This week the EDTC class was tasked with finding a tool that can be used to document progress for our learning projects. I took a look at Animoto, shotcut and InShot. InShot is the tool that I ended up going with, and below I created an in depth review of how to use it!
Animoto seemed to be a great resource, until I began using it. For some reason I was unable to drag photos or videos into the area it said to (i’m thinking that this was a glitch on my end). Another thing I wanted to include was a voice over, but the free version did not allow for this. Lastly, Using the free version, I was unable to create a video over 30 seconds in length.
Next, I chose to explore Shotcut. WOW was this overwhelming. I think that this would be an excellent tool for an individual who has more experience with video editing. For me, I was completely lost and didn’t even know how to add more than one clip! Shotcut is extremely advanced and was way outside of my comfort level.
Lastly, I decided to download an app on my Iphone called “InShot”. This app was free and incredible to use! I would highly recommend this to anyone who is wanting to edit a video in a simple way, looking to edit a photo, or wants to make a collage, as the app is very straightforward to use. I also love how one can speed up and slow down videos, as well as include voice over, music, sound effects, pictures, stickers and gifs. You can also make different edits such as cuts, filters and crops.
How to use:
- Download the app
- Open the app. Three different options will appear “video” “photo” or “collage”
- When entering it asks if you want to allow access to photos and videos. Click “allow”
- Once you allow photos and videos to be accessed, you can then choose which items you would like to upload. When the items of your choice are uploaded, you can begin editing! (see the uploaded video below on how to complete the process).
Note: If you click the “video” option when entering the app a green square will appear that says “new”. Click on the green square and then choose which videos/ photos you would like to use.
Once the video, photo or collage is to your liking, you can save it to your device. Save by selecting the square with an arrow located at the top right corner of the screen. The app also provides an option to upload onto different platforms such as twitter, instagram, facebook and YouTube. If I were to rate this app, I would give it a 9/10 for meeting basic editing needs for an individual who is exploring video edits for the first time. I took one mark off due to the fact that ads do pop up within the app.
The following is a screen recording taken on my iphone on how to use the InShot app to edit a video:
The following video is a brief overview on how to edit a photo and create a collage:
I then edited and created a tutorial on how to make an origami turtle! The turtle is a creation that I learned this week using the platform of TikTok for my learning project.
Note: Please see my learning project update this week for more details!
Classroom use: As a teacher I would definitely use this as a resource in the classroom. I can create tutorials to show students how to complete things such as assignment expectations, and possibly different art projects (just an idea). I would also recommend this app to students as it is free to download on google play, as well as the apple app store. Students can use this editing tool to complete projects as it is straightforward and requires little instruction! This app allows you to easily save the edited materials to devices which makes using this tool even better! By being able to record audio right on the app, as well as search gifs and stickers, it will save students time as they will not have to continuously upload different attachments. One thing that teachers have to keep in mind is that ads do appear within the app when using.
Question: Is there a way to ensure ads don’t appear when using an app?
Where this app/tool fits in the SAMR model:
When looking at the SAMR model, I believe that the implementation of InShot within the classroom would fall under the category of substitution. I say this, because it is a video editing tool that can be used as a way to present information to the class. Instead of reading about how to do something, students can watch a video that the teacher created demonstrating how it is done.
Hi Danica,
I really liked how in-depth this blog post is. Not only was your summary and videos of how to use the app very helpful, but I loved that you shared a few resources that you tested out and explained how they didn’t work out. I after reading your description of the shortcut, I would probably be in the same boat you were. I will defiantly have to think about using InShot in my future as the screen recording you created was very helpful and made the app seem very user-friendly!
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Hi Danica,
This was an excellent and informative blog post on multiple different resources. I really like that you explored multiple apps and recourses when others did not work in order to get the final product. On top of that, the video tutorials really add to the post as well because even though you may not use every feature in your final product, through the videos we are able to see that they are there and can get an idea as to how they would be used. The only answer I could provide as to whether or not you can remove ads would be that you probably have to pay for them to remove the ads. I look forward to your next blog post!
Hi Chayce,
Thank you so much. InShot really does offer a lot of different features! I also want to thank you for responding to my question. I am thinking the same as you, that the only way to remove ads would be to pay… but I just thought that I would ask the question. Through this course we have learned about so many valuable tools that I didn’t even know I needed… so I was hoping that maybe there was a free tool that perhaps removed the ads!
Take care,
Danica