Journal 10
Software review: Inspiration and iMovie

Inspiration

What is it?

Inspiration is a visual learning software that is useful to both students and teachers. It can be used for brainstorming and understanding how ideas are connected to each other. It allows for data and ideas to be connected with graphics and other visual aids for a better grasp of subject matter.

Review

I was a little bit bummed to find that Inspiration was not quite as fun and easy to use as Kidspiration. Since so many people did a project with Kidspiration, I thought I should take on the responsibility of exploration of Inspiration. I feel that what I came up with wasn’t quite as colorful and creative as the Kidspiration projects. The program does however have some great uses.

Use for teachers

Teachers can definitely use this in the classroom setting for brainstorming purposes. Perhaps the whole class can brainstorm together and as ideas are generated, the teacher or a student can fill them in. This is much better than brainstorming using a chalkboard because the teacher can email a copy of the brainstorming to all of the students. That way nobody misses out for not being able to write notes quickly enough in class. I also like the idea that I was able to put in pictures to match my ideas. For visual learners this might aid in retention of ideas generated during the brainstorming.

Software Tutorial

This was the first time I have ever used an Atomic Learning or any other tutorial. I usually just mess around with a program until I figure it out on my own. I use the “Help” option that is often offered and typically get the answer that I need. If I still can’t find the answer to my question, I ask somebody who knows. The drawback of this approach is that I am quite limited in the number of things I will be able to discover about the program because I will be looking for particular tools the software offers. I may not know enough about what the software offers to know to look for other things. What I liked about Atomic Learning is that it spoke to the visual learner in me- it was helpful to see how things were done… my brain processed the information faster. I have already used Atomic Learning for help with my iMovie endeavors! What a great discovery this is!

iMovie

What is it?

Imovie is a video editing software developed and released for use by Macintosh users. The program allows users to import videos and edit them by cutting bits of the video and moving them around, adding transitions (fade in and fade out) between scenes and adding music to the video among other options.

Review

When I first started using the imovie application I was a bit frustrated. Luckily I had my instructor close by so that he could help me figure it out. If I had not had my instructor around, I think I would have had to use an Atomic Learning tutorial to really make any progress in using it. Messing around with stuff just wouldn’t have been enough. The program had a few quirks, for example, if your cursor was on a certain place in the window- certain options would not be available when they usually would be. It took a while to figure out how to deal with those few things that had brought me frustration but once I got the hang of it- I loved imovie and the potential it brings for learning in the classroom.

Use for teachers

I checked out the Web 2.0 website for ideas for uses of imovie in the classroom but was disappointed when I didn’t find anything on it. I think imovie will serve as a great format for presentations. Students will be able to research a topic and download videos from the internet and edit the videos for more pertinent information, add in their own thoughts and put it to their favorite music. I think the kids would get a kick out of it and would probably find the research aspect of a video presentation a lot more interesting than gathering information in books and relaying that information via a powerpoint presentation. We all KNOW the hell of a boring powerpoint presentation! Copyright issues will of course have to be discussed and may put limits on the work of the students. If we are lucky, perhaps the classroom will have access to its own digital camera’s and the students can create completely original works- from recording it, to editing and finally presenting it.