Students creating online videos can be an excellent language-learning experience. Certainly, students can film their own videos, edit them, and then post their finished product online.

There are many online applications that allow you to create your own videos using content that’s already on the Web. For English Language Learners, these can be great opportunities for developing listening, reading and writing skills. All of these sites are very easy to use, and finished products can be developed in one class session.

I’ve decided to make a “The Best…” list highlighting these video-creation sites.

In order to make it on this list, these online tools had to be free, accessible to English Language Learners, easy to use, use video content from sites other than YouTube (since that’s blocked by so many School Districts), and not have content available that would be inappropriate for classroom use (at least, not that I could see). This criteria really eliminated a lot of potential sites.

I haven’t necessarily listed them in order of preference, though I have saved my second-choice and my absolute favorite for the end (and believe me, they’re winners!).

Here are my picks for The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content):

Animoto and their newer site, Animoto Education Program both let you easily create videos with music.

Masher is a super-easy free web application that lets you mix-and-match clips, music, photos and more to create online videos. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s excellent blog.

I learned about Biteable from Ed Tech & Mobile Learning. It seemed a bit clunky, but it’s also new, and it’s free. It would be an easy tool for students to use — it’s sort of a somewhat less sophisticated Animoto. You can’t embed the video, but it provides an easy option to upload it to YouTube. Here’s a quick video I made using it:

 

FLEXCLIP LOOKS LIKE A GREAT VIDEO-EDITING TOOL FOR ELLS, ENGLISH-PROFICIENT STUDENTS & EVERYBODY ELSE

Vimeo has created a feature that lets you use templates for simple videos.

Recast lets you easily create online videos.

 Adobe Spark

Let me know if you have any feedback or other recommendations.

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