Action-Reaction isn’t turning into an edtech blog, I promise. However, my students and I have been using JayCut (a free, online video editor) to create video lab reports and video demonstrations from clips taken with our Flipcams.
One nice feature that has great potential is JayCut’s picture-in-picture. It started when I saw this awesome video taken from the point of view of the edge of a sword:
I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a 3rd-person perspective synced up with the sword’s perspective? So I set out to create my own version using a Flipcam and a meter stick (not as cool as a sword, I know). I had a student use a second Flipcam to film me while I swung the “sword” around. We made sure we pressed the record buttons at the same time. Then I used JayCut to merge the two videos together. Here’s the result:
The picture-in-picture effect is really just a transition, but I made the transition last for the duration of both video clips, rather than having one clip transition to the other. In addition, you can see that JayCut allows you to add titles, still photos, and upload your own audio.
Do you remember my Visualizing Newton’s 3rd Law with Colliding Carts post a while back? Well, I just discovered that JayCut can also do variable playback speed. So today I merged the 4 videos from the post (plus 1 extra) and included slow-motion replays so you can see that both hoops are always equally compressed. Check it out:
(FYI: I snagged the royalty-free audio for both of my videos from Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com.)
My students have also been experimenting with video lab reports. Here’s an example from an activity about shoes, friction, and tug-of-war:
I know this group’s experimental design can be improved, but I wanted you to see some actual student work. Doing a video was a choice — other groups wrote a more traditional report or presented to the class using whiteboards.
When your movie is complete in JayCut, you can publish the video to YouTube, publish it to JayCut’s own site, or download the file to your computer. You can also get an embed code to put the video into a webpage, blog, etc. without publishing to YouTube. (I find the YouTube version to be higher quality, though.) When my students made video lab reports, they got the embed code and put their video on our private Edmodo class page.
JayCut will store all the clips, stills, audio, etc. you upload into your media library so you can use them over and over again. You can save your work and finish later. I don’t know of any file size limit or storage limit. I really can’t believe the site is free, and there’s also no advertising. You do have to sign up for an account, but I have not received any email or spam from JayCut.
That’s it. I just wanted to show everyone what JayCut can do!
(NOTE: Some media in this post may not display in feed readers and must be viewed on the website.)
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Great classroom example using Jaycut! Thanks for sharing.
Tremendous!!! If any of your students are interested and want to submit their videos for inclusion in the Physics In Action Podcast on iTunes, we’d love to syndicate them and get them out to an even wider audience!
I have got to try this. Awesome science in action!
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed watching your videos. I think it’s great that your students are learning how to create their own videos. It is something that I’ve always enjoyed doing. I’ve never used Jaycut, but this is the second time I’ve heard about this program. I think I’m going to have to check it out.
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