What is the best and easiest app or tool students can use to create short video to enhance a research project - i.e. Is Animoto the best? Can a video from Animoto be embedded in a Prezi?
This weekend's links offer resources to help you and your students choose the right tool for video presentations.
The short answer to the last of Ms. Newell's questions is no, an Animoto video cannot be directly embedded into a Prezi. However, Animoto videos can be shared in a variety of ways. Users can post their videos to YouTube (and then embed them in a Prezi) or share them via social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
The questions regarding what tools are the best require slightly more complex answers. When selecting a tool for a job, there are a number of criteria to consider:
The questions regarding what tools are the best require slightly more complex answers. When selecting a tool for a job, there are a number of criteria to consider:
Purpose: What type of video or presentation do you want your students to create? A how-to? An animation or stop-motion? A skit or clip of student action? Some tools are better suited for certain tasks than others, so it's important to keep your overall purpose in mind to select the right one for the job.
Ease of Use: Unless you're teaching a video production class, the focus of your video project will be on the content and your students' ability to present it effectively, not on the process of video editing itself. As a result, you're not likely to want to devote much class time to teaching the tool. Intuitive, easy-to-use resources are the way to go.
Length: How much "footage" is required for your students to accomplish their objective? Unless you're willing to pay, some tools will limit the length of the videos you're able to create.
Cost: Do you need to stick with free options, or are you or your students able to spend a little on apps? Many tools are completely free, some have free versions with limited features, others require a purchase.
Embed/Share Options: One of the greatest benefits of offering students opportunities to create digital products is the ability to share those products with an audience outside the walls of your classroom. Where do you want your students' work to go? Most online tools have sharing features, so it's important to do a little investigating as you plan your projects to make sure the tools you choose allow you access to the embedding and sharing options you need.
Ease of Use: Unless you're teaching a video production class, the focus of your video project will be on the content and your students' ability to present it effectively, not on the process of video editing itself. As a result, you're not likely to want to devote much class time to teaching the tool. Intuitive, easy-to-use resources are the way to go.
Length: How much "footage" is required for your students to accomplish their objective? Unless you're willing to pay, some tools will limit the length of the videos you're able to create.
Cost: Do you need to stick with free options, or are you or your students able to spend a little on apps? Many tools are completely free, some have free versions with limited features, others require a purchase.
Embed/Share Options: One of the greatest benefits of offering students opportunities to create digital products is the ability to share those products with an audience outside the walls of your classroom. Where do you want your students' work to go? Most online tools have sharing features, so it's important to do a little investigating as you plan your projects to make sure the tools you choose allow you access to the embedding and sharing options you need.
Below you'll find guidance on some commonly used video creation and presentation tools. This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but it might provide a place to start when you're ready to create video presentations with your students.
Animoto
For ease of use, it can be tough to beat Animoto. A gallery of themes and a library of curated music tracks offer a slick final product, and adding in photos, videos, and text is quite simple. Student feedback, however, suggests that the free version of this tool, which keeps final videos at a brief 30 seconds, can be extremely limiting for some projects. Additionally, the character limit on each "slide" (40 for titles, 50 for subtitles) may not allow students the space they need for sharing a research project. Students recommend this tool for quick, teaser-style projects like book trailers. Here's an example:
RQMS Visits the Tennessee Aquarium
Vine & Instagram
Because most of our classes don't have access to stand-alone cameras, it's likely that students will be filming their videos on phones or tablets. If what's needed is a quick demonstration (a step in a science lab, for example), a Vine or Instagram video might be the way to go, particularly since students may already be familiar with these free apps and have accounts. Here's a side-by-side comparison from Tech Crunch that may help you decide which best meets your students' needs. Of particular note for classroom use are video length (Instagram = 15 seconds; Vine = 6 seconds), sharing options (Vine = Facebook and Twitter only; Instagram = a few more options including email), and embedding (Instagram = no; Vine = yes). Here's a Vine created as part of a 6-word memoir activity:
iMovie (for Mac or iOS)
When I surveyed the RQMS Student Tech Leaders about their preferred video creation tools, the landslide winner was iMovie. Users can play with numerous templates for making video trailers or their own movies, which can then be shared via email and other means or published to sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook, and the length limitations that must be considered with other tools are non-issues here. Two things to keep in mind: the app is not free ($4.99 in the app store), and students recommend using the iPad version rather than iPhone, as the extra screen space makes editing easier.
Screencast-o-matic
At some point, you or your students may want to create screencasts (videos of activity happening on your computer screen - a how-to video, for example). Screencast-o-matic is one of the favorite tools for this job. It offers a free version with up to fifteen minutes of recording time and publishing options that include YouTube HD and a variety of formats. One of the best features of this tool, in comparison to other screencasting tools, is that there is no installation required. A single click can get you and your students started. Check out the how-to by Bill Selak below:
WeVideo
Since TCS students now have Google accounts through our system's Google Apps for Education domain, WeVideo can be a great option for video creation. This app, which can be added via the Chrome web store, connects to Google Drive, and offers a variety of themes (including both graphics and music) to get you started. While the drag-and-drop process makes editing fairly easy for beginners,there are some significant limitations for the free version. First, you can only export a total of 15 minutes of video for sharing (links for posting on Twitter and Facebook). Downloads of your video are not an option without upgrading to a paid account, nor is collaboration on video projects (which is a bummer since that's one of the biggest benefits of many Google tools).
Google Hangouts on Air
Again, because of the ubiquitous nature of Google tools in our daily lives, Google Hangouts on Air might be a great solution for your video needs. This tool allows users to broadcast life on Google+ and YouTube, and these broadcasts automatically post to your YouTube channel so that they can be viewed at any time and shared or embedded elsewhere. Hangouts on Air can be recorded using your computer's built-in webcam, can include multiple participants, and require very little setup. Keep in mind, though, that our system's Google Apps for Education currently has Google+ disabled. Since Hangouts are tied in to Google+, these videos must be made using non-TCS Google accounts. Rock Quarry Middle School currently streams video announcements daily, in addition to broadcasting them over the intercom. Check out an example below:
Lapse It
Want to create time-lapse videos of events going on in your classroom (building a project, staging a set for a play, setting up for a school celebration, etc)? Consider Lapse It, available for Android and iOS. The app is free and allows for sharing via social media, YouTube, and more. Visit this post at Leyden Techies for some additional usage ideas and an example.
What am I forgetting? What tools work best with your students? Share your ideas in the comments section below.
Many thanks to the RQMS Student Tech Leaders for offering the student perspective on a few of these video tools!
Want to submit your own question to the TCS Tech blog? Click here! Thank you to Susan Newell for being the first to submit a question.
And in case you missed them, check out this week's TCS Tech posts:
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites - Erik Hammonds
Technology Support: What We Do for You - John York
Laren Hammonds is an 8th grade English teacher at Rock Quarry Middle School. She's @_clayr_ on Twitter and blogs about her classroom experiences at Game to Learn.
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