Tuesday 12 February 2019
In today’s session we had to create a movie on the app iMovie which was linked to internet safety. We connected our movie to Internet Safety because it is very relevant in schools today as so many children have access to the internet, in fact 73% of UK households have internet access according to (Beauchamp, 2012). There is such a vast amount of information available online that children can access quickly so it is important they know how to use the internet safely and know when they need to tell an adult.
Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in the month of February which is another reason it was appropriate to make a movie regarding internet safety. Safer Internet Day is great because it highlights the positive uses of the internet and doesn’t focus fully on the negatives. It looks at how to stay safe online and what is good about the internet. “At the heart of all our work is the belief that when used properly the internet is a wonderfully positive tool for children and young people” (Childnet International, 2019). I agree with this and think Internet is such a great place for the children to learn. It is so easy to watch an engaging informational video on Youtube and you can learn almost anything from facts about space to how to play the guitar.
Our movie was looking at keeping safe while playing the game Fortnite. We picked to do our movie on this as it is huge right now and all the children love it, so we knew they’d be engaged and more importantly we knew it would be an important area to cover seeing as though it is so popular. Throughout our movie we have used positive language and reminded the children at the end that Fortnite is a really fun game, but they have to use it properly. We kept in mind while making our movie that e-safety was about educating them and not restricting them (Beauchamp, 2012). It was important for us to educate them on how to stay safe on Fortnite instead of saying ‘DO NOT play this game’.
I had a look at the ‘ThinkuKnow’ website while looking at other resources which could be used to teach children about Internet Safety. I accessed this website through the ‘Children’s Workforce’ portal and also through the ‘Child ages 4-7 and ages 8-10’. The Children’s Workforce part of their site was great as it gave you access to their resource library and offered guidance. The children’s sections of the site that I looked at were formatted completely differently, they had a game for ages 8-10 which would give you questions about what the character should post online. In this game the children had to say whether the character should and shouldn’t post online and this part of the website also had an advice section. This website brought education about the Internet together in a really fun way with games, and also provided advice and support for any children who had a ‘funny feeling’ about something they seen online, and I really liked this resource and think it would be really effective to use with children.
We made a quick plan of what we could cover in our movie and as I mentioned we used Fortnite as the focus of our movie. We decided to focus on how the avatars provide little information about the player and how you should only add people you know, we also covered how to block someone and how you shouldn’t use parent’s money to purchase game extras.
I had previously used iMovie before, so I had basic knowledge of how the app worked, I knew how to insert clips and audio. I like iMovie because it is very simple and easy to use unlike some other video editing apps. I did develop new skills using iMovie while doing this task as I learned you could change the transitions in between clips, and it didn’t have to just be a simple jump cut.
There are multiple things I enjoyed about iMovie such as its simplicity, how you could separate the audio from a clip and how you could change the pitch of your clips to make them fast or slow. I don’t like how there isn’t a huge variation of font and you could only place the text in the centre or at the corners of your video which sometimes didn’t look good on clips.
I think our movie turned out well, it covered aspects of how to stay safe when playing Fortnite while also having engaging music and visuals. I do however think there are some parts of our movie that move on too fast and its hard to read the text. There is also a particular clip that is too slow. Generally, I think our movie would be engaging in the classroom as we have shown the game and the characters in our movie which children will see and instantly get engaged. I believe our movie is a good way of educating children about Internet Safety as its presented in a fun and familiar way.
It would be useful to use iMovie with the kids and actually get them to create their own movies. As a lesson it would be good to look at literacy and storytelling. The children could write short stories in a separate lesson and then get into groups and combine their stories to plan for a movie. Children who perhaps don’t like literacy and writing would be engaged in this as they might be inspired and excited to turn their ideas into a movie and so it gets these children writing. There is actually evidence that using digital technologies can support educational attainment in literacy (Scottish Government, 2016).
A lesson like this for level one could fall under the following experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence:
- I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. (TCH 1-01a)
- I can write independently using my knowledge of letter patterns and spelling rules and use resources to help me spell tricky or unfamiliar words. (LIT 1-21a)
I think the children would really enjoy making movies of their stories and it would encourage them to not only be creative but allow them to use digital technologies in the classroom. Getting the children to use iMovie would also allow them to work collaboratively and I think they would be really engaged and enjoy this task. I do think like with most digital technologies, the rules and the learning should be very clear, so the children do not get distracted or miss use the technologies.
Overall, I think today’s session helped me to get a deeper understanding of iMovie and how it can be used in the classroom. I was also able to look at Internet Safety and how you can use technology to educate the children on how to positively use the internet. I feel as though iMovie would be great to use in the classroom as it is engaging and allows the children to be creative while supporting learning in another curricular area.
REFERENCES
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearso n.
Childnet International. (2019) Safer Internet Day. [Online] Available: https://www.childnet.com/resources/safer-internet-day [Accessed 16 February 2019]
Education Scotland. (2019) Experiences and outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes#arts [Accessed 16 February 2019]
Scottish Government. (2016) Enhancing Learning and Teaching through the use of Digital technology: A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. [pdf] Available: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/publication/2016/09/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technology/documents/00505855-pdf/00505855-pdf/govscot:document/?inline=true/ [Accessed 15 February 2019]
ThinkUKnow. (2019) Welcome to Thinkuknow. [Online] Available: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ [Accessed 17 February 2019]
