Create a Sample Digital Story

To get students familiar with how to put together a very short digital story, this practical exercise using clip art (instead of photographs) may be helpful:

First, have students create a new folder on their desktop named something like "sample digital story."
Then, have them right-click on each of these eight images in the boxes below and save the images to that folder one at a time.
Now, have them open up MovieMaker program (which can often be found in accessories section of Start button, but you may want to create a shortcut right on the desktop for students to easily access before the lesson. If you can't find MovieMaker, then use the "Search" command under Start button with "movie" as your keyword and when the program is found, drag it onto your desktop as a shortcut icon).
Under "Tools" of MovieMaker, click on command to "Create New Collection" -- which is just an area in MovieMaker where your images will go before being added into the movie. Give this Collection file a name, such as "Sample Story."
Under "File" of MovieMaker, click on "Import into Collection" and then browse to find the desktop folder with the saved images. Click on each image, or select all, and then import. All the images should now appear in the Collection folder in MovieMaker.
At the bottom of the screen, there is a button that says "Show Storyline." Click this, and it will present a series of boxes -- these are the frames of your movie. Now, just click on an image from Collection and drag the image into one of the boxes. Continue dragging images until you've created the sequence of images you want.
To add a title to your movie either/or at the start and end, go to "Tools" and then down to "Titles and Credits" and follow the directions. To add transitions between frames, go to "Tools" and down to "Video Transition." Click on your choice of transitions and drag down to the area before the image. To add effects to images, go to "Tools" and then down to "Video Effect," and click on your choice of effects and drag down to the small box on the lower left corner of the image you want to be affected.
To view the sequence, just click on the play button below the little viewing screen to the right. If you want an image to last longer or shorter on the screen, you first need to hit "Show Timeline" icon. Then click on the right side of the image in the timeline and drag either left or right to make longer or shorter.
To add narration, you will need a microphone with a 1/8" jack that can be plugged into the back of your computer. Then, go to "Tools" and down to "Narrate Timeline." When you are ready, click on "Start Narration" and when done, click on "Stop Narration." The file will be saved within your Collections, and then you just drag it down to the space beneath the images in "Timeline" mode. You can move the narration file simply by clicking on it and moving it left and right.
When you are satisfied, go to "File" and down to "Save Movie" and say "yes" to all the prompts. This will create the actual movie file for viewing in your media player.