Student Choice - Book Trailers

In a classroom of iPads and netbooks, I have a great deal of choice.  My students, therefore, also have choices when it comes to creating projects.  Personally, I prefer iPad apps to complete my projects.  My students, however, sometimes pick what they're most comfortable with or have the most experience with when creating projects.

My last assignment was to create a book trailer for their lit circle novel.  Students could choose from iMovie, Keynote, PowerPoint, Windows Movie Maker, and Photostory.  Students who chose iMovie were limited in their choice of music because they could not access their own iTunes accounts.  Wouldn't it be great (if we go 1:1 with iPads) if students could access their own music for presentations?  They could take so much more ownership in their projects.

One drawback to using Keynote is that students were not able to put music or sound into their presentations.  After doing a little research on the topic, it seems Keynote presentations can have sound, but the steps are rather laborious.  If anyone knows of an easy way to accomplish this task, PLEASE let me know!

The students who used PowerPoint for their project were comfortable with certain tasks, but many were clueless when it came time to animate the slides so it was a continuous show.  I wasn't able to replicate myself throughout the classroom, so students taught each other how to animate.  I highly recommend this model if you're not doing it already.

Here is my all-time favorite book trailer.  It was made with PowerPoint, but this student effectively used transitions and music to convey the emotions and conflict in the novel.

I'm looking forward to the day when students have their iPad to work on projects at home, but until then, offering choices and empowering students need to be at the forefront of any assignment.

What I Wish I Would Have Known... Part 3

This is the third post in a series of posts dedicated to the challenges and solutions of an iPad model classroom.  This post focuses on the use of iMovie in an instructional setting.

Part 3:  iMovie

Completing book trailers and other digital movies takes time.  In the past, students used Photostory or Windows Movie Maker for these types of assignments.  I ran into a great deal of difficulty with these projects.  Students could not easily transfer their work from home to their netbook here at school.  It required much more than just a flashdrive; students needed to also save their images in source files on each computer.  Students had to restart or replace lost images.  When dealing with audio, students were in an endless cycle of recording and re-recording, only to find that this feature on their netbook was simply broken.  I was sending students, two or three at a time, daily to the tech office for assistance.  It made me shy away from assignments and assessments based on digital applications.

Enter: iMovie

From day one using iMovie, I was hooked.  It is extremely easy to learn the app just by playing around for a few minutes.  There are two options when creating a movie in iMovie: trailers and projects.  For beginners, I'd recommend using a trailer.  Trailers are set up like a template.  Music, effects, and text placement is already programmed into each trailer.  There are also a variety of themes from which to choose, ranging from "Scary" to "Bollywood."

What I Wish I Would Have Known

1) Trailer templates are extremely fixed.  This can be a great feature for students who don't know what they're doing.  However, for students who want to be more creative, this can lead to frustration.  The timing of the pictures is sometimes extremely short (less that a second), and students want viewers to see more.  An easy fix for this is to use the same picture for multiple sections of the video.

2) When putting in text, space is limited.  Large amounts of text cannot be put in.  To fix this, create a project instead of a trailer. (See #4)

3) Projects start from scratch.  Literally.  Sometimes this causes stress on students who have absolutely no idea where to start.  As with any new concept, modeling is the key.  Show examples, start creating one with the class, and don't forget to reteach along the way.  I've seen students pay attention during demonstrations of text and audio, but they only focus on one skill at a time.  They don't really pay attention until the actually utilize a different skill in the video.

4) Projects allow room for text, but the text space is limited and sometimes does not give the audience enough time to read.  To fix this, students created text boxes in other apps such as Pages, took a screen shot, edited the picture, and then inserted it into Pages.  It takes a few steps, but it's a relatively easy process.

5) Audio is limited.  Since students do not have access to iTunes, they can only choose from the preloaded music and sound effects.  This isn't a huge problem, but be prepared to hear the same theme music multiple times.  Don't penalize for lack of creativity.  Encourage other uses of audio, such as personal narration.

Would I do it Differently Next Time?

I don't think so.  I think with any project or app, it's necessary to adjust expectations, but I would absolutely allow students to create videos again.  It's a great way to have students CREATE new content rather than just spit it back at me.  Students crave the opportunity to be creative (whether they admit to it or not).

Here are a few shots of projects in progress:

* Students read a novel about a character facing adversity.  To assess their understanding, a book trailer containing a plot summary and answers to our unit's essential questions was assigned.  Enjoy!

Academic Extension: Rotation 1

** Originally posted on October 2, 2012

Our first rotation of AE is complete.  During the last eighteen school days, I've successfully (I hope) taught students the basics of an iPad.  We covered the case, photos, camera, Photo Booth, eClicker, and iMovie.  iMovie, however, was the focus of our rotation.  The students were really excited to travel around the building to take pictures and videos and then turn them in a masterpiece... sort of.  

It's time to reflect on what I need to do better during Rotation #2.  Here a brief run-down of what will change this rotation:

    * Show students videos of poor camera work.  (Enter the nausea-inducing video clip.)  I won't put you in danger by showing you what I mean, but imagine watching a video that turns you in circles and shakes like a wet dog.  I can't tell you the number of videos I could not watch because of shaky hands or unfocused shots.

    *  Give students LESS time to record and MORE time to edit.  The results of this mistake is two-fold:  1) Videos did not have much structure or purpose, and 2) Some students wandered aimlessly and did not take useful videos.

    * Start with a trailer.  I briefly went over trailers, but it would have been more beneficial to have students completely understand a trailer before moving on to a project. 

    * Save more time for sharing videos!

    * Open rotation with a different video clip!  For your viewing pleasure, I've searched for a vintage clip of Steve Jobs introducing Apple's new innovation and ad campaign.  For those of you who enjoy the writing of George Orwell, this one's for you!