The “In a World …Drama” app allows you to create a movie-type trailer. Download the app, which is available for free for iPod Touch and iPad, from the App Store. You select the script from the pre-determined template. The script is read by the well-known voice-over artist Jonathan Cook. You select images from your photo album to illustrate the trailer. You can choose the typeface for any text used and you can also select any appropriate background music. You also have the option of selecting music from your iPod music library. You can include ratings and credits in the trailer.

I had forgotten I had this app until I spotted it on my iPad during the week. I began to think about how it could be used in an educational context in the classroom. At the moment, I am reading the novel “Rosie’s Quest” by Ann Carroll to my 6th class and they are really enjoying it. It is the story of a Dublin schoolgirl from the 1990’s who is transported back in time to when her mother was at school in 1956. She has to try and stop the “high swing challenge”, the cause of the falling-out between her mother and her aunt, as well as coping with the school bully, Agnes Balfe, and the tyrannical teacher Miss Hackett.

So we decided to pretend that a movie version of the book was to be made and that our task was to create the trailer for the movie. The pupils really enjoyed the process of making the trailer. It took us a few attempts to get the end product the way they wanted it. The thing we learned about the process of making the trailer is to try and have the images you intend to use on the device. We also learned that if the pupils are creating images, that they should be designed with the page in landscape. This is our finished product using the app:

You have to create an account within the app in order to share it. Once you have created the account, the trailer has to be uploaded to the app website. They then send you a link to the movie. You are then enabled to share the movie via Facebook, Twitter or email. I downloaded the movie to the camera roll on my iPad. Opening it up within the camera roll allowed me to upload it to YouTube. Try the app yourself and have some fun with it.