Group Leadership Project

View our group leadership project here:

I had the pleasure of working with three other middle school teachers to create our group leadership project. We focused on how to use wikis as a collaborative tool in the classroom. Although our first meeting on Vyew was a bit of a calamity due to technical issues, subsequent meetings went great. Everyone contributed and worked very hard on their assigned portions of the project.

We created our storyboard and script using Google Presenter. It was a great format for us to all collaborate and communicate. Debbie recorded the script on both Screen Cast-o-matic and Audacity. To create the final project from our storyboard, I used iMovie. It was my job to edit and finalize our project. I suggested to the group that I use iMovie because of my familiarity with it. Everyone agreed that it was best to use software that I knew well for a project of this length. I think the features of iMovie are best for the tutorial format as well. I was able to add music, transitions, sound effects, edit the voice recording, edit the individual storyboard images, upload to You Tube, etc. all using iMovie.

While developing the iMovie, I learned more about the software than I previously knew. I learned how to use the precision trimmer, how to fade in and out using sounds, how to overlap sound effects with music, how to edit and insert transitions, and more. It seems that every time I use iMovie I learn something new and it is generally through trial and error (or that handy little help button). One thing I still need to figure out is how to work on effects on all images. iMovie is automatically set to Ken Burns effect on images, which often cuts off parts of the picture. I had to go through all 45 slides individually to either edit the Ken Burns effect or eliminate it. I'm sure there is an easier way to do that.

If we were to develop the same project again, I would have the script reader, Debbie, record portions of the script instead of all at once. I would have been able to play around with slide lengths and transitions more if the recording were done in different segments. However, I'm sure that, too, is something I could do on iMovie if I knew the software even better. As a group project though, I thought that this went very smoothly. Although we all have very busy lives and schedules, especially near the end of the school year, people made it a priority to meet and get their portions of the assignment done by the deadline. I think the entire group did a great job and I am very glad I got a chance to work with each of them!