Week+3+-+Part+II

Week Three - Let's get creative!
This week we will try to work our way through using Windows Movie Maker as a way to communicate with parents. Having a phone that takes videos or a digital camera that takes short movies is helpful in this process. Just to give you an example: I recently had students give presentations on a project they did. I took individual videos of them, downloaded them to my computer and used windows movie maker as a way to send the files via email to the parents. I then created a short presentation that I uploaded to school tube and linked it to our private wiki. You can view it below. You will be able to do this as well!

First, open your email and save your pictures to a folder. It is important to know where you saved the pictures. I always use the desktop first and then move the files later after I'm done with them.

Next, Open Windows Movie Maker. New project, add pictures and videos, highlight the pictures you want and open them. You will see them in the windows movie maker on the right. Now is where you can have fun! Try adding music (not compatible with Itunes so you need an mp3 saved to your computer.) The program has a few files for you to use. Try out different themes. If you pick a theme with a title page and closing page, you'll need to edit the text. Just click on the words and type in what you want. Animations can be used for individual slides or all slides. Don't be afraid to try different options.

When you are done playing, save the project. Once the project is saved, save it as a file for email. This makes it a smaller file size. I found that my email (comcast) only allows 25 MB limit. This isn't very large. You may even save the movie for publication to popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. (personal use only of course).

Now that you have created your movie and saved it, you can open school tube and log in. Once logged in, there is a link at the top to upload your video. You then have two choices to pick from, computer to school tube or internet to school tube. We will be using computer to school tube. Fill in the information requested about the video (categories, etc) Accept terms and your file will upload. It will take a few minutes. Once it is uploaded, you will be able to link to your wiki. Click on "My videos" and at the bottom of the page you will see your video. Click on it. On the right you will see the "share" link. Copy the embed code. Open a new tab with your wiki. Edit the page you want the video on and click on "widget", "video", "Other". Paste the code and save the page. You will now see your video. I have one linked below of my class on a field trip. This is a great way to share student work with parents. I do suggest that if you are going to do this that you create a private wiki that will require students and/or parents to log in to see the videos. And you should always get permission at the beginning of the year.

IF YOU WANT TO USE VIDEOS ALREADY CREATED IN SCHOOL TUBE: Find the video, copy the embed code (ALL OF IT) and paste the code in a widget on your page. Remember to save the widget page as well as the wiki page and presto you have embeded a video for your class to view. There is a large library of items to choose from. Next week you'll see how to incorporate that into a lesson.

DISCUSSION FOR THIS WEEK: Post your successes or challenges faced in this week's lesson on this discussion tab. Let's try to brainstorm a list of ways to use this to share student work. Try to follow this process through taking pictures of student work. Better yet, have students take a picture for homework and email it to you. Create a video and share with the class. No photo permissions are needed when there aren't any student faces in the pictures.

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