iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

video editing

How to Make Green Screen Videos on an iPad

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The latest update to the iPad version of iMovie added a green screen capability. The new green screen capability in iMovie is easy to use if you know where to find the feature. In the video below I demonstrate how to use the green screen function in iMovie for iPad.

How to create a green screen video on an iPad. Blog post cover image.

Before you try to use the green screen function in iMovie for iPad there are a couple of things that you should do. First, you’ll want to record some video of yourself or your students in front of a physical green screen. You can purchase a green screen made specifically for recording videos, but if you’re just getting started a simple green bed sheet will work too. After recording in front of your green screen you’ll need to get some pictures to use as backgrounds. Pixabay and Pexels are good places to find pictures for those purposes. Once you’ve done these two things you’re ready to start using the green screen function in iMovie for iPad.

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.

Create Halloween Movies With Magisto for iPad

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Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 2.36.30 PM Earlier today I published a post on FreeTech4Teachers.com in which I mentioned using Magisto to create videos online. This afternoon I tested out the Magisto iPad app.

The Magisto iPad app works in a manner that is very similar to the web app. To create a movie with the Magisto iPad app you simply select videos and images that are on your iPad’s camera roll, select some music (Magisto has a large selection of royalty-free music) to serve as your video’s soundtrack, and choose a theme for your movie. Magisto is currently offering a Halloween theme that you can apply to your movie. Magisto handles all of the mixing of your media to generate a movie for you. See the app in action in the video embedded below.

You can test the Magisto iPad app without creating an account. To access all of the app’s features you will have to create an account.

Videoshop – Add Slow Motion and Image Effects to Your Videos

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Screen Shot 2014-04-09 at 8.14.25 PM Videoshop is an iPad for creating and editing videos. Through the app you combine video clips and images into one video project. You can import video clips and images from your iPad’s camera roll into your project or you can capture new footage through the app. After adding your video clips and images to your project you can edit each of the clips by trimming their lengths and adding slow-motion effects. To the pictures and video clips in your projects you can add voice-overs, background music, and text. Transition effects can be inserted between each clip and picture. The last step before publishing your video is to choose Instagram-like visual effects to your project.

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Videoshop’s biggest selling points are found in the visual effects and the sound library. The sound library contains dozens of sound effects that you can import into your project for free. You can also import music stored on your iPad.