Doodle Buddy

This is a nice, straightforward drawing app with an easy to use interface. It is simple enough for young kids to use but has enough different types of drawing features to be interesting for older students as well. In addition to standard drawing tools like color and thickness choices, it has glitter, chalk, and smudge effects that are fun to use. You can also import backgrounds and photos into the image and draw on top of them. Text annotation, stencils, and a nice array of stickers are also available. If you want more stencils or stickers, they're available via in-app purchase.

Notes: I have heard from one faculty member that the app was unstable when she tried to use it in class, causing crashes and lost student work. That doesn't seem common, though. Also, there are sound effects on this app that can either be cute or distracting but, thankfully, can be turned off in the settings if you want.

If your are working with younger students, one suggestion is to limit student use of stickers to encourage their own creativity. 

I don't have any personal experience using this app with students in a classroom, so I turned to Steve Doi for input...

From Steve Doi:

"Last year the students drew pics to include in their Keynote and iMovie projects. I had them draw the pics rather than get them from the internet. Sometimes the students took photos and used Doodle Buddy to label them.

An interesting thing that students did was they took screen shots of pics on the internet and then colored over them. Once they were done, then they erased the screen shot, so they were left with only the colored pic.

Another way the students were using Doodle Buddy was to chat. They would write questions on it and send them to each other. It was a way of quizzing each other.

I don't know when I will start using Doodle Buddy this year. But, I do plan on using it. It is a fun app for the students. It is easy to use, too. I don't really see any negatives with the app."

Then, a couple of days later, Steve sent me this...

"You got me thinking about Doodle Buddy, so I decided to have my students use it. They sketched a story on a storyboard. After reviewing the storyboard, they are now drawing each scene using Doodle Buddy. They will save the scenes in their photo albums. Then, they will put the scenes in an iMovie and narrate the stories they created.

The objectives for this assignment are:

1. Using a storyboard to plan and organize a story.
2. Using Doodle Buddy and iMovie 

3. Using a script to narrate at story, instead of writing out a story."

What a testament to how iPads and their apps can encourage spontaneity and innovation in our classrooms for all our students!

P.S. As I was working on this entry, my daughter Arwen, who is in K-Mauka with Boni Gravelle and Jewel Lee, saw Doodle Buddy on my iPad. She exclaimed "That's Doodle Buddy!" and wanted to play with it. Later, I asked her if she liked it and what she did with it, she said "I like it because it is fun to play with, and I love to play on the iPad. I can do whatever I want on it. I can draw lots of different things."