Technology @ Hebron

These are two great apps that take a different approach to working with video on the iPad.

Coach’s Eye

Coach’s Eye is an instant reply and video analysis app that lets you manipulate video at different speeds and record annotations and your voice over the top of your video. The app can be used both inside and outside the classroom for recording game footage and drills as well as student performances and presentations.

When you open Coach’s Eye tap on the plus (+) icon to start a new video:

This will give you the choice of recording video directly into the app or importing existing video you have saved in your Camera Roll:

Once you have recorded your video you can then tap Analyze to start scrubbing, annotating and recording your actions:

Use the scrubbing wheel along the bottom to fast-forward and rewind your clip, the annotation tools to draw shapes and lines over the top of the video:

You can also tap the microphone icon at the top to record everything on the screen as well as your voice. Finally, you can also tap Compare to put two videos side by side.

If you do use the record feature, when you press the stop button the app will create a separate video of your recording. You can then export this video into Google Drive and share it.

To do this select the new video and then tap the Share button:

Then tap Export (you will have to create a free Coach’s Eye account at this stage):

And finally tap Open in and select Google Drive:

Please note that only faculty have access to this app. If you would like your students to use Coach’s Eye please let us know so we can purchase and assign the app to them.

Stop Motion Studio

Stop Motion Studio is a quick and simple way to create flick-book style stop motion animation videos – an excellent way of creating narrative stories. Here is an example of a stop motion project we recently completed in the middle school.

Open the app and tap the plus (+) icon to create a new project:

To start recording still images that will make up the stop motion video tap the record button:

Each time you tap record a still image will appear in the timeline along the bottom. You can tap on these frames to see more options:

Once you have recorded all your still images tap the play button to preview your movie. It might be the case that the clip plays too fast. If you tap on the cog icon you can then change the frame-rate and try again:

Once your movie is finished you can then tap the back button and use the sharing options to export your project:

This could either be to Google Drive to share it or even iMovie (by saving it to your camera roll first) if you would like to add additional editing effects such as titles, transition and voice over (our help post on iMovie can be found here).

During the technology training sessions this week we took a look at three different creative apps on the iPad.

Paper by 53

Paper by 53 is a sketching, note-taking and art app that takes a slightly different approach to creating digital drawings and artwork. Your sketches, notes and artwork are saved within separate moleskin-style notebooks and the app has a range of different drawing tools to use, including watercolor paintbrushes.

This video gives a good overview of the latest version of the app and shows off some of the drawing tools included:

Comic Life

Next we looked at Comic Life, an app for creating comic books using either photographs taken on the iPad or images saved from the internet. The app has all the tools for designing and laying out a comic book, with panels, speech bubbles, action text as well as a different page templates. You can also use a range of image filters to apply comic book style effects to your images.

Here is a good overview of the app that shows you the steps to create a comic book:

Do Ink Animation

Finally we looked at Do Ink Animation, an advanced frame-based animation app for the iPad. Using the app’s editing tools you can draw a scene and objects and then copy and move these objects over multiple frames to create a flick-book style animation. This is similar in style to creating animations in Flash and is a great narrative tool for the classroom.

Here is an overview of the app and quick tutorial on creating a simple animation from the developers:

Note that only faculty currently have access to this app. If you would like to use it in your classroom please let us know so we can purchase additional copies for your students. 

Timeline 3D is a great app for creating and presenting timelines on the iPad. From a list of events organized by date the app creates a 3D presentation which can then be navigated through.

To start a new timeline click on the plus (+) icon, tap Create Timeline and then give your project a name:

You can now create new events, view or edit any existing events or tap play to present your timeline:

At the top of the screen you can also tap Configure to change the theme and a few other options.

Tap the plus icon (+) on the above screen to add a new event and then simply fill in all the details (dates, notes, links) required. You can also add a picture or movie from your Camera Roll where it says Add Media:

Once you have added all the events for your project tap the play button to present your timeline. The app will first prepare your presentation:

Then present it in a 2D overview:

You can now tap any event and it will switch to a 3D view which you can scroll through taping left or right:

There are also additional controls that will appear if you tap at the top of the screen, including Done to exit the presentation:

Timeline 3D also has multiple options to share your project. Tap the share icon to see these options:

Sharing as a PDF is probably the most useful of these options, but you can also publish to the web or export as a slideshow that can be viewed in PowerPoint.

Book Creator is a great app for creating and sharing interactive (including video content) ebooks right on the iPad which can then be read as a proper ebook using the iBooks app or exported as a PDF.

To get started open the app and tap New Book (there is also a great tutorial book pre-loaded which gives a good overview of the app’s features):

Next you have to select the orientation of the book, from portrait, landscape or square (this depends on the type of book you are going to be creating – we would recommend landscape just because it gives you more space to work with):

The app creates the first few pages for you, including the cover page. Using the tools underneath the plus (+) icon you can now begin to add content to your pages:

There are a variety of objects you can add, including text, images, video and audio. And once you have added an object it can then moved and rotated around the page using the standard pinch to zoom and rotate gestures.

If you tap an object to select it you can find further options such as font, colour, etc. by tapping the i icon:

One additional feature is the ability to add text links to either other pages (for a contents pages) or URLs to webpages. When you are adding text you are able to select it and one of the popup options is to add a link:

And as mentioned you can add a link to another page using the page number or a web address:

To navigate the pages that have already been created by the app just tap the arrow (< or >) icon at the side of a page, or tap the Pages button to see an overview of your book:

In the Pages view you can also delete and reorder pages in your book:

When you have finished adding content to the first few pages to add more pages tap the plus (+) icon at the current end of your book:

Once you have finished your content, before sharing or exporting the book you need to change its title and author. Tap My Books in the top left hand corner and then tap the i underneath your book:

Now you are ready to share or export your book. You can either tap the share button underneath your book in the above screen (this gives an additional option of exporting it as a video):

Or you can tap the share icon when you have the book open:

Sharing to iBooks lets you read it as a normal ebook complete with page turn animations and other options such exporting it to Google Drive will convert it to a PDF for reading on any device.