Apple Teacher Institute 2006

I have just got back from ATI 2006. This years event was hosted at Malvern College. A grand old private school situated at the foot of the Malvern Hills.

This year, I was attending ATI more to observe than participate. Having used iLife for the last 3 years now I thought that I would sign up for the tutorials that might provide ideas for me to inspire teachers to use more digital media.

The workshops I took were.

• Old and New - Intermediate Video editing
• Podcasting
• ComicLife and imovie
• Modern foreign Languages and ilife.

Old & New

We were given a brief to produce a montage of Old and New....I chose to use still photography instead of film. In most cases I tried to use a photograph that contained both old and new, it wasn't alwatys possible though. In some shots, the new follows the old.

Then for the soundtrack, I used a garageband loop for the guitar and sang the vocals.

Phils - old and new montage



Podcasting

I thought that it would be worth going on the Podcasting workshop to just see if there was anything I had overlooked regarding the way I create, edit and produce my podcasts. Whilst I didn't learn anything technical, I did see the benefits of enhanced podcasts, using video and images.

By using the Garageband 3, you can now add images to your Podcasts, and control them to change as the audio content changes.

Or you can create video content in iMovie and SHARE it garageband as a podcast.

Furthermore, you can now export from any ilife package straight to the new program iWeb, which will create web pages for you complete with RSS Feed. The only drawback with this that it's designed to work with a .MAC account. Although you can save to a folder on your hard drive if you don't have a .MAC account.

DOT MAC accounts are cool, 2 gb of storage loads of useful templates and assistance all for £80 per year. Your school needs to get one!!

See the short podcast we made...30 second ad vert for a green car.


Comic Life

from Plasq.com lets you create comics without being able to draw like a pro artist!!
It allows students to lay out the page how they like with a selection of cool templates.

Import your photos from iPhoto, and simply drag and drop them into place. The program had a wide variety of speech bubbles, thought clouds and captions and titles to customise your comic.

Once your comic is done you can print them out or export it to other formats...Brilliant!!
I have heard that it will now be included in all future versions of iLife.

See my example: Bullies Busted

Modern Foreign Languages and iLife

Language teachers can now use the iLife suite to augment the way they teach their subject.
There are a whole host of uses for imovie..such as filming scenarios that might happen in a foreign country. Or, why not create a video penpals video? Students can tell members of a foreign school all about themselves , their town and school whilst giving them a tour.

This would allow students topracticee their language skills as well as forge a strong link with a foreign school. This exercise enhances collaborative skills whilst providing roles for all students who have a sense of ownership in the project.

Some other projects you can create are:

• Word lists made in iweb, which when clicked play the sound of the word.
• This would be easily accessible from home or school and would make a great revision resource.
  
  You can enhance this idea by recording the word in e.g:FRENCH, and then asking the students to construct sentences around the word.
  
  
• You could also compare language, words and customs by filming similar scenarios from different countries and comparing the differences/similarities
  
  
• Create "pause and complete" videos.Wheree you film half a scenario e.g: man booking tickets. Then get the students to write down/think of possible responses.
  
  
• Still image games- name the image
• Record video off theT.V, and strip out the dialogue - add any language to it
• Use iLife to create games and stories which can be re-used again and again.

AT& T text to speech website is a useful resource for students to practise their spelling of foreign words.

Simply add your text and then choose the language .Thecomputer synthesizes speech in the chosen language so your students can practise their written work with instant response.

AT& T - Text to speech synthesis

I will be adding some examples of the resources you can create very soon.