Last week was a busy one on the Stratepedia Blog! Here are some of the things you may have missed:
On Tuesday, I provided a short review of Nota, an online tool for creating interactive, media-rich posters. We got some good ideas in the comments about ways to put Nota to use at conferences–please add your thoughts!
On Wednesday, Amber shared the scant details of an upcoming Apple press event. Among other things, Apple is rumored to be announcing its long-anticipated tablet computer at this event. If it supports a stylus, I’m sold–but I’d be content personally with updated MacBook Pros and news on iPhone OS 4.0.
On Thursday, Amber provided a definition of SIM card. If there’s a tech term you’ve been wondering about, let us know via our help request form and we’ll explain it in a future blog post.
Also on Thursday, we announced two upcoming Depot webcasts to provide an introduction or refresher to Depot, our site for sharing your Content Enhancement examples. Still plenty of virtual seats, but enrollment in each session is limited. Register today!
It’s no news that small, budget-friendly cameras like the Flip series from Cisco have made a splash in education and professional development. Mobile devices like the iPod nano and iPhone also pack video recording features, as do many consumer-level digital cameras. While these cameras are easy to pack and pay for, they don’t provide the same level of quality you’d get with a larger, more expensive digital video camera. Yes, there are tradeoffs, but you can still get good results from cheap cameras by paying attention to a few details:
1. Audio
The top issue I hear about from people using Flip cameras is audio–everything is too quiet! Unfortunately, it’s hard to pack a professional-level microphone in a device as small and inexpensive as a Flip, but there are several things you can do to get the most out of the Flip’s microphone. Some Flip competitors such as the Kodak Zi8 support external microphones, but unless you spend a few hundred dollars at the minimum on your external mic, you’re liable to experience similar problems.
For classroom settings, perhaps the best things you can do are get the camera as close to the subject as possible and keep it pointed at the subject. This isn’t as convenient as setting up the camera in the back of the room, but a necessary tradeoff for better quality.
You can also boost the audio volume in your recording after you’ve saved the clip to your computer, using Windows Movie Maker in Windows or iMovie on a Mac. Be aware, however, that this will also amplify any ambient sound your camera’s microphone picked up during recording.
2. Composition
Here’s a low-tech solution that will help make your video look more professional–apply the Rule of Threes (or Rule of Thirds) to your shots to help tell the story you’re trying to convey. This short video explains this rule:
3. Lighting
It’s common practice to dim the lights in a room when someone’s presenting, in order to make the screen projection as visible as possible. Be aware that this may adversely affect your video recording of the situation. Most cameras try to compensate for low-light situations, but they don’t always do a very good job.
The best way to address this is to take a few minutes prior to the class (or whatever you’re recording) to experiment with different lighting settings. Look for a happy medium between a visible projection and a tolerable video recording. If recording what’s being presented is the most important thing, consider using screen recording software like Camtasia, ScreenFlow, or Jing to capture the presentation. (If you want to get fancy you could record the screen activity and the room activity separately and paste them together during editing, but that’s another topic for another time.)
4. Stabilizing
Use a tripod. The Flip-branded tripod is super-portable and great if you’ve got a desk or other nearby flat surface on which to set the camera. You can also use a standard camera tripod with most small video cameras–check your favorite electronics or camera stores; there are good, lightweight tripods to be had for around 30 dollars. For even more flexibility, check out the Gorillapod lineup.
If you’re using your iPhone or iPod nano to record video, you’ll need to buy an adapter to connect it to your tripod–search Amazon and other online retailers to select from several options. If you’re crafty you might even be able to build one yourself!
5. Editing
Although Flip cameras come bundled with basic editing software, chances are you already have more powerful editing tools installed on your computer in the form of Windows Movie Maker (Windows) or iMovie (Macintosh). It’s relatively easy to import your video clips directly into either of these tools to add titles and effects to your videos, or add clips to larger video projects.
When recording video, you can make things easier on yourself when it comes time to edit by breaking your recording into smaller segments. For example, say you’re recording three individual presentations within a 60 minute timeframe. Rather than pressing the record button and sitting back for the hour while the camera rolls, record each presentation individually. This will cut down on editing time and make it easier to locate the individual clips.
