30hands Pro: Create & Show What You Know

Flexible presentation tool lets kids create, iterate, and share

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 1 review

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

3–12

Subjects & Skills

Communication & Collaboration, Creativity

Great for

Creating Media, Presentation

Price: Paid
Platforms: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Pros: Kids can iteratively add media, record audio, and reorganize content to better tell their story. Import and export options are flexible and fast.

Cons: Drawing and editing tools are limited within each slide. Speedy connections to social media might feel iffy to parents and teachers.

Bottom Line: While there's no shortage of similar tools, this is a solid entry -- especially for younger kids -- due to its ease of use and multimedia integration.

Have kids plan their presentation by "storyboarding" with simple slides, then they can add images and audio to bring their ideas to life. Kids can take pictures of different steps of a process (steps in a science project) and record audio as they describe that process. Encourage kids to take pictures from real life (like the route from one classroom to another) or to take pictures as they act out scenes from a book or an historical event and then import those images into slides. With the built-in image search tool, kids can find images that tell a story or illustrate a big idea. For more ideas, teachers should check out the 30hands online community, which includes videos, stories, and ideas for using 30hands in the classroom. 

30hands Pro is a tool for building and sharing multimedia presentations. Kids can create a new presentation that includes photos (taken in the app or from the device's camera roll), text, drawings, and video. Kids can also import images from the app's built-in image search tool. On each slide, kids can record audio narration to supplement visual elements. Once they've finished their slides, kids can export their presentations to Google Drive, Dropbox, or the public 30hands cloud. Teachers can also create private groups in the cloud where kids can share their work.

The Pro version lets kids use video clips on slides, publish hi-res videos, and integrate more closely with Dropbox and Google Drive. It also has more flexible features for importing presentations and PDFs as individual slides. These features are available as individual in-app purchases in the free version of the app. Kids and teachers can buy the app on their own, and there are volume purchase options available for schools and districts. 

30hands Pro's developers champion the app's potential for "iterative creativity" and use in project-based learning; with creativity and thoughtful classroom management, that's certainly possible. One of the nicest features is that presentations are never really finished: It's always possible to add, subtract, or easily rearrange slides and content.

The only limitations to 30hands Pro are the editing tools within each slide. While it's great to be able to import images, video, and ready-made slides from elsewhere, it's not as easy to include multiple items on each slide as you can in other apps. Great presentations often minimize words in favor of powerful images, but be aware that those powerful images and detailed slides will be best produced elsewhere. The app's breezy integration with social media might give some parents and teachers pause: Kids can easily link out to the developer's Twitter account and Facebook page, and they can effortlessly share their presentations on the public 30hands cloud. 

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

It's not as visually polished as other apps, but kids will love that they can so easily customize their work and add new content. It's easy to re-record and make changes, making this a forgiving tool for younger users.

Pedagogy

While 30hands doesn't explicitly teach anything, it helps kids create presentations to demonstrate learning, think critically about what they've made, and then edit and revise accordingly. 

Support

An extensive online community and in-app help text make for easy use. 

Common Sense reviewer

Community Rating

Quick video creation tool for young kids.

I think this is a really great app. It is perfect for younger kids as they can record their voices over the pictures to tell a story instead of writing. We do have a problem at my school with the importing pictures from the Internet being blocked. We've tried several different avenues, but we still can't get it fixed. We found a workaround and the app is fantastic.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Personal information can be displayed publicly.
  • User-created content is not filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Personalised advertising is not displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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