Jen e-blogger » New tools http://jennywood.edublogs.org This blog is about the possibilities of elearning in an adult education environment Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:36:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Movie making with 3d animations http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/04/02/movie-making-with-3d-animations/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/04/02/movie-making-with-3d-animations/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:48:25 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=182 Here is a demonstration of a short (1 minute) movie I made with a free open source product.

If you would like to learn how to use it, we are running free PD online in Elluminate. Check out the calendar for the PD on http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/free-live-web-events/

The product can be embedded into html (as seeen below) or shared via a link, on Facebook and many other options. It could be a great tool for developing an engaging ’scenario’ for your e-learning course.

Enjoy this short demonstration. I apologise in advance for my strange sense of humour!

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/04/02/movie-making-with-3d-animations/feed/ 9 Can you afford not to use Photopeach? http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/03/29/try-photopeach/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/03/29/try-photopeach/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:46:02 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=179 Here is a tool you can afford.

Try using Photopeach as a FREE, quick and easy interactive video tool. It is a perfect tool for giving students the capacity to comment and contribute to your video, or make their own and share it.

In just a few quick steps you have a nice product:

1. Upload photos

2. Swap them around to put them in order

3. Add some music (provided)

4. PUBLISH!

5. Add text to your slides

The exciting thing is that people can either comment on the slides OR at the finish of the Video. In the case of the latter, the comments appear at the end of the video in the credits. Comments can be deleted by the owner of the video if need be.

Here is my example (below). You will see there are comments at the very end.

There are various options for sharing the file, including the embeddable code I have used here…

Our trip to Egypt on PhotoPeach

http://photopeach.com/home

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/03/29/try-photopeach/feed/ 0 How to create your own iGoogle page http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/31/how-to-create-your-own-igoogle-page/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/31/how-to-create-your-own-igoogle-page/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:04:54 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=157

Now why would I want to do that?

You wouldn’t be the first person to ask that question! At first you might wonder about its use, but the more web features you use, the more useful it becomes.

iGoogle allows you to to choose the things that you find useful or fun on a web search page of your own. Best of all… it helps to keep track of your Personal Learning Network (PLN).

I have my Twitter feeds, emails, Blog feeds, Facebook etc all feeding into my igoogle page. I can see what is going on in my world at a glance!


It offers the ability to create a personalised iGoogle page that gives ‘you at-a-glance’ access to information from Google and across the web. On this self-designed page, you can choose and organise content such as:

-Your email account
-Headlines from Google News and other news sources
-Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
-Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer
-Your own section with content you find from across the web
-Google Book Search
Before completing any of the tricks below, you’ll need to start a Google account using an email address and password, just go to the “sign in” link at the top right of the google home page and you will find the link to get your account.

iGoogle

Go to iGoogle (log in if you have to) and you’ll see your new iGoogle home page. Now you can customise it. You can add tabs if you wish and categorise the things you want on each tab if you’d like to.

You can also search for a gadget to add to your home page, or try adding the following gadgets:

  • Google Map Search gadget
  • Google Book Search gadget
  • One of the Facebook gadgets
  • Google Docs and Spreadsheet gadget

More help and tips:

What next?

Now that you have set up your iGoogle page. You can subscribe to this blog in Google Reader and be notified of the feeds on your iGoogle page.You can find instructions for setting up a feed reader in iGoogle here: How to set up a feed reader

Once you have a feed reader set up (like  Google Reader ), it’s time to add some individual subscriptions. These notes will help you in creating individual subscriptions within iGoogle.

Now isn’t that exciting?

How useful is iGoogle to you? Let me know by posting a comment.

Lastly… practice subscribing to some blogs which interest you.

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/31/how-to-create-your-own-igoogle-page/feed/ 2 My top 5 tools for digital storytelling http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/28/my-top-5-tools-for-digital-story-telling/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/28/my-top-5-tools-for-digital-story-telling/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:13:01 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=142 Why have I chosen these tools?

