How to turn your iPad or iPhone into a classroom movie and photo studio with iOgrapher

Maybe you have a classroom iPad or two (or even a classroom set) and you want to use one for more than playing classroom games or educational apps. Maybe you have always wanted your students to use an iPad in more creative ways. I know I did, but the iPad is sort of unwieldy as a camera or video taking device and kids have a hard time holding, stabilizing, and keeping control of an expensive iPad. There had to be a better way. I recently discovered an iPad case made by iOgrapher that not only solves these problems, but turns an iPad or even an iPhone into a mobile media shooting device. You can easily and fairly cheaply turn your students into iPad videographers.

Upon discovering the iOgrapher and realizing all that it made capable, I immediately put up a project on Donor's Choose for my classroom and got it funded. The fun began when the various components I ordered came to my classroom and I was able to set it up quickly and try it out with my students.

The iOgrapher case allows attachments like lenses, lights and microphones to be easily added to the case and it also allows the case to be mounted on a tripod or monopole. The iOgrapher is a case that easily snaps onto your iPad or iPhone. It is made from high grade polycarbonate and is very lightweight and sturdy, It has handles on either side to hold your iPad and to stabilize any videos you are making. For the first time I felt confident in handing off the classroom iPad to my students to let them film throughout the school without worrying about them dropping it. The iPad always looks dorky when you use it to take a photo or video, however with the iOgrapher it looks like something more professional and cool and clever to use.

We are still trying out the iOgrapher and all the attachments that we got, but here is a listing of what I ordered as well as my opinion as to which are the best things to buy to use with the iOgrapher in the classroom.

First off you need an iOgrapher case. They are made for various models of iPads and iPhones and you have to get the correct model so it will snap over and hold your iPad securely. We have an iPad Air and got this case: iOgrapher Mobile Media Case for iPad Air. Models are made to fit the iPad Mini, the iPad 2/3/4, and the iPhone 5 | 5S,

Once you have the iOgrapher case, you can now connect the case to a tripod. The Davis & Sanford EXPLORERV Vista Explorer 60" Tripodwill do the job for under $20. While you definitely want a tripod, you might also want a monopod/selfie stick. I don't think this will be used as much as a tripod, but I ordered one of these heavy duty ones that will take the heavier weight of the Ipad or even a DSLR camera. It might come in handy on field trips, when we don't want to bring a tripod. This is what I ordered: Quik Pod Handheld Selfie Extendable Pole for Action Cams, Point and Shoot and DSLR Cameras.  In the past when my students were making videos, I usually held the iPad when they made green screen videos or jury rigged the iPad, precariously, to the document camera arm so that the camera would point down so students could make stop-motion video. With the tripod, my time is freed up and I won't have to worry about having the iPad get jostled off the document camera. I also ordered a Muku Shuttr - Selfie Remote / Camera Shutter  for those instances where students might want to control the recording of a video themselves while using the tripod. This like the monopod are not must have items, but add-ons you might want to consider. 

Using additional lenses with your iOgrapher is what makes  using the iOgrapher case fun and useful. Lenses are pretty cheap and they worked really well when I tested them. The thing to note is that the iOgrapher allows lenses that are can be threaded at 37mm, so look for those. They screw right onto the iOgrapher case. My favorite lens so far is the Zykkor 0.42x 37mm Titanium Super Wide Angle Fisheye Lens with Macro. This adds a lot of variety to classroom photos and videos. It was fun making Animoto videos with a different look. It was fun using the iOgrapher case and holding it above students to get some pretty cool photos. I also got the NEEWER 37MM High Definition Professional Photography Camera Lens - Wide Angle / 0.45X Macro Conversion Lens  with a 37MM Filter Thread, but it didn't take as dramatically different photos as the fish-eye or I just haven't found the right use for it yet. I did order a Polaroid 2X telephoto lens, but it was sold out after my order was madeand I was not able to replace it with another lens, so someday I hope to order a lens like this to see if it works well Neewer® Deluxe 37mm Telephoto Lens 2 X PROFESSIONAL HD.

