Sora, the OpenAi's video creation tool, was available for Chatgpt Plus subscribers in December 2024. Since then, I have ventured into the tool with a view to seeing how you can influence my teaching and my education in general.
After generating several videos and experimenting with different configurations, my impression is that, although it is fun to play with Sora, it is too expensive for serious use in education and still has some frustrating inconveniences.
Here is a closer look at how Sora works, what I liked and what I did not like, and how I could, at least theoretically, use for teaching.
What is Sora?
Sora is the OpenAI videos creation tool. As expected, creating videos through Sora is similar to using OpenAi chatgpt. Enter a video message that describes how you want your scene to see. For example, in a message I wrote:
“A warrior with a sword walks through a vast valley that looks like the highlands of Scotland. We approach his face while looking forward with surprise and worry and then grabs his sword and downside ready to fight..
Then you have the option to choose the desired resolution for the video and the style you want. You can also make you generate multiple versions from the same message so you can choose which video you like best.
The video that Sora generated for me (see below) was impressive on the one hand, but it was also far from the videos Openai shared in her previous view of Sora. The warrior in my video grabbed his sword with his hand and the predetermined value was black and white, which made him seem almost cartoon.
Change it worsened, as you can see below.
Other users obtain much more attractive videos with more elaborate indications and using a tool available in the application called Storyboard. However, I discovered that Sora had a more pronounced learning curve than I expected and obtaining quality videos required more time than she was willing to dedicate to the tool.
How much does Sora cost?
Chatgpt Plus costs $ 20 per month and provides users with the possibility of creating short videos in Sora with 1000 credits. The amount of credits that each video requires varies according to the duration, resolution and other configurations you choose, but my average was about 50 loans per video, which would limit me to about 20 videos per month.
This price is obviously a restrictive factor for the use of Sora in most school environments.
Sora teaching potential
From the point of view of pure capacity, Sora is impressive. I still find it difficult to understand how a computer program is able to create such rich and fast videos.
In theory, if Sora cost less and work a little better, there would be some good educational uses. I teach writing and I think it would be fun to give a creative writing guideline to the class and make the students enter part of that pattern in Sora to see what it generated; However, given the credit limits, that would be difficult to do with more than a few students.
The most realistic uses for an educator would be previously generating a video related to various lessons and educational topics. Maybe you would create a video of planets orbiting around the sun and you would discuss what Sora does well and what not. Educators could also use videos to illustrate several terms and improve slide presentations.
Disadvantages of Sora
For an important actor in the ai space, Openai's websites still seem quite clumsy and as if they were still in beta test. This is fine when you use free tools, but it is frustrating when you pay for access.
He had also previously initiated and detained a subscription to Chatgpt Plus and it was confusing to restart that subscription. In addition, several starting pages of OpenAi tools take long to load. Several times, I entered a message for Sora just to receive a message to try again later.
Again, because I am paying for this tool, these minor but frequent errors sent me completely “I would like to talk to a supervisor.” Even when the website worked correctly, I was not impressed by the videos I generated. With Sora.
I am sure that better indications would create better videos, but personally I am not willing to dedicate the necessary time to learn how to indicate to Sora. As a result, even if I worked in a school where the budget was not a factor, I am not sure that Sora was something that would use frequently.
Conclusion: Is Sora useful for teachers?
In its current form and with its current price, Sora is not a realistic teaching option. I am sure that some technology expert teachers will have fun playing with her. At first I did it, but then I frustrated the interface and the videos I was generating.
However, for me and for the vast majority of educators, this simply does not seem to be ready for the highest audience in education. At the moment, there are many other ai tools that I find more interesting and useful.
Ultimately, the experience of using Sora can change and will probably change as technology improves, so I do not rule it forever and I will be attentive.
