Jumpcut-I'll Give it a Miss

My first look at Jumpcut was to browse through the movies others had made and to make a couple of attempts at editing public videos. The editing was fairly easy and straightforward and certainly the idea of being able to upload clips, edit and add music to create a movie upon which the viewers can readily comment is appealing. One of the problems with this site, in my opinion, is the type of material that is being stored there. Although there is a warning that the site is only suitable for children over 13, the movies that have passed Jumpcut’s suitability test wouldn’t be acceptable for my 13 year old. Teachers who might allow their students to use this site would most likely encounter considerable backlash from parents. A quick browse through the favourites will demonstrate what I mean. Unlike Ed. VoiceThread, and TeacherTube, there doesn’t seem to be an educational (in the school sense) version of this tool. For now, I will stick with Windows Movie Maker.

I did try to upload some video clips to Jumpcut that I had successfully downloaded to Movie Maker (in minutes). I ended up trying several times (which took about 4 hours) and nothing appeared. I decided to give it a final try with small clips from my camera (which quickly loaded to VoiceThreads) and after a half hour of waiting, I gave up. In my opinion, VoiceThreads is a more efficient tool and one that I find more appropriate for use in schools.

Just a little more on Movie Maker. This was only my second time using this software and I would recommend it. It is easy to figure out, provides many options and is generally quick with downloads. Even younger students would be able to use this program. The only problem is, you have to burn the movie to a DVD to share it, unless you show it on your computer. You can email it if you are using the default email (Windows Outlook).