Minnetonka Students Create Green Screen Videos with Do Ink

Image Source: Do Ink 

Green Screen by Do Ink

Starting this month, students in Minnetonka Public Schools are beginning to use the Green Screen app by Do Ink on their iPads in our 1:1 iPad program. Do Ink is an application that allows students to easily record, edit, and produce green screen video. Green screening itself is the technique of filming in front of a green background and then using a program with a chroma key filter to replace anything green in the image with another photo or video. Think of a weather forecaster on television standing in front of a map. Do Ink's Green Screen app is a wonderful program that makes this process easy. 

We have looked at a number of green screen apps over the years and tried to find something that was free, but not had success. We really wanted to give our student the opportunity to create projects with a green screen, so we decided to move forward and purchase Do Ink. As a general rule, we try to find apps that are free to keep program costs low. You can read more about our app selection process here.

Minnetonka West Middle School teachers using the
Do Ink app last week. Photo source: Sara Hunt

Last week our middle school instructional technology coaches Sara Hunt and Carson Hoeft began showing our teachers this app for the first time. Sara purchased some inexpensive green tablecloths which they simply taped on the wall for a background. Teachers tried it out and loved it. They are excited to have their students begin using it. Students can make a news show, narrate over a historical video or photo, do a book talk, and so much more. During one of the training sessions, a teacher said he could have his students take a screen shot of a difficult math problem they solved and then use Do Ink to record an explanation of how they solved it. Teachers talked about having shy students use it to give a presentation that the class can watch. There are so many possibilities with this tool, it will be fun to see what our students create!