I ordered this microphone to get better sound when recording video: AmoVee SG-108 Shotgun DV Stereo Microphone . At first I placed in the mount right over the camera so I could plug it into the headphone jack on my iPad. Then I noticed that the end of the mic showed up in my photos. It won't fit on the middle mount when the light is also mounted, so I had to place it on the mount furthest from the headphone jack. The wire from the mic to the jack is just too short. You can plug it in and then mount the jack, but it is stretched to its limit and may break over time. I then ordered this cable to make the connection easier: Rode SC4 3 inches Microphone Cable.


With the mic on it, the iOgrapher starts looking very professional (something the kids can appreciate) but the final add-on you would want would be an LED camcorder video light. I ordered this one NEEWER® 160 LED CN-160 Dimmable Ultra High Power Panel Digital Camera / Camcorder Video Light, LED Light which also comes with a couple of filters. You will need batteries or an energy pack to run this. I am still waiting for the batteries I ordered, so I haven't tried it out yet. Thisi should work well in low light conditions or to remove shadow from the faces of people in videos.

You can mix, match, or chose other brands of add-ons to work with iOgrapher case. There are more expensive microphones and lights, but for my elementary classroom and their non-professional videos, these should be enough for us. You certainly can set up your classroom with the essentials for $150-$200 dollars and if you are a teacher who uses Donor's Choose, you can cut the cost in half by using their always available matching codes for the first week your project is live. We are still in the learning and experimental phase, but it has certainly added a fresh buzz as to how we can use the iPad as a more creative took in the classroom. There are all sorts of iPad apps to use when taking photos and videos as well as for producing videos that should make for all sorts of creative endevours.

Welcome to iOgrapher from David Basulto on Vimeo.

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Class Inca Projects

My fifth grade class finished up their Inca projects. You can see the wonderful results in this Animoto video.

For inspiration  we used this book, The Inca: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (Secrets of Ancient Cultures) by Arlette N. Braman. The projects were a lot of fun and captured my student's interest and enthusiasm. The book was a perfect resource full of interesting projects and background information. I wanted to try other theme related projects like the ones my fourth grade class created last year based on Benjamin Franklin. We had a rewarding experiece making those projects that was even further enhanced when the author of the Benjamin Frankin book we used, Carmella Van Vleet,  found our video and blog online and sent the class a wonderful email about how she enjoyed seeing their final projects. When I read the class the email, they were so excited that they all stood up and gave themselves a standing ovation. I think it was the recognition that their work went beyond just something for the teacher, parents, and school. The fact that the actual author of the book would write to them thrilled them to no end.

I enjoyed this book so much and found it useful for my class that I also ordered the companion book The Maya: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (Secrets of Ancient Cultures) from Amazon.com. When ordering I noticed that for $1.29 more you can upgrade the book to "online access." According to Amazon this means you can:

Start reading the book online while you wait for your physical copy to arrive
Add highlights, bookmarks, notes, or tags to any page or section of text
Print pages, and even copy and paste text from the book
Read your book from any Internet-connected computer, meaning your book is always with you

I did this with the Mayan book and I was instantly able to read it while I wait for my order to arrive. I think this feature is pretty neat, especially for teachers. I did note that you can't copy and paste pictures, but if you need a copy of a page you can print it right out rather than hunt down a photocopier. I also liked the projects in the Mayan book as well as the similar presentation to the Inca book. My class will be working on Mayan projects and I will use both this book and Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series) which I bought last month. This book does not have the online access feature.

Saying Hello to New Searles Elementary School

I am teaching at a new school in Nashua this year. After 21 years of teaching at Mount Pleasant Elementary School, I have moved across town to teach at New Searles Elementary School. It is exciting learning the culture of a different school, meeting new teachers, and starting all over again in a different setting ( I was in the same classroom for all 21 years at Mount Pleasant). I like what I see at New Searles and I know I will enjoy teaching here. I also get to learn a new curriculum as I have moved up to a fifth grade position. To top it all off, I have gone from a class of 17 students last year to a room with 27 students, fortunately they all seem nice enough so it is going to be a great year full of adventure, learning, and fun!

