We had to say goodbye to a tutor this week that is leaving shortly for the Peace Corps. I struggled to come up with a high quality thank you gift. Then, I noticed the answer was right in front of me: the iSight camera built into the laptops.
I had each student create a 10-30 second video using the iSight camera and iMovie that said thank you or good luck to our departing tutor. The students did a great job of recording.
With Moodle, I was able to create an assignment where they had to upload a file, their exported (.mov) iMovie file. If they kept it under 30 seconds, then it would upload. I took all the clips, put them into iMovie again and created the final video. I burned it and gave it to our tutor. Overall, it was an outstanding project.
Here's what I learned doing the project:
Students can write a script on piece of notebook paper turned sideways. They can put this over the screen and works like a teleprompter. They seem like they are looking at the camera but really reading what is in front of them.
Schedule more time at the end of the recording for exporting and uploading.
Quicktime X might be an easier solution than iMovie. It looks like a lower learning curve for the students so they can focus on the message rather than the software.
I'll miss our tutor, but I know that she has taken a slice of AVID with her!