TouchCast is a free app that lets you create your own newscast... complete with picture in picture content and green screen effects. Some ideas for using TouchCast to show learning in content areas:
There are many "vApps" that can be added to your news show.
In my opinion, the most useful ones for elementary students to show their iPad work would be:
- Web Page - to link to the student's blog post
- Photo - to add picture from camera roll (PicCollage, Skitch, camera, math tool apps)
- Video - (only available on iPad Airs and higher) to add video from camera roll (Tellagami, Chatterpix, Shadow Puppet Edu, 30Hands, iMovie)
- Question - to add a quiz
- List - list facts, top 10, etc.
- Pull Quote - to share a quote from a book, famous person, etc.
- Poll - it won't be interactive, but students could create a question to ask the audience.
- Be sure they stay on the "Cast Side". This is where they will create their projects. Don't allow them to switch to the "Touch Side". This is a gallery that has already created projects. While most of them would not have inappropriate content, it's better to be safe than sorry and there's really no need for them to explore these.
- When they create a new project, it's safest to choose the "Start from Scratch" option. The others may look cool but there's a possibility of inappropriate information scrolling on the built in news tickers, etc.
- Don't allow students to create a TouchCast account if they're under 13. They can save their projects to their camera roll and upload to Google for sharing. If it asks you to sign in when you start the app, just choose "Another Time". Note: The TouchCast terms of service do say that under 13 students aren't allowed to use the service. I've contacted the company directly and they have given us permission to use it with under 13's as long as they are supervised by their teacher and don't create an account.
Here's my step by step guide for getting started with TouchCast: