Imagistory App Review
App Info
Price: Free
Overview
Imagistory allows users to record narration for wordless picture books, encouraging creativity, story-telling, observation, sequencing, and descriptive language. Stories can be saved in video form and shared by adults over the internet.
Features include:
- Two free stories to enjoy
- Four additional stories available for purchase
- Vivid, colorful illustrations with lots of detail
- Recording feature
- Detailed parents/teachers area full of usage ideas
Quality
Imagistory is a very high-quality app that performs exactly as advertised. It is well-designed both for a child to use independently and for adult-child partnerships or group use. The recording starts automatically after the user gives permission to access microphone and camera (though the access request is not protected and a child could turn these on). Use of the microphone and camera are not mandatory for using the app, however, and each story includes a “quiet read” option that allows users to page through the story to see what happens and to familiarize themselves with the pictures.
Education
This app is an educator’s dream come true. One of the foundations of reading is solid language skills including such things as retelling stories, describing scenes, naming characters, and sequencing events. This app supports development of these skills and many more.
The app is primarily intended for young children, who can easily be encouraged to tell the story they see in the pictures. The stimulus pictures are rich in detail, and children can elaborate about many aspects of each. Older students can work in groups to design a story to go with each set, can write out their stories, or even create a play based on the scenes. The possibilities are nearly endless, and developers did an excellent job of including ideas for all age groups in the parent and teacher section of the app.
Kudos are due to the developers for the diversity of characters offered in these stories, as well. There are boys and girls of various races and ethnic groups, and the children are of indeterminate age. Nice job of being inclusive!
Entertainment
Young children love to pretend and to tell stories, so this app fits with these desires perfectly. They also love to hear their own voices and the voices of important people in their lives recorded so they can play them back at will. The stories (both the free and the paid ones) are engaging and interesting. The visual story lines will be familiar to young children, but the stories have imaginative twists, such as the one about going to the beach where the main character ends up swimming with sea turtles and whales.
Value
This is a free app with two free stories available. The tips and hints in the parent/teacher section are also available for free. Four additional stories are inexpensive, priced at $2 each. Alternatively, there is a school version available for $7.99 in the App Store. This version includes all six stories at a slight discount, and educators can download the free version to try out the two free stories in their classroom before making a decision.
Child Friendliness
This app is very child-friendly. The parent/teacher area is protected by an effective gate that requires reading directions and pressing the correct colored shape for the required time. The one suggestion would be to put a master “switch” inside the protected area to turn the recording features on or off without giving children that option.
- Protected parent area (can contain external links & social media)
- NO external links
- NO social media
- NO 3rd party ads
- YES in-app purchases (protected, but visible)
