Windows Movie Maker is a program that already comes pre-installed on your Windows XP or Windows Vista computer.
Creating a movie in this program involves three basic steps:
Get started by clicking Start > Programs and then locating the MovieMaker icon 
Double-click to launch the program.
You will want to use Windows Movie Maker if you have video clips on your camcorder, digital camera or from another source and want to edit or combine clips into one movie and prepare them to be published or distributed on the web. Movie Maker should also be your choice of program, if you want to combine video and digital images into one project.
Creating a movie in Movie Maker is divided into 3 Steps for you:
Click on the drop down menu in the Task Pane to get started
Be sure that your digital video camera is connected to your computer and turned on before choosing “Capture from video device”, if you want to directly import from a video device.
If you already have downloaded video clips to your computer choose “Import video”.
Choose the other links respectively if you want to import pictures, audio or music that is already located on your computer.
Browse for the folder your files are located in and click on the file to select it. If you want to select more than one file hold down the CRTL button as you click to add more files. If you wish to select all files in a folder, click on one file, then click CTRL and the letter A key.
Movie Maker allows you to import the following file extensions:
If your media is not in one of the above file extension, you will need to convert your file with another program or conversion site, such as zamzar.com.
It is a good time to start saving your Movie Maker project file after importing all your media (movie, images and audio). The project file allows you to go back later to add, delete or edit anything in your movie.
The project file is NOT the final movie file you need in order to upload or share your movie with others or online. You will save your movie after you are done editing your project file.
Arrange your media clips by dragging and dropping them on the Storyboard or in the timeline in the order you wish them to appear in your movie.
You can directly record your narration into Movie Maker, by connecting a microphone to your computer and clicking on the microphone icon. This will switch you to the timeline view automatically. In order to switch between Storyboard and Timeline view manually just click on the icon “Show Storyboard” or “Show Timeline” respectively.
Once you are in Timeline view, click on the microphone icon
Make sure that “Microphone” is selected as your Audio Input Source, and then choose if you want to limit narration to the available free space on the audio track and start by clicking on the “Start Narration” button.
You can also add a track taken from a CD as your background music.
Insert the CD into your CD drive. Open Windows Movie Player or iTunes to convert (rip) the selected track to an .mp3 file. Once the files is saved as an MP3 file on your computer, simply import as a music file and drag and drop into your timeline onto the audio track.
Once you have all media imported and added to your timeline you can start editing your movie. By clicking on the drop down menu in the Task Pane, you will be able to add effects and transitions make title and credit slides or choose to make and AutoMovie.
Click on any effect and then drag and drop it onto a thumbnail of an image or video clip.
To delete an effect on selected clip simply right click on the filled in star and choose “Delete Effect”.
Get started by choosing from several different video effects to add to any of your images or clips that are in your timeline. Experiment and see how each one of the following effects will enhance and support the message your movie.
After you have applied video effects on all or selected clips, move on to applying transitions between each clip to make your movie flow instead of choppy between new images or video clips. Movie Maker has a nice selection of transitions to choose from.
Add transitions between all your slides, then move on to adding a Titles or Credits. Choose one of the following:
The title slide at the beginning of the movie is a nice way of introducing what this movie will be about and as the word “title” indicates can also contain the ‘TITLE” of the movie.
Change the text font and the background color to customize the look.
Choose from many title animations. The animation you see in the screen shot above is “Moving Title- Layered”
When you have completed changing the font, size, animation and background color, click on “Done, add title to movie”.
By clicking on the option of “Add title before (or after) the selected clip on Storyboard” you can add a similar slide than the title slide to indicate a new chapter, a new twist, another location, etc. in your movie. Compare a function of these slides to the ones used in old silent film movies.
If you want to add a text overlay to a particular slide, choose the option “Add title on selected clip on storyboard”
That will allow you to add explanations, introductions, subtitles or other information directly onto the clip. You can achieve some fun and interesting additions to your movie with these functions.
You should end your movie, by inserting credits. This is where you can add references, thank you’s, copyrights information, sources used, or contact information.
A popular animation is “Credits: Scroll, Up Stacked” to imitate credits at the end of a theatre movie.
To sum up what you have done so far:
The final step in editing your movie is to adjust the time frame each clip is displayed. You have arranged the clips already in order you want them played, but you might want to adjust how long each clip is being displayed. You will need to be in the Timeline display in order to adjust the settings.
There is a default time setting for each clip and transition that you add, in order to change this setting, go to Tools > Options > and change the assigned time for picture and transition duration.
So far you have saved the movie project files (in regular intervals) while you were working. You should make a last final save of the project, in case you ever wanted to come back and edit it.
Now your movie is ready to be saved as a movie file that you will be able to share, upload to your website or blog, e-mail, burn onto a CD or keep as a portfolio item file on your computer. Click on the drop down menu in the Task Pane.
I suggest saving your movie file ALWAYS to the computer. Once it is saved there, you can then either burn it to a CD or upload it to the web. Like this you will always have a back up copy.
Click “Next” to choose the settings to best match the outcome you want to achieve. If you want present the movie on a projector you want to save it in high quality (large). If you are planning on uploading to the web, you can save it as high quality (small).
This is a Movie Maker Project file
This is a movie file
I am very excited!
My article "Unterwegs mit Teddybaer und Technik /On the Road with Teddy Bear and Technology" was published this week in Germany’s Social Studies Magazine "Weltwissen ". The entire edition is dedicated to Egypt Studies.
