The Best 8 iPad Video Creation Apps for Teachers in 2014

November 21, 2014
We have reviewed and shared over 200 educational apps during this year. Based on your interactions with these posts together with the popularity of these apps among teachers and educators from around the world, we decided to compile a series of lists featuring the best iPad apps to use for doing a variety of digital tasks with students. We will start with the video apps category and share with what we think are  the top 10 iPad apps that you can use to create educational videos and instructional tutorials for your class.

1- WeVideo

WeVideo is an awesome video editor that allows you to both capture and edit videos on the go. Using weVideo will also enable you to create amazing photo-stories and slideshows using the images you have in your gallery or the ones you have captured by the app. WeVideo provides a slew of interesting tools to edit your creations including : adding effects to movies, a set of pre-made themes, add titles and captions, add music and audio. The finished product can be shared through popular social media websites.

2- Knowmia

Knowmia Teach is a new free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers and their students. It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on Knowmia.com so students, other teachers and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life. You can design each step in the lesson, record illustrations as you draw them, and create sophisticated animation sequences with a simple stroke of a finger. We also give you the ability to describe your lesson in a way that makes it simple for anyone who is interested in the subject to find your video.

3- YouTube Capture


YouTube Capture is definitely a must have iPad app for teachers and students. This app is developed by Google and, unlike the basic YouTube app, YouTube Capture allows users to record videos and upload them instantly and right from their iPad or phones and Instagram.
4- Explain Everything 


Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Using Explain Everything, you will be able to create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.

5-30 Hands

30hands Mobile focuses on the power of storytelling and ITERATIVE CREATIVITY. Drag photos, images or video clips around the desktop into the order of the story. Next, record audio over each image. Easy editing allows students to take learning to a higher level and creates a better final video whether created by a student or teacher. Finally, the story or presentation can be published to the device’s photo area or uploaded to a 30hands Cloud collaborative learning site.

6- Animoto

Animoto allows you to create simple and beautiful videos that combine text, soundtrack and images. Animoto provides more than 1000 soundtracks from different musical genres which you can access in their music library and use in your videos. You can also use your iPad camera to take photos or use the ones already stored in your camera roll. Other features that Animoto provides to users include over 50 different video styles to choose from, the ability to add captions to your photos, trim video clips and create title cards.

7- Tellegami

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated message called a Gami. A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos. Create a Gami in 3 easy steps.
  •  Customize a character and choose your background.
  •  Record your voice or type a message for your character to say. 
  • Share your Gami on Facebook, Twitter or send via text or email.

8- iMovie

iMovie lets you enjoy your videos and tell stories like never before. Browse your video library, share favorite moments, create beautiful movies, and watch them on all your devices in iMovie Theater. And with the iMovie extension, it’s fast and fun to make every video more memorable — right in the Photos app.

Resume Pro is Free Today: Easily Create Beautiful Resumes

November, 2014
Resume Mobile Pro is a powerful iPad app that allows you to create beautiful and professional looking resumes. This app is free today. It used to cost $2,99. Using Resume Mobile Pro will enable you to create your resume using a wide variety of styles and templates. You can customize it the way you want and there is also a place in where you can add your own photo.


Another good feature provided by this app is the ability to duplicate and edit your resumes so you can use them for different purposes and in multiple occasions. It also allows you to import your LinkedIn data right into your resume. The final resume you create can be converted to three main formats: PDF, JPG and RTF. To share your resume, you can use the emailing option or keep it in your Dropbox, Google Drive, and Evernote.

I learned about this app from Learning in Hand.

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A Great Task Manager App Is Now Free (Was $20)

November, 2014
The popular Things for iPad is an excellent task manager app that has gone free today. It used to cost  $20 and this deal is valid for one week (till November the 28th). Things for iPad allows you to enhance your productivity by giving you more control over the organization and management of your tasks and to-do lists. You can easily manage your tasks and to-do lists through an intuitive interface using a variety of powerful features.


To organize tasks for each day, use your "today list" which will automatically show you due and scheduled items you have set once their date arrives. And if you have tasks that you haven't decided when to work on them, you can add them to "Someday" and come back to them whenever you want. Things for iPad also allows for the use of tags to assign contexts, priorities and time. These tags help you in filtering through your lists of tasks and enhances your personal workflow.

A Must Have Rubric for Science Teachers

November 20, 2014
In today's post I am sharing with you an excellent rubric for science teachers. This document, which is available for free download, is shared by the University of Wisconsin. The rubric  outlines performance criteria for using : scientific tools, scientific reasoning and strategies, science concepts and use of data and communication. The performance is assessed for each of the following categories: novice, apprentice, practitioner, and expert.


Click here to download the rubric. You can also check this page for rubrics covering other subject areas such as writing, cooperative learning, math, social media, oral presentations and many more.

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A Free Timeline History App for Teachers and Students

November 20, 2014
LittleBigHistory is a good history  app  to help students grow their history knowledge. It is basically an interactive timeline that features major historical events from the Big Bang to the present time. Students can browse through this timeline and learn about places and people, follow their lifespan and discover new insights about them.


There are different ways to browse through the data: you can use "big picture" to search for data organized under different categories such as cosmos, earth life, and humanity. You can also filter content based on topic of interest or even conduct advanced searches using tags and references. LittleBigHistory has a browser friendly interface with an adaptable scale that changes according to the area displayed. The app can also be used offline, however, to follow external links such as wiki links, you would need Internet connection.

A Good Free Tool to Help Students Create Video Games and Animations on Chromebooks

November 20, 2014
Scratch is one of the best free web tools I would recommend for teachers keen on teaching their students about how to create video games and animations. Scratch is a project designed and provided for free by the MIT Media Lab. It is basically a "a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. ". All of these activities require students to practice a host of essential 21st century learning skills such as creative thinking, systematic and logical reasoning and working collaboratively. Students' final products can be shared in online communities for others to interact with, like and favour, and re-share.


Scratch also hosts an online community called ScratchEd where educators and teachers share stories, exchange resources, ask questions and connect with other Scratch users from all around the world.  To get started, you might want to have a look at the Starter Projects page to  give you some examples of projects your students can work on. These projects are arranged into  6 categories: animations, games, interactive art, music and dance, stories, and video sensing.

Watch the video tutorial below to learn how to create a game.


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Print Friendly: A Handy Chrome Extension for Teachers

November, 2014
Print Friendly is a handy Chrome extension that allows you to print your webpages in a print-friendly format. It also removes all the distractive elements in the page including ads and navigation so the page is optimized for the ultimate reading experience. I have been using this extension on my browser for awhile and I am really content with how it works.



The "edit before printing" is one of the best features I like the most about this extension. Before you print any webpage, you can delete any content you don't want and remove images from it. You can even change the text size and make it smaller or bigger as needs be. Besides printing pages in an optimized format, Print Friendly enables you to generate PDFs for archiving, sharing or saving. PDFs you create embed clickable links and source URL so you can always keep track of your web sources.

Watch the video below to learn more about Print Friendly & PDF





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