Green Screen by Do Ink A low-prep way for students to create story with video on their iPads.

Presentation by Mary Ann Stillerman

Green Screen is a app for the iPad that synthesizes the video and editing functions of digital storytelling with one app on the iPad.

It uses Chroma Key Technology (green screen) for creating special effects and layering images into one video. For example, news stations use green screens when they broadcast the weather.

Students can situate their broadcasts or set their stories from any location or setting.

With the Green Screen app, students can build productions with up to three layers: a foreground, a green screen interactive video, and a background image, animation, or video.

What is Green Screen? “[putting] students in the

director’s chair facilitates authentic learning and assessment opportunities and results in Oscar-worthy productions, with little to NO prep!” ~ Lindsey Petlak, Scholastic.com

Click on the short video below to see a demonstration of the Green Screen application

DEMONSTRATION

What’s the Benefit of Using the Green Screen App over other software? While green screen or chroma key technology is not exclusive to the

Do Ink Green Screen App for the iPad, the application offers many benefits for students and teachers in the classroom:

What are it’s benefits? It’s streamlined: Students only need the iPad for recording and

editing their productions rather than using a camera, downloading video into editing software and exporting to another device for viewing.

It’s easier to use than many other editing software, and because it is streamlined it makes video production more manageable in the classroom, especially in regards to time and support.

It includes video tutorials that students can use from planning through post-production.

It is not cost prohibitive. At only $2.99 per app license, the technology can be loaded on a set of mobile iPads for use throughout the school.

The vision for our school is that technology is in the hands of students who are using it to create original and innovate work. Creating these digital productions relies on critical thinking and problem solving to convey an idea through story.Green Screen puts the direction, production, and post-production for student created videos in the hands of the students.

Green Screen Supports Our Vision"In preparation for success in college and beyond, all our students gain technical proficiencies and essential literacies for the growth of academic achievement, critical thinking, and problem-solving, while learning to effectively communicate and collaborate in a digital world.“ The Walker School Technology Mission

“The person using the tool, is the person learning.”

A Snapshot of Walker:

Grades offered: Pre-K - 12 Total number of

students: 983 Number of high school

students: 364 Average class size (Pre-K): 14 Average class size (K–5): 20 Average class size (middle

school): 17 Average class size (high

school): 13 Students receiving financial

aid: 12% Exchange students from

France, Germany, and Argentina

The Walker School’s Population

The impact of a community extends beyond physical boundaries or borders. Our school community reaches far beyond our campus here at Walker. From alumni living around the world, to our Foreign Exchange Programs in France, Argentina and Germany and China, we are all connected. “ – The Walker School

Green Screen works well with upper elementary, middle and high school students.

Because The Walker School does not have 1 to 1 iPad, the use of this technology can easily be adapted for group work in the media center or with a mobile iPad cart, so all teachers and students can have access.

Students are part of a global community, and the video production through digital storytelling and the green screen technology provides students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to communicate with one another and share their cultural perspectives.

Target Population & Accessibility

Digital storytelling productions work best with collaborative groups, and The Walker School offers multiple opportunities for student collaborative groups to work on these productions outside of the traditional classroom: Backpack club (during lunch/recess) in a

teacher’s classroom or the media center. All Walker teachers offer before and

after school tutoring and study hall. X-block Friday activities may include

opportunities for students to produce green screen videos.

After school clubs include a video production lab where students can create productions.

Software For the iPhone and the iPad Requires iOS7 or later; saves into Quicktime or MP4 format Features (As listed on the iTunes website on Do Ink Green Screen App)

use the live video camera, or import prerecorded videos, photos, and artwork combine up to 3 image sources at a time record videos in high definition (720p) or standard definition (480p) formats* capture still images and save them to the camera roll scrollable timeline makes it easy to sequence your videos and photos add as many image sources to the timeline as you’d like! move image sources around on the timeline trim videos on the timeline to keep only the parts you need mix audio tracks from your videos and from the live camera easy color picker tool to set the chroma key color use the front or back camera preview your video before you save it save recorded videos to your camera roll (and from there to YouTube, email,

etc.) create multiple projects and reusable templates

Equipment

Required:

iPads or iPhonesGreen Screen App by Do Ink

Optional - Recommended Greenscreen sets (mini

or full size) which may include the following: Green background

(contact paper, fabric, painted wall)

Green gardening gloves Green straws (see

Starbucks) or dowels Other repurposed props Lights – mini-lights, etc.

Tripods and iPad/iPhone clip adaptors

Limitations & Considerations The Green Screen app only works on the

iPad/iPhone, which means that Walker students cannot use the Mac lab, computer labs, or mobile laptop labs for these video productions.

While the app is straightforward and user-friendly, the time to prepare for production is what requires the greatest demand. Teachers need to build that time into instruction and planning.

While production space may be large or small (with miniature sets, for example), the Green Screen application is enhanced when students have props and a set, so the school and teachers will need to provide space for recording.

