Equipment Basics

What do you need to get started? Here's a list of the bare minimums:

1. A video capture card. If you've purchased a Macintosh computer in the last few years, chances are it came with FireWire. This port allows you to connect a DV camera to your computer and import video. If you use Windows, you can buy a FireWire card for as little as $50. If you have an older camcorder, it might be more economical to purchase a video capture card that connects using a standard RCA cable, however, the picture quality won¹t be nearly as good.
   
   
2. A video camera. DV cameras have come down in price recently and you can probably find one for as little as $350. Don't have that kind of cash? Ask parents if they have a camera they'd be willing to loan to the class during a project.
   
   
3. Video Editing Software. For Macintosh, your best bet is iMovie, which is bundled free with every computer. Windows XP and ME users have the option of using MovieMaker, another free but functional video-editing package. Even if the only program you have is KidPix, you can still import short video clips into a slide show.

Other tools that are nice to have but not essential include an external microphone, tripod, and spotlight as well as a scanner and digital camera.

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Teacher's Guide to Making Student Movies
With the advent of inexpensive video-editing tools such as iMovie and MovieMaker, digital video has become accessible to many classrooms. Here's the story of one teacher's experience with student-created movies.

From the Beltway: Tech Support That Works
Four inexpensive tech-support options to help your school achieve a successful technology implementation.

Face to Face: Alan Kay Still Waiting for the Revolution
Since inventing much of the technology behind personal computing in the late 1960s, Alan Kay has dedicated his work to developing better learning environments for children. Now a senior researcher at HP and the president of Viewpoints Research Institute, Kay is launching Squeak, a multimedia authoring tool that allows children to construct dynamic simulations of real-world phenomena.