Use the Free Trial version - Forever!
The HyperStudio Trial Version is a non-expiring “trial” version of HyperStudio where the only limitations are that stacks are limited to 4 cards, and new connections between stacks can’t be made.
However, this is more than enough to create a wide variety of projects on an on-going basis, and to learn a LOT about what HyperStudio can help you create, without having to worry about a time-limit.
What can I make with the trial version?
The Trial version of HyperStudio has all the features and functions of HyperStudio available for you to explore, and with it you can make a wide variety of different types of projects, except for connecting to other stacks, and being able to add more than 4 cards. When you purchase the standard HyperStudio product, you will be able to continue building on any of the projects that you started with the 4-card Trial Version.
Some Example Projects in 4 Cards or Less
Here are the samples in the HyperStudio Home Stack that are made with 3 cards or less. You’ll discover that for certain projects, only a single card is needed! With the 30-day trial version, you can build projects of any size, but the following projects are listed as examples of great projects that can be done simply and are good ways to explore the basic features of HyperStudio.
Fruit & Vegetable Poster - Students make public service announcement posters about the benefits of fruits and vegetables.
Talking Heads (“All About Me”) Poster - Students introduce themselves and their favorite activities in these posters that are put up in the classroom at the beginning of the year.
Desert Camping - Comic style on a single card
Desert Camping Interactive Graphic Novel - Click on each frame to change the story.
Desert Camping Interactive Graphic Novel (No Click) - This is similar but it responds by just moving the mouse over a frame.
Nile River Tour - Nick gives a video tour of the Nile River Valley while Google Earth follows along!
Venn Diagram - Interactive Venn diagram where you can drag objects into the diagram.
Student ePortfolio Menu Card - This demonstrates a card used at the Magnolia Intermedia School in Grass Valley to navigate to the student work done during the semester.
Important Features to Explore
Here are just a few of the particular features that you should explore in this Test Drive version of HyperStudio.
Painting and drawing - Use all the features of the paint program that is part of HyperStudio to create your own paintings and drawings. Save them as a 1-card stack or 3-card “gallery”. Import photos and add captions to them and trace or “overpaint” to create truly modern media!
The Inspector - Fast and Easy Controls
The Inspector is a floating window that is available for every object that you create on a card in HyperStudio. It lets you quickly set up the appearance, actions and other attributes for any text, graphic, movie, button or sound.
Places to Go, Things to Do...
Simply check off common connections and actions for any button, graphic image, even movies and text links!
Play a sound, movie or animation. Open a web-page or a document in another application. Pretty much any step in building a project takes only 30-60 seconds.
This is the best and fastest way to build projects, and one of the greatest things about HyperStudio: just drag and drop images, sounds, movies and text and movies from folders on your desktop to the cards as you build your project!
When you drag sounds, movies, .gif files, urls or even Google Earth placemarks on to a button or graphic object, HyperStudio instantly makes the connection so that clicking on the button or graphic object plays the sound or movie, or opens the web-page or Google Earth location!
Even more remarkable, is that if you drag images from your browser window to your project, HyperStudio automatically creates an entry with the URL in the “Comments & Attributions” for every media object. This makes it easy to use Creative Commons license media!
HyperStudio has everything built-in to record your own audio and movies.
It can also export any project as a movie, pod-cast, or web-page.
Larger Projects with HyperStudio
Here are a few more examples of projects which take a little more time to make, but are well worth the investment of time, both in what you can learn about HyperStudio, and in the value of the project itself.
The Memory Box - This project shows a "memory box" where each item can be removed from the box, and when it is removed, the story on the card tells about that particular item.
Token-based storytelling - This is what we call "token-based" storytelling, where the presenter has an assortment of objects, called "tokens", which are used to as reminders of the topics to be discussed. In this system, the audience also sees the context for the overall subject of the presentation. This is based on the same principle as the Memory Box, but uses a photograph as the setting for the “tokens” used to tell the story.
How do I get started?
One of the easiest ways to start a project is with a folder of images that you’d like to tell a story about.
Start with a title and/or menu card and then drop a folder of images on to either the HyperStudio icon or the Storyboard. A card for each image will be automatically made, with a “next card” action for each of the cards. From there you can create links in your menu card, add sounds or other images to each of the other cards, even create links to Google Earth and Google Maps!
To see a series of introductory videos demonstrating how to do this, click here, or on the topic headings at the top of this page, “Introductory Videos” and “Solar System in 60 Seconds”.
HyperStudio Projects on the Web:
Here are links where teachers have posted their student’s projects online, usually either as a downloadable stack, or as a movie made from the stack using Export as a Movie.
Magnolia Middle School, Jeff Peach, Director of Technology
Grass Valley, CA
300+ students each day working in all subject areas
Pt. England School, Dorothy Burt
Pt. England, New Zealand
“A Planet With Talent”
http://pestorekat.blogspot.com/2010/05/planet-with-talent.html
YouTube
There are also many videos on YouTube made from HyperStudio projects. Here are just a few:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Mr. Electricity (SchoolTube video)
HyperStudio Resources on the Web
HyperStudio has a very large community of users worldwide, with not only K-12 schools, but also artists, businesses, colleges and universities.
