Parents' Guide to

Shadow Puppet Edu

By Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 7+

Easy-to-use slide show maker wows; watch sharing options.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Free Education
Shadow Puppet Edu Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Shadow Puppet Edu App: Screenshot #1
  • Shadow Puppet Edu App: Screenshot #2
  • Shadow Puppet Edu App: Screenshot #3
  • Shadow Puppet Edu App: Screenshot #4
  • Shadow Puppet Edu App: Screenshot #5

Community Reviews

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age 6+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Cody E.
Cody E. Adult
October 18, 2016
age 6+

Shadow Puppet Edu as a Useful Teaching Tool for children to create simple-to-make multi-media projects

Shadow Puppet Edu is a free iPad app, recommended for children 1st grade and older, offers a simple way for younger children to explore the realms of multi-media creations. This multi-media book/project creator offers a range of ways for children to present and create (or re-create) stories, or even creation of presentations for class. The app has a navigation bar on the left-side of the screen with features that allows children to upload their own pictures, web search pictures, flickr/creative commons, or use clipart to set background and add images into their creation. Children select the pictures/images they’d like to use, then place the selected images into the order they wish the book to follow (as in each image acts as its own page). Upon creating the layout, children can insert text, and even record audio or use audio files/music to play on each page. When recording the audio, children can also drag emoji looking animations over the page, which will cause the animations to happen while the audio is playing. When children are expected to create an educational project, they are in luck, since this app also incorporates google maps to search landmarks and geography, along with a tab that has a range of famous landmarks that the children can choose from and view. On top of the ability to use maps for research, there are five databases also included on the navigation side-bar; Library of Congress, Met Museum of Art, The British Library, NASA, & NOAA (these databases are interweaved with educational information, along with a plethora of pictures). This app offers a wide-range of creative and educational opportunities, and also meets multiple teaching requirements listed in Colorado’s Reading, Writing, and Communications curriculum outlines, such as, researching a topic, group activities – sharing creations, employing plan-draft-write strategies, and sharing topics & findings with others. Teacher guided learning with this app is really helpful when children are first using this technology. Giving children direction and explanation of what the child can do in the app and how is important in keeping them engaged in creating, rather than frustrated and confused by the app.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
autumnz
autumnz Parent
July 28, 2016
age 6+

Great for Story Retell

I use this app in my classroom with my first graders. It is one of the first apps I introduce them to when they start the year. They use this app to retell a story or to tell their own story. It is easy to navigate and allows the children to add their voice and decide how long they want to stay on each page. They can take pictures first then go into the app and add them to the project.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
See all 2 parent reviews

Privacy Rating Fail

This product does not have a sufficient privacy policy.

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays personalised advertising.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • Unclear whether this product uses a user's information to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for personalised advertisements.
Learn more about our privacy ratings

What’s It About?

Create video slide shows, adding narration and text. Videos can be up to 30 minutes long and can include up to 100 images. Kids can choose images from the camera roll, the Library of Congress, maps, the MOMA, the British Library, NASA, and NOAA, as well as from Flickr and Web searches within the app. They then scroll through and zoom in on images as they narrate their slide shows, and they can add text or clip art. Videos are automatically saved to the device's camera roll and online, are accessible via a direct link, and can be shared through social media.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

SHADOW PUPPETS EDU is chock-full of resources, all in-app, so kids can quickly and easily create impressive slide shows. It's intended for educational use and includes resources galore for teachers. And, although kids are searching resources that could include objectionable content, the filters are locked down pretty well. (Trial searches for potentially racy content all pulled up pictures of bunnies, which is a cute gotcha.) The only weakness is the parent-lock passcode required before sharing, which involves holding a button for a few seconds -- any kid who can read will bypass that very easily.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about guidelines for sharing via email or social media. Discuss with whom, what, and when it's appropriate to share.

  • When students have to create a presentation for a project or class, encourage them to see if Shadow Puppets Edu might work.

App Details

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