This is the point in the new school year at which many teachers are wrapping their first units of the study of the year. One of the activities that I did to wrap-up and review units of study was to have students create short video lessons about topics we covered in each unit. Each student chose (or was assigned if they didn’t want to choose) a topic and created a sixty to ninety second video that was shared with the class. The videos were shared on a class wiki hosted on Wikispaces. My students used a variety of tools for making their videos including iMovie, WeVideo, KDenLive, and JayCut (now defunct). What follows are the tools that I recommend now.
Web-based and desktop video tools:
PixiClip is a good option for creating simple instructional videos. PixiClip provides a whiteboard space on which you can draw, upload images to mark-up, and type. While adding elements to your PixiClip whiteboard you can talk and or record a video of yourself talking. In fact, you can’t use the whiteboard without at least recording your voice at the same time. Recordings can be shared via social media, embedded into blog posts, or you could grab the link and include it on webpage.
Screencast-O-Matic is a screencasting tool that I featured last week. It is available in a free version and a pro version. The free version allows you to record for up to fifteen minutes at a time (that is plenty of time for most screencasts), publish to YouTube in HD, and save videos to your computer as MP4, AVI, and FLV files. Screencast-O-Matic features a highlighted circle around your cursor so that viewers can easily follow your movements on the screen. A webcam recording option is included in the free and pro versions of Screencast-O-Matic. All of these features could be used by students to create simple video lessons in which they talk over a set of slides on their computers.
WeVideo is the web-based video editing tool that I probably mention more than any other on Free Technology for Teachers. Students can create videos by uploading images, video clips, and audio recordings to their WeVideo accounts. WeVideo also includes tools for recording voiceovers and using webcams to create raw video footage.
iPad video tools:
On the free eduClipper iPad app you can create instructional videos on a whiteboard in the Khan Academy style. You can also use the app to create a video in which you annotate an image or document while talking about it. After creating your video you can save it to an eduClipper board that you have shared with your students through the eduClipper classroom setting. Your students can view the videos on their iPads or in the web browsers on their laptops.
30hands is a free iPad app that makes it very easy to create a narrated slideshow. To create a basic narrated slideshow on 30hands all you need to do is import images from your iPad’s camera roll then press the record button below each image to record your narration. If you don’t have any pictures on your iPad you can take pictures using the 30hands app. 30hands also allows you to draw images instead of importing pictures. You can combine imported pictures with drawn images in your presentations. And you can draw on top of imported images. When your project is complete you can save it on your iPad or share it with the 30hands community.
eduClipper and 30hands are great for simple videos, but some students may want to create a bit more complex video. In that case, don’t overlook iMovie which comes standard with new iPads.
Android video tools:
SyncSpace is a whiteboard app available Android tablets. SyncSpace can be used to create drawings and documents on your tablet. You can create using free-hand drawing tools, using typing tools, or a combination of the two tool sets. Your drawings and documents can be sent to and synced with other users so that they can comment and edit your drawings and documents.
Clarisketch is a free Android app that has great potential for classroom use. The app allows you to take a picture or pull one from your device’s camera roll and then add your voice to it. While you are talking about your picture you can draw on it to highlight sections of it. Completed projects are shared as links to the video file hosted on Clarisketch. You can share the link to your Clarisketch video and have it play on nearly any device that has a web browser. See my sample here.
WeVideo’s Android app allows you to create and edit videos on your tablet or phone. If you’re looking to create a slide-by-slide instructional video in which you or your students talk about what’s happening on the screen, then WeVideo could be a good choice for you. Wes Fryer recently wrote a great post about his experience with the app. In that same post Wes also did a nice job of comparing it to some similar iOS apps.
(Disclosure: I am an advisor to eduClipper).