IMG_9759 Funky \ O R Y
I just LOVE editing movie footage and have recently worked on a movie crew of an amateur production of a movie. Serious movie makers certainly wouldn’t have used any of my recommended tools! So why did I choose them? Because time is precious for teachers!  The tools have been chosen according to ease of use, but still maintain an effective outcome. I have purposely not rated the tools because all of the tools meet different needs, therefore one is not necessarily ‘better’ than another. You will find some are ‘quick and simple’ and others have more complex functions.

At the bottom of the page you will have the opportunity to contribute your own ideas.

Digital storytelling is easy and engaging for students …more about digital storytelling

1. Photo Story (free software)

Microsoft’s Photo Story is a very user friendly program that is available for free from the Microsoft web site. This program does not use a video camera or digital video recordings. Instead Photo Story creates the video from digital image stills, such as digital photographs. The program can also add narration, which will require a microphone connected to your computer. The Photo Story will turn your still pictures and sounds into a video at the end, creating video files which can be played using the Windows Media Player or any other video player with the capabilities of playing .wmv files.

You Tube tutorial: How to use Photo Story 3

System requirements: Windows XP; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2

2. Windows movie maker (free software)

Windows Movie Maker is a little more difficult to use than Photo Story but is a free basic video editor available to users of Windows XP. Movie Maker allows you to combine full-motion video, still images, narration, music, effects, titles, and transitions to create your own movies. It’s a simple program but it allows you to make professional-looking movies that you can share over the internet or burn to DVD. With Movie Maker 2.1, you can create, edit, and share your movies. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using third-party software you can even take movies you’ve made and turn them into DVDs.

YouTube tutorial: How to use Windows movie maker

Download Instructions:

You will probably find that WMM is already on your PC and you didn’t know it! Movie Maker 2.1 is available for download with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). You can download SP2, Movie Maker 2.1, and all future critical updates automatically by turning on the Automatic Updates feature in Windows XP.

3. Sound slides ($39.95 basic)

Soundslides is a favorite of mine when I am in a big hurry. It is created for storytellers on a deadline, designed to make quick work of slide show production.

Soundslides operates in a single window on your Windows or Mac OS X computer, with a straightforward interface that leads you through importing your images and audio. Editing tools are familiar and behave the way you’d expect.

It cannot edit video or do complex tasks but what Soundslides does, is make it easy for you to present your images with impact, then sync them seamlessly with any audio track. With Soundslides Plus, you can even skip the sound and just focus on the images.

YouTube tutorial: Using Soundslides

Available as Mac or PC download.

3. Camtasia (or other screen recorder software)

Screen recorder software can be used for making digital stories very quickly and successfully, although the effects can be limiting and a little cumbersome (for the purpose of DST) compared to other options. If you are after a very quick way to narrate a PowerPoint show or images it is a good way to go. Camtasia will embed into Powerpoint, which definitely makes the process easier than capturing it in the usual Screen recorder manner.

Jing is a product which is free, but it doesn’t have as many options as Camtasia. It is highly recommended for a quick and cheap way of recording your screen.

YouTube tutorial: How to use Camtasia Studio

Camtasia has a free trial you can download:

4. iMovie (Mac only)

Being a Mac user myself, I highly recommend using iMovie, which is an alternative for Mac users, to Windows Movie Maker. iMovie is designed to work alongside iPhoto (a photo library) and iTunes (a music library / player). Any images in iPhoto and sounds in iTunes can be accessed from the Photos and Audio panes in iMovie. Like Windows movie maker, iMovie can edit video footage as well as still images. It has the capacity to narrate, import audio and is compatible with iDVD for putting onto DVD. iMovie has the capacity to upload straight onto YouTube and output into a variety of formats.

Once you get used to it, you will find it quite quick and simple, but it is more complex than other programs I have recommended here as it has ‘more functions’.

