We have been using Blip.tv to host quite a few CORE videos recently. We went with Blip as it allows you to embed private videos which we needed – especially with Google Video disappearing (and the quality of Google Video was pretty dire too!). CORE did need to pay to have a Pro account but it was a very reasonable price.
At first I was frustrated with what I perceived to be limited options for the players that would contain the videos when they were embedded on another site. I used an older version of the player as I thought it was the only option where people wouldn’t be given a link to go back to Blip or the option of embedding the video themselves. It was only when I sent a message off to the help desk about removing the ‘More’ button at the end of the video that I found out just how customisable the newer player can be. I am able to choose which buttons to place underneath the video, what site I want to have the video link to in the bottom corner and a host of other things about how the video plays. I can also set the colour scheme for the player and can upload a thumbnail image of my choice that is visible before playing the video. They have a list of all the different ways the player can be customised on a wiki (need to log in to access it so I won’t link to it here).
I certainly found this very handy and thought others using Blip might want to know where to go to do the same. To make your own customised player in Blip which you can then save as a preset and use for future videos, get to the settings by going to your Dashboard and then clicking on ‘Manage Show Players’ under the Quick Tasks heading on the right.
Here is an example of a modified player – I just uploaded a brief clip of how the sliders in the EPS2.0 tool work. Note the branding on the player and the link back to the EPS website. The video quality isn’t that high as I cut it down in size to upload quickly but you can get the idea.
This could be an option for schools wanting to have videos hosted cheaply but without worrying about advertising or people being directed towards other sites or inappropriate videos after viewing any embedded video.
An interesting thing happened this afternoon. I opened up my http://learningweb2.wikispaces.com wiki to find the content on the front page had disappeared with a single line on the page saying “THIS WAS DEMOLISHED BY JAMZ1″. Having never had one of my pages vandalised before, I hopped into the page history to see who was at fault and discovered from the profile of the user that it was a 10 year old boy in Scotland. The actual page was very easy to fix given that I just had to roll back to an earlier version of the page. I then pondered if I should send the lad a message but then decided this might seem a victory to the boy as it would prove I had visited his profile and probably his wiki which may have been his goal in the first place.
So instead of rewarding him with attention, I sent this message to the Wikispaces team:
I just wanted to report that a Wikispaces member has purposely deleted the content from one of my wiki pages. I have reverted it back to before it was deleted so no real damage done but still think that this isn’t an appropriate way to behave on the web. When I checked out the history, it was deleted by a user called spyguy4 who it appears is a 10 year old boy in Scotland. I was thinking of sending him a message myself but didn’t want to reward his behaviour with attention – I thought it might be better coming from the Wikispaces team
Action following this message was swift – Wikispaces got back to me to say that they have suspended his account. And now I find myself feeling a little guilty! The kid had spent a bit of time setting up a wiki showcasing all of his interests (video games, cars etc) which I guess he can’t access anymore! I thought maybe a stern talking to would have done the trick. Still, I guess this is a very clear lesson for the youngster on what happens if you behave badly in virtual spaces. What would you have done in the same situation? Do you think the punishment matches the crime?
This post is a plug for a reading campaign being supported by the Christchurch Library staff. They emailed me asking if I could promote the reading crusade and I am happy to help! Here are the details:
In February 2009 Christchurch City Libraries and the Crusaders are once again joining forces to recreate that exciting reading promotion, the Reading Crusade. Crusaders, librarians and teachers will be working in partnership to encourage reading throughout the first term of the 2009 year.
Any primary or intermediate child living in the Crusader Franchise catchment which includes Canterbury, the West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough is eligible to enter and be in to win a number of great prizes – the grand prize sees a ‘team’ of 15 children winning the chance to join the Crusaders squad at a special training session. All those entered in the Crusade will receive a participation certificate printed with the signatures of all the Crusaders team.
This year the Reading Crusade has a blog! Designed to help teachers get the most out of the reading crusade, it will feature:
Add it to your RSS feed, be emailed site updates or just add it to your Bookmarks. You can also contact us via an email link to ask questions, get help with resources or ask detailed questions about the offside rule.
In February 2009 Christchurch City Libraries and the 
Flickr/suzievesper
Facebook/Suzie Vesper
Twitter/suziea
YouTube/suziea
Del.icio.us/vespers1
GMail/Suzie Vesper
Blog/Suzie Vesper
Diigo/suzievesper
