This weeks assignment, creating an iMovie was challenging. I didn’t explore many of the resources you provided because the past few technology classes I have taken, I have done a bunch of exploring and really wanted to use the majority of my time towards the actual project. Creating a movie is at times frustrating and time consuming. I found myself going through several steps in the process. The first is brainstorming.
I knew I wanted to create a movie based on a project in my ecology class. We have been doing project based learning and I wanted to document our process and results to share with others. Most of my previous movies have been with still photographs, so for this project, I really wanted to use video, and in particular interview my students. I created a list of individual questions for each student and informed them last class that they were going to be interviewed. They were mostly good sports about it. I had one student film, while the student and I sat beside each other to do the interview. We had to do several takes with some students as they were a bit shy or goofy. I managed to interview all students in an entire class period which was surprising. After I had all of the video, I had to watch it several times to look for themes that were consistent throughout the interviews. I also didn’t know how to organize the video. (This is the step that I find my students really struggle with. I usually sit down with them at this point and walk through ideas with them because they are ready to give up at this point). I watched the student interviews a few times before deciding on a format. Each student had some piece of the interview that really stood out. I took that piece and used it as a quote to introduce the student interview. I also cut out a great deal of the interview for each student. Next I had to decide on how to introduce and end the video. I went with text boxes versus narrating because I really wanted it to be about my students. I used some data and photographs we had compiled over the past month.
I was pleased with the final result and liked how the student interviews came together to connect the whole piece. I may add music to the end and beginning but haven’t quite decided yet. I am going to get feedback from my students next class. There were some challenges with iMovie on the iPad that I still need to explore. Transitions and using sound effects were frustrating. There was a sound effect for each transition slide that I couldn’t figure out how to erase and I found it distracting. In the end, this project is a good lead into the culture unit I am about to begin with my freshman. Now that the struggles and joys are fresh in my mind, I can share them with my students first hand.
Your first hand experience will benefit students as they work at video production. The organizational steps are tough because they are so important; a clear message doesn't happen by accident, as you know. As teachers learn that process is as important as product with projects like this, more will be willing to let students use their creativity in displaying their learning through video.
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