Google Documents Survey

Here is my google documents survey.

Youtube

I have noticed that most school systems block youtube from school computers because of the content contained on the website. While much of the content is inappropriate, there are educational resources on these websites like youtube that would be beneficial for the class. The question becomes how do you get these resources into the classroom when the content is blocked? I went to google and typed in that question. I found a video here that discussed downloading youtube videos. I followed the directions on the video, but I could not get the website savevid.com to work. After that failed, I watched another video here that sent me to a website called media-convert.com. I could not get this website to work as well. I found a third video discussing downloading youtube videos here. This video sent me to realplayercafe.com. I followed the instructions and downloaded the free version of realplayer. I went back to youtube and this time it worked! I downloaded the video entitled "The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)" and uploaded it onto my ftp site here. I can download any video on youtube and can play it as long as the student has the free version of real player.

Portable Applications

Find my opinions about portable applications here.

NING Social Network

I think the NING social network can be used in an academic setting to allow students to be able to work on group projects without having to meet with each other in person. It would allow the entire class to work together and add to the conversation. This would be a great way for teachers to have discussions about their classrooms and get some advice from other educators. Young teachers could post their problems/questions into the blog section so more experienced teachers could give them advice. Educators could use the social network to communicate to students and parents about upcoming projects and assignments. The parents would be able to stay on top of the class assignments. Parents and students would need to fill out acceptable use agreements that would shield the school from liability if something inappropriate were to be posted on the network. Find out how to set up a NING social network by clicking here.

Updated Skype Manual

Here is my final version of the Skype Manual.

My Skype Manual

Here is my manual for downloading and using Skype.

This Week

This week I learned how to use photo story 3. I uploaded my photo story to the ftp website at this location. I think it is a good application for creating a slideshow. I like how you can add narration for each individual picture. I have made slideshows before, but I had always used Windows Movie Maker. Movie Maker just streams the audio and you have to be careful to make sure that you are speaking about the correct picture. Photo Story 3 makes it nice that you do not worry about and know that the narration will match the picture. I do find it a little constrictive because you can't spread a narration over several pictures. You can't read a sentence and had three different images associated with it. This was the first time I had ever used a microphone. A couple times I may gotten a little close to the microphone during narration. It will take some practice to get used to how to best utilize a microphone.