PE1_iMovie

Aside from providing me with an opportunity to learn “cutting edge” technology that I can integrate into my educational curriculum to enhance the learning experience for my students, one of my greatest gifts of enrolling in the Educational Media Design and Technology program at Full Sail University was the ownership of my very first Apple laptop, MacBook Pro. Yes, you heard me correctly! I’m in the process of developing a strong and loving partnership with my new mate. Initially, I felt overwhelmed because I do not consider myself to be “tech savvy” nor did I have prior experience using a Mac. Hence, my first iMovie video assignment that consisted of less than 60 seconds of video, took me hours to complete. Through trial and error and discovery, my video quality has slightly improved.

One of my ETC assignments this week was a practical learning experience with iMovie ’11 Essential Training with Garrick Chow through Lynda.com. Lynda.com is basically an online library that offers software trainings and tutorial videos. 

To access Chow's online training, I used the search box feature on the home page.

Here is where my valuable practical learning experience began:

Almost immediately upon my start of viewing the iMovie Essential Training with Garrick Chow, two thoughts flashed through my mind. One being, I wish I had participated in this online training prior to my first assignment that required me to use iMovie and two being, my videos are evidence of why this training is essential.

Some of you may chuckle, but I'm being honest. I may or may not be alone on this, but my learning literally began on Chapter 1: Getting Started. 

Until I started the EMDT program, iMovie was completely foreign to me so I really had no idea what version I had. However, I easily followed the direction of Garrick Chow and soon discovered I had the 9.0 version. 

Although Chapter 2: Importing Video was also very informative, I want to focus more so on Chapter 3: Understanding the Interface. Again, some of you may chuckle, but I really wish I had the opportunity to participate in this training at the beginning of this program. In doing so, I could have saved a tremendous amount of time trying to figure out the basics and more time on perfecting my videos. I learned so much by watching this section.

For instance: I now understand the difference between the Project and Event Library and the panes associated with each. As well as how to properly use the Event Library to organize my videos rather than completely deleting all of my work when starting a new project to avoid confusion and frustration. In addition, I'm thrilled to learn that I can actually retrieve the projects I have previously trashed. Lastly, learning the different items in the tool bar and their functions is going to be extremely useful when creating future projects. Such as, rating clips, voice over, cropping, adding a selected clip without dragging, muting audio, adding titles, transitions and backgrounds. Although I have used some of these features in previous projects, I now have a better understanding of the implementation process and definitely feel more confident in utilizing the functions to their full potential.