Read more here…

YouTube tutorial: How to use iMovie

5. Slide show movie maker (free)

Create AVI photo slideshows

Slide Show Movie Maker can create an .avi video slideshow from a series of .bmp or .jpg images. Images can have professional-looking fade-in and fade-out effects, plus attractive text overlays. The program lets you choose to save output using any one of your systems installed .avi codecs. You can choose to build your slideshow from selected pictures or entire directories. If you select any of the included effects, they can be previewed, using the built in viewer before you apply any of them. The program also lets you save your work as projects, so you can continue working on them at a later time. Additional features include pa color fading panorama scrolling and more.

System requirements: Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000, XP, XP Pro with a resolution with minimal 1024 x 768 pixel

Bonus tool: Audacity (free)

This software is only for editing audio but can be used in conjunction with any of my top 5 tools. It is free to download and is primarily used for recording and editing sounds. It is easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

  • Record live audio.
  • Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
  • Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
  • Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
  • Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
  • And more! See the complete list of features

YouTube tutorial: Using Audacity

System requirements: Available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Anybody out there know of any other great DST tools to share?

I welcome your opinion and will always reply to comments! Just click on the ‘no comments’ or ‘#comments’ below.

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/28/my-top-5-tools-for-digital-story-telling/feed/ 3 How to Teach with Blogs and Wikis http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/teaching-with-blogs-and-wikis/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/teaching-with-blogs-and-wikis/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:45:54 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=117 How do you learn best?

Learning is an active, social process. Using Blogs and Wikis for teaching is embracing the  concept that students don’t learn best passively, they learn best from using experiential and constructivist learning.


Above: Kolb’s Learning Cycle

Using blogs and/or wikis for teaching is a great solution for encouraging reflection and collaboration with your learners.

If you are unsure of what they are or the difference between the two, take a look here:

What are Blogs and Wikis?

The argument for a wiki…..

Pewter Uppercase Letter W I K McElman_071126_2015 Thames Bankside S – London

A wiki encourages collaborative learning. It can be used to summarise small group discussions, giving greater value to small group interaction and building an online archive of student activities. They have the potential to build effective bridges between group discussion and individual learning, face-to-face and e-learning provision and to foster a deep engagement between students and their subject matter.

Wikis in the Classroom

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: education teaching)

The argument for a blog…..

b L14 O G S

Simply put, reflection is the process of making sense of one’s experience. Reflection can be said to act as a hinge between practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge.

11 advantages of using a blog for teaching

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: leadership school)
If slide show not working, click on this link

More about Blogs and wikis

Using Wikis in Education

Using blogs in education

Where to now?

Try following some of the instructions on our ‘23 things‘ project. This will help you to set up a blog.

If you are wanting to improve your blogging skills… try joining this project (based on a wiki):

31 days to a better blog

If you use a Wordpress blog….

Instructions on how to set up a blog

Or an Edublogs blog….

http://edublogs.org

I REPLY TO ALL COMMENTS…. FEEL FREE TO USE THIS FEATURE!

Did you like this article? You may want to sign up to be automatically updated the next time I post new content. Just click on the RSS feed at the top right corner of the blog or use the email subscribe option.

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/teaching-with-blogs-and-wikis/feed/ 7 What on earth is a QTim Player? http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2008/08/22/what-is-the-qtimplayer-for/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2008/08/22/what-is-the-qtimplayer-for/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:10:47 +0000 jennywood http://swineblogger.wordpress.com/?p=231

Do you need a good tool for onsite assessment?

You might like to check out the QTImPlayer for mobile devices which operates on any hand-held mobile device with Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 2005 or 2006 software.

A portable device running Windows Mobile® 2005 or 2006 is loaded with a QTI assessment application for performing on-site assessment. The assessment tools can include multiple-choice questions, attached files such as photos or video, short-answer questions and extended-answer questions, for example.

Once an assessment is complete, the QTImPlayer creates a zip file archive containing the assessment results in XML format as well as any files, such as photographs, which may have been included as supporting evidence. The results are then sent to a nominated address via email. The email message also includes a human-readable copy of the assessment results.

Click here to link to QTim Player

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