Green screen is a great addition to story telling to enrich your story. Using a green screen, you can immerse characters of the story into different situations, both static ones using images, as well as moving ones through video. This means that you can combine two images to create a new image, and add additional characters and settings to stories. You can even remove part of a photo and replace it with something else.
It is possible to use green screening on a laptop, but I love how easy it is on the iPad, using the Green Screen by DoInk app.
When you create a project in the App, you presented with three layers. The bottom layer is generally reserved for the image or video that was not made with a green screen. The top and middle layers can be used for green screen media or media that is not green screen. DoInk has made a number of tutorials to help users navigate the app and use it effectively. I’ve prepared them below in a playlist.
For background media, students can create their own (and may have to depending on their topic) or can find media online. As with the selection of all media for creative uses, make sure to choose, or to have students choose, videos and images that they have permission to use, and give the appropriate credit. The one stop search route for both video and images is Creative Commons Search. Saving images works equally easily on both tablets and laptops. However, saving videos created elsewhere are a bit more challenging on the iPad. One workaround is to save the video(s) into a Dropbox or Google Drive using a laptop and access them in the Green Screen by DoInk App. In an elementary classroom where students are sharing devices, you can use a class account.
In a recent post, Wes Fryer also shared how to find public domain videos on YouTube, and save them on an iPad. Read his post for more details. However, this workflow may be too challenging for most students in elementary school.