"App" Talk and Review - Tellagami

Over the next few weeks while most teachers are on summer break, I've decided to review some educational apps.  My hope is that teachers can use my reviews to find some worthwhile tools they can implement into instruction when school returns in August.

My first app review is Tellagami.
Positives:  This is a free app for the Ipad/Iphone.  It is an Avatar that can be designed in appearance by gender, skin tone, hair, clothes, etc.  You can then choose the background you want to use.  There are several backgrounds in the app to choose from including nature scenes and different room settings.  You can also choose a background from the camera roll as well.  Once you set up your avatar and choose a background, you can begin recording up to 30 seconds with your voice.  I have used this app in several ways.  Students have created a short summary on a book to share.  They pretended to be a character from a book and stated their point of view of something from the storyline.  Another idea was partnering up and one student would ask questions about a certain part of the book or chapter, and the other student would answer.  The students love creating the avatars and hearing the avatar speak with their voice in animation.  It is also user friendly with easy to follow icons.
Negatives:  There are limited saving options.  The only way to save your work (Avatar recording), is to  post on Twitter/Facebook, email it, SMS/message it, or save to the camera roll.  The time constraint of 30 seconds for recording really limits what you can say and students tend to talk very fast in order to get everything recorded.  We have had some technical issues as well.  Several error messages will pop up or students get kicked out of app and have to start over.  This doesn't happen all the time, only occasionally, and could be caused by the network capability at the school.

Here is an example of Tellagami:

Overall, I would give this app a thumbs up and encourage you to download it today!