Earnest - Week Seven

Well, the next to the last week of classes has arrived. My husband just remarked to me that I seemingly have done more work this semester than most, and even though that is true, I have learned so much in this educational technology course and in the inclusive classroom course that I feel it has totally been worth all my time and attention.

This week our focus was on software that we have used, or have seen used, in classrooms. I selected Read & Write GOLD and iMovie, the former being one that I had seen in use and been to a short introductory training about and the latter being one I had actually used with my multi-media class when I was actively teaching at a high school. As our assignment for the blog was to select one piece of software to talk about, I will use iMovie since I did use it in my classroom.

iMovie is a program specifically for Mac-based computers and it is a very appropriate program to use in multi-media classes. In order to get the maximum effect from iMovie, a student has to learn to use a digital camera, a camcorder, about copyrights and permission to use music, etc. Once those basic objectives are mastered, then the student can move to producing a final product utilizing all of those skills within iMovie. Of course, with any multi-media or graphic design style class, the focus is always on the end product, just as it is in the real world. With iMovie, the setup process is the most difficult since the program takes a long time to render once everything is loaded and set the way the student wants. Since the program is fairly user-friendly, it does not take students long to figure out how to load the images and the music and all that, but it does take patience while the program renders the final product. Depending on how many images and everything is loaded into the program, students may find themselves with some time on their hands and a computer that is tied up with processing. So, if I was to do this all over again, I would certainly have other projects that did not require all the computers that students could complete while the program was working on their final product. Ideally I believe I would ask for the class to be scheduled as the last class of the day so if iMovie needed more time to finish its tasks, then it could keep on working after school was out for the day!

Overall, I really enjoyed the multi-media class and I think that our final product of an end-of-year movie for the students and staff to enjoy was well worth the time and effort it took to learn the program and use it efficiently.

For more information about iMovie, go to http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/. For more information on Read & Write GOLD, go to http://www.synapseadaptive.com/texthelp/read&write_gold/read&write_gold_default.htm.

Seven weeks down - one to go! Rank I - I can see the end of the tunnel!