Using Adobe Voice to Create Food Chain Videos

What I like about the iPad is the ability to work without connecting to the Internet.  This is especially true when you work with field study groups up in the wilderness.

At Outdoor School, 5th or 6th grade students spend 2-4 days experiencing the outdoors.  They get to sleep, eat, and learn up in the wilderness.  Part of their experience is rotating through hour long field study groups which could include learning about weather, creating survival shelters, or identifying plants.

In this hour long field study we start with a review of the food chain including producers, consumers, and decomposers.

The students then take an iPad on a scavenger hunt snapping photos of producers, consumers, and decomposers.  Since consumers don't stand and wait for a photo, we instruct them to take photos of evidence a consumer was here, like a nest or track.

After all the photos are taken, the students storyboard their movie choosing which photos to use and how to tell about the food chain they found.  We ask they include a scenery photo as the title slide and a selfie photo as their credits.

The finished product is created with Adobe Voice, usually 5-10 photos, a narration that tells the story, and background music provided by the app.

At the end of the hour we save the videos to the camera roll and repeat the study for the next set of students.  Then back in town we upload the videos to Youtube.  Here is an example from a group of 6th graders in North East Oregon and their food chain video.




NOTE: If you use Adobe Voice, be sure to login to the app while in wifi, then turn the iPad to Airplane mode.  As a backup iPad app we will use 30Hands in case Adobe Voice logs out.

Collect Amazing Interviews with StoryCorps

Having listened to NPR for years and catching occasional StoryCorps interviews I was excited to see that an iPhone and Google Play app was created to allow for everyday people to record great interviews from the community around them.  This free app walks students through everything needed to capture a great story.

 This app is simple to use, allows for 45 minutes of recording time, has a library of questions that students can choose and add to their own lists.  It prompts them with tips for good recording techniques and allows for editing or saving excerpts.   Students see their questions as they record and can move through the questions on the screen. The finished interview can be saved on the device, stored in the app, or uploaded to the StoryCorps website for public online hosting.  This makes for an easy way to share the students work with others through the sharing of the link from the website.

Last I checked, this app is in BETA mode.  As a teacher the ability to save the sound file outside of the app and use it in other apps or editing software would be a nice addition so I'm hoping that comes soon.  

Here is an example interview on the StoryCorps.me website of a student interviewing his grandfather about his ALS.    Projects in the classroom or for a community are endless with this app.

My Story - Book Maker for Kids

My Story - Book Maker for Kids is an ad free iPad only app that makes story writing and book creating simple for your primary students.  Today, September 5th, it is free, normally this app is $3.99.

A few of the features of this app make this an ideal app for a classroom with a center of iPads.  The app allows for the adding of multiple authors, which all of us with centers knows, is not always possible inside apps.  This allows students to each work inside their own project without having to finish or delete other work before starting.  This is super!

 The work space is easy to navigate with drawing, text, sticker, and photo album access.  Students can also record themselves on each page as well. 

Finished products have multiple ways of sharing, including email and iBooks.  This makes sharing of projects to other devices very simple.