iPad Apps for School

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Create Talking Animations With These Free iPad Apps

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Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog, FreeTech4Teachers.com.

Making animated movies is one of my favorite video creation projects for elementary school students. Students love hearing their voices bringing to life an animated character on the screen. You can have students create animations to tell stories from their own lives or to animate short stories that they have written in your classroom. The following three free iPad apps enable elementary school students to create talking animated movies.

PuppetMaster is a free iPad app that kids can use to create animated movies. The app is designed for elementary school students and therefore doesn’t require students to create accounts in order to use it. All movies made with the PuppetMaster app are saved to the camera roll on a student’s iPad. To create an animated movie with PuppetMaster students simply open the app, select a character, and the select a background scene for their movies. PuppetMaster has pre-made characters and background scenes. Students can also add their own background scenes by taking a picture to use as the background. For example, I made a movie with a robot character attempting to reach under the Christmas tree in my living room (you can view that movie here). Students can record themselves talking or singing in the background of their movies in order to tell their stories.

ChatterPix Kids is a free iPad app that students can use to turn pictures into talking pictures. To create a talking picture just snap a picture with your iPad or import a picture from your iPad’s camera roll. After taking the picture just draw in a face and tap the record button to make your picture talk. Your recording can be up to thirty seconds in length. Before publishing your talking picture you can add fun stickers, text, and frames to your picture. Finished Chatter Pix projects are saved to your camera roll and from there you can export it to a number of services including YouTube. ChatterPix Kids doesn’t require students to create an account in order to use the service. Using the app can be a great way to get students to bring simple stories to life. Check out the video below that was made, in part, by using ChatterPix.

Tellagami is a free iPad that elementary school students enjoy using to create narrated animations. Tellagami allows your students to create customized animated scenes in a matter of minutes. To create a narrated, animated scene students simply open Tellagami and tap “create.” After opening the create menu students will see a default character and background scene. The characters can be altered by selecting from a big menu of customization options. The background scenes can be changed by selecting from a menu or by inserting a picture from the iPad’s camera roll. To add their voices to their animations students simply tap “record” and start talking. Completed animations are stored on the camera rolls of your students’ iPads. Tellagami does not require students to create accounts or have an email address.

My Favorite Video Creation iPad Apps for Elementary School

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When it comes to creating videos in elementary school there are some qualities needed in an iPad app that aren’t needed in apps for older students. For example, it’s helpful to not require that students register to use the app. It’s also nice if the app has a child-friendly interface. The following three apps have those qualities and more.

Learn more about making video on tablets and phones at the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Camp.

ChatterPix Kids is a free iPad app that students can use to turn pictures into talking pictures. To create a talking picture just snap a picture with your iPad or import a picture from your iPad’s camera roll. After taking the picture just draw in a face and tap the record button to make your picture talk. Your recording can be up to thirty seconds in length. Before publishing your talking picture you can add fun stickers, text, and frames to your picture. Finished Chatter Pix projects are saved to your camera roll and from there you can export it to a number of services including YouTube. ChatterPix Kids doesn’t require students to create an account in order to use the service. Using the app can be a great way to get students to bring simple stories to life. Check out the video below that was made, in part, by using ChatterPix.

Tellagami is a free iPad that elementary school students enjoy using to create narrated animations. Tellagami allows your students to create customized animated scenes in a matter of minutes. To create a narrated, animated scene students simply open Tellagami and tap “create.” After opening the create menu students will see a default character and background scene. The characters can be altered by selecting from a big menu of customization options. The background scenes can be changed by selecting from a menu or by inserting a picture from the iPad’s camera roll. To add their voices to their animations students simply tap “record” and start talking. Completed animations are stored on the camera rolls of your students’ iPads. Tellagami does not require students to create accounts or have an email address.

Shadow Puppet Edu is a free iPad app that students can use to create audio slideshow videos. The app offers an integrated search tool that students can use to find pictures from the Library of Congress, to search for images from NASA, and to find Creative Commons licensed images from Flickr. Students can also import pictures from the camera roll on their iPads. After selecting a set of images students can arrange them into any sequence by simply dragging and dropping them into order. Then to create a story students press the record button and talk while flipping through the images. Shadow Puppet Edu allows students to add text and stickers to each image too. When they’re happy with their work students can share their Shadow Puppet Edu projects through a variety of methods including YouTube and email. Shadow Puppet Edu projects are automatically saved to the camera roll on a student’s iPad. Students do not have to register for an account or have an email address to use Shadow Puppet Edu.

How to Make a Screencast of Your iPad’s Screen

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ipad-606766_640One of the best ways to help people learn how to use an app or complete a workflow process on an iPad is to show them. Every year schools have workshops dedicated to showing teachers how to use their iPads. The trouble comes after the workshop is over and teachers have forgotten a key step or two. The solution to this problem is to create screencast videos that teachers can refer to throughout the school year.  There are a couple of ways that you can create a screencast video of your iPad’s screen.


Method 1 – If you have a Mac computer:

Connect your iPad to your Mac by using the Lightning cable (the cable that came with your iPad). Then open QuickTime on your Mac. Next select “new movie recording” from the QuickTime menu. You can then choose the name of your iPad and click record. When you’re done recording your new screencast will save to your computer as a video file that you can then edit in iMovie if you want to cut out portions of it or lay a music track under your narration.


Method 2 – If you have a Windows computer:

You will need a third-party service that allows you to mirror your iPad to the screen of your Windows computer. Air Server is the service that I recommend for mirroring an iPad to a Windows computer. Air Server includes a recording tool that  you can use to make a screencast video of your iPad’s screen. With Air Server running you can just tap record and instantly start capturing your screen and your narration. The video will save on your Windows computer where you can then edit it and or upload it to your favorite video hosting service.

Sharalike – Quickly Create Audio Slideshows on Your iPad

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sharalike Sharalike is a free iPad app that makes it easy to create audio slideshow videos. To create an audio slideshow video with Sharalike simply open the app, select pictures from your camera roll, drag and drop them into any sequence you like, then choose some music to accompany your images. Sharalike handles all of the work of adding transitions, pan and zoom effects, and lighting. You can choose from seven slideshow themes each uses slightly different transitions and frames around your images. Sharalike offers a small selection of free instrumental music that you can use in your slideshow or you can upload your own music.

To publish your Sharalike production you do need to register for a free account. You can register by using your email address or your Facebook credentials.

I like to use audio slideshow tools like Sharalike to have students create short videos that they use to introduce themselves to their classmates at the beginning of the school year. An audio slideshow allows students to share pictures about things that are important to them while at the same time not putting too much pressure on the to stand up and talk to the whole class in the first week of school.

Sharalike is also available as a web app. You can learn more about the web version here.

Try DMD Topic To Create Talking Pictures On Your iPad

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Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 4.23.39 PM DMD Topic is a neat iPad app for quickly creating short videos. To create a video you simply take a picture or import a picture from your iPad’s camera roll then start talking about the picture. You can record for up to 30 seconds. When you’re finished recording, watch the video and select “tagging” to make the video automatically zoom to the objects that you are talking about in your video. Watch my sample video to see a DMD Topic video in action.

DMD Topic could be a good app to have students use to create short explanatory videos. Students can also use the app to create a short video about picture of their pets, their families, or anything else that is important to them (perhaps the players on their favorite sports team). DMD Topic does not require registration.

DMD Topic is free for a limited time (as of November 24, 2014). The regular price is $0.99 USD.