Kate Thompson

Authoring & Multimedia

This week our presenters introduced us to the variety of multimedia available for us to use as teachers. Our task was to use ‘iMovie’  to create a procedure about brushing our teeth. ’iMovie’ is a video editing software application that allows Mac users to edit their own home movies. We used the software to demonstrate how it could be used in the classroom to teach about text types. We started off by using the image search engines ‘google’ and ‘flickr’ to find different images and animations to use in our iMovie. One thing that I discovered was that it took a long time to find suitable images and animations, as I had to choose specific ones for my procedure. I realised that the most effective way for us as teachers, to get around this would be to build up a categorised image library of our own. We can use this image as a resource in our classrooms. This way we will always have appropriate, easy to access images on hand which the students can use in their tasks. So my advise is, whenever you come across an image that you like, save it immediately to your USB and start building up your resources.

 I found using ‘iMovie’ quite daunting, simply due to the fact that I had not used it before and the whole program seemed overwhelming with the amount of options and functions available. It soon became evident however, that it is all a matter of practice and having patience. I guess one workshop is not enough time to really come to terms with but as the presenters pointed out, this would be a project that you would carry out over a whole term with your students.

Before you get worked up about new terms that you are unfamiliar with, like I did, ‘authoring’ simply put, is the programs that allow you to create and design, such as ‘iWeb.’ I lved the fact that once all of our images were found, we were able to edit our ‘movie’ to suit our purpose. We added titles and music, and used enhancement tools and transitions such as fade in and fade out.

• The presenters created a wonderful website that details how and why teachers should use multimedia in the classroom and provides explicit instructions on how to use ‘iMovie’. Here is the link to their website. Multimedia in the Classroom: Engaging Students