Because it is an app for the iPad, Green Screen will require initial roll-out and updates managed by IT.

Implementing and integrating Green Screen in the classroom IT department will need to

download the app to the iPad mobile carts and manage any updates.

The Technology Integration specialist and the technology team will be introducing the staff to the Green Screen application in both faculty inservice training and departmental meetings.

Students in the video club will produce Green Screen videos as examples for the staff.

Have a group of student technology leaders create models of Green Screen created projects for various classes and then have them explain how they do it at vertical department meetings. Place the videos and the kids’ narratives online, so teachers can access it. Videos tutorials for the Green Screen app are on their website and YouTube.

When teachers are ready to try Green Screen, make the media specialist available to trouble shoot any issues.

Promote student use of the technology by having contests and an Academy Award for Green Screen productions in different categories.

What’s the best way to show teachers how it works and what it can do?Watch this video created by a kid using the Green Screen app

Providing support for teachers Videos on how to use Green Screen are

available on the Do Ink site and on You Tube.

Cost & Funding The Green Screen app cost $2.99 Walker students are required to purchase their own

textbooks and devices, so the Green Screen app can be added as an optional purchase if students want to use the application at home on their own devices.

Funding can be through a PTSA grant or a Rotary Club mini-grant to load a iPad cart with the Green Screen app and purchase some basic supplies for background sets and props.

Local partners in education can be tapped for donations for supplies for mini-sets (pizza boxes), fabric, and straws, for example.

What are the possibilities for use in the classroom?

Click on the image to your left to view…

Examples of three types of video productions teachers used with the Green Screen app: Social Studies Personal Writing

DEMONSTRATION

Other possibilities: Students read and research to extend their learning of the

content in any content area and use digital storytelling, using the Green Screen app, to speak in the voice of an historical figure or figures and bring their listeners into an historical event.

Students story board their video, beginning with an essential question and making sure to support their answer with evidence from their research, which is cited in the credits.

Students create public service messages for their local community to promote community service.

Students create a campaign around an issue, building an argument and using rhetorical devices to persuade their audience.

Exchange students create introductory videos inviting students on a virtual field trip to their home country.

How does Green Screen Support Student Learning?

Differentiation Production appeals to

multiple intelligences and offers opportunities for students with different learning styles: Writing & Performance: verbal

– linguistic and kinesthetic Tech – props, camera operator,

lights – kinesthetic, interpersonal, visual spatial

Post-production – visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, musical

Collaboration Planning, production, and post-

production provide collaborative experiences Build consensus Recognize and leverage student

strengths, learning styles, and interests

Cooperation and collaboration to achieve a common goal.

Communication Videos shared with peers,

family, and the community Authentic audiences for students and

their collaborative work

Research Specific research on the Green Screen app by Do Ink is limited to

reviews of the app as an educational tool. Mindshift lists the app in their article, “Apps that Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved by Teachers” as a video tool promoted by teachers.

General research on digital storytelling in education reaches back nearly two decades, and the use of digital storytelling continues to rank high as a method of synthesizing student learning and providing a means of differentiating learning and assessment in the classroom: Promotes digital literacy Supports collaboration and student driven shared inquiry Critical and creative thinking that allows for multiple intelligences Greater depth of research, reading, and writing to create quality

productions M. Kearney posits digital storytelling is a constructivist approach

that provides a “transformative tool for learners in a range of curriculum and discipline contexts,” and that streamlining the use of digital storytelling tools to make them less cumbersome, and stating clearly defined roles for both teachers and students in the production process supports to more frequent and successful use of this tool.

Digital storytelling has been part of my teaching repertoire for the past nine years, and I have experienced mixed success in its use in the classroom, mostly due to the technology demands and the difficulties students face when creating productions.

Investigating the use of this emerging technology – the Green Screen App – has me rethinking how I reinvigorate the digital storytelling tool in my classroom as an even more student-driven experience.

Its ease of use coupled with the incorporation of repurposed miniature sets makes digital storytelling a constructivist tool an easier sell to other teachers across multiple disciplines, promoting both digital literacy and writing across the curriculum.

ReflectionGiving digital storytelling a new look and new possibilities with the Green Screen app…

Works Cited Chuck, S. & Kearny (2004). Students in the Director’s Seat:

Teaching and Learning with Student-generated Video. A Research Report. Sydney: UTS. From http://conni-workshops.wikispaces.com/Tradigital+Examples+Middle+School.

Drivas, G. (2014). “Digital Storytelling and the iPad. Edutopia. From http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/digital-storytelling-and-ipad.

Kearney, M. (2009)."Towards a learning design for student-generated digital storytelling" The Future of Learning Design Conference. Paper 4. From http://ro.uow.edu.au/fld/09/Program/4.

Schwartz, K. (2014). “Apps that Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved by Teachers.” Mindshift. From http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/apps-that-rise-to-the-top-tested-and-approved-by-teachers/

Read, Set, Action!Possibilities with Green Screen are Endless for this relatively low-prep and low-cost emerging technology!