Aside from being a huge Google fan, this could potentially be important in Education for one reason… users. YouTube has a HUGE user base.

A lot of teachers are already familiar with YouTube and will be more likely to start using a feature in a program they already use. I need not repeat the value of live streaming for a classroom. Teachers can teach for distance education, not to mention a global audience! With real time feedback tools like chat and twitter, teachers can also get real time feedback from around the world!

Students will also find a much larger user base to present to.

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. What about you? What other things can you think of?

• Legality of using YouTube video’s
• Why we use them
• Tips for finding good video’s
• Ways to Download them locally
• Tools for Remixing them
• Ways to incorporate them into our teaching

The second is about information and how the internet has changed the way we interact with and find information.   Enjoy.

I think that Randy’s story is getting pretty well known, but for those who don’t know, Randy is dying of pancreatic cancer and only has a couple of months left to give. Despite his condition, he is in great shape and really energetic as he gave his last lecture. He talks about his professional career and how he got where he is, some virtual reality and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) stuff, and then lastly give some great advice.

If you have the time, you should certainly watch this. If you don’t have the time, you owe it to yourself to find the time. Enjoy!!

[Note: If you want to skip the introduction go to 8:25 in the video player]

A couple days ago Doug Edmunds from the School of Law here on campus sent out a link to a new, free (for now) screen capture program called Jing. This article looks at how to use the program, some of the features, and some missing features.

How it Works:
Users need to download and install a small (4.4MB) application on your computer (works with both MAC’s and PC’s. The program then runs in your desktop and adds a little yellow transparent half-circle to your screen that is always visible. When you mouse over the half-circle it reveals a capture option. After you’re picture/video capture (see below) you can then save it locally or instantly upload it online and share it via a URL that is conveniently copied to your clipboard.

In their FAQ page the makers of Jing introduce it in the following way:

Think of Jing as a supplement to all your chat discussions, email threads, forum posts and blog entries. It sits nicely on your desktop, ready to capture and share your stuff at a moment’s notice. Simply select an area of your screen, capture it as an image or record it as a video, and then click Share. Jing conveniently places a URL to your content on your clipboard ready for you to paste the URL into any of your conversations.

Features:

• Capture: The capture utility is smart cross-hair axis that intuitively selects certain parts of your screen.
• Picture Capture: Highlight any portion of the screen for the picture capture and then annotate it EASILY with arrows, text, highlighter, and boxes.
  • Save locally as PNG file
  • Share online using Screencast (Free up to 200MB)
  • Here is a picture I made of one of the FAQ’s.
  • The picture above was quickly made with a screen cast… even easier than picnik.
• Video Capture: Highlight any portion of the screen again and walk through anything.
  • Share online using Screencast.
  • Here is a short demo I made in about 15 seconds about how to subscribe to a blog via Google Reader.
  • Notice there is sound… I didn’t realize that till after I had made it).
• History Page: Find anything you have ever done and use the link again or delete it.

Missing Features/Cons:

• Embed Function: There really should be the option of embedding a video/picture in a page with code. A link is nice, but anyone who is building a tutorial really needs to be able to have everything in the same page.
• Upload to second sites: It would be nice to be able to upload the video’s to other sites for more exposure.
• Editing: As far as I can tell there is no way to edit marks after you have put them on pictures. That is annoying.
• Project?: They authors make it very clear on the FAQ page that this is just a project and will probably lead to a product (that costs money) someday. They do promise to give us time to get our stuff off of their servers though.

Summing Up
I have to say I was most impressed with the ease with which one could create a picture and instantly annote it and share it with friends. I am going to definetly leave this running for the next while and look for opportunities to use it to educate others.

How might you use this in your classroom, in your job?

The Connected Classroom

When I Grow Up…

1. Make the Final Product SHAREABLE!

If a student knows that their work is going to a larger audience they will naturally take more time to work on it. The easiest way to do that is use Web 2.0 technologies like blogs, wiki’s, podcasts, and online video. Of course, you will need to be comfortable with those technologies yourself.

2. PROJECT’S, not Assignments!

Don’t give students a bunch of assignments, give them one larger project with a end result that students can see. Although this may take longer, students will naturally get more involved. They will want to be involved with the topic beyond the end of class.

3. Encourage students to use POPULAR TECHNOLOGIES they are familiar with!

The latest and greatest technology is more than likely taking over your student’s life’s. Encourage them to find educational uses for it. Almost every new web startup, or tech gadget can be used in an educational way. If you encourage the students to use these technologies they will come up with ideas that you could never have thought of yourself. (Oh, and they will think you’re cool because you encourage them to use their iPod in class. )

4. Give the Student’s OPTIONS!

Don’t limit your students to any specific medium of transfer. Some digital natives love music and would make an amazing music video, or write an amazing song. Others would do better with video like the example below.

EXAMPLE of a Great Project!

This morning I was reading the Infinite Thinking Machine, a blog I highly recommend, and I came across a video produced by some 12th grade students for an English project. The project is called MacBeth Wars and can be seen below.

From the introduction on Google Video:

This movie was done for a 12th grade english project, parodying Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with a Star Wars style. It features the majority of the Macbeth storyline, and includes a 3-minute lightsaber duel between Macbeth and Macduff near the end.

Then the most amazing part…

We hope to release Macbeth Wars II, a project purely for our own fun, by summer 2007.

Wow! You don’t have to watch the whole production to realize that this project was probably WELL beyond what was required of them for the class. It has great digital effects, sounds effects, multiple video shots in each scene and appropriate background music. This project surely took hundreds of hours to complete AND they want to do another one in their FREE time! Now that is a good project!

What other things have you done, or seen done that really get student’s involved? What other projects have you seen that are just amazing? Do share in the comments!

As more and more possibilities present themselves for physically manipulating data on a computer, the more and more it will become mainstream.  I really like this option because, as it says in the video, all you would need would be a USB camera device and software.  This is potentially much more affordable than Haptic devices (although they are getting super cheap too) and certainly more affordable than a multi-touch display.

This video speaks to me on two levels, both as a tech guy, and as a guy trying to learn new things from technology… 

May be all be a little nicer to our tech guys today… and perhaps a little nicer to the people we support.  We all are learning together. 

“Before, we were reliant upon what the user has expressed through words, however, when one can read beyond words through visuals, the communication seems to become more “human and personal.” If there was a fear that the internet was making society antisocial, vlogging would seek to prove otherwise.”

UPDATE: The video used to be here, but I removed it because of a repeated expletive throughout the video. If you want to see it you can click here but it may not be work appropriate.

As I watch this video I begin to realize the impact online media has had on our culture and will continue to have. We are truly digital people who live and share our lives online.