Tech Visitor

When a visitor from Hong Kong visited our school, the one thing he was most interested in was how students use their iPads. Mr Clive, Head of ICT from the prestigious Kellett International School, dropped in on his way to a conference, so I gave him a quick tour. As we wandered through Primary we noticed a lot of activity in Yr5. It turned out that they were showcasing some of their learning to their parents as well as students from other year groups. Their integrated project was created almost exclusively on the iPad. Photos, video interviews (with Green Screen), Keynote presentations and much much more were combined to create incredibly rich multi-media reports. 

I was really impressed with what I saw, but our visitor was blown away by the quality of the work as well as the passion that the students displayed. Fantastic job Year 5.

Instructional texts

Year 3 always enjoy getting into instructions, but now it's even more exciting. With Chinese New Year approaching they are following instructions to make Chinese lanterns. Today they each demonstrated how to do this whilst being recorded by their partner. Now each of the steps is on video they will add a voice over to it in iMovie. 

What a great way to share their learning and reinforce the concept of concise step-by-step instructions. And at the same time they are learning a variety of technical skills from the importance of holding the camera still to adding a voice over. 

Recording a VoiceOver

There are a number of ways to record a VoiceOver into an iMovie. Recently I've seen students record directly into their iPad, using app like Quickvoice, the emailing the file to themselves to drop into their movie. I've also seen students taking MacBooks into a quiet room and recording directly into iMovie (or even using QuickTime or GarageBand). Today, Year 5 were putting a short commentary into a movie and did it directly into the iMac. They found that if you speak quietly, up close to the mic (which is directly above the camera) you can get a good quality recording, even in a room full of busy students.

Want to the best way though? Do it at home on the iPad, sitting on your bed with a blanket over your head. Great sound quality, but you do gat a bit hot!

Year 4 Animation

This week Year 4s have been trying their hands at animation. They are working on a top secret story that will be told in next week's assembly. Here's a sneak peak at what they've been up to. This scene is made up of about 400 frames and took about an hour to shoot (no sound track has been added yet). Lots of concentration, creative ideas, trial & error and patience was needed. They've only got a few more days to shoot the remaining scenes and edit them together.  Good luck Yr4!

Movie Making Club

We looked at the concept of shooting and editing for continuity today. We looked at some examples of using multiple shots to show a sequence, and the importance of accurate editing to create the illusion that it's all happening as a single event.

The challenge was to shoot a sequence of 5 shots and edit them. The end results were really good - for first timers. Here's an example...