Magisto Video Creation Tool
This past week I ran a workshop for our staff on video creation and editing tools. Magisto is one of the easiest video creation tools to use. Within two minutes of signing up for a free account, I had uploaded ten pictures of books I have read, picked a theme and a song, and created a short video.
Description (directly from Free Technology for Teachers):
Magisto is a video creation tool that allows you to quickly drag videos and images from your desktop and or Google Drive account to your Magisto account. From the videos you upload, Magisto will select the best portions to remix and blend with images. After you've uploaded the media that you want mixed, select a theme and music for your video. Magisto creates your video after you've completed the steps of uploading media, selecting a theme, and choosing music. The final video is emailed to you. In addition to the web-based service Magisto offers a Chrome app, an Android app, and an iPad app.
My Thoughts:
If you are looking for a simple tool to use with your students to create videos, Magisto is as simple as they get. Both my children were able to figure out how to create their own videos with clips and images that they had on their Ipods. I typically use WeVideo to make videos with students, but the editing in WeVideo takes my students a lot of time. This web-based service does all of the editing and designing for you and the videos look professionally done.
Padlet
Padlet is a tool that I have shared with our staff in a few workshops this year. I originally shared this as a simple formative assessment tool to quickly gauge where your students are at in their understanding of the content. We had the teachers create a post-it and add a picture that represented who they are:
Ideas started flowing, from having them do this one simple post. Teachers were discussing ideas like:
- students finding images that represent a concept they are learning in class (ie. find real life examples of polygons)
- students posting textual evidence that support an essential question
- students brainstorming ideas about a topic they are learning about
- students sharing their new understanding of a topic and questions they still have about the lesson
- students could list advantages and disadvantages (or pros/cons) in prep for a writing assignment or debate
At our workshop on Thinglink last month, my teammate and I shared another example of how teachers can use Padlet as a place for students to post their projects for everyone to see. This particular Padlet was created by Susan Oxnevad as a place for teachers to share Thinglinks they had created during the Thinglink Teacher Challenge last summer.
As soon as teachers saw this I heard even more new ideas like:
- students posting book reviews
- students posting Infograph/ Thinglink projects
- students posting research links and ideas
- students creating digital portfolios
Then, I shared Padlet with an English teacher and we decided to have the students create their own Padlets to highlight all of the books they are reading throughout the semester they are in his English class. We plan to start simple. They will all create a to-read list and then add the book they are currently reading to their page. As they read more, we will show them how to incorporate book reviews, book trailers, Thinglinks, etc. into their Padlets. Here is my example:
As you can see, there are endless ideas on how you can use Padlet. The best part? It is so easy to use!
Last week my teammate and I offered a digital literacy workshop focusing on the uses of Thinglink in the classroom. We wanted to share a simple way for teachers to turn a static image into an interactive image and this tool is so easy to use.
I was introduced to Thinglink last spring at the Illinois Reading Conference when the presenter posted all of his resources for the presentation on a Thinglink. I loved the idea, but it wasn't until my friend, Shawn McCusker, posted Four Ways to Think About Using Thinglink - Rethinking Thinglink, on his blog Go Where You Go that I really started searching for more resources to share with staff. I also played with it on my own and saw all sorts of possibilities with this tool. Here was my first creation.(Hover over the image below to see the tags.)
Workshop Day:
Since the technology levels of our staff vary from one extreme to another, during our workshop, we had to hook our staff in and get them excited to try this. We had them explore the Ultimate Word Wall Padlet created by Susan Oxnevad (see below) to help spark ideas on how they could use this in their classrooms. Just this little exploration brought out ideas that I never even imagined. Once hooked, we were able to have teachers find a picture online and create their own interactive image.Looking for ideas on how you can use Thinglink with your students? Check out these resources:
- 87+ Ways to Use Thinglink in the Classroom - a collaborative slideshow created by Donna Baumbach
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