Microsoft free tools #4 – Microsoft Songsmith

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Microsoft Songsmith is an amazing programme to use in the classroom for creating songs. The students absolutely love it.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What is Songsmith?</b></span><br />Songsmith is a pretty smart programme that creates musical accompaniment to match the voice of whoever is singing. All you have to do is choose a musical style, sing into your PC or laptop microphone, and Songsmith will come up with the backing track for your music. After that you can share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Songsmith is free for teachers</b></span><br />The great news is that Songsmith is free for teachers to use in their classrooms.  <br />Let’s look at this great infomercial from Microsoft Research.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3oGFogwcx-E" width="420"></iframe> <br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Classroom ideas</b></span><br />• Use it as a reward period for your students<br />• Make up songs about the curriculum (Maths, Grammar, Poems, Facts from particular subjects)<br />• Create backings for class movies<br />• Use in music lessons<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Tutorials</b></span><br />Here is a tutorial from the UK Partners in Learning site.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LuoHejVm9hU" width="420"></iframe> </div>

Microsoft tools SomgSmith Web tools Microsoft free tools #4 – Microsoft Songsmith

Microsoft Songsmith is an amazing programme to use in the classroom for creating songs. The students absolutely love it.What is Songsmith?Songsmith is a pretty smart programme that creates musical accompaniment to match the voice of whoever is singin…

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Microsoft free tools #3 – Windows Movie Maker

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you think that creating a video with your photos is too complicated then you haven’t tried Windows Movie Maker! The only downside of this amazing programme is that it is too simple for advanced users!<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What can you do with Movie Maker? </b></span><br />It really is very simple to use like most of the Microsoft tools. Not only can you include your best photo shots and some of your clips, but you can also add some really nice video and transition effects. Your movie will look quite professional at the end I can assure you!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhyphenhyphenTOVyKU0DpJe1H9rmFNGydmD3b26cIgvr6RT0Q376GuNl3-k8qAwUWolmO1V799yAK5eytnsqU-VlCWrabpwEjxD-KPPKdLnWQGeAZSzCOqpfjwBZFB9KEeb_nldsK6dDDKpwSrgPI/s1600-h/image%25255B21%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUdoXT91XMkOjroKfINRf1G1_ojNCNrL-VpDazYtEq-BdKEu1tsLCf-f3pWBMGLRpc4pQi_DMEL7B4s6WnhGYJGRqnJ3TwYCjykqMG77U-tnxNI7ergy739Tw7aqPOXvn6kuZlyiay34/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How to get started</b></span><br />If you look at the image above you’ll see that there is a place that says ‘Add videos and photos’. After you do this the media clips appear on the timeline at the side. Then you add as many effects as you like. You can even add titles and credits to your movie.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How to use Movie Maker in the classroom</b></span><br />1. It really is fun when you include Movie Maker in your theme as the students love working with it.  These two Grade 4 teachers from St Cyprians in Cape Town based their theme on their Grade 4 novel, ‘Tolbooth’ and used Movie Maker extensively. They won the Innovative Teacher competition in South Africa as well as in the Pan Africa and the Middle East finals in Jordan and will be taking their Movie Maker project to Washington DC for the World Finals in early November.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Fwz2GJ-KCak/TqbzWdH7zsI/AAAAAAAAAYM/i3I_dJhYsT0/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgl2UOeTdRCGLQPgbootUFZGQE8cNruW53qIQhyL9TxgPh7RRxoVOd8-ezPyRT8GAZ2s6i7JCRu9l7s9B2VIivunEB9TDxKVuRSRjUsFutx7SZa0srcTOu7A1ltoOR6K4jznvzRSyKIQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a><br /><br />2. High School Life Science students in Cape Town used Windows Movie Maker to create an infomercial about HIV Aids. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlWJGaFrZOEatFaHw8RG9uz1IIwqF7lrnZTxnO-2oUpvtd4O-Dfz_-UZ0gvJUh4KM0UyRv_i-nvr7qsJjkdGhk5sWO0l99XF5ZDU56MM8xQ53WdR79Udc1Pgyj4Oq_zmmsFUZy0WySQw/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1YisvTSgm7AjsEpevKvuN7K1Mt4tHZ5lstcPbG4F7TqSISZEYv4N3F6RHmnKCn6BYHuHUD_Dj9_T-fcKRlISAQ7KsiI9al1MYkbvfeJ_SSWk95eZCbKQeRSXWnvvqkiMXk_XBtHJEgdI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a><br /><br />3. These high School History learners from Durban created movies about Apartheid using Windows Movie Maker.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_drFgtfr3BM/TqbzfqhG90I/AAAAAAAAAYs/YkqrOEBnHtA/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0xhO0oQiEFA33XUITsqj4xoxyswuD3dH5SL0iqtYiOhxzVHErxDJBrbbUcpeXQnU3nIAnVx9wpThrOVFI46j_dTohIqrTtYpisfRd1bV36RanpUCetFVrdVBQgKcFyE-rSGV4xdq7JDM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>More classroom ideas</b></span><br />•A very quick movie about something that has just happened – an outing or an event<br />• Expression of an assignment instead of writing it out. This definitely reduces the  riskof plagiarism<br />• Make book trailers instead of book reports<br />• Make movies about their book as was done by the Grade 4s<br />• Movies about Maths or other concepts<br />• Movies about the year at school<br />• Movies of their future dreamsin the job market<br />• Combine Movie Maker with Songsmith to create a music backing<br />• The learners can write instructions for something they are making i.e. a recipe, how to knit, how to make a card. etc. <br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What about starting a movie channel for your class? </b></span><br />You can create your own movie channel in YouTube or in School Tube to store all your class’s movies.<br /><br />If you need more detailed instructions on creating a movie with Windows Movie Maker just go to YouTube and ask for a tutorial on how to use Movie Maker.  You will find a huge selection.<br /><br />Here is an infomercial from Microsoft showing how to use the software.<br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="b-hbp-video b-uploaded" frameborder="0" height="266" id="BLOGGER-video-74114758ada0031b-12725" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyqP7ChLJ1rufWxfpPaN04B1Ztwg93mCciHeOqhs2LGSTL-JHEMnro_BNDl3XNoIagU7sBKxCQzF8MgBoXGx5tcUtsCQCTxOi8pjqd_RUySZlcvLBP2792tebjnnBfVlfAmzMyf" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Why not give Movie Maker a try tomorrow?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Microsoft tools Windows Movie Maker Microsoft free tools #3 – Windows Movie Maker

If you think that creating a video with your photos is too complicated then you haven’t tried Windows Movie Maker! The only downside of this amazing programme is that it is too simple for advanced users!What can you do with Movie Maker? It really is…

Read more »