Another blizzard, another evening of exploring new software. The FEDEX guy just showed up at my door and delivered iLife 5.
We have been waiting to explore the new version of iPhoto because descriptions we have read seem to suggest it offers some interesting opportunities for student projects. You can really create an entire project including enhancing the images and creating a completed product with this one application.
The “book” option, one possible product, offers more flexible alernatives than existed in older versions. I suggest that educators explore the templates and find templates with pages that allow for text. The all graphics and the graphics with label pages look very nice, but I am a fan of student writing as a way to promote learning. These books were probably not developed with the classroom in mind, but with a little exploration and careful selection it would seem there are some great opportunities here. If you make the iLife 5 purchase or get it free with new hardware, take a quick look at the Contemporary Book theme. It has an all text page (it is called introduction) that can be inserted multiple times and it also allows for images with brief annotations. The image below is an example of what the cover page for this theme looks like. You will have to trust me on the “all text” page – I was too lazy to create an example.
