For this reflection post, I wanted to think back on the guest lecture about iMovie. My experience in iMovie started very young with my middle-school-self’s discovery of the Movie Trailer feature on my older sister’s Macbook Air. Since then, I have loved toying around with iMovie to make compilations of little videos, memories, and school projects (whenever they were offered). However, despite my self-taught experience, I enjoyed the time in class to test out different features; in particular, I had never tried the green/blue screen effect before! I had fun putting the clips and audios together as per the instructions, then playing around to see what I could create.
Video-Making in Classrooms
Part of my last year of high school and first first year of university took place during quarantine in 2020. This meant that I saw first-hand the recent rise of online teaching. One thing I appreciated was how one of my first-year professors would post online recording lectures for us to watch, then we would use the synchronous online lecture time to discuss questions and work through problems following the introduction videos. I remember that this felt more manageable, as I could engage with the video content on my own time, then spend time in lecture asking questions rather than solely learning new content. As someone in an education role now, I can see how having a backlog of recorded video lectures on frequently taught topics could leave me more space to explore and deepen curriculum. In addition, if a student misses content, having recorded lectures allows them to catch-up when they are able.
Another format of video-making in classrooms is the student-made piece. I remember, especially in high school, having assignments focused on video creation or those with the option to make a video. I always had a fun time working on these and chose them if the option was presented. I feel that, as a student, video projects made me think of not only what the content was, but what was the best way possible to share or present it. One of my favourite projects was in Social Studies 9, where we were asked to create a YouTube-styled video about the Industrial Revolution. This made the content engaging, as my group partner and I came up with fun ways to keep the content engaging. The result was a skit, historical show, “Crash Course” combination that we had the best time filming. Since this video is quite long and contains more than just me, I won’t attach it to this post. Instead, I’ll attach a video from my Biology 10 class where we were instructed to make a “Portrait of a Protist.” For my project, I opted to create a stop-motion video, as I love stop motion and wanted to take my turn trying it out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lkK90sc7JKhzS29isEFcI30B3nVlt5a/view?usp=sharing
I’m excited to explore more ways to incorporate video making into the classroom! Both from the teacher-centred lesson creation and the student-led project type.
