Let's Do Moviemaking: An iMovie Instructional Module for Deaf Individuals

Abstract

Movie making on the computer is fun, but many deaf Macintosh users considered this difficult. Given that there are few modules that is specifically designed for the deaf Macintosh users, the module was created as a guide to help them enhance their homemade videos by using iMovie ’09, the free moviemaking application. This paper describes a study on the effectiveness of an instructional module developed to familiarize deaf individuals to three specific video editing features available in iMovie '09 on the Macintosh computer. The research indicated that few deaf individuals were aware about iMovie and its possibilities for creating a homemade video in few simple steps. The module only focused on three new features that would help enhance their efficiency in producing homemade videos with this application. Since the module lacked the short, signed instructional videos in the module, the results also indicated the value of using sign language and visual cues. Sign language and visual cues are essential for deaf individuals because the sight is their primary sense instead of hearing. Considerations about the future developments of any kind of modules and implementations of these modules were also discussed.