PowerPoint as Movie

In the spring, my students will once again be creating digital picture books, using Powerpoint as a platform for creation. In the past, I have grappled with how best to present the final products in multiple forms — as a slideshow, as a PDF and on paper. I wanted to make them into videos, too, but couldn’t quite figure it out.

I took the plunge this weekend and purchased some software from Wondershare that does take Powerpoint and converts it into a video, complete with animation and voice left in. It’s not so bad and I am thinking of how I can try to experiment with this in my classroom before the picture book unit rolls around.

Here is a book that I made last year:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8690927707479293668" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Here are a few of the stories from students from last year:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6898363634712354140" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-1300180233155542124" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

I wish the audio were better quality but PP does a terrible job with audio, I have found.

Peace (in PP),
Kevin

6 Comments
  1. Just a suggestion. I have done this in the past using powerpoint to create the storyboard and finished slides. It is really good for this because of all the editing options available. When I’ve finished the visuals in powerpoint I save each slide as a jpeg and then drop them in to moviemaker (or iMovie if you have a Mac) to turn them into a movie. You can use audacity to record an audio track and drop that in to moviemaker or I use my iPod to record cause the quality is pretty good and then export from iTunes as mp3 file and import that into moviemaker as the soundtrack. Sounds complicated but it isn’t too bad really. Add your finishing touches in moviemaker and there it is.

  2. Paul
    Good points.
    I have done just what you said but what was lost was the animation and that is something that I wanted to keep in the digital books-to-movie idea. But I have not used a voice recorder to do so sound and I prob should give that a try, even though it might add time to an already long project. I guess we give up time for quality and that should be a fair trade-off, right?

    Kevin

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