Your tips are appreciated!
What tips do you have for using small, cheap video cameras? Please share them in the comments below. Have a great weekend!
Some of our most popular blog posts have to do with video, so for this week’s Friday Five I thought I’d share some new trends in video, from both a technical and practical standpoint.
1. vixy.net
vixy.net is another utility to save online video from the likes of YouTube to your computer. To use it, copy the web address (URL) of the page with video, then go to vixy.net, paste the address into the form, and let the conversion begin. Note it doesn’t work with Hulu, so it may not work with other sites either. There’s also a downloadable converter for Windows and Mac computers.
2. Evom
Evom has become my new preferred way to convert large video files to more manageable formats. It’s helped make gigantic high definition files more suitable for streaming over iChat–but I’ll get to that in a minute. Evom is Mac-only and currently in beta. It’s free, though don’t be surprised it it’ll set you back a couple of bucks once a final version is released.
3. FlipShare TV
Earlier this week, Cisco announced a new device to connect Flip cameras to a computer screen for easy viewing. Will this be useful or not? You tell me. I theorize that it could make quick review of video more convenient by making it available on a larger screen. Some pundits had speculated that Flip cameras would soon come with built-in wifi–maybe this is the next best thing.
4. Video feedback
Last week CRL Director Don Deshler shared a Harvard Business piece with several of us entitled “Give Feedback with Video.” It’s interesting that feedback techniques that have long held a place in sports coaching–check out Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis sometime. Anyway, the article notes as I have here in the past that with today’s proliferation of video cameras, video phones, laptops and iPods with built-in cameras, and so on, that video is becoming a powerful and affordable tool for staff improvement and self improvement.
5. Stratepedia’s work with distance coaching
Last–and maybe least, but hopefully not–I’d like to give you a small glimpse of some work we’ve been doing at the CRL involving iChat (Apple’s built-in collaboration tool), video, and instructional coaching. Imagine being a teacher and being able to work with a perfect coach–someone who has the right experience and temperament to help you excel in your classroom. What if that coach lives 1,000 miles away? That’s the challenge we’re working to solve by developing a model for recording teaching sessions and then watching them together, either one-on-one or in a small group, using basic desktop video conferencing technology. It’s very new–and very rough–but we hope to have something to share with you at next summer’s SIM conference in Lawrence.
Do you have a new favorite video tool? Please share it with us and others in the comments below. Have a great weekend!
Friday’s here! I just looked back at the archives and see that this is our dozenth edition of Friday Five. Today I’ll revisit the topic that kicked us off: How do you save online video? Although that article is dominated by YouTube (as is the online video landscape in general) there are several alternatives for finding quality video for instruction and professional development. Some of these alternatives may be especially appealing to educators who are unable to access the likes of YouTube from behind school firewalls.
1. Teacher Tube
TeacherTube is–as you might suspect–like YouTube, but with teaching in mind. Materials on TeacherTube are created by and for educators and students. Videos and comments are moderated for a safer browsing and learning experience. Note that TeacherTube is ad-supported–just create an account and sign in to skip the ads.
2. Google Video
Before they bought YouTube, Google created their own video sharing service. It still exists, but its popularity pales in comparison to that of YouTube. It also suffers from the poor signal-to-noise ratio that YouTube does; however, if you log in with your Google account you can set filters for safer searching.
3. Vimeo
Personally speaking, Vimeo is my favorite video sharing service. It’s friendly, easy to use, and provides privacy considerations other services may not include. Vimeo is especially useful for sharing clips you may not want the whole world to see, but do want to provide limited access to via a password. Vimeo’s community guidelines are a good model for keeping an online ecosystem civil and secure.
4. Blip.tv
Blip.tv caters more to video makers who are creating series as opposed to one-time clips. It does this by presenting material using a familiar metaphor of shows and episodes (as in, a show consists of multiple episodes). Blip.tv is easieset to use when you know exactly what it is you’re looking for–a favorite podcast, for example–but once you’ve found the show it’s easy to feed it into your favorite podcast viewer (such as iTunes) or watch it directly in your web browser.
