ChatterPix to Make Your Photos Speak

This app comes to us courtesy of K Mauka, Boni Gravelle, and Jewel Lee. It takes a photo of your choosing and allows you to draw a line on the photo to become a mouth. Then, you record a sound clip that gets attached to the photo with the 'mouth' moving in time to the sound. There is some embellishment you can do to the final result, but you are probably better off doctoring your photo before import.

Mrs. Gravelle suggested using the app to give students a way to immerse themselves in another person or animal from a first person perspective. For instance, they did a cricket project where they learned about crickets, got to care for them, and made cricket artwork. Then, the students used ChatterPix to tell the viewer 3 things about the cricket.

Also, they've been learning about Father Damien, and some animations were done using pictures of Father Damien with the children's voices speaking for him.

Here's the mp4 my daughter made with Mrs. Gravelle to animate a piece of her artwork.

It might seem at first glance that this app is useful only in the elementary grades. However, earlier this year, I had biology students assuming the roles of different specific molecules and structures in cellular respiration and photosynthesis and telling 'day in the life of' stories about themselves. This app would have allowed them to quickly and easily create animations of their stories.

The app itself is easy to use and has a good tutorial to walk you through the process - great fun for a free app! Just make sure you practice putting the mouth in. Sometimes bigger is better. :)