Not being one to procrastinate when it comes to teaching, I got the class off to their first project on the first day of school. Fortunately we have been having gorgeous weather in Nashua and that of course meant we had to go outside and study some of the trees in front of the school. Before we did that however we had a lesson that focused in on words and how they can be used (and how to play around with them). I prepared a similar lesson at Mount Pleasant School last year and wrote about it here. Briefly I gave each students all of the words from William Carlos Williams poem, "The Locust Tree in Flower":


The Locust Tree in Flower

Among
of
green

stiff
old
bright

broken
branch
come

white
sweet
May

again

The words were not in order. I asked them to make sense out of these words. They could add words if they wanted and could write in phrases, sentences, a paragraph, or even poetry form. When I showed the class the poem they were a little confused as it didn't make sense. I told them my best interpretation of the poem is that William Carlos Williams put the words in a random type of order with some omissions of important words. Upon reading the poem a few times the class matched up some words together and started making some sense of the poem.

I took the class outside and divided them into four groups to study four different trees in front of New Searles School. I told them to write down words or phrases that described the tree and its surroundings. Later upon entering the school, we used the words to create our own poems like "The Locust Tree in Flower". I told them poets are rule breakers and get to write their own rules. The rules I wanted them to follow was to have a title, and a thirteen word poem (one word per line), and to arrange it like Williams' poem 3 words, space, 3 words, space, 3 words, space, 1 word. For homework I had them tear out the paper and colorize each word on each piece of paper. The next day we went outside and arranged the papers on the grass. Fortunately it was another nice day and the papers did not blow away. I took 27 times 15-20 photos for each poem in under 45 minutes and filled up my memory card on the last photo! I did see some students took the "poets can make up their own rules" in their own way and misspelled some words or put more than one word on a line.

The photos will be used to make animoto videos (Digital Poetry) of each student's work. I made a couple of sample videos here. I have a ways to go since the school computers cannot handle this task. However, I think some students may wish to try this at home so for those who choose to do that I will send them the photos.

Animoto is a fun little program. Teachers can sign up for a free account here. It makes professional looking videos that are matched up with music. Each video is unique and can be shared. A free account will let you make videos at home, but they are limited to 30 seconds each. Animoto just announced that you can insert video clips into the videos now, so I went back to the school on Sunday and took a few brief videos of each tree (well one tree was the wrong tree!) and included a video clip in both of the sample videos that I made. The first is Darcy's poem and the second is the poem that James wrote.

National Symbols Posters and Word Clouds

Here is an animoto video of some of our National symbols, monuments, and landmarks. Take a look at the wonderful lettering on the posters. We tried something new called "word clouds". Maybe you have seen them before on web pages. Students learned how you can make a word cloud on wordle.net and then chose important words from their project to put in their own "word cloud".

Using the "create" screen at wordle.net, you can type in words to make a word cloud, or paste in test or a report. You can also put in the URL of a website. Here are some wordle word clouds based on our blog post on our Benjamin Franklin Museum. They were simply created by pasting the text from the blog page onto the wordle "Create" page. If you don't like the design of your word cloud you can hit the randomize button to create a different version. Here are three different versions from the same words.

I can see many applications for wordle in the classroom. It seems to be an interesting way to introduce important words from or about a story.

New Hampshire State House Visit

Last week the the fourth grade classes at Mount Pleasant School took a field trip to the New Hampshire Historical Museum and the New Hampshire State House in Concord. It was an enjoyable trip filled with learning. We even got to meet Governor John Lynch, who came out of a meeting just to meet the students and talk with them a bit! This is an Animoto video of our visit to the State House.



