THE LEARNING LIBRARY

My students both love and hate to make movies.  We have several different platforms within our building, including Windows desktops, iPads, and Chromebooks, each of which require different programs to create movies.  While we've been testing WeVideo for use on the Chromebooks, the two main programs that we currently use in our middle school are iMovie and Movie Maker.  Both programs have similar capabilities in terms of using still pictures, video, and audio.  They also both have their issues with ease of use.  We don't have Macs in our building, only iPads.  While iMovie is fairly intuitive and easy to use, the iPad version is missing a lot of features that would make the editing process easier. 

 

Windows Movie Maker is a very particular and glitchy program (and it doesn't help that we have two versions of the program, neither of which is the most up to date). Everything you do with Movie Maker has to be done exactly right or the movie won't work.  And, as I'm working with middle school students, nothing is ever exactly right.  This tends to lead to a lot of frustration on the part of my students, but most are able to persevere and create a project they can be proud of.    We have students use either Audacity or the voice recorder on their phones to create the audio for Movie Maker, as we've found that the audio recording option in the program itself is buggy and difficult to edit. 

 

Below are links to "cheat sheets" that we've created to help students through the process of using both programs. While I do use online video tutorials for these programs, we've found that most students also like to have step-by-step instructions that they can refer to without switching screens.  If you're using Audacity, they have a wiki of great tutorials to help students through the recording and editing process.

 

Personally, I've used both programs to create trailers for books that don't have online trailers available.  While the one below was created with Movie Maker, I use iMovie more frequently as I find it easier to use.