Today I posted a video some sixth grade students made for a spot on our news program. One of my loyal readers wanted to know how it was done, so this post is an attempt to tell how the video was made. We did not use any really expensive equipment to make that video. The library has a Sony DV Handycam camcorder that was used by the kids to take video. I told them not to worry about the sounds, noises, or talking, as in all likelihood we would remove it and use our own voice over narrations. So I got a locker key from the office, and they got the camera and we went looking for lockers to shoot.
Once we had our footage, we came back to the library, and they set up my Dell laptop. Using a Compaq firewire card we connected the camera to the computer and turned it on. Almost immediately the computer asked if we wanted to capture the footage. I made the girls direct it to my external harddrive (notice the duct tape holding it together–i dropped it about a year ago!! It still works thankfully!) I learned sometime ago that if video was captured to a basic computer it may skip as the computer’s basic memory is not fast enough to handle video. (I had an entire Christmas program from school that skipped like crazy, and lots of disappointed parents.) I also don’t want to fill up my harddrive with a bunch of videos. So I sought out an expert–the video editor from my church, and he recommended an external hard drive that had 200GB of memory and a 7200 spin rate to keep video from skipping. I now have two of these, both four or five years old, which are great, b/c now all pictures and video go there.
Anyway, once we got our film on the computer, we used a very basic editor–the freebie Windows Movie Maker. The girls imported the video, and then we cut out and snipped unnecessary footage. I wanted them to cut more, but they were very protective of the video.
I had them create a cover or opening, and they used PowerPoint that was saved as an image. Pretty basic. Then they wanted to do their audio voice over. WMM allows you to, so they began by planning what to say. Before videoing, they had already written out a plan of what to get–lockers that were not closed right, lockers with things blocking the frames that might cause jams, and messy lockers. They had already selected the messy locker, and they decided to clean it out for the video too. That was cute. The guy who owned the locker kept asking if anyone saw anyone around his locker. They didn’t tell until he saw his locker on the show. They also told me his locker is already messy and full of clothes again.
Anyway, they did their audio narration section by section (as the clips imported were in pieces–every time the camera was stopped and started clips were created, so there were many.) They would mute the existing audio, and record their own.
They ran into a problem when they wanted to add transitions, as the narration would not align, so they only used one transition–a flip or rotate at the point where they cleaned out the locker. If one looks closely, it is in the wrong place, but they were pleased as punch with it.
I told them their video could NOT go more than 3 minutes, so they did not get to put any credits on (other than “the end”). Oh did they fuss. But they did not want to get rid of any footage, and we were at the end of their class, so they decided on just a quick “the end.” We used a CHEAP headset w/ a microphone to record it. They saved it as a movie file (.wmv in moviemaker) and then watched it again. They wanted music, so we looked in freeplaymusic.com for some. I finally had to lay down the law, as they didn’t have time to search– that would have taken a whole day again, and so I convinced them to use something I had already used for another project. So they re-imported their video w/out music in WMM, and added the song twice with a slight overlap at the end of the first time and the beginning of the second. The music was 90 seconds, so two times through was just enough. They saved it as a movie file, and that was the final project, which we played out during the news program the next day. The whole project took two days–one day to shoot and capture, and then one day to edit and finalize. (They are w/ me for 45 minutes each day.)
Our studio has a pc/tv converter, so inserting the wmv into a ppt slide allowed us t0 share it schoolwide.
These girls are already planning their next one, which will center on lost and found stuff. They are in the planning stages of a puppet show type video, where the clothes talk to each other asking where their owners are. Should be cute–IF they can pull it off.
Now that I’ve told you how it was done, I want to say that our studio has a fancy, expensive video editor, but my goal was to let the girls see that one does not have to use fancy expensive equipment to make videos. I think they got it too. They are all jazzed about the lost and found clothes puppet show. I also know that this could have been done using a 2.0 USB wire instead of a firewire, and that using a Mac would have been just as easy (but our school does not use Mac.) Even better, the new flip cameras make it even easier to capture video.
