Last year, we had to keep a group of students in our classrooms for an extra 12 days.  Don’t ask.

I developed a short course on Movie Making.  One of our staff members even took the course himself and enjoyed it.

It’s already done and ready, with videos, instructions, etc.  For $5.00 – pay via Paypal, anyone can take the course and learn how to make movies.  It’s set up in Moodle, so if you would like the whole course as is for your own purposes, $10.00.  You can drop it in your own Moodle site, I’ll provide directions or do it for you.

One of my participants at the district technology workshop is our Test Coordinator.  After the workshop, he and I were talking and he wanted to know if we could video tape our testing training so he wouldn't have to repeat the information.  I said sure, but I wanted to try it out on faculty meetings first.

I didn't remember I had said that until about 11:30 last night, but being a smart person did not drag out my equipment and check it.  I knew I had a tripod in my car, a video camera in my school stuff, and hoped I had every thing else I needed, but tossed a flip camera in my bag just in case.

I grabbed my tripod, but couldn't remember how to set it up so that the camera would be at the right angle.  After much struggling and interruptions I got it set up.  I decided to set it up a table so that it wouldn't make the speakers nervous.

Also, sure enough, the battery in the camera was drained, so the first problem, was to find power.  Fortuntely I did have the power cables with me, and moved so I could plug into the wall.

I got the meeting taped and got back upstairs to my lab.  First problem, is that Camtasia couldn't read the video off the camera.  Couldn't remember what I did with the CD, found one in the box that had directions on how to make movies, but not the drivers, but went back to my magic box and had the CD with the drivers in it.  By the way, I hate Sony as they do everything THEIR way.  There utility converted the movie to something Camtasia could read, so I didn't bother to do much editing, only added a title.  By the way, their software will edit the movie too, but I'm addicted to Camtasia.

The hardest part was find the right software -- about two hours later, I had this website up:

http://org.hillcresthsdallas.org/FacultyMeeting_2009_12_01/

Including scans of the handouts, etc.

I have been using Screencast.com to store Camtasia movies for quite some time, in fact, I've even made some podcasts with it.

http://www.screencast.com -- Free account or Pro version at $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year

http://www.screencast.com/t/DlVGEusHKBo5

You can make a movie with Jing by Techsmith -- see http://www.jingproject.com

There is NOT an education price, the pro is $14.95 a year.

Here is a quick overview -- they do have their own training videos.

You do need a computer -- I've been making all of my movies with either Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.  Sorry, I don't do Macs, but I've heard it's easier.

A microphone is also a good thing.  You could however, do everything with some type of captions, but students really don't like reading.  You can get a stand microphone for under $20.00 at Office Depot.  For today's movies (November 8), I've been using the microphone built into my web cam.  

If you want to do demostrations -- I have done a couple with the blog, you should get a web cam, and they range in price.  I found one on Amazon for less than $15.00

Of course, the point of the workshop presentation was doing it without a camera.

Since I'm doing a second workshop on Making Movies, AND since TypePad is the easiest way to make a web page about something, I've started a new category called Making Movies.

I'm putting all my directions for Making Movies there.

The first entry is already done -- Making a movie with the "Free Stuff" from Windows.  I'll be more this week.

Here's how to use Windows Movie Maker, Paint, and Sound Recorder -- Windows XP Version but should translate to Vista easily.

So how am I using it.

I'm teaching 3 sections of Math/Science Study Skills - all these kids have a regular math class. 

The assignment is to create a movie using the free tools describing independent and dependent variables.

Today I showed them the free tools.  Went my speed and recorded it as above.   It was funny because one little gal raised her hand and said she didn't understand a word I said and I said, "Fine, I made a movie".

Feel free to play with.

It will be interesting to see what comes of it.