I’ve been a fan of the blog Teaching Online Journalism. The author, Mindy McAdams, teaches university-level courses on journalism, and her blog focuses on using multimedia to tell stories. As someone with an undergraduate degree in journalism and a graduate degree in instructional design and technology, I think there’s an increasingly large overlap in the skills required of reporters and instructional designers. To this end, McAdams has developed a Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, but it’s full of tutorials you can use even if you’re not a reporter.
The guide covers blogging, RSS, podcasting and audio editing, basic photography and videography, and photo editing; and ends with advice on keeping your own technology skills up-to-date. When possible, McAdams uses free tools as examples for each skill. If you work with technology as an instructor, student, researcher, or presenter, I highly recommend saving a copy of the guide and referring to it as you build your own multimedia skill set.
We’re excited to share Jim Knight’s CRL Learns Workout session on the Big Four with you live on Wednesday! Sorry for the late notice, but please feel free to join us in a live, online broadcast. If all goes according to plan, you may even get to ask a question or two through the chat panel, for Jim to answer on the air.
If you can watch YouTube videos on your computer, you probably have the required technology to watch this presentation. Video of the presentation will also be archived, theoretically.
Please note this is all an experiment. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, hopefully we learned something in the process. Either way, I hope you’ll be able to join us online for this event.
Saving online video for use in lessons and presentations is a common how-to topic for us, both on this blog and at conferences. In this inaugural Friday Five, we’ll point you to five ways you can accomplish this.
Direct from YouTube: YouTube provides some content–primarily provided by academic institutions such as Stanford–directly for download from their site. Here’s a short tutorial on how to locate and save such video on YouTube.
Windows software: There are quite a few programs for Windows computers for saving video. A recent one I’ve read about is Hulu Video Downloader, which saves not only from Hulu but other video sharing sites like YouTube as well. A free version is available in addition to a for-pay one.
Macintosh software: Sadly, super-useful TubeTV no longer appears to work with YouTube-hosted videos, but you may have luck using it on other video sites. Here’s out tutorial for using TubeTV. There’s an alternative to TubeTV called Flash Video Downloader, but its interface is kind of confusing.
Web-based video tools:KickYouTube is the easiest web-based tool I know of for grabbing and saving video from YouTube. No software is required, but Amber’s tutorial on using KickYouTube is a helpful starting point.
Firefox video tools: If your web browser of choice is Firefox, there are a few plugins for saving video. Of note are Web Video Downloader, which also saves some online games for local use; and Video DownloadHelper.
Update: The good folks at Mashable, who always do a great job of creating comprehensive lists of resources like these, posted a huge list of video download tools just yesterday. Barb Dybwad, the author, also reminds us to be wary that such tools, with the exception of the “direct from YouTube” option I listed, are in violation of YouTube’s terms of service (and those of most other video hosting sites, I would imagine)–so buyer beware.
What’s your favorite tool for saving online video? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Last week I mentioned that the Library of Congress was making its audio archives available through iTunes. Now you can also access a growing collection of archived video via the LOC YouTube channel, including book readings, old films, and historical documentaries.
If you’re a professional developer planning to use one of these videos in a school, don’t forget that many districts block access to YouTube (and other video sharing services), so plan ahead! You can use software like TubeTV or online services like KickYouTube (just add the word kick in front of youtube.com in the video’s web address) to save a copy of a clip to your hard drive.
YouTube EDU highlights academic content from around the popular video sharing service. I don’t know how much of it would be applicable to K-12 learning, but it’s a very neat concept–especially considering that it was a volunteer effort by YouTube employees to showcase this type of material.
Unfortunately, many school districts block access to YouTube, but, much of this content is downloadable directly from YouTube (I talked about how to download video officially from YouTube last month)–or via less-official ways like KickYouTube or TubeTV. Keep that in mind if you find a clip you’d like to use in your professional development or teaching.
