Journal 6

Review of Inspiration and IMovie

1. How I liked the program.

Inspiration is a fairly easy program to use without any prior knowledge. I know the possibilities are greater than what I created with the program but what I was able to accomplish I feel an elementary age student and above could also do the same. The images they offered were more youthful than I would have liked, however; there were quite a few choices and it was very convenient. I think students would enjoy brainstorming and linking ideas in this way. It's more interesting than just doing it on paper plus they are learning how to use technology.

IMovie is a great tool for editing small projects. I love that it links up with the other apple programs, so for example I was able to purchase a song from itunes and easily import it into my audio track for imovie. There is a lot involved with editing and it was challenging figuring out a lot of the features, particularly how to cut shorten audio, transitions and timing. However, I have worked with cool edit pro for sound editing and this program was a lot easier and less frustrating. I think students would really appreciate learning about this program. It may be tedious at times but they can create something unique that gives them a voice.

2. How I could incorporate this software in my classroom.

Inspiration: I think this could be a fun activity to begin any project or writing assignment to show how beneficial it is to brainstorm. I think finding an image to represent their ideas helps them to further define and contemplate what they are trying to get across.

IMovie: Since most high school have cell phones I would have the students use their phones to take pictures and record things that were important in their lives which they would download into IMovie. They would also choose a song for their audio track. The final project would be a 3 minute edited video which would be shown to the whole class.

3. How I liked learning via Atomic Learning.

I did not use Atomic Learning for Inspiration as I had forgotten about it. I had not worked on it in class but I had been watching 2 of my classmates and listened when they asked questions. From that and some notes I was able to figure out what I needed to do. Of course, I had to play around with the program to get the desired effects. I wish I knew how to create nicer arrows that went from the images to the bubbled ideas so it looked more professional. In which I should go back and look at some of the Atomic Learning tutorials.

I definitely needed the Atomic Learning (AL) tutorials for IMovie beside watching Jeffery's video again. Unfortunately, I didn't know which IMovie version I had at first so when I chose AL there were about 6 different ones to choose from. I watched the newest version first, which didn't help me and when I found the correct one there was an extra feature in their HD version. I liked how the tutorials were broken down into small topics. They were quick and easy to follow. However, I would have liked for them to be a little more in depth and cover more of the features such as how to cut out music from the audio track or sound on the clip, how to make the timing work with transitions or keeping the title on the clip until the end of the clip. It would have been nice to have "common mistakes" tutorials. Overall AL lessened my aggravation with not knowing what the heck to do.