Sharing the Addiction

I have posted a couple of times about using Flickr and associated tools. I am running a workshop on this topic tomorrow so have created a handout with a summary of all aspects of Flickr and some educational examples. some of this content is replicated on my wiki page but it goes into far more detail. I have embedded a Scribd copy of the document on my Flickr wiki page as well as uploading the PDF file for you to download from there. I am reasonably happy with it! If you can find any errors, let me know so I can fix them up As it says at the bottom of each page, I am happy for it to be used by anyone else as long as the footer is kept in place.

Enjoy!   http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/Flickr

Tags: flickr, tutorials

In many schools, YouTube is blocked by filters due to concerns with inappropriate content being on the site that kids could access. However, there are a lot of fabulous video resources that could be used in an educational context that are also being blocked. Still, if you have access to YouTube at home, there are ways to download the videos to your laptop to be played in class. This also solves problems with slow streaming speed (videos stopping and starting as they load).

Step One - Downloading
Downloading the video using a Firefox Extension
If you have Firefox (or Flock) as your web browser, there is a very handy Add-on that you can install for free into Firefox that will allow you to download videos from YouTube and other similar sites. It is called Download Helper. When it is installed and you are on a page with a specific video, you will see a group of coloured balls rotating next to the URL address. Click on the down arrow next to the balls and you will see the flv file for that video that you can then click on to download.

Downloading the Video Using Online Services
This site asks you to paste in the web address of your video and then it will download it. It also offers a free FLV player to download to view videos.

Zamzar is another site for getting videos but it has the added advantage of letting you choose what format you would like the video. It converts the video and then sends you an email with a link to download it.

Downloading the video using Mac software Tube TV
If you have a Mac, you have another option if you download a free application called TubeTV. You open up the application and then use the search within the program to locate a video that you want. Then you can click on the black download arrow. This program also has additional features such as automatically converting the video to other formats from flv which makes it easy to play back.

Step Two - Playing Back Movie
If you don’t use TubeTV to convert the file, you will have an flv file which won’t play in either Quicktime or Windows Media Player. I will quickly cover options for fixing this for both Mac and PC users.

Perian Plugin for Quicktime on a Mac
First, go to the Perian website and download this plugin and follow installation instructions. Perian will now be added to the bottom section of your System Preferences window. Open your downloaded video in Quicktime and the flv file will now play. VLC player can also be downloaded for Macs but Perian means that you can still stay within Quicktime rather than have to use a different player.

VLC Player on a PC
This is freeware software that you can download and install. If you open up your downloaded video file in VLC, it will play without any problems. If you still want to play your video within a popular player such as Windows Media Player, there are other applications and plugins that you can install. Check out this website to get instructions.

Well, I’ve been rather quiet recently as the Year Group meetings take quite a long time to put together. Stil, I have been finding some very interesting bits and pieces as I prepare for them and I have also been making some handouts for workshops that others might be interested in.

OK - here is a list of things that may or may not be useful to you.

List of links for different year groups.
http://zerototwo.wikispaces.com/Great+links+for+Juniors
http://threetofour.wikispaces.com/Yr+3and4+Links
http://fivetosix.wikispaces.com/Yr+5and6+Links (still being worked on)
http://seventoeight.wikispaces.com/Yr+7and8+Links

When you on each year group space, you will notice in the left hand navigation menu that there are also pages for great use of ICT under different currciulum headings. I have started to add to these but this will be an ongoing project.

Here are the links to some of my latest software wiki resources

• A huge bank of sites to find film resources and short films that you could use in the classroom.
• A restructuring of my large wikis page into smaller pages with two new downloadable tutorials added to the Wikispaces page.
• Two new downloadable tutorials on my Powerpoint page about adding audio and about customising backgrounds of slides.
• Much prettier and easier to use index pages such as this one for online tools.

I have also found a really great resource on the Google Educators page with this unit on using Google Docs for revision of writing. There are a number of downloadable worksheets to support the unit. There are a number of other resources on the Google Educators page so it is worth checking out.

PBWiki

Just a quick note about PBWiki. Recently, I have decided that it is a really good option amongst the wikis due to the ease with which you can format the pages and the extra features you can add to your pages compared to some of the other wikis. I get their newsletter and one interesting thing that was included was a link to a page of free video tutorials by Atomic Learning about pbwiki. I found out a couple of things I didn’t know about the wiki such as the fact that when you add a calendar, other people are able to add events directly on the calendar which is something that I have been looking around for some time now.

Check out the tutorials here:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/pbwiki

I have also got a few schools that are interested in learning more about the Spike LMS. It seems quite a good option and schools that are using it already seem pretty happy with it. If anyone has stories to tell about Spike, let me know.

Finally, I have just re-discovered the Google Page Maker tool that I played with a long time ago. With its attractive templates and ease of use, it could be a better option that a wiki for those teachers that don’t want the collaborative aspects of a wiki though as long as you log in to your page, it can be edited anywhere.

Here is a link to my test page that I created a long time ago.
http://suzievesper.googlepages.com/
This image shows some of the features available on the page.

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