PE5_Viddler to Blogger to Edublogs

I can't seem to win on this posting issue. I just wasted the last three hours and $15 trying to figure out a hosting solution for the podcasts that my students will be making. As it turns out Viddler will not work for photo podcasts created in GarageBand, because these are technically just enhanced audio files. This has left me in the lurch. I started looking for podcast hosting sites and again everything that is free only has around 20MB of storage which probably won't cut it for multiple projects being uploaded in a week. I discovered that I can post them via most blogs, so I tried it out in Blogger with success as shown below:

However, here I am left with access to adult content, and privacy issues. I saw a post from Alison about Edublogs and I went there and it looked to be perfect solution as long as I payed for a Pro version upgrade.

So with my options limited at midnight on a Friday, and thinking this would be a good long term solution and tool, I shelled out $15.00  and signed up. I attempted a test post and to my disappointment and frustration Edublogs will only play the audio portion of the podcast it does not show the photos. The Premium customer service I payed for only operates Monday-Friday. So I will not receive an answer to my problem before I need to implement this project Monday morning. So at this point I am out of options. I would love to hear some suggestions if anyone has them. If you are reading this and have produced GarageBand photo podcasts and successfully posted them online for your students to provide comments, I would love to hear your solution.

PE4_Viddler

Image courtesy of MS Office Clip Art

After recovering from my “deer in headlights” feelings of amazement and wonder at the abundance of Web 2.0 tools that are currently available, reality set in as I struggled to find one that was going to fit my needs. At first I was simply overwhelmed by the options and found myself spending precious hours checking out link after link on sites like Go2Web2.0, and Web 2.0 Guru. Each link had potential but none seemed totally feasible for the project I had in mind. I thought about utilizing either Popplet for a group planning project, or simply grabbing challenges from InterroBang, but again these didn’t quite fit with the content I needed to address.

Since the project that I wanted my students to undertake was to create a photo podcast in GarageBand I decided that I should try to find an online collaborative photostory-type application. Basically I was hoping to find a site that would allow various users to upload pictures to a common timeline and then add music and voiceover recording to the pictures. I ran across a couple options but none had all the components that I needed, namely the collaborative features, voice recording capabilites, and free use. For example Animoto is a slick site that turns your images into dynamic animated movies and sets them to music but does not allow precision voice recording as it sounds like their movies are assembled via some sort of algorithm. 

Sliderocket is a cloud based enterprise presentation solution that allows for the creation of dynamic slide presentations that can include real time RSS feeds and other social media. Multiple users from different locations can work these presentations simultaneously and everything gets updated via the cloud. Very Cool! This would have been perfect except that the free version did not include any voice or multimedia capabilites. 

VuVox was another slick site that allows you to create multimedia collages that can be scrolled through like a timeline. Unfortunately this one was blocked by my school’s web filtering, and I didn’t have the time this week to take up this battle. 

Finally there was JayCut which looks like it will be pretty cutting edge, but it is either not yet live or it was recently acquired my RIM to be included in future Blackberry Smart phones (gotta keep up with the iPhone somehow) so was none the less unavailable.

So I decided to go back to using GarageBand for the podcast, and that I would try to address an online posting solution that would allow my students to provide feedback on each other’s work. This is something that I have struggled with since I began teaching. My first year I knew I needed to get stuff online, but as it was my first year teaching, this quickly fell to the bottom of my list of priorities. My second year I created a iWeb page for my classes and began posting student work here. Unfortunately my administrators, due to the “public display of students faces” issue, shut this down a year later. I started using Schooltube but found this to be cumbersome and extremely difficult to manage (I still don’t know how to delete content from my own channel). So after all of this I decided to fall back on the familiar once again and utilize the video hosting site introduced in the EMDT program, Viddler.

The free version of Viddler has some limitations, such as the weekly 2GB upload/download limit, but I decided that I might just be able to make it under the limit, especially since we are only using GarageBand on this first project. On the plus side Viddler has very simple and straight forward video management capabilities that make organization a breeze. 