Here is an Animoto video of our visit to the New Hampshire State Historical Society. We were investigating everyday things that people used in the past.

Our Benjamin Franklin Museum

Here is an Animoto video of some of the Benjamin Franklin projects my class made for a Benjamin Franklin Museum. We read about Benjamin Franklin in the Scott Foresman story "Out of the Blue" based on the Jean Fritz book, "What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?" Earlier in the year I had bought a copy of the book, "Amazing Ben Franklin Inventions" by Carmella Van Vleet and decided to use many of the creative ideas in it with my class. Every student chose a project that was in some way related to Benjamin Franklin. The projects were not difficult and they were fun for the students to make. We displayed our projects and posters as well as presented our projects to the other fourth grade classes. This is the book that is full of ideas, clever projects, and interesting activities. I would like to do this activity again with another class. We were able to learn about all the different activities, ideas, and inventions that Benjamin Franklin was involved with.

I found this book on Amazon and have ordered it. It looks like a perfect companion book for the projects.

One note about this Animoto video. I found a button to slow down the pictures as I did not have that many. It now spends more time on the picture. I like how every Animoto has different transitions and how they always seem so perfect for the pictures.

Trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse

Our class had a fantastic trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse. Our time was shorter than normal due to bus difficulties, but we still had a wonderful time learning what school was like in 1842. Here is a Voice Thread of our trip.


Here is an Animoto video of our field trip.

More Animoto Video Poems: Based on "The Red Wheelbarrow"

We have made more amazing poetry videos using the animoto website. First we looked at our third William Carlos William poem of the year. Previously we wrote poems based on "A Locust Tree in Bloom" and "This is Just to Say". This time we had fun with "A Red Wheelbarrow".

Who know what is so special about the red wheelbarrow in the poem, but it is fun to speculate. The mystery behind the wheelbarrow and why "so much depends upon it" makes the poem enjoyable. We discussed the "rules" that the author followed to write the poem primarily describing something seemingly insignificant as important without telling why. We also looked at the structure of the title, stanzas, and lines.

Here is a Library of Congress recordings of William Carlos William reciting the poem in 1945.

	William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Here William Carlos Williams talks a bit about the poem (from 1952).

	William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Next I reminded the class about the story I have been reading to them: "The Tale of Despereaux". We then wrote about something from the story that wouldn't seem that important at all to someone who may have not have read the book but carries loads of tragic meaning to a person who does know the book. The poem we wrote together is called "The Red Tablecloth".

In the story a rat steals a red tablecloth from a man sent to a dungeon and in doing so takes away his only comfort. We later learn that the man had earlier traded his daughter for that same tablecloth. It ends up being an object in the story that "so much depends on".

I then gave each student a photograph that I had cut our from old "National Geographic" magazines. I had them look for an object to write about and to write a creative poem of their own inspired by William Carlos Williams. Then I used my digital camera to get close up images of the photograph as well as lines from the poem that had been printed out by each student poet. What do you think of these "poetic" videos? Please note that I am using the music on the Animoto website. I try to match tunes to poems, but there is only a limited number of songs and it is hard to find songs without words. However in most cases the songs match up wonderfully to the poem.

In a couple of weeks I will be reading the class one of my favorite children's books, "Love That Dog", by Sharon Creech. In this excellent book a boy learns to enjoy and write poetry with the help of his teacher. The teacher uses famous poems to model poetry writing to her class. William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" plays an important role in this book. The class will be thrilled when this connection is made!

"The Big Mustache" by JB

"The Black Dog" by AA

"A Girl Catching Fish"

"A Sweaty Working Man" by WP

"An Old Cow" by IM

"The Brown Gourd" by TE

"The Brown Wooden Swing" by LE

"The Head Band" by JP

"The Big Paper Umbrella" by EV

"The Red Flowery Dress" by SV

"The Walking Stick"

"A Sitting Down Dog" by CA

"A Hole in a Wall" by JR

"A White Furry Goat" by JS