Digital movies take student presentations to new levels of creativity

This week I had my first experience working with movie making software. I used iMovie, which was not the easiest to figure out, but in the end I was convinced that it would be a useful tool for classroom use.


With iMovie, you can time narration to moving photographs, which makes still photos more interesting and provides a presentation format that works for visual and audio-based learners. Adding a soundtrack further enhances the message of the presentation, and makes the movie seem more like a real documentary.


I also experimented with the web-based GoAnimate animation maker. After simply signing up, I was able to access ready-made animated characters and settings. The site also lets you create your own characters, and admittedly I spent over an hour dressing and trying different hairdos for the animated me.


The wide variety of options for character and scene development might pose a time-management issue for classroom use, as it is easy to be distracted by all the different possibilities. However, since GoAnimate is web-based, students can access it from any computer. Students could work on choosing their characters and backdrops as homework outside of school, and then could focus on putting the project together in the school computer lab. This would make the homework portion fun, and would still allow the real work to be done at school where the teacher could offer technical and academic assistance.


Despite the difficulties I had with iMovie, I ultimately enjoyed creating something from old photos I had scanned. This activity really inspired me to think about the creative presentations I could create for my students, and the projects they could create themselves with this application. Having students create their own digital movies will allow them to incorporate their creativity, their own learning style, and fun into their schoolwork.