Hi there!
I was researching for different ICT resources to use in the classroom. What I found was a cool app for Iphone called iMovie. Something you have to consider by using this resource is that schools don’t have a lot of money to use and that could be an issue, and I also understand that there is a variety of opinions about using or not using phones in school. But what I thought was that many kids already carry their phones around on a daily basis, why not use them in the classroom? I believe that we educators can show our pupils how to use their phones to learn and by that let them connect to the real world. If we don’t, they are going to look for learning experience elsewhere that they can relate to.
How the resource can be used by teachers:
Teachers can use this iMovie resource for story telling or to show pictures or movies to start a theme. If I was using iMovie I would want a smartboard or another type of media board where I could show the presentation for the pupils. I would like to use the iMovie app for different kind of subjects and presentations. It could be used for making portraits, reportages, new programs, interviews or other kind of tasks were the pupils can communicate.
How the resource can be used by pupils:
The pupils could by themselves or in groups record their own movies and then show it to the class. One task could be that there is some groups that make different movies about their school. The pupils could interview their head master, the cooking staff, the teachers and other students and then they could show it to each other in the classroom and talking about the experience. I think this kind of task could be a good way for the pupils to show what they learned about interview techniques.
What the recourse is:
iMovie is an app where you easy can make your own movie. The teacher needs to show how it works and explain what the task is. Then the pupils need to make some preparation work before using iMovie, planning the content and filming.
This is how it works (brief explanation):
1. Open the app and then press + to open and start a new film project.
2. Insert the video from the library by pressing one of the icons.
3. Here you can change the settings, take away sounds and putting in other sounds. You can also change the theme here.
4. Transition preferences
6. You can record your own voice and use it as a voice over.
7. You can also use pictures in the iMovie.
After you done all this, you can easily post it on to youtube or another type of media. Then the pupils can show their movie to their classmates as a presentation or in parents meeting .
By: Sofie Sturesson
(The picture is taken from http://iktskafferi.blogspot.com)
I really liked your idea about using this kind of ICT resource in class. I think it’s a great way to increase your students creativity and I think they would love working like this. By letting their smartphones function as a tool in their schoolwork rather than just forbid them shows them that learning can occur from various resources. Also I think we should aim for using different teaching styles, which you really do if you use both computers, books, phones etc. in the daily schoolwork.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, they will learn about for example interviewing if they make an imovie about their school and interviewing people who works there. While reading your proposal about this I had an idea about how to expand this task. You could collaborate with another school (in Sweden or even in another country), where you share your imovie work with each other and compare your schools with differences and similarities.
I’ve used imovie my self (on my computer) and I liked working with it. It took me a while before I got going though and it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped from the start. But to be honest I don’t know if it’s simpler to use on a phone than on the computer. One thing that definitely makes it easier by working with imovie on your phone is that you already have a video camera built in the phone, so you don’t have to upload videos to the computer from a camera.
Because of the fact that it is not super easy to work with it’s important to instruct your students carefully before they start working with the program, like you said. Maybe you could do a movie together in class before they start doing one by themselves.
Besides the fact that I loved this idea there is one drawback about using this ICT resource in school. We cannot expect every student to have a smartphone available. Even if some of the students have a smartphone they might not be allowed to use their phone for this kind of purpose. I also think it feels a bit excluding for the children who don’t have smartphones to work with this kind of tool in school. Sure they can work in groups with another person who has this type of phone, but it still feels like you put pressure on these students and their parents to buy this quite expensive tool.
I think this idea will work fine in 10 years or so when everyone probably will have a smartphone, but until then we might want to stick with the equipment that the school offers (which unfortunately often not feels enough). Instead you could work with an alternative to imovie that you could use on pc computers, which you more likely have access to in school.
/Nina Jillefors