Multimedia Reflection Essay

Purpose for Multimedia Product

The purpose for the multimedia product I created was as an example of note taking options for my math students. I photographed and recorded examples of math notes including foldables, booklets, and bulleted notes.

Instructional Objective: Given the variety of note taking tools, students will find a method of creating meaningful math notes to help them retain information.

Intended Audience for Multimedia Product

The intended audience is 6^th and 7^th grade math students. The students range in age from 11 to 14. My 6^th and 7^th grade math students come from a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds. Some of my students are advanced in mathematics and many are below grade level. In an effort to improve their retention of what is taught I am having them create daily notes on Notability. They are to include pictures, drawings, and notes. This experience of editing graphics and drawing will be most useful for my math classes. It will also be useful for assisting other educators with the many uses of photo editing and the Notability application.

Chosen Software for Multimedia Product

I chose iMovie for the creation of my multimedia instruction. iMovie is available on both my iPad and on my Macbook. I have used iMovie in the past to create video compilations and for the purpose of this multimedia product it was a logical choice.

Creation Process

The first thing I did was create a concept map using Inspiration. I had a large number of snapshots and video clips, but I needed to decide what to include and what to leave out of this short video. Once I had narrowed down my options I compiled pictures and video recordings. I organized these on iMovie. iMovie makes it easy to put these in order, add text, music, and themes. I put them in a reasonable chronology. I tried various music themes and adjusted it according to what was needed with each clip. Finally, I decided to go with a sample theme and music so that the music didn’t detract from the content. My original movie was 2:49 minutes and I needed to cut a lot of content in order to get it under two minutes. Some of my cuts were a little choppy and I had to edit transitions in order to get things to flow more smoothly.

The final product was not as smooth as my original product, but I was able to cut the video to just a little over one minute in order to get it to fit the time criteria. I was still able to show a reasonable number of note taking options.