By Katie Chirhart

Beginning my adventure as an iPad Lab teacher two years ago was easy.  I knew everything there was to know about iPads and how to use them in the best way possible—or so I thought.

Then I went to a workshop about app smashing and soon realized exactly how big the hole in my knowledge was and how many opportunities I was missing out on.

App smashing is the act of using (“smashing”) two or more apps to create one project, usually an animated video that’s published online.

If you’re not familiar with this concept, it’s an exciting way to use multiple media forms to complete amazing projects. You can facilitate app smashing with any app that allows users to:

1. Import pictures or video.
2. Publish student work.
3. Create videos and pictures.

Below you can find just a few of the apps that lend themselves to app smashing, how to combine them to create fantastic projects, and even a few student-created examples.

Import Pictures and Videos

Tellagami

Students can use this app to create a character that becomes animated after the user records their voice. This app allows students to import images into the background of the characters; these images might demonstrate the home of the character, or include a note for the audience to see. It might be a hand-drawn image imported onto the device using the camera or one created in another app such as Hello Crayon or Scoodle Jam.

Green Screen Doink

Doink is an easy-to-use app that utilizes green screen technology. Videos can be filmed in front of a green-screen or students can place hand-drawn illustrations and/or videos in the background, covering the green screen.

To increase the apps smashed, videos can be created in other apps such as Lego Movie or iMovie and then imported into Doink. The app smashing possibilities here are virtually infinite.

yakIt Kids and ChatterPix

Students can use both apps to animate a student-created photo. Animated mouths, stickers, and fun backgrounds can be added to the images and then students can record a message causing the animated mouth to move as the words are spoken. Children are captivated as their drawings come to life!

The video below uses Hello Crayon, ChatterPix and YouTube

Educreations and Doceri

Videos can be created showing each written stroke a student makes on the screen using their finger or a stylus, all while recording their speech. This makes these apps the perfect medium for think-aloud assessments.

Want to know what students are thinking as they regroup (borrow or carry)? Educreations and Doceri allow teachers to watch as students solve the problems while narrating their actions. This gives teachers a peek inside students’ brains as they work.

The following video was created with Educreations, ScoodleJam and RealTimes.

Book Creator

Students become digital book authors with this fun app. Students import photos or drawings, add their own words, and suddenly have a digital book!

Google Docs, Slides

Now that Google has created apps for their outstanding Google Drive suite, importing photos and images into Docs and Slides has never been easier.

Strip Creator

Students import photos or digitally created pictures into this app to create amazing comic strips. The wide assortment of tools and options available make this a robust yet very easy app to use.

More: 15 Creative Ways to Use Comic Books for Learning

Create Pictures and Videos

There are a large number of these apps, but these are the ones I use consistently in my classroom.

ScoodleJam

This app is great for creating the images that students will import into other apps. ScoodleJam includes a wide variety of stickers and drawing tools that students can use to create their images. I love this app because it includes images of money and other mathematical tools, which makes it great for mathematical app smashing.

Hello Crayon

This user-friendly app allows students to draw with a crayon-type texture in a large variety of colors.

Google Drawing

Students can create a picture or image that can be imported into other apps.

Toontastic

Creating animated cartoons has never been easier. This free app gives students a plethora of settings and characters to choose from to create their own animated story. Students can even create and animate their own characters. Here smashing occurs when the videos are published on another app.

This video was created with Toontastic and YouTube.

Don’t forget that the camera that comes pre-installed on most devices allows students to take pictures and video of themselves, objects, and work that can be imported into many different apps. 

Publishing

ThingLink

This is a unique publishing app.  Students import pictures, targets are placed on top of the picture, and then individual videos or projects are attached to these targets. The targets can be clicked to open the projects to which they are connected.  The finished product is a photograph with circles (targets) on top. This is a perfect way to use app smashing for a history or assigned reading project.

This was created with ChatterPix, ThingLink, Hello Crayon and YouTube.

YouTube

This is the most popular medium for video publishing, with more than a billion users. Students and teachers can use YouTube to publish and share the products of their app smashing with peers, family and other teachers.

Padlet

Need a place to put a collection of work? Padlet is your answer. Attach photos, text, and videos to one Padlet and then share the QR code or the link with parents, creating an automatic digital cork board that can display an entire class’ work.

See a collection of my students’ work here. Apps used: Padlet and ChiliFish.

SeeSaw

Seesaw is a great way to create digital portfolios for individual students. If you have digital projects to share with specific parents, use SeeSaw, which allows them to view their child’s work without having to view the work of every student in the class.

RealTimes

RealTimes provides a similar service as YouTube, without the advertisements and questionable material (i.e. ads or explicit videos). For this reason, RealTimes is a great platform for uploading and sharing video projects in the classroom. There are both paid and free options available.

App smashing utilizes tablets to their fullest potential while giving students infinite possibilities for creativity.  Why stop at one app when you can use two, three, or more!

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