I have noticed that focusing on the tool is not the best approach for student creation. It has worked better when I have set a task and then the criteria that can be met by using a range of approaches or tools. For instance, when setting up a book video review competition, students responded much better when I provided three different examples (one in CapCut, one recorded directly to the built-in laptop camera, and one a ‘screencast’ of a PowerPoint). Only in one of those videos did I actually appear and in the CapCut one neither my voice or face was present. That was a conscious decision to sidestep students’ concerns about self-consciousness. My impression was that this range stopped many questions about ‘does it have to be x, y, z’ and reassured learners that whatever they preferred to use was fine. The criteria were a short video (no time minimum or limit), about a book or books or author you love and it had to be shared in one location. So my advice here is to focus more on the outcome than the tool, if possible.
Sometimes that is not possible! For a webpage project, students could only use Adobe Express, for a creative writing portfolio they had to use Book Creator for a podcasting assignment they were set Soundtrap. For each of these platforms, I had to (and was happy to) create a model for students to refer to. However, I found that simply presenting this model wasn’t enough, especially for students who were away and missed this introduction. The podcasting work was supported by a tutorial video that I provided. Even though most platforms have a range of video tutorial supports none of these will exactly fit your project and teachers and teacher librarians should create a supporting video for reference and for those learners who struggle to focus on instruction. Even when a platform seems very ‘intuitive’ and students quickly get creative, it’s noticeable how the extra support is appreciated and how, as the educator, you can avoid being asked the same questions again and again, if a video is provided.
I’ve avoided focusing on specific tools here as they come go and change so much in their lifespan. The principles though are the same: simplify the task to essential requirements, allow flexibility in how students meet those requirements (including which tool they use), and when that is not possible, support use with instruction in different forms, especially video.