A Favourite Edu-App: iMovie for iPad2

One of my favourite educational apps for the iPad2 is iMovie. The iPad version of the program is pretty simple so it is easy enough to use with children without them getting too carried away with extra features, but there are enough cool things that kids can do with it to allow them to unleash their creativity.

The first time I used this app with my students was last year with my Year 4 class. They made very simple movies using still images that they took using the inbuilt camera and then recorded their own narration for the movie while they watched the images playback. It was super simple and the children really enjoyed making the movies and watching each other's movies once they were done.

On that occasion we used some of the "dress-up costumes" from the RE cupboard to re-enact the bible story "Jesus calls the first disciples". As a group we planned the storyboard and worked out which images we would need, then they posed for each scene and we took photos using the iPad camera. This meant that the photos went straight into the camera roll and appeared in the iMovie app ready to be dragged in. The students had control over the length of time that each image played so they could decide how much narration they needed for each part of the story.
One of the creative students then went on to sing her own song on another recording track so she had music as well. This is what is so great about creative apps- the children are not limited by our ideas and they can teach and inspire each other to go further than I might have imagined on my own!

This year I am getting these same students (now in Year 5) to assist my Year 2s to make short iMovies about the lifecycle of their chosen plant or animal for our science unit. I don't want to restrict the amount of information the Year 2s can tell me by having them write everything they know. I am expecting they will find talking about it easier than writing so this should give me a better indication of their knowledge of life stages.

I am also planning on using iMovie to record my students reading for my own records and assessment. I think it will be great to have a short sample of their reading from now and a few other times throughout the year so I can see how they are improving.

What apps do you use? Join my linky party to share our favourite apps.