Pic Collage struggle and SeeSaw love!

The first 9 weeks with the iPads have been a great experience. The kids and our team have especially enjoyed working with Pic Collage and SeeSaw. I have loved both apps, but I haven't been able to use Pic Collage to its full potential. Any tips and/or help would be appreciated.

When we introduced Pic Collage we used it initially in a whole group setting. Now we are doing it as a station in math and as one of my word stations; the kids love it! However, I feel like they spend more time trying to take pictures, sizing them, and several other tasks or even fixing accidental deletes than actually accomplishing the task. Often times it seems that when station time is over they haven't actually created anything.

On the other side of this problem, I have a couple of students that are the "experts" for Pic Collage and it seems the other students have picked up on this. The experts sometimes spend their whole station time helping classmates instead of doing their own work.

Am I the only one with this struggle?

The iPads are a great addition to our listening station. The student uses the iPad to scan a QR code which takes them to a youtube video of a book. They are really enjoying using this new technology in this station.

Seesaw is the app that rocks my face off! My favorite feature in SeeSaw is how we can integrate the students work progress and special activities into an extremely accessible format. It is a super easy and fun way to share with, and inform the parents. And it doesn't stop there, the students can do it on their own. The students have learned how to scan the QR code which takes them to our class list. They can post any of their work that they are proud of and want their parents to look at. And now, most of my parents have the app and have been regularly looking at what we post. I love that the students can post on their own

My absolute favorite feature is how the students can record and share video and/or audio messages. I have received great feedback on one activity in particular. We record the students reading their writing at different points in the year, share them instantly, and then also save them to show growth. It's a great way to keep parents up to date with their student's work without going through the time hassle of constantly sending a bunch of stuff home.

I have loved having the iPads and the kids are all over them. I feel this has made a positive change in my classroom and I can't wait to learn how to do more with them!