Using Movie Maker with Your Students

How often do you use Movie Maker with your students? There are some great ways to use Movie Maker as part of a lesson presentation or as projects for your students. Here is a list of ideas taken from the Digital Learning Environments News - May 2010 edition:
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/
how_make_lessons_memorable_movie

Six Ways to Use Movies with Your Students

1. Create a timeline that moves
• Present a succession of historical events in a photo slide show with music from that period.
2. Make your movie morph
• For science class, present the stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Create a photo slide show with images you grab from bing.com.
3. Demonstrate things you can’t bring to class
• Videotape feeding time for lions or gorillas at the zoo. Or capture the physics at play in a local skate park with still photos or video.
4. Share the classics in a fresher way
• Shoot video of various students reciting a phrase or two from a Shakespearean sonnet. String them together in a movie, and suddenly all eyes are on the screen. The whole class hangs on every famous word.
5. Try a different angle for math
• For math class, share all the ways that angles appear in everyday life, from a city skyscraper to the painted lines in the school parking lot to the countless angles at play on a pool table.
6. Start a lively debate
• Frame a debate topic by sharing the pros and cons of an issue with photos.

Here are some other great ideas for including Movie Maker in lessons and projects for your students:


Movie Maker Lessons & Movie Maker Worksheets by Lesson Planet
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=movie+maker&rating=3


Techno Kids – Camp Technology Project
http://www.technokids.com/computer-curriculum/camp/movie-maker-
lesson-plans-technoproducer.aspx


Scholastic.com
http://www.scholastic.com/dreamincolor/digitalstorytelling/pdfs/
Target_DS_Lesson4.pdf

The Learning Power of Digital Storytelling

I recently downloaded a copy of Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner from Microsoft Education. Within this guide it states that there are many educational benefits for teachers to use digital storytelling learning projects with their students. Teachers who have used digital storytelling note that student grades improve and students are more likely to do homework and engage in classwork. Digital storytelling also helps students develop technology skills and can inspire them to be lifelong learners. When students are given the opportunity to create digital stories students are inspired to dig deeper into the subject and communicate what they learn in a creative way.

Here is a list of the educational benefits that prepare students for success in the 21st century:

1. Encourage research
2. Fosters critical thinking skills
3. Encourage students to write and to work at becoming better writers
4. Gives students a voice
5. Tells a personal narrative
6. Helps students retain knowledge longer
7. Enhances learning by encouraging students to communicate effectively
8. Helps students make a connection between the classroom and the outside world
9. Encourages creativity
10. Works well with portfolio assessments
11. Promotes digital literacy

Another benefit of digital storytelling is that all six 2007 National Education Technology Standards (NETS) are addressed:

1. Creativity and innovation
2. Communication and collaboration
3. Research and information fluency
4. Critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making
5. Digital citizenship
6. Technology operations and concepts

The guide shares examples of digital stories created by students, a suggested outline of how to create a great digital story and a list of resources for teachers. The guide also helps teachers decide which tools are best suited for their students by outlining how Powerpoint, PhotoStory and Movie Makes could be used to help students research, create and share digital stories.

To download a copy of Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner from Microsoft Education please click on the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/digital_storytelling.aspx

Image from the Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner - Microsoft Education page 3. 

Advanced Thinking in Digital Storytelling

The Creative Educator Spring 2009
http://thecreativeeducator.com/

The foundation of any digital story begins with a good story, one with a point of view, a dramatic question, and emotional content. Bringing the story to life for the reader through the words of the story should be more important that all the transitions, visual and audio effects, background music and text styles that the students can add to the digital story. As an example of visual effect, instead of writing “He was walking down the street,” the student may choose verbs and adjectives to describe how a character was walking down the street, “With his head held high and slightly cocked to the side, teeth clenched, and shoulders back he strutted down the street like he owned the town” draws the reader into the story allowing the reader to be a more active participant.

Once a story is mapped out on a storyboard the students will be able to decide which technology tool will best add the effects, transitions and sounds to best bring their stories to life. If the students are using still images to illustrate their stories, panning and zooming can add a certain impact and dynamic feel to the story. But transitions can be a problem. Help students understand there should be a reason for using transitions to tell the story, not distract from the story. A great story could be lost to the viewer because the students crammed all the effects they could into the finished product. Just because they knew how to add all those effects doesn’t mean that those effects added anything to the story. Students need to learn that less is more.

So what about the background music? Does the story need music to give a dramatic impact to the story? The background music should set the tone, add to the pacing of the story and augment the emotional content of the story, not distract from the story. Let the students’ own voice personalize the story and also help students to decide what sounds, soundtracks, or sound effects can best enhance their stories.

The main focus in digital storytelling should be the writing experience with the technology as a tool to enhance and bring the story to life. There are many tools that students can use:
Audacity for podcasting the story
PhotoStory 3 to enhance the story with images and music
Movie Maker to add images, video and music to the story
Voice Thread to allow other students to add their comments to the story and the images
PowerPoint presentations

To read the entire article please goes to http://thecreativeeducator.com/ Spring 2009 edition of the magazine.