Digital Photography and Movie Making

A WebQuest for 10th Grade - Technology/Computer Science/Design

Designed by

Arthur Reynolds
reynolap@buffalostate.edu

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits

Lesson Plan | Table of Contents

Introduction

There is a large marble building across the street from your school. No one is sure how long it's been around. No one is sure what's in it. In fact, no one is sure if any one has even gone into the building and come out alive. Do you dare to enter the building, document what you see, and try to get out with your life?

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The Task

The students will develop a product to be used in class. The students will be broken up into teams of three or four. Each team will be given a digital camera and assigned a different part of the building to be explored. The teams will take pictures of their assigned areas that will be used to create a slideshow which will later be burned to a CD.

The team will also develop a script that includes their personal insights describing the artifacts in their area of study. Questions to be answered include: When was the Science Museum built? Who Built it? Where did these artifacts come from? Who created them? How did they end up in the Science Museum?

After the slideshow is created, music will be added. The student will narrate their slideshows and convert the slideshows into movies that will be burned to a DVD. The DVDs will be used in class presentations at a later date.

Some of the tools the students will be using are: Garageband, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD on the Macintosh platform; or Audacity, Movie Maker and Roxio Project Creator on the PC platform; and photoshop on both platforms.

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The Process

1. You will be assigned to a team of 3 or 4students
2. Each team will be assigned a specific area of the museum to photograph.
3. The team should take a minimum of 12 pictures. Make sure to annotate the photo number, the object photographed, its location, and any other relevant details that can be used later.
4. In the computer lab, you and your team will download the photos onto one of the computers and burn a CD as an archive of your pictures.
5. Using photoshop or some other photo editing software, the images will be edited for color levels and cropped to the appropriate size for a classroom presentation.
6. Using iPhoto or Movie Maker, the photographs will be inserted into a slideshow in some logical order. Tranisitions, titles, and other special effects will be added at this time.
7. While viewing the slideshow and using Garageband or Audacity, you and your team will narrate the slideshow and save the file.
8. If you are using music, you will use iTunes or Windows Media Player to rip a song off the CD and save it in MP3 format.
9. Using iMovie or Movie Maker, you and your team will combine the slideshow, narration and music into one complete unit. You will burn this to a CD for archival purposes.
10. Finally, using iDVD or Roxio, you and your team will burn your movie to a DVD that can be used on a computer or a stand alone DVD player.

On-Line Resources

For the MAC:

Garageband --- http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/GarageBand_3_Getting_Started.pdf

iTunes --- http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iPhoto_6_Getting_Started.pdf

iWeb Essentials --- http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=240

For the PC

Movie Maker --- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

Movie Maker Tutorial --- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/savetodvd.mspx

Roxio --- http://www.roxio.com/enu/support/default.html

Audacity --- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Experiment with the order of the slides that you have created. When you take your photographs, you might want to try taking them from unusual angles. For example, instead of shooting straight on an object, kneel down and shoot up at an angle. This will add dramatic efftects caused be the shadows and unusual angles that most people don't notice.

Interlace your narration with music. Use music appropriate the images in the photos; and make sure the music doesn't overpower your narration.

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Evaluation

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Conclusion

In the process of creating your slideshows and movies, you will learn how to used a digital camera; You will learn how to download images to a computer and edit/modify them for use on the Web; You will learn how to use technology to create a product (CD/DVD) that can be used in other classes; and you will begin developing the design skills needed to use technology effectively.

Was using a digital camera challenging? Did the technology always perform the way you expected it to? If you knew more about the project before you started, could you have done a better job?

Put a couple of sentences here that summarize what they will have accomplished or learned by completing this activity or lesson. You might also include some rhetorical questions or additional links to encourage them to extend their thinking into other content beyond this lesson.

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Credits & References

Apple Inc. - http://www.apple.com

Microsoft Inc. - http://www.microsoft.com

Pogue, David and Story, Derrick, "iPhoto 5, The Missing Manual", Pogue Press, Sebastopol, CA, 2005.

Heid, Jim, "The Macintosh iLife '06", Peachpit Press, Berkley, CA, 2006.

Microsoft Press, "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit", Microsoft Press, Redmond, Washington, 2001.

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