EdTechTrek

Space is limited. Bandwidth is limited. I ran across this article from MacWorld and thought I would share it with you, as I found it a useful resource. The tidbit that I liked the most was learning about Vimeo, which offers a “family friendly” viewing option, as we all know that using free resources often exposes our viewers to advertisements, hyperlinks, and limited control. That option could be very useful with posting video for students as well. Of course, posting your videos on wiki or blog will do the trick, assuming you have enough storage space to host your own video content and sufficient bandwidth to deliver the content to your audience. Below is a table that you will find in the article that summarizes basic features.

I recently learned of a new tool called Tooble that was introduced at Macworld Expo 2008. What is amazing is that this tool has been created by 2 high school teenagers! It is a free download and once it is installed, it works with YouTube and first downloads then converts your selected videos to .MP4 format. It will even automatically add them to your iTunes library if you wish and compatible for your iPod. For me, this is great because I never like to rely solely on a network connection when I want to show videos to my students in class or in a presentation elsewhere. I have been using Zamzar to convert such flash videos, but this tool makes it even easier. Here’s how it works (the functions correspond to the image below).

1. You can enter a URL of a specific video

2. You can search for a video at YouTube

3. You can search by YouTube’s common filters as well as your own favorites

4. Select the video(s) you want converted and saved locally as .mp4 files

5. Click “Download” and the magic begins.

It could not have been easier! For now it is only Mac compatible, but one of the high school students, Alex Catullo, is working on the Windows version. Thanks to their computer science teacher for encouraging powerful uses of technology beyond shallow mind maps, dull PowerPoints, and pretty page layouts.

Google has pitched a new form of video authoring, done collaboratively, but asynchronously. They have an ongoing challenge for individuals to video a 10 second video clip with the Google Mail icon moving from left to right across the frame and they are stitching together the most creative clips to form one video short highlighting Gmail. What a cool idea. We have seen so many collaborative 2.0 learning activities that have occurred online, but collaborative video brings a whole new form of collaborative authoring. Think of the creativity that could be unleashed if a digital story, for example, was researched, written, storyboarded, filmed, and edited by groups of students who do not even live in the same country or continent. What rich perspective in the form of video could be achieved. Think of the authentic discussions that would be going on behind the scenes as the final product was negotiated. Logistically, there would be some hurdles to overcome, but the idea is fascinating! The learning potential is astounding!