Magical Movie Creation

The Year 5 class teacher and I have discussed some ideas for using iMovie with her class. 

The ideas discussed are as follows:

Teachers could record student work and performances as a visual record which could be used to track student progress, for self-reflection and possibly peer feedback. Peer feedback can be daunting for upper primary students so this may not be appropriate.

Students could use iMovie to communicate ideas, present interviews, present a point of view, present creative writing projects with visuals, such as props, and music. Some projects would allow students to take on varied roles dependent on individual interests and talents e.g. writing, acting, filming, directing, music and visual creation, etc.

Students could tell personal stories and turn them into digital stories using pictures and images from their classroom and their lives.

Students could present a visual procedure of an experiment, cooking activity, craft creation, etc., by sequencing photographs or videos of the stages with narration and/or text included.

Students could create a pictorial record of excursions, sporting events, guest speakers by videoing or photographing the activity use the iPads, followed by using iMovie app features to edit, narrate and present a pictorial project on the specific event to the class, parents, school community, etc.

Students could create an animated movie by using Puppet Pals 2 app to create numerous scenes and then edit the scenes into a movie. They could include narration, sound effects and music. This type of project would be one where students might feel more comfortable about peer feedback because it would be their image on the screen but a character that they were presenting.

The limitations and issues that are of concern are the availability of iPads for the length of time needed to create the iMovie. The iPads at our school are currently few and are located in a central area for borrowing by the school. They are borrowed for lessons or a day and must be returned at the end of the lesson or each day. Additionally, it isn’t possible to ensure that your class receives the same iPads as the previous day making sequencing of stages of making an iMovie extremely challenging. A teacher has recently been given responsibility for monitoring the iPads so we will endeavour to find ways to address these concerns with her.  

The time factor to up skill students in the use of the iPad apps is difficult to balance against all the educational requirements. Very few of our students have access to iPads at home so most require support to learn to use the apps.  We are training small groups of students in the use of specific apps so they can mentor peers in their class. We are hoping that this process will gradually up skill students in the class. Eventually, this class of mentors may be able to assist in training students in other classes.