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The Negative Thing about Mac Software

I wanted to reiterate the difficulty and inconvenience I experienced trying to use iMovie. I wanted to make corrections to my iMovie, yet I could not because I do not own a mac. After publishing my movie, I rushed to my next class. Later I viewed it, and the music is not continuous. I had no way to go and correct it because it was Thanksgiving break, and I had classes until 4:30. I know I will get points taken off, and yet I literally have no way to correct it unless I use the fifteen minutes between class change since there is a class before ours and I have another class following this one.

iMovie

Making this movie was semi-challenging. After inserting the music, iMovie decided not to play the music. I had to take it out and insert the music again. Also, iMovie altered the font style from slide to slide even though I had selected "Chalkboard" for all of the slides. Inserting the pictures was very easy especially since we had already placed all of the pictures in a folder. I plan on using iMovie by creating videos about current areas of study and by creating videos of the children in the classroom involving different activities. Next time, I will just use the music provided in iMovie rather than searching the web for hours looking for music.

Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Animoto may have been the easiest tool to use for me. It was extremely easy to insert pictures and it already had set templates to use. I was able to decide on my choice of music and then my movie was made! This is an extremely easy and fast way to make a video for class on any given topic. I would not change a thing about the process I used this first time around. Everything went smoothly, and I enjoyed using it.

Matter Interactive Spreadsheet

Making an interactive spreadsheet proved to be quite difficult. At first, I thought it would be easy, yet trying to complete the spreadsheet on my laptop which is not a mac was impossible. It was also difficult to make a new worksheet once I had already created one. Hopefully with much more practice, I will be able to successfully make these spreadsheets. No matter how difficult, these will be extremely helpful in the classroom. They make for a great study tool for students or even as a quiz.

Interactive Spreadsheet

Matter Map

The concept map was tedious for me. Everything went well while I was creating it, yet I was not that happy with the finished product. While teaching in other schools, I have come to realize that most teachers engage the children in making concept maps. They let them draw and write the concept map as a class. That is probably what I would do differently next time. I would shift the focus away from the teacher doing all the work to the children do the work. Through this approach the children are actively learning. This is a great way to teach children new information and how it is all connected. I would definitely consider making one of these maps based on the children's maps as a take home study tool. But in the actual classroom, we would study the children's map.