iMotion

Name: iMotion

Price: Free

Format: iPad app
-https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/imotion-hd/id421365625?mt=8

Difficulty: Moderate
iMotion involves using the camera device. Students unfamiliar with the app may accidentally delete movies, or do their work and forget to hit the record button. 

Email Required: No

Description:
iMotion is a time-lapse and stop-motion app. You record using the app and your device's built in camera, and then the app puts the video into frames. My students have only used two of the four settings when creating videos. 

The "time-lapse" setting is most often used. Students simply select the start button, begin recording, and the app breaks the video into 1-30 frames per second (how many times a new picture appears on the screen per second). The fewer frames per second, the easier it is for me to grade. I usually have students submit their videos to me in the 10-20 frames per second range. This is fast enough for them to not get bored watching their own video, but slow enough for me to be able to check their work. 

The "manual" setting is used less often by my students. It requires the students to continuously take pictures, as opposed to the auto-record feature of the time-lapse setting. The manual setting is best used in subjects other than math, in which it is not important to see how a student arrived at a particular conclusion, and the finished product is the most important aspect. After finishing a video, the app will still put the pictures into a video and the student can pick the speed it shows the pictures. 

iMotion is a great alternative to the traditional video presentations. Not only is it more fun for the students to make, it is more fun for the teacher to grade (and less time consuming!). For math teachers looking to incorporate BYOT into their classroom, this is a perfect app. iMotion makes it easy to see the problem-solving process of your students, and to pinpoint where a students makes a mistake. 

Uploading iMotion videos is easy and can be done in a couple of different ways. The easiest way is to upload the video into the device's camera roll using the app's built in export feature, and then upload the video onto a website such as Edmodo, Wallwisher, Dropbox, or Google Drive. 

Student Examples:

More examples can be found on the following Wallwisher websites. To upload a video onto Wallwisher, students just saved the iMotion to their photo library, went to the Wallwisher link, and uploaded it to the page (no email required).
http://wallwisher.com/wall/imotiongraph
http://wallwisher.com/wall/imotion


Summary:
iMotion is a simple, yet effective app. Once students get over the slight learning curve, the recording process becomes natural to them. It can be difficult at first, however, and teachers should expect a few "I forgot to hit the record button" remarks from students learning to use the app.