Instructions

= = __Materials and programs used:__ Video camera Digital camera Headset microphone Microsoft paint – used to make title pages and to insert titles and text onto still pictures. Windows Movie Maker – used to assemble all of our slides, video clips, and audio recordings into a final movie. Audacity – used to make audio recordings or “voice overs” for our movies. Audacity files need to be converted into MP3 format before they can be used in Windows Movie Maker. Lame – used to convert Audacity files into MP3 files that can be used in Windows Movie Maker.

=__How we made our Studycasts!__=

#1 - Storyline
The first thing we would do each time was to create a storyline for our video. We would look at the lesson or experiment and try and break it down into five or six pieces that we could work with.

#2 - Script
Next we would write our script summarizing the class or experiment, putting everything in our own words. Each of the five or six storyline pieces would have a small scipt and we would decide whether to do a voice over or create a slide with the script on it.

#3 - Video taping
We created a mini-studio (just a white cardboard box) that would give a plain background which we could shoot our clips in front of. We conducted the experiments, filmed them, took still pictures and edited them until we were happy with the results.

#4 - Slide production (paint) and title page
We took any of the still pictures we needed and added captions as needed using paint. We also created out studycast title page using paint.

#5 - Windows movie maker
We then downloaded all of our video clips, still images, and paint images into Windows Movie Maker.

=#6 - Voice recording= After we arranged the clips and pictures in the proper order on the time line, we recorded our voiceover using Audacity. We plugged our headset microphone into our computer, opened audacity, and pressed record. After we made our recording we found it was very easy to cut and paste to edit our recordings. To download Audacity, follow the link below. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ We then exported our Audacity audio file, using Lame to convert it into an MP3 file, to our movie file and copied it into windows movie maker. To download lame, follow the link http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3 The first time you use the "Export as MP3" command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved.

On some of our videos we included background music which we downloaded from http://freeplaymusic.com/

Our final movie was then saved to the computer as a WMV file where we could upload it to Teacher Tube or You Tube. We then copied the embed code number provided by these sites to embed our studycasts onto our Wiki.