Here are a few places that you can use to get started learning more about HyperStudio, sharing project ideas, and talking with others using HyperStudio in a wide variety of ways.
HyperStudio Group on FaceBook: HyperStudio Central
One of the first HyperStudio groups, it’s also a page where the designer of HyperStudio, Roger Wagner, frequently posts tips and techniques, and links to online resources for HyperStudio
Ann Brundige Studio - Free Materials for Teachers
http://www.annbrundigestudio.com/category/app/hyperstudio-app/
These are links to web-pages that discuss HyperStudio in particular, or “multimedia”, “digital storytelling”, or “presentation software” in general in such a way as to be relevant to the use of HyperStudio in the classroom.
HyperStudio Worldwide
Just for fun, here is a world globe showing red dots for past visitors to this page, and a little flag and location for you! You can also see @HyperStudio tweets and follow HyperStudio on Twitter.
“What is HyperStudio?”
HyperStudio is the one program where a student can write, paint & draw, create animations, and make movies, all in an interactive, non-linear project that is a whole, cohesive project, not just mere fragments.
The concept is simple: a painted or image background on which you place images, text, movies and interactive buttons. All the media types can be created right within HyperStudio without having to use other programs. Record your sound and video, edit text, paint and manipulate images; it's all right there when and as you need it.
But the important thing is what you can make with it. Because HyperStudio is not specifically movie-making, presentation, animation or comic-making software, but at the same time is its own flexible creative environment that can make each of those types of final media, HyperStudio is the most flexible and efficient software in existence for making a wide variety of projects, yet all with the same basic simple skill set of the user.
Nothing comes close in terms of what is called a "low threshold, high ceiling" (Seymour Papert) system where a student of a very young age can easily begin projects, easily change course to alternate styles, and from there be unimpeded in creating projects of whatever level of functionality is desired as they create more over many years, and even a lifetime. (yes, there are now people who have used HyperStudio from grade school to near-retirement, and in the case of teachers and interactive media professionals, from early-career through actual retirement).
Many, many different types of projects can be created using HyperStudio, and all with this same basic process. Here are some examples:
Types of projects and the media skills that you can learn about include:
Non-linear information environments
(Example: Cell City)
Highly efficient research and idea organization
(Example: Solar System in 60 Seconds)
Attribution and citation of media sources (Example: Automatic Attributions)
Real digital storytelling, not just digital film-making
(Example, Interactive Photographs: Desert Camping by Plane)
Animation in both frame-by-frame and object-on-a-path techniques
Movie-making, including green-screen and video-narrated projects.
Drawing, illustration, tracing, and image/photo manipulation
Writing and composition, poetry
Exploring electronics with the Arduino
The logic process of "programming" while not requiring scripting
HyperStudio: Drag, Click, Inspect
Creating with HyperStudio is simple, and the basic process is the same no matter what you want to do: drag a media element on to a card, click on it to position and format it, and use the Inspector to set up any interactions that you want for that element, such as playing a sound or movie, opening a web-page, etc.
Drag and drop any media element from the desktop (or a browser window) on to your project in HyperStudio.
Click - Then position, resize and crop (even movies!)
Inspect - All the actions for every object in your project are set up with this:
That’s pretty much it! You can watch the introductory video here to see the process in action. To see how images can be dragged from a browser window, resized, and connected to an action, web-page or Google Earth (even on Mars!), take a look at the Solar System in 60 Seconds video.
HyperStudio in Greater Detail
The "big picture" on HyperStudio is best described in these three points:
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1.There are a small number of basic building blocks and basic skills needed to create things, which in turn actually yield the widest range of possible project styles. (Think of the power of LEGO and DNA)
Four basic objects on a background where you can paint:
and every object is made interactive with the same set of steps each time: simply clicking on the desired options in the Inspector.
The Inspector is quickly and easily learned as a primary skill in the HyperStudio environment, and from then on, most everything can be made with the four basic objects, all set up with the Inspector.
2. HyperStudio offers ultra-fast efficiency to get the most out of the 20-30 minutes of useful class time. This is accomplished through a very wide support for drag-and-drop that often can allow up to 80% of the project creation work to be done without using menus.
The above illustration shows how images, movies, sounds, URL bookmarks, Google Earth placemarks, and even connections to other cards can be instantly added with drag-and-drop.
The result? Students now have greater access to a wide range of different media and creation skills and can create more in every school year than would otherwise be possible.
I like immediate gratification: Show me something in action now!
If you would like to see a video introduction to HyperStudio right now without reading further, just click here. Otherwise, continue reading, and click on “Introductory Videos” at the top of this page any time you’d like.
Who Else is Using HyperStudio and How?
If HyperStudio can be used in a lot of different ways. Click here to see how different groups of people are using HyperStudio.
HyperStudio: A Great Way to Get Started - In Just 3 Steps
Click here to see just how easy it is to make movies, interactive games, Google Earth/Map tours, and more.
