Friday, October 15, 2010

Apple Store...we love you!

We joined up with a local home schoolers' group and one of the moms organized a class for our students at the downtown Charleston Apple Store (I think her husband is the manager).  Now the Apple Store is our most-frequented destination when we go into the city and improving his techie knowledge is one of my goals for our time in the USA, so he was immediately signed up.

They quickly taught the kids to use iMovie and each group of three (he was partnered up with 11-year-old boy-girl twins)  was to make a crazy commercial for a household item on the table.  They had a pair of wooden tongs which the boy twin quickly decided would make a great "puller of sister's hair".  They collaborated and made a cute commercial with lots of bells and whistle effects.  We hope to get a hard copy in the mail soon.

iMovie is really a great program...and now, of course, we all want an Apple iMac 21.5 inch desktop computer (it's so cool...no tower, wireless keyboard and mouse tablet, what graphics).! I was eyeballing it to see if the monitor could fit in our carry on....then we could just nonchalantly walk through customs in Rome...right?   Guess those free workshops are accomplishing what they set out to do...sell more Apples! And I bet they're soooo expensive in Italy!  No fair!!

3 comments:

Jane said...

Diane, you are giving Dante such a wonderful experience. It will change his life and perspective. I admire the task you have set for yourself--I couldn't do the homeschool thing, I know. You have done so much research. I particularly am impressed by the way you can flow with the changes in location, etc. and still find important opportunities for Dante.

rinaz said...

But there are so many other cheaper alternatives compared to the imovie. If you're using a pc, you could try Adobe Premiere Elements or Cyberlink Powerdirector software. It costs less than 40 euro each and it does pretty much the same thing.

scuola toscana said...

... they are not just expensive, here in Florence
The Apple store does not actually have Ipod or Ipad or Iphone (... they will arrive next week - always) - it is just a flagstore, probably put there as a big advertising banner.
If you go to other places, there is the trick about if you have to make the contract with Vodafone or Tim before or after... and then to work out the specs so that you are able to connect... it is really difficult !!!