Creating Digital Videos in the Classroom
Examples in Classrooms
- Overview: Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
At this comprehensive site from the University of Houston School of Education, you'll find "why" information, tools, links to resources, and a number of examples of digital stories across content areas. Example projects have to be viewed on PCs (or converted, using tools below).
- Middle School
- Ka booz-booz ka 8th graders in this class wrote, illustrated, and then made digital movies of children's stories. Then they shared them, via Skype video conferencing, with kids in a 5th grade class across the country. *
- Short Films by Middle Schoolers showcases projects from a literacy class. Students create multiple episodes of stories that they write and produce. Read about the projects on their teacher's blog here.
Exemplary Programs
The City Voices, City Visions Program is makes extensive use of digital video for language arts and social studies in an urban school district. Preliminary research indicates that achievement scores in social studies have gone way up since the introduction of video.
San Fernando Educational Technology Team does amazing work with digital video in the very diverse San Fernando Valley. Students from the district regularly appear at national Ed Tech conferences.
Creating Digital Stories
Multimedia Projects involving a written script, images, short video clips, and audio.
Digital Stories 101
Photostory3
Photostory3 is a free PC program that allows you to make simple slide shows with voice over, special effects, and music.
PHOTOSTORY3 TUTORIALS
We'll be using the SCREENCAST tutorials (about half way through his list of resources) at this website that demonstrate the program step by step and that offer options for creative uses of the tools. I've made up 
this handout with some additional explanations and specifics for our assignment. Dave Jakes, the voice on these screencast tutorials, also has a handout on his webpage, just above the links to the screencast.
Download blank colored slides here to use for title or text pages in your photostory.
Digital Stories 201
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker, another free PC download, allows you to do more with video, somewhat less with photos, but allows more flexible editing overall.
IMovie
IMovie '06 is the gold standard for simply digital movie making, with multple features and easy editing. There are excellent multimedia tutorials at this link. Imovie is used in many schools. Note that IMovie '08 has many changes that experienced users didn't like, so the '06 version (on our macs) is still supported by Apple. IMovie comes free with new Macs.
Find more I-movie tutorials here.
Digital Stories 301
Adobe Premier for PCs
Final Cut (Express) for Macs. This is installed on the Mac Laptops and is the software that I use in the graduate course that I teach on Digital Storytelling. Very flexible -- multiple audio and video tracks allow for various special effects.
Finding Media on the Web to use in Digital Storytelling
There are good links on the Audio page of this wiki to sites with free, downloadable, Creative Commons music.
Good images can be found at links on the Images in Teaching page of thsi wiki. Remember that if you do resort to Google Images, find the place to select "large images only". Otherwise, you'll be trying to englarge thumbnails onto your whole computer screen and your images will be pixilated and fuzzy.
Design Issues
How do we think about conveying meaning visually, as well as with our words? Here are some interesting thoughts (with a great example) from one blogger.
Here's more on basic design/setting up shots/ framing action in digital stories from a teacher blogger with a background in film. Should we be teaching kids these skills of visual literacy?
There are good ideas in this article on using motion, transitions, and sound to enhance, rather than detract from the story.
The BBC has an excellent website on movie making for kids (they also sponsor a kids' movie making contest). The animations of fun and instructional.
Web Based Digital Storytelling Using Web 2.0 tools
Check out this wiki reviewing 50 different tools to developing stories on the Web. Be sure to check out the "Domino Stories" page for the same story told all 50 ways.
Lesson Plans for Creating Digital Stories in Classrooms
This blogger explains in detail how she preps for teaching students how to create digital stories.
Using Video from Other Sources
Unplug works with Firefox to download video or audio for websites that you're viewing. If your school blocks YouTube, for example, you can use this tool to download a video to your computer and still show it to the class without giving students access to the entire YouTube site.
Vixy.net is another tool for downloading and converting web videos.
Converting Video File Types
Videos come in various file types. Photostory3 projects, for example, download as .wmv files that can be hard to view on Macs. Convert smaller movies for free at Zamzar.
Our Macs are also equipped with Quick Time Pro. You can open movies in QTP and then export them in another format.
.mov videos can be viewed on PCs and on Macs.
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