Repurpose

Here’s how simple this is.
Go to Postcard.FM.
Upload a picture.  Upload an .mp3.  Enter an e-mail address.  Click “preview.”

Voilà! You have a link to a picture and audio file hosted on the web.  Congratulations.  Now you can share what your students created!

Here’s the Postcard FM interface.

It really is that easy.

The biggest concern most teachers will have right off the bat is the e-mail.  That is to say, not wanting to use a student e-mail or your own, since the e-mail used appears at the top of the “postcard” that’s produced.  Postcard.FM’s terms of service prohibit making a false identify, which is what you’d be doing if you entered an imaginary e-mail.   I e-mailed Postcard.FM’s support folks, and in their response they said they were really trying to prevent spammers from abusing the service.  The solution would be to have your tech folks add “students@myschool.org” (just fill in your school name) as a valid e-mail that you monitor, or to get a free web-based e-mail–such as Gmail–to use just for this purpose.

Postcard.FM would be great for a fast student project.  Since the interface is so simple and streamlined, even young kids and less-technically-inclined grown-ups are going to be able to do this, since it requires only the ability to browse for and locate a file.  The most difficult part of the process will be making the mp3 file to upload, but with a free download called Audacity (for us Windows people) and a desktop microphone, you’ll be all set.  (Mac computer people have iLife and so don’t get to complain about making mp3’s.)

The uses are unlimited–use a copyright-friendly historical photo and have kids record commentary about that period in history.  Have a child draw a picture and tell the story.  Use the postcards to greet students or staff who are recovering from illness at home.  Make a monthly or weekly series of postcards and you have the world’s easiest “radio show.”

Here’s my postcard!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so what’s a picture with words attached worth? How about if we add music?

If you haven’t yet played with Photostory, run right over and get it. Yes, it’s from evil giant Microsoft and it won’t run on your Mac (but you have iLife on your Mac, so no complaining!) but it’s easy, and it’s free. How easy? I’ve used it (with guidance) with kids in first grade. If you can browse for files, something everybody does, and have access to a computer microphone, you can use Photostory.

Basically, the program asks you to upload your pictures. Then you can add narration for each picture, add a pre-recorded audio file or some music, and save. It’s a little harder to get your video online that with Animoto (see below) but you have much, much, more control over your content, and no limits on length. Once you’ve saved your .wmv file, you can easily upload to Teacher Tube or to your own website or blog.

How could this be used? To record and share library or classroom events, to create narrated stories (just upload images of kids’ artwork instead of photos), to create slideshows without the hassle of all the “stuff” kids want to add to PowerPoints. I, for one, would like to see a student slideshow with no clipart and no flying text! With Photostory, the kids are focused on the images and the audio. Older students can add more sophisticated looking transitions, or alter the timeline to keep a particularly important image on the screen for a longer time. Titles and text can be added to any slide.

Here’s my video.

I did discover that Photostory has an annoying habit of “fading out” the last few seconds of your music or audio file, but I solved that problem by recording about 10 seconds of silence when I was done recording my voice. Worked like a charm.