So I set up a new account specifically for my classrooms, and created groups for each classes’ work. To resolve the privacy dilemma, I will be making all the videos private, viewable only by the “MrShup” user, but providing all my students with this login information. Hopefully this will create enough of a restricted access situation to diminish the privacy concerns. Unfortunately this also has downside. When all students log in as “MrShup” all their comments show up as “MrShup.” To resolve this I plan to require all my students to simply include their names in their posts.

So after a long week of exploration I haven’t ended up going too far from what I know, but I think it is the right decision. Tune back in in a week or so for an update on how it all pans out.

BP7_INTERROBANG Commercial

I liked InterroBang so much I created this commercial.

BP4_INTERROBANG

InterroBang is a website that makes a game out of Challenge-Based Learning. There are two different user options; one for teachers and one for students. However, both types of user can attempt to complete any of the provided challenges. Each challenge has 4 steps.

This was my challenge!

1.     Accept the Challenge:

There are hundreds of challenges that with different point values. Challenges address themes like creativity, culture, science, and service learning. Teachers can also create their own challenges. The more difficult the challenge the more points you can earn.

Since it was the weekend I didn't
have any collaborators to
work with.

2.    Review the Project Requirements and Assemble a Team.

Students can choose their teammates and review a rubric outlining the project requirements.

3.     Complete the Challenge

Students can print out the project requirements then attempt to complete the challenge.

This is the start of my nature hike

A photo of an aspen tree on my hike.

Research about aspen trees

4.     Post your completed challenge on the site.

Students are asked to document their process through out and post evidence to the InterroBang website. Most challenges have a photo or video component built into the project. This gets digital tools into the hands of students and provides them with direction for using them appropriately.

Once you have uploaded your content you must wait for it to be reviewed by a mentor. If the mentor feels the project is not completed according to the rubric they will request revisions before the project gets posted to the site, points are awarded to the students, and it appears in their ‘Deeds’.

 As students earn points the also earn ‘badges.’ Badges are also awarded for inclusion of different elements in a project like scientific process, or a piece of fine art. The points and badges create a game-like feedback loop in which students are always trying to reach higher levels or acquire more badges.

This website seems really powerful as it engages students in challenge/project-based learning activities, while simultaneously developing digital literacy. The large variety of activities should make it easy to find projects that align with a variety of curriculums and content standards. Plus it is a virtual gold mine for teachers that are looking for engaging activities for their students. The reason I like this one in particular is that many of the projects incorporate video. I can see tapping into this source often to keep my curriculum fresh, and help students draw connections to other subject areas.

Check it out, try it out in your classrooms, and post your experience back here.

BP6_Link to Learning to Teach Learners

Follow this link to Dwayne's blog, Learning to Teach Learners:

http://learningtoteachlearners.blogspot.com/2011/09/pe3imovie.html?showComment=1315717590707#c8955908885798019743

BP5_Link to Ire of Apathy

Follow this link to a comment I made on Rath's blog Ire of Apathy:

http://www.ireofapathy.com/2011/09/pe1adobe-after-effects-cs5.html?showComment=1315716517632#c6011625094665897164

PE3_iMovie

The Quickest Ways to Make it Look Pro

This may be the coolest iMovie feature I never knew about. The Edit to Beat feature. This basically allows you to choose music. Listening to the music while tapping the “m” key on the beats. Then add photos or video to the music track and iMovie basically does your editting for you by making edits at each beat. Crazy!

Another feature that gets you professional looking videos with minimal effort is the movie trailer feature. It basically takes you through a step by step template where all you have to do is add content, and iMovie makes it look and sound like it was produced professionally.

I could see both of these features being very useful for a school news situation where the amount of time for editing is limited before the video needs to be broadcast. I plan to use both of these features in an upcoming project at my school where my class is supposed to document a community service day in the morning and have something to display by lunchtime. This 8 min video just saved me and my students hours.