Media Creation Apps for the Classroom

This morning I went to a talk by Jon Samuelson (ipadsammy.com), a teacher in Austin, TX who presented on methods for integrating the iPad into the classroom. He routinely uses his iPad in his lessons, introducing about one new app per week.   I found it cool that he was using Keynote on the iPad for his whole presentation - sure saves  a lot of switching when you need to showcase your apps!  He kicked off his workshop with some initial advice on how to integrate iPad apps into the classroom: 

• The lesson should not be about the app. 
• Teacher should try the app before the lesson. 
• You can work with multiple appps for better results. 
• Don't be afraid to make mistakes, or not be the expert.

Here are the apps he discussed:

• SnapGuide: a free tool designed for creating mobile, step-by-step guides.   It's best to have a class account.    Students can use pictures and/or video and share their book via tweet, pin, or FB.  The navigation is super and fits the iPad well, and the stories can be commented by others.  
• iMovie: a paid app ($4.99) for creating great looking movie trailers by mapping segments of footage onto a template. 
• Skitch: a free app for annotating images.  His students used it in conjunction with SnapGuide by importing a SnapGuide slide, annotating it, exporting it back out as an image, and putting it back into SnapGuide.  I saw a great skitch that a student did on polar bears.
• TypeDrawing - app for creating word art or captions for your images.
• ScrapPad - used for scrapbooks, but can be made for Flash cards.  The files can be put into Animoto or Comic Life.  Great for extra activities after students have finished their work. 
• VideoPix: Video Frame Capture & Slow Motion Player

Other apps he mentioned include the following:

• Animoto
• Album F/X
• Screen Chomp
• Turbo Collage
• Comic Life
• Comic Strip
• VideoPix

Another tool he showed us is symbaloo.com, which is a cool bookmarking tool for storing your apps.