"Give It A Voice!" with Adobe Voice

Today, I'm just sharing an interesting tool that I was introduced to at the "Teaching With Technology Conference" from Maricopa Community Colleges. The excellent presentation and hands on workshop was done by our ASU folks, Celia Coochwytewa, Jinnette Senecal & Steven Crawford from The College of Health Solutions. They gave a demo, and shared a really nice handout "Planning and Preparing for a DIY Presentation" for "scripting" out your video, which is really important to do before recording. They also presented the idea that creating a great video is like telling a story, and the scripting will help professors think through their video.

The tool was Adobe Voice, which is a free app available on Ipads and Iphones. I was really pleased at how quickly my table could put together a professional video (about 10-15 minutes), from concept to output. Adobe Voice allows you to narrate images and text to create short videos that can be uploaded to Blackboard or emailed. Here's a sample of what my table quickly put together: Summary of What We Liked Video

Some of the nice features included:

• wide assortment for images from a gallery, your webcam, or searching through Creative Commons licenses.
• Easily add music for a background
• Easy to add voice on each image, and it even told you when you were talking too long!

Some of the disadvantages were that it is currently only available on Ipad and Iphones, and you do need to create a free account.

Here are some ideas for how to use it in the "classroom":

• Have students show the process in their labs, by taking photos of each step, and then recording a summary of what happened.
• Have students create a case study, where there is a verbal description at each stage. Then have the class go through and discuss each case.
• Students can find an image of a famous scientist and tell what were the key points of their research, or an image of a plant, and describe the history of the use of it.
• Instructors can create short videos to give additional information on assignments
• Instructors can create a video on the top 5 most difficult questions on the exam.
• Easily replace in-class presentations with short videos that are reviewed by others in the class

For more information, try these resources:

• Adobe Voice Website
•  Adobe Voice: Tell Your Story