Part of the Goals 2010 Challenge Series, Goal 28
One of the best parts of the digital revolution is we no longer need to throw away student creations or projects. We can keep student work for years as reminders of teachable moments or creativity at work. So many projects lugged home each year and how many of us can keep every poster, science fair project, drawing, or written story. So much work left behind by students, teachers, and parents. With digital devices and web tools we have the ability to save all work. Students can remember some of their best work and build on it year after year. These can be part of a portfolio and important for reflection. Parents can have a permanent record of their child’s creativity and growth.
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Recommended Web Tools
- VoiceThread– Integrate slides, drawings, videos, and images. People can leave comments in a variety of formats. See these resources for examples.
- Glogster– An interactive and multimedia poster.
- Masher– Create a video by mixing video clips, music tracks, and images. These can be from your own library or choose from a huge library of audio, video, and music content, which are free to use. Easily embed it in your blog.
- Open Shot– You have to download this but it supports various platforms. This video editing software takes your uploaded video clips, photos, and music and allows you do to add cool transitions, text, and effects. Moreover, you can do close-ups, which I haven’t seen in other video editing tools. You can then upload your video to Youtube or embed it.
- JayCut– This exciting video editor launches the full features in February. However, this is really impressive online video editor that you can play with here. Online you can upload images, audio, and video clips. Add transitions, effects, and more. Easily collaborate with others on the same video. You can also edit videos on your smartphone.
- Stupeflix-Mix images, videos, and soundtracks. Add titles, transitions, and themes. There is no library of free music but you can easily embed it. See this great example.
- Capzles-make an impressive presentation with your videos, images, and music. Moreover, blog about the experience which goes on a horizontal timeline.
- Magnoto– A mix between Wallwisher and Glogster. Display your photos, videos, text and audio in unique ways on a cool background. You have the freedom to move the parts around. People can comment on the different pages and subscribe to them.
- Scrapblog-Create multimedia scrapbooks. Upload your images and play with the themes, stickers, backgrounds, text features, and frames. Embed this in your blog.
- Mixbook– Collaborate on a photobook with friends. Create stories, photo journals, and more with your uploaded images. You can zoom in on photos, add backgrounds, and embed this in a blog.
- Animoto– Make videos with creative common images and audio. Upload your own images, video clips, and audios.
Multimedia Slideshows
- Prezi-the alternative to PowerPoint. Create non-linear presentations with images, text, video, and cool transitions.
- SlideRocket– Store your slide presentations online and integrate audio, images, and video. You can also collaborate with peers on presentations and create presentations online. Embed this on your blog, publish to a url, or conduct a webinar. A content library is available.
- Voki Presenter – Create multimedia presentations with talking avatars and cool animations.
- Slideshare– Upload your PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and pdfs to embed in your blog. You can narrate your presentation.
- Authorstream– Upload your PowerPoint presentations to embed in your blog. You can narrate your presentation and play it as a video.
- Recommended image editing apps- CamMe, Photofy, Selfit, Group Shot, Pixlr, BeFunky, Pic-Collage, Pic Arts, Frame Artist, Muzy, Photo Editor by Aviary, You Doodle, and ImageChef.
More Resources
For further information on these resources, please visit these websites:
- Video Editing: 30 Free Tools and Web Services To Get Things Done– Many of the tools featured here and more are further explained in this brilliant article!
- Free video editing software list for all platforms– If you prefer to have a software program for editing videos and making cool transitions, then check out this article which describes several.
- Cool Tools for Schools Wiki– Lists many more tools for digital storytelling.
- Filmmaker’s wiki– Lists many more tools and resources for creating student films.
- David Kapuler’s multimedia category in his blog Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyberhero– Lists specific details of many of these technologies and more.
- Ozge Karaoglu’s Digital StoryTelling series– Lists several digital storytelling tools.
Challenge: Begin to document your favorite lessons by taking pictures, recording audio, or recording a video.
If you enjoyed these ideas, you may want to get your copy of The 30 Goals for Teachers or my $5.99 ebook, Learning to Go, which has digital/mobile activities for any device and editable/printable handouts and rubrics.
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