Tech in the Classroom - Tellagami

What is it?

Tellagami is a mobile app that allows you to create a 30 second animated video of yourself. Essentially you get to build your own avatar!

How Can I Use It?

Again, prepping for back to school - you can have your students create a video of their summer vacation. You can watch mine here.

Now, the free version is limited in what you can do and the creativity your students can have. Tellagami does offer an edu version for $4.99 that eliminates in-app purchases. 

Book reports - have your students give a quick report of why they like their book and why others should read it. They can download an image, save it to their ipad and use it as the background of their report.

What I Like

This is perfect for those shy students who do not want to get up in front of the class. Our students today are used to living in a virtual world. This app is a fun way to break the ice that first week of school.

In the free version there are different ways you can share: facebook, twitter, email and text. This could be a fun way for students to do an update if you have a class twitter account!

Downfalls

30 seconds is short. But it is a fantastic way to teach your students that they need to be convincing, especially if you are working on opinion pieces.

The free version has a lot of in app purchases. But we know that. If you are using the free version you can not type your message and have them avatar read it.

This also may have just been my ipad - but I did not have any sound when I previewed my gami. However, it played fine when I emailed it.

It is only available in the app store, so many teachers will be limited.

Should I Purchase?

I KNOW that your money is spread thin. I definitely think that this is something worth pitching to you admin. For $5 you can have your students build their public speaking confidence. 

But for the price, the only big difference is the amount of backgrounds you can have. 

So try it free first because you can always upload images from your library as the background. 

How do you use Tellagami in your classroom? I'd love to hear more ideas!