Recently Carolyn Foote, a friend who is honestly a friend in the virtual sense, as I only know her from Twitter, blogging, webcasts, and Ustream forums, has challenged my thinking about the library. She works in a large public suburban high school in Austin, Texas (Westlake High School). She is in the process of packing up her entire library book by book for a renovation project. Earlier this week she was informed that the renovation could take as long as a year. My comment to Carolyn was “Wow, you will be a virtual librarian in every sense of the word.”
right through the whole project. She will probably work harder than any other staff member in the entire building, as she strives to provide the same level of service and instruction as before when there were the typical tables, chairs, books, and more. How?
history would afford me the chance to reflect on my career (the good and the not so good.) In the dashboard feature of the Edublog platform I use, one can see the most recent pingbacks under the section called “Latest Activity.” I nearly fainted when I saw it. First let me say thanks to any of my readers who follow me. I’m amazed when people tell me they read my blog. For the longest time I really felt I blogged in vain. Gradually I began getting comments, and found that along with the clustr map enough affirmation to continue. My blog is really just a reflection on my own personal journey in using web 2.o tools, and hopefully enough encouragement to get others to join in and use these tools too, for professional growth AND student learning. WOW I am still amazed to get this nomination! I am in some good company, and feel honored to be there with other librarians. ( I also had to laugh when I realized I subscribe to ALL the nominees already.) Want to see who is nominated? Click
down memory lane, I realize my professional growth has only just started to be independent of my husband’s career. You see he is a retired football coach, so the several moves I’ve made have been a direct result of his job changes as he moved from assistant to head football coach, and then from small schools to larger ones. Now that he is out of the coaching world, and is working as a school administrator, my work does not seem to revolve around where he is working. It is shocking to realize how big an impact it has had over the years I’ve been teaching. But now I am the driving force behind where I work and what I do. It almost feels “grown-up.” For anyone who knows me, this year I am working 170 miles away from my family, but am happier professionally than I have ever been. Some day I will share why I was so unhappy before coming to my current job, but the purpose of this post is just to walk down memory lane, and create a professional history of sorts. Specifics about this list can be gleaned for my resume, or curriculum vita
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have been allowed to use it, even safely guarded and monitored by loving parents. The young Megen’s reactions and final act speak to the fact that she was emotionally too young to be using it, falling victim to the name calling and bullying we all seek to protect our students and our own children from. It is sad that the lesson of should haves, could haves, and would haves is only being realized now for these parents after such a tragedy. In the media clips I have seen it is painfully obvious they are still quite bitter about the loss, and are seeking some kind of retribution, be it through civil courts or media. Although no names were mentioned saved their daughter’s and her fictitious boyfriend Josh, a quick google allows anyone who wants to know what the name of the mother is who did this horrendous act of cyberbullying. If the Meiers sought to get revenge, I’m sure they have all they could ask for now, but in the end they are all losers. How can anyone win with such a tregedy? They lost a daughter. The other mother lost her mind. They lost their dignity by resorting to childish pranks with the foosball table incident. And now they all will be remembered for the longest time for really rotten choices in general, and not any good that might rise to the top eventually. I hurt for these families. They are all on my prayer list.
know think I spend 24/7 thinking about or doing the blogging and podcasting, and have no time or life. How untrue! Because I have discovered and use rss readers (Bloglines) and podcatchers (iTunes), I get to choose when and where I want to bother with them! No I do not do it everyday. Not enough time. Never do I spend the school day doing it. I only occasionally pop into Twitter during the school day, usually during my lunch break. I pretty much take a complete break from my RSS reader and iTunes Friday, most of Saturday, and some of Sunday. It is the precious time spent with family, especially now that we are living roughly 170 miles apart (for those who don’t know, I am a weekend wife and Mom!)
In recent years (if I must pinpoint a date it would be the summer of 2005) I became aware of the growing trends of podcasts in education. I explored podcast creation briefly, even making a couple of podcasts for my former school, using kids for all the talking, to post episodes that could be subscribed to through iTunes. I was a pod-fader however, because after making a couple of episodes, I lost interest. I cannot even find them on the Internet site I hosted them on, 
muttering that all too frequently myself.)








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