Tech Tips Tuesday

Explain Everything

Simple Video Creation for Young Children

I have written about Explain Everything (Classic) before, but it's one of my go-to apps due to how useful it is for a variety of purposes. My kindergarten son is now getting to an age where he wants to share his ideas with others and is looking for ways to do this. We recently used Explain Everything to make a review video for a Lego kit he completed. He wanted to ensure his face wasn't shown and this allowed us to put together a video with audio, images and videos. It also meant that he was able to record the audio in short bursts so that he didn't get tangled in his words or add more than he needed.

He then entered the Drone Challenge at his school, which involved putting together a proposal for how a drone could be used to help the community. They were invited to present their ideas in a form of their choice. As it turned out, I feel it probably took us less time to make a movie than it would have taken to make a poster!

Once he had his idea he drew some pictures in Sketchbook and saved them to his photo library. Then, using Explain Everything he designed a title slide, followed by a slide explaining how it would work, a slide pointing out the parts of the drone and a slide for who would use it and the purpose. As it turned out, the judges liked his idea and so he won the prize for his age group! Yay!



In the classroom

Students can make short videos to demonstrate content knowledge. These can then be combined in a video editor (eg. iMovie) to make a class video that can be shared with the community on school websites or by creating an Aurasma aura. I did this recently with Explain Everything videos students made explaining the nets of 3D solids. I made a classroom poster with the Aurasma trigger and students showed their grandparents using class iPads on Grandparents Day.

Teachers can also use Explain Everything to collate student work and audio responses into a class product. I have done this simply by allocating a slide to each child, photographing their work and recording their audio as they explain their work. We then shared the final product in an assembly. 

I'm yet to explore the Collaborative Whiteboard aspect and the Project templates. From a quick glance they look good, but may require an account. I'd love to hear from anyone who's already using Explain Everything Discover. 

Other posts that might interest you:
Exploring Fractions with iPads
Explain Everything for 3D Solids and Location
Posts about Aurasma