iMovie

Last week (November 19) we worked on a project called iMovie, or digital storytelling. In iMovie, users have the ability to create a movie using pictures, text, transitions, and sounds. I compared it to a PowerPoint show, but just in a different format. We had the opportunity to watch many videos that had been made to get a general idea of how to create our movie. I decided to do an instructional video for an imaginary drivers education course. In this video, I highlighted how to prepare to drive your vehicle outlining the important first steps in driving a car.

There are not many functions on the iMovie which make the preview and create page difficult. There are slots where users drag and drop pictures to begin the project. After doing this, users can add text, sounds, backgrounds and more to their pictures. I have found that there are not many choices in formatting of text, and it is also very complicated to place text in the right spots and ensuring that the text will last in the movie for the right amount of time. If I had problems with this I anticipate young children to have problems with this as well. The overall concept of creating an iMovie or a digital storytelling device is innovative and with some adjustments made it could be a great tool.

I would anticipate making iMovies for my children in my future classroom. I would not necessarily expect the children to make their own iMovie since I will be teaching in an early childhood classroom. Some of the features are hard to create and utilize and I believe there should be some updates to make the tool more user-friendly for children.