Challenge #14 of the 31-Day Comment Challenge will be a first for me.
I am to turn my blog over to the readers. Ask a question and have YOU , the reader write the post through the comments.
I am in the process of developing a "How to Guide for Digital Storytelling for Educators ". See Digital Storytelling Part I , Part II , Part III .
This is part of a grant, I received from FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools), so you comment, suggestion or story (with proper acknowledgment) might end up in my upcoming printed version of the Guide, that will be distributed to affiliated schools. 
If you have integrated digital storytelling into your teaching, what successes have you observed in your students? What were stumbling blocks or frustrations for you while working on a project? Can you share implemented lesson plans or project ideas? What would you do different the next time?
If you have not ventured out into the digital storytelling world, what is holding you back? What are some questions you have? What would help you get started?
Help me build my post through YOUR comments. Don’t be shy…help me out and click on comment and post!
Day 13: Write a Blog Post Using Comments
From what I’ve seen so far, during the past two weeks, most of us have expanded our commenting awareness in some amazing ways. We’ve discovered new blogs and are interacting more than we might have in the past, which is one of the great things that happens when we become more intentional about building community through commenting.
One thing I’ve noticed in reviewing people’s blogs is that many of us use our blogs for reflection and learning. Often we do this by responding to a blog post written by another blogger. But we can also do this based on comments.
For today’s task, we’re going to write a blog post that responds to comments. This can be a post that summarizes or reflects on comments we’ve received on our own blogs. I did a version of that here where I wrote a post that summarized reader suggestions for starting a career in a nonprofit. And here’s an example of a post I wrote responding to several comments I received related to a series I wrote on scarcity and abundance thinking. You could also write a post responding to a comment or comments you read at another blog.
This is a great way to keep conversations going because often people’s thoughts can get lost in the comments, but by you elevating them to a blog post, they get more attention and discussion. They also encourage you to reflect more deeply on the comments you receive–maybe allowing you to identify some trends in comments or to challenge something in your thought patterns.
After you write your post, be sure to tag it with "comment08."
I have read with interest Andrew’s post 21st Century Teachers on Educational Origami. I starred it in my Google Reader and also copy and pasted the link with my initial thoughts into a draft post. That is the way, I help myself remember posts that I want to blog about later. Since I have been extremely busy with year end school stuff and trying to keep up with the Comment Challenge, I have not been able to get to writing this post as fast as I wanted to. The post is well written and organized and I encourage you to read in detail how Andrew spells out characteristics of the 21st Century Educator
Since the post was first published on May 12th, Andrew has received several comments that are worth to take a closer look at and to summarize.
All commenters agree on the changing roles of educators. Some of the commenters are trying to arrange the characteristics from the web above in order of importance:
21st Century teachers are 21st Century learners first
So, it seems that teacher and students of the 21st century are not too different, since BOTH are supposed to thrive to be learners. But a
key difference is that they (the 21st century teacher/educator) must also have a clear vision of the goals, objectives and end points he or she must reach.
Questions, such as what is being done to prepare pre-service teacher, are being asked.
Andrew responds to his comments with :
There is much written about the 21st century learner but very little written about the 21st century teacher who is meant to facilitate and enable all of this learning.
I have seen with my own students that they are very capable of learning and operating the tools, but they often lack the insight (not surprisingly) to apply these tools and technologies to learning.
As the teacher we need to focus on the ways these technology tools will enhance the LEARNING of our students. As the teacher of the teachers (through Professional development workshops and one-on-one time) we need to focus on the importance of how the tools affect learning, and not emphasis the way we can learn these tools.
As a result of the feedback he got on his post, Andrew updates by adding a new characteristics to his original one: The Leader
To continue the conversation and allow others to add and edit some of the points and ideas Andrew has created a wiki page .
There I saw the following chart that immediately made sense to me.
Leadership, like clear goals and objectives crucial to the success or failure of any project. Thousand and Villas paper, Managing complex change towards inclusive schooling, summaries this brilliantly. Vision, incentives and action plan are all elements of leadership:
vision + skills + incentives + resources + action plan = change skills + incentives + resources + action plan = confusion vision + incentives + resources + action plan = anxiety vision + skills + resources + action plan = resistance vision + skills + incentives + action plan = frustration vision + skills + incentives + resources + = treadmill
This chart above will help our Tech Integration Team at school to tweak and better the Professional Development plan we started this school year.
I created a more visual illustration from this chart.
Fourth Graders in our school study the state of Florida and “Explorers”. Traditionally they would research and create a written book report.
THIS YEAR…
The social studies teachers assigned one explorer to a group of 3 students. They did their research in the Media Center from a wide variety of sources.
Create your own photo book in seconds! Click here!
I just happen to find an article in Edutopia, where Karen Kliegman (A media specialist who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at FETC 2008), was interviewed. She had another fantastic approach to take the traditional explorer report off the page and into the web 2.0 world.
She assigns each of her fourth-grade students an explorer to research — Columbus, Magellan, Ponce de Leon, or one of their questing contemporaries. After gathering facts, students locate images of the explorer or draw their own. They then create a vodcast, or video podcast, about the explorer’s journey using Photo Story, a free program from Microsoft that allows users to upload digital pictures and add narration and background music. Students then log on to digital-mapping programs such as Google Maps or CommunityWalk, with which they can trace their explorers’ journeys, inserting markers on the map route that link to their videos’ profiles.
The Title of this video says it all…
"Death of Education…The Dawn of Learning"
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