The Top Five apps for Video Creation on the iPad

The iPad in schools has come in for a bit of stick lately. High-profile issues surrounding cost and security in California have been identified as reasons to exercise caution. This goes without saying; any implementation of technology must be done so with careful consideration of cost and the impact on both learning and teaching.

However, of more concern must be the assumption among many detractors of the iPad in Education that it is a device solely for consumption; the reading of eBooks, Internet research and the watching of video. If this is what a school wishes to achieve, there are far more cost-effective ways of doing so.Yet the iPad is first and foremost a device for creation, and for creativity.Below we outline five apps through which video can be created in innovative ways by teacher and learner:

1) iMotion HD (& iMotion R) – stop-frame animation and time-lapse photography app. Easy to use and unlimited application across the curriculum; story-telling in English or Literacy, equation-building in Maths, recording experiments over time in Science, constructive models in Technology.

2) Coach My Video – compare two videos side-by-side, annotate each and play together or with one paused. This has been designed for PE, but can equally be used across the curriculum to show a student reading Hamlet next to Kenneth Brannagh, or to compare the eruptions of two different volcanoes in Geography.

3) Video-in-Video – combine two different videos, placing one as an ‘inset’ screen (think of how sign language is conveyed onto TV programmes. Excellent for having students narrate a video scene.

4) Tellagami – create an avatar, set an emotion and a background image from camera, photo gallery or draw one, and then narrate up to 30 seconds of speech to make your avatar ‘come alive’. Again this has huge potential for use across the entire curriculum.

5) Morfo – take an image and then make it talk using recorded narration. This is brilliant for use with fictional or historical characters.Each of the above can be used in conjunction with a video-editing app such as iMovie which will take video created in the above apps and put them together into one movie.

Each of the Top Five are completely free, apart from Video-in-Video which appears to have recently begun charging £1.99.

Additionally, each takes no more than a few minutes to learn.The key is the expertise of the teacher to identify how these apps can be used in learning and teaching, and how each of the apps mentioned above can be used interdependently to create really innovative learning opportunities. Matt