iMovie - iPad vs. Mac

After using both the iOS and OS X versions of iMovie, it is interesting to see the comparisons that one can make. After all, they both produce the same output, and can be used to accomplish the same assignment or professional task that is required. So why use one over the other? As a novice, I would suggest several factors that could be considered:

Outside Audio and Video Options
The iPad app offers you a no frills experience for your films. There are set sound affects and music options, so unless you want to get creative and start e-mailing yourself files or recording your own stuff, you are stuck with the generic though varied choices that Apple offers. (This is especially true if you are dealing with an iPad Cart as opposed to every student having their own device). So, if your task involves complexity in terms of outside music, you may want to use the computer. Video is the same - cumbersome to import, especially if you are just using a classroom set.
On the Mac, you can more easily import your own music and sounds, via your own iTunes library or internet sources. This allows for much more choice more easily in the kinds of sounds that you want to incorporate into your iMovie.
As far as recording your own voice and video, both devices can do this easily. However, depending upon the kind of computer you have you might have a problem - what if you are in a desktop Mac lab, and everyone wants to record at the same time? Or what if your video involves movement outside of range of the computer. You could use student mobile devices and import the audio later on. This is where using the iOS app could be useful. Students can record their own voice into the iPad, wherever the iPad might be, and insert it into the movie.

Complexity vs. Simplicity
The computer based version allows for a number of additional features that are not part of the iPad version. This can have some advantages, especially from a cinematic or artistic point of view. However, if students get too caught up in the "bells and whistles", then the content of the iMovie could be compromised. So this could actually be an advantage of the "limited" features and difficulty in importing outside sources on the iPad - students can be more focused on whatever content you want them to focus on when constructing their iMovie.

Shared or Individual Devices
If students are sharing devices, whether desktops or iPads, there is a bit more difficulty in saving movies and making sure that they are secure. Shared devices leave open the possibility that files could get deleted or edited by someone else. This is especially true on the iPad. One student did accidentally delete another student's work in my class earlier this year. On a Mac, flashdrives or cloud storage can be an option for storing iMovie files on a shared computer. Individual devices solve these problems.

These are just some initial thoughts on using iMovie in the classroom. I look forward to learning more next year and by reading other blogs and articles.

Using iMovie to Time Travel

Well, maybe you can't time travel, but as educators, we can bring students together who took our courses at different times. I am using iMovie this semester to do just that!

I teach AP US History, which is being reorganized by the College Board around several different themes for the next academic year. I will inevitably have to introduce these new themes to my students next year. The content is the same, but the categorization and organization is different so I thought, why don't I just let my very bright and capable students from this year make sense of and introduce these themes to my students from next year? Sounds like a logistical nightmare - parent permission forms, getting them out of their new classes, dealing with summer brain drain and forgetfulness - unless you involve some clever technology!

This task was facilitated by the presence of iPads in my classroom this semester - isn't being in a 1:1 classroom great! I gave my students a copy of the new curriculum, and assigned each group one of the themes outlined in the curriculum. My students made iMovies summarizing their assigned theme. They introduced the major concepts in the theme, and then found different examples that they could think of to explain the progression of this theme that they learned during the duration of their course. They then added visuals, pictures, videos, and voice narration to bring their explanation to life. By the time they are done, I will play the videos for their classmates - both this year's and next year's. This way, I can have my students from this year talk to next year's students without any organizational. 

Besides connecting two different years of students, this also benefit may current students. This gives my current students the additional skill of taking a body of information that they are familiar with and use their higher level thinking skills to reorganize it. This also allows them to utilize a technology tool, iMovie, that is novel to many of them, as well as producing work for a more authentic audience beyond the scope of their current classmates. 

Using Google Drive as a Basic Wiki

As a longtime user of Moodle's Wiki function, I was reluctant to separate myself from that tool, even given the excitement that I has over the adoption of Google Apps for Education by my district this year. Furthermore, one of my primary uses of a wiki is to review for semester exams, and even to have the students write questions I could use for the final exam (as well as answers with explanations) so given the importance of this function, I was hesitant. After much success with Drive in daily classroom activities, I decided to do it. I found that while Google Drive is NOT a wiki, it can serve many of the same basic functions as a simple wiki can. Here is what I learned and can pass along:

-Like a regular wiki, there should be a common naming convention adopted for each student page. This will make the pages easier to find and sort. You can even create pages for your students via the Doctapus script, or an integrated LMS.
-Creating a folder/folders that mirrors your expectations for access are important. Can everyone edit everyone else's pages? Then adjust everyone's access to the folder to edit. Do you just want to create pages that all students can view, but only a few can edit? Create a view only folder for your class, then have students add their own work to it. They will remain editors, while their classmates can be viewers (and comment makers, if you'd like).
-You can also allow for peer editing if students are working on their own by having students temporarily share editing privileges with someone else. This is great for students who are finished in a hurry, students who need some extra peer support, as well as a covert way of encouraging students to review the work of their peers.

Overall, I would say that Google Docs served the same function as the Moodle Wiki - work was peer edited and shared, available for all my students too see, providing an authentic and important audience for their work - their own peers immediately prior to an important exam.

Possible improvements:
-I would like to utilize Google Sites to better organize my pages in the future.
-I also would like to develop a better system of peer proofreading, but final exam times often lead to deadline issues. Let me know if you have any other advice for using Drive for this purpose!
-I found it easier to organize if students gave "ownership" of their page to me, but in the future, I might leave the ownership to them, and help them understand the nature of using folders to share documents.