Geography videos are really straightforward to make. I sometimes make them to show to classes or download them from the Geography at the Movies website, but other times I get the class to make them to show their understanding of a topic. Most computers have the programme MovieMaker and students can use still images if you don't have access to a video camera.
Using movies to promote your department
Using movies to promote your department
I make movies to promote the department. Recordings made on fieldwork can be edited into great clips to show on open evenings. I can't put any of them on this website due to parental consent, but you can view an example of a promotional video using still images and simple footage below:
You don't need video footage or fancy software in order to make a movie - still images will do and MovieMaker is on most computers as standard. This makes it a great lesson idea.
KS3 Super Powers video lesson (includes lesson plan, exemplar video and instructions).
KS4 Rivers video lesson (includes lesson plan and instructions - exemplar videos can be found at Geography at the Movies)
KS5 Migration video lesson (instructions only)
I often make revision movies in Pinnacle Studio v11 Ultimate, which costs around £70 - I can't put most of them on here as I tend to use students as presenters. If you follow the GCSE OCR Bristol Project specification, you might find this one on Natural Hazards useful and it only 'stars' me so you can use it if you wish! Pinnacle is much more sophisticated than MovieMaker, as you'll be able to see from the special effects on the Hazards video (green screen etc. comes with Ultimate 11). However, there are still some glitches with the rendering that were present in earlier versions, which sometimes requires patience.
Download the Mr Men Economic Activity video here. I've made this video using clips from various episodes of the new Mr Men series. It probably won't stretch the more able, but you might find it useful with lower ability or younger classes. In response to requests from the Business Studies teachers using geographygeek, click here for a Business Studies version of the video (without reference to the Quaternary sector)
Make your own geography animations for use in the classroom at http://goanimate.com. Here's one I made earlier about weather and climate:
You can also download some great video resources for free from most websites (click here for some links). If you have any trouble with file formats, there are plenty of websites that can help you to download pretty much anything.
In order to record with Real Player, ensure that the Web Download and Record feature is enabled during your initial RealPlayer setup. If you forgot to do this, go into the tools menu, then select preferences and then download and recording. Finally, tick the box to enable web downloading and recording.
Click here to download a resource based on the MTV Water for Life Jay Z diaries. Click here to go to the MTV website to download the video.
You can record and edit just about anything you want from your TV, using a freeview box, as long as you get one with a hard drive and usb port. I regularly record things off the TV and use them in the classroom the following day - it means that you have the most up to date footage at your disposal.
There are two great products out there at the minute:
1. Humax Digital Freeview Box with 160GB hard drive (PVR9200T)
2. Sagem Digital TV recorder with 320GB hard drive. This is even easier than the Humax as you can plug it straight into your hard drive.
A DivX Converter programme will compress any video files - this is useful if you've got a maximum userspace capacity on your school shared drive. However, converting to DIVX can sometimes reduce the quality or mess with the synchronisation of the sound and vision. Best to experiment with something you don't mind losing first!
