Unleash your students creativity with music and video technology for the classroom
Whatever combination of abilities, learning styles and skills your students have or need to develop, creating their own media content can help them on their way. From shooting simple video and recording music on an iPad, right up to editing with industry-standard tools, and sharing projects, we can help get you set up with the hardware and software you need for students to start getting creative.
If you'd like to teach your pupils how to create top-quality tunes on a Mac (with a little help from GarageBand, Logic Pro X and the right kit), take a look at our step by step lesson plan below that covers everything you need to know...
Music
Shooting and recording
With all the different production roles and stages involved in filmmaking and music recording, it’s the perfect opportunity to promote a range of skills, get students working in groups, increase confidence and hit key learning goals. It’s not just about music and media courses either – using video and audio can get students engaged across the curriculum, whether that’s using green screen video to explore space travel or geography, podcasting a history project or writing a movie script. Along with a student newspaper and a school radio station, school TV is a great tool to promote your students’ voice in the community.
Professional quality sound
Nothing can ruin a great classroom video like poor, muffled audio. Get great quality sound for students’ productions with our selection of microphones, including mics for the studio, USB mics (which are great for podcasting), lapel mics for interview-style pieces, and shotgun mics for taking recording outdoors.
Career-ready, hands-on mixing skills
If you want to make the learning process of mixing audio easier for students, there’s nothing that can beat letting them get hands-on with a mixing desk and physically applying changes to a track (which will also give them career-ready skills). As experts in audio, we can advise on the best option for your budget.
Video
Cameras, tripods and lighting
We can advise on the best camera and storage solutions for your needs (and budget) or tailor simple iPad and camcorder recording kits for classrooms to get you started right away. Add a tripod for a perfectly stabilised shot, making video look more professional and shots more repeatable (and meaning students can concentrate on getting the script right!). We also supply a simple lighting kit to get students’ videos looking as good as possible, especially in large, dimly lit rooms, and a range of chroma kit to help you get started with greenscreen.
Live production
Let students create live webcasts and TV packages, taking inputs from different cameras and screens, add titles and graphics, then stream the results to the web or screens around school, or save to use later, with our range of NewTek TriCaster and live production systems.
Set the scene, wherever you like
Green screen, or chromakeying, techniques have long been popular in the classroom as a way to encourage students to engage with storytelling through role play
Editing and animation
Editing
Once students have filmed their footage or recorded their audio, they’re then ready for the next stage – editing or ‘post-production’.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy solution for beginners, Apple’s iMovie and GarageBand are great. But for secondary-level media courses and beyond, you’ll want to look at more advanced editing solutions.
We can advise on the best software to support your teaching style. Among our favourites, Pro Tools and Logic X, Apple Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro in Adobe Creative Cloud.
For any editing that requires a bit more grunt than iMovie or GarageBand, we can provide high-spec workstations from the likes of Apple and HP that will happily run industry-standard editing software without grinding to a halt.
Bring art to life
Animation is a great way to get your students creative juices flowing, which harnesses the power of technology to bring their creations to life.
We can provide animation software like Adobe Character Animator, which gives your students the same tools used by professionals in the industry to create episodes of Mr Bean and The Simpsons. If you want to give your students a taste of 3D animation, Cinema 4D gives you a quick and easy start in the world of 3D graphics and animation with the same tools that professional artists at major production studios use.
If you need more powerful hardware for advanced animating, we also provide powerful workstations for advanced editing. Get in touch to find out what's available.
Kit out your school with an audio or video studio
Want to install a whole new audio or video studio? We can help you with everything from the hardware to custom desks to fit your room. We’ll set the whole thing up so it’s ready to use, and can even train staff to use it all too.
"The best thing the new system has done is revitalise the staff. It's been good for our entire production team, and it's exciting because the quality of what the students are producing now is phenomenal.”
Jamie Holman, Level Three Foundation Art and Design Media Programme Leader, Lecturer in Media Production, Blackburn College
Enabling the next generation of creative pros
Helping Leeds City Council implement the tech and skills their users will need
What can we do?
Get all the kit – Come to us for hardware and software.
Get all set up – We can help with installation.
Get staff up to speed – Come to us for CPD training.
Get expert advice – Ask us about consultancy.
I want to know more about video and music in education
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