Diptic (iTunes link) is a fun and useful photography app that I have been using for a few months now. It is a tool used for combining multiple images onto one image.

I first learned about Diptic while reading this photography article. Upon purchasing it, I decided to try the author's technique of using the same photo three times:

Pretty neat effect. Most people who use this app, however, will probably want to use different photos, instead of just one.

How to get started (after purchasing the app):

1. Choose one out of the 52(!) different layouts for your desired final image:

2. Now choose photos from your Camera roll, Facebook, or even your Flickr account. You can also just take a photo directly from this app.

3. Upon choosing your photos, you can rearrange and resize them, change the colours of and round the borders, even mirror or rotate your original images.

4. Finally, when you are satisfied with your cropping and arranging, there are multiple options for saving the photo: Email, Twitter, Facebook, even Dropbox. I will always save directly to my Camera Roll (the first option entitled “Save“. I find it is better to first do this and then share it on whichever platform afterwards.

How can Diptic be used for teaching?

Using Skitch, I can manipulate my Diptic images even more by annotating on them and saving them again into my Camera Roll. Here are some adjectives that I can teach, first with the words, then without. Students are able to tell me the describing words just by looking at the facial expressions.

• Take before and after photos of things such as your classroom setup or your students projects.
• Take photos of students at the beginning and end of the year and look at their physical changes.
• If you are a Social Studies teacher, combine and compare maps of all the countries that you study. Compare and contrast cultures and other aspects like size, population and weather.
• If you are teaching thematic vocabulary, group your images together for faster learning, and also for associating certain words with others.
• Students can use Diptic to tell stories, make comic strips, share about their families, field trips, or favorite vacation spots.

It just requires some imagination to be able to successfully and productively use something like this in your teaching. With the great screenshot ability on the iPad and iPhone, once again, the possibities are endless.

With its latest update, there are now 14 new filters (À la instagram) that you can apply to your image. A very impressive addition:

Diptic is available in the App store for only 99 cents. There is also an in-app purchase, also 99 cents, where you can expand your layouts to a rectangle shape instead of a square one. This purchase is a no-brainer if you enjoy photography and photo-sharing.

*Update July 21, 2012!

Blog reader @JoyKirr read this post and was inspired to beautifully create this image, celebrating USA Independance day. Great job, Joy!

If you are interested in this app, you can read much more about Diptic on its website here.

Do you have any other ideas for this inventive photo app? Let us know in the comments!