Week 11: Video Tools

I am always try to find new ways for my students to produce quality projects that they are interested in completing.  This is a constant struggle because everything is "boring" at the high school level.  I often have them create slide presentations, but for a midterm project some of my students really got into creating videos.  A video that is going to be shared with their peers inspires them to put in the extra time to do perfect the details.  Today there is an abundance of video editors online and accessibility is no longer an excuse for not including video projects.

Here are a few programs I have been introduced to this year:

Animoto: Photos and video can easily be put together in a professional looking presentation. Just pick your style and music, customize your photos and videos with text and get ready to present. Educations can apply for a free education account which comes with a promo code students use to remove the brand watermark and produce longer videos.


Adobe Spark Video makes it simple and FREE to create professional looking narrated slideshows that include animated transitions and background music. You can upload video clips and once you have uploaded and inserted a video clip you can then trim it to length to fit into your project. Creators can also add audio to each slide. The same professional quality of all Adobe products.


PowToon is a popular tool for creating animated videos online. PowToon provides a drag-and-drop editor for creating animated videos. The videos that you create feature digital paper cut-outs on a colorful background. PowToon provides drawings of people and objects that you can arrange on blank canvas. After adding your narration to the arrangement you can publish your video.  One of my students chose this platform for his midterm project.  He said it was time consuming but rather easy to learn and his presentation was fun to watch. 


While video production takes more time than many other assignments, I have found value in giving students the time to explore and create something meaningful. 

Comments

  1. Looks like fun. This is a topic you will have to keep looking into to see what new is out there.

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  2. Great tools for presentation Heather. i am a huge fan of simplicity when you can make the complex simple it leaves more room for finding creative ways of expression. It was interesting Animoto target market includes business, marketing and other applications. We have a State licensing agreement with Adobe for certain applications but I had not used Spark yet thank you for the intro.

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  3. I have been wanting to find a tool to record success stories of our students. I am going to look into this more and play with it to see if it will work. Fabulous resource. Thanks for sharing.

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