Windows Live Movie Maker: A Classroom Tool
By: Kristine Smith, Analiza Cianflone, and Jamee Veasley
Description: Movie Maker is a downloadable program that allows its users to create home-movies and/or slideshows all from a computer. The site allows you to upload videos of your choice, and then edit them to perfection but adding text, music, etc. And once you are happy with your production, Movie Maker allows you to share your videos with family, friends, or peers, which makes it perfect for use in a classroom! For Apple's mac users, I suggest using iMovie, which is essentially Apple's version of Windows Movie Maker.
If you would like to download Movie Maker to your computer, follow this link: http://windows-live-movie-maker.en.softonic.com
Here are some simple to follow steps on the use of Movie Maker. The same informational steps below can also be found at: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Windows-Movie-Maker
Some methods of incorporating Movie Maker into the classroom:
The use of Movie Maker can be made useful in a classroom, and specifically a social studies classroom quite easily. Projects in Geography, History, economics, civics, etc could be easily made into projects that use Movie Maker. For example, students could create a Geographic biography of a location by creating a slideshow using a variety of maps showing the location, topography, etc. Below are some other ideas of incorporating Movie Maker into social studies:
1) Students could use Movie Maker to create biographies on important historical figures. Using movie maker they would put together a slideshow of a persons life. Here is a site with some examples of projects on historical figures that students have done in the past: http://www.youtube.com/user/sas332/videos
2) Using Movie Maker to create a commercial about a place or a person. This could be useful in an economics unit on supply and demand and the power of advertising and appealing to your intended audience.
3) Students could use Movie Maker to research and report as news reporters. This could a report on current events, or even diving into the past to report on other historical events. For example, students could do a report on a specific battle of the American Revolution.
4) Change in Geography- Movie Maker could be used to show a time laps of the change in geography or a certain place over time. The topic could be Colorado, for example. Photos could be used to show the life of the Native Americans and what the landscape was like years ago. The lesson could then continue in timeline form to modern day and include the additions of new technology and people, and the change in the landscape over time.
Helpful Resources:
http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/windows-live-movie-maker.aspx
https://sites.google.com/site/moviemakerproject/Home/classroom-ideas-for-movie-make
http://teachinghistory.org/digital-classroom/tech-for-teachers/25283
http://www.otsego.k12.oh.us/bradley/movie_uses.htm
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2010/01/movie-making
Resources used:
http://windows-live-movie-maker.en.softonic.com
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Windows-Movie-Maker
http://www.youtube.com/user/sas332/videos
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/free%20movie%20maker (Where Movie Maker Icon was retrieved from)