Aviary

As a self-proclaimed tech-junkie, I have seen my share of media creating and editing programs. I'm still baffled as to why I hadn't run across Aviary before today, but...better late than never! I am SO glad I found this site!

In short, Aviary is a completely FREE online program that allows you to create graphic and audio files, including podcasts! (Can I get a "hooray"??)

Aviary Features
Although I'm most excited about the podcasting prospects, Aviary is more than just a way to podcast. You can edit pictures, create designs, create podcasts, and edit audio. It has so many things rolled into one website! I love convenience, so Aviary is my new go-to site!

I checked out Aviary's pricing policies. Apparently, they used to charge for premium memberships, but they recently decided that they wanted their materials to be available for EVERYone...I dig that, Aviary! :) So there are no payment options on this site. Ever.

Aviary Edu
Their special Aviary Education component is still in the beta stages (as far as I can tell), but looks extremely promising. Like other specialty education sites, this one has more privacy options, more kid-friendly advertisements and graphics, and allows you, the teacher, to easily manage the projects you've assigned.

The edu site allows you to manage your class and add students as you wish. It looks as though your students will have to be entered manually, which is a bummer, but I still think the positives outweigh the negatives here! When I signed up, it asked me how many students I'd have, and I had no idea, so I put 150 to be safe. It never complained about that number, but I'm not sure if you can change it once you've decided. I don't see any way to edit that number, so you might want to shoot high to ensure you have enough student places. Here's a portion of the screen where you can add students. I used Aviary's image editing program to blur out my last name and e-mail address. :)



Once you have your students' logins and passwords created, you can start creating projects. Your "projects" are the things that you assign your students. You can set a deadline, and when a student logs in, he/she will see how many hours are left to submit his/her assignment to you! You can go to the creations tab to see what all of your students are doing. (I love that you can monitor progress from your home screen!)

You, as the teacher, have the ability to create "creations," as well. You could create your own for general classroom use, but you could also create some as examples for projects you assign. Unfortunately, the edu version only offers 4 different creation types: create images, create vectors, edit audio, create music. None of these options includes Myna, which is Aviary's free podcast-making component. :( So disappointed. But maybe they will change that soon, seeing as how the edu version is still in the beta stages. :)

Podcasting with Non-Edu Aviary
I was able to create a non-edu Aviary login that is identical to my edu username and password. (Whoo! Less things for me to remember!) The entire reason I created a non-edu account was so I could sample the podcast program, Myna.

There's a great Myna tutorial that I viewed first. I was amazed at all the options!! One negative, though, is that you can currently only record voice tracks that are 2 minutes long, and the max is 6 minutes right now. My podcasts are ALWAYS more than 2 minutes long (sometimes 20!), so I'm a bit disappointed in this. I won't be able to use this much for my classroom, but I want to keep going to see how it works....just in case Aviary decides to lift the 6 minute max.

I created a profile at Podbean so that I would have somewhere free to host my podcasts when I was done. I think I remember seeing Podbean as a suggestion somewhere on the Aviary site, but that could just be my imagination. In any case, Podbean is a free podcast hosting site, and you'll need a hosting site in order to upload the files you create using Myna.

I successfully created a Myna test podcast in a matter of minutes. I was able to add music to the intro and outro and made it sound really neat! But I had problems when it came to downloading the file. I finally submitted a question to the Customer Service department and hope that I can get an answer soon. I'll try to update you with my progress!

Overall Review
Besides being FREE, I think all the components to Aviary have a really professional feel to them. For instance, when I was in the image editor, it reminded me a lot of PhotoShop. If you know anything about photo editing, you're quite aware that PhotoShop is an expensive product! But the photo editing portion of Aviary looked very similar to PhotoShop in that it allowed transparent backgrounds, the use of fonts already on your computer, layering, and various advanced image edits. When I played with the music creator on the edu site, I was reminded a lot of GarageBand. I'm not sure if GarageBand is available on PC equipment, but even if it is, I'm sure it's expensive. GarageBand came with my MacBook, but of course, that MacBook came with a hefty price. Although I had an issue with the audio program, I'm sure that it will be fixed shortly and we can go on about our merry ways. ...What I'm trying to say here is that I think you're getting quality equipment for FREE if you use Aviary, and that's a deal I can totally get on board with.

I made this with the Vector Creator in about 5 minutes.