Book Wesley Fryer for a presentation or workshop (either face-to-face or over video) by visiting his contact page on www.wesfryer.com/contact. Presentation / workshop handout links are available on wiki.wesfryer.com.
We’ve received some snow in St Louis, but the Midwest Educational Technology Conference (METC) goes on! Yesterday pre-conference workshops were held, and today and tomorrow are the “regular days” of the conference. Here are links to the resources I’ll be sharing in my sessions today.
Storychasing Literacy (a.k.a. “StoryChasing: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses”)
If you were watching the Super Bowl last night on U.S. television, you likely saw Google’s advertisement, “Parisian Love,” during the third quarter. What a clever way to tell a story, through a series of Google searches and some well-timed sound clips. If you missed it, here it is, on YouTube (of course.)
Is your school still blocking access to YouTube for everyone, including both teachers AND students? Time to unmask the digital truth.
It would be great to see students use this method of “storytelling via screencasted Google search queries” to tell other stories. What story would you tell? If your Google history could talk, what stories would IT tell?
After you view it take a few minutes to provide Joyce and her students with some edifying feedback, either on the blog or the K12Online Ning. Talk about a treasure trove of great ideas and resources for student media projects!
PBS Frontline’s digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier is a fantastic program as well as media-rich website filled with videos, articles, and information about our digital youth culture. The documentary premieres this week on February 2nd, but the website is already filled with outstanding resources. One of my favorites is project’s Digital Native Map, an interactive site with a wealth of updated stats relating to youth and their digital lifestyles.
Clicking on a different part of the interactive body map displays related statistics, like these about the brain:
Searching online activates more brain regions than reading printed words.
On average, multitaskers spend 11 minutes on a project before switching to another, typically changing tasks within a project every three minutes.
It takes about 15 minutes to return with full attention to a serious mental task after you responded to an e-mail or instant message.
Video gaming in moderation can help develop improved pattern recognition, more systematic thinking and better executive skills.
Website articles are filled with links to references and additional materials. Browsing through the available videos, I found the following two particularly compelling.
In Marc Prensky’s interview montage titled “Education 2.0” by the digital_nation producers, he asserts students want to engage in interactive, hands-on collaborative projects which have a focus on changing their communities and changing our world. While I’m not a big fan of Prensky’s digital native / immigrant dichotomy I do agree with his endorsement of project-based, engaged learning in this video. (4:31)
A Global Initiative and Competition for the next generation of leaders and social entrepreneurs – Seeking global thinkers 14 to 24… For 2010, we are looking for 3-minute videos with Issue & Solution format. Express your issue and propose an innovative solution-project. Winners presented to Obama administration, on Best Buy screens across the planet, and at VIP reception and Awards Ceremony hosted by Sony Pictures in Los Angeles
This sixty second YouTube spot summarizes the project and contest. If you have any of the “digital natives” Prensky is talking about in the previous video clip in your classroom or household, you might give them a heads-up on this contest.
This evening I recorded a five minute introduction for my Technology 4 Teacher’s class this week, since I’ll be absent and a guest presenter / professor will be leading my class on Wednesday. I recorded this video using QuickTime Player 7 on my MacBook Pro and a USB 2.0 Hue Webcam. There was a slight audio and video sync delay in my original recorded movie, but when I uploaded the unedited video to YouTube the sync problem was even more pronounced. (Several seconds delay.) This was unacceptable, so I used MPEG Streamclip (free) to export the video as a MP4 and re-uploaded to YouTube. This video version is MUCH better in terms of audio sync. It’s still there, but not nearly as pronouced as my first attempt.
These are the specs on the first version of this movie I recorded directly with QuickTime Player 7 and my USB webcam:
These are the specs of the second version, which I converted before uploading using MPEG Streamclip:
I see differences in the data rates and sizes for these videos, but everything else looks very similar. Looking at YouTube’s video codec guidelines, nothing is jumping out at me that would explain the differences in YouTube’s transcoding of these video versions this evening.
I need to get my built-in iSight camera fixed on my Macbook, because I’m sure the initial audio sync problem was caused by the slower USB webcam I used. I’m mystified why the first uploaded video had a MORE pronounced audio sync problem on YouTube, however. Have you seen these types of audio sync problems with videos you’ve recorded and uploaded to YouTube? Any suggestions or theories as to why I had these problems tonight?
The last two days we’ve been hit by an ice and snow storm here in central Oklahoma. Thankfully we have not lost electricity where we live, but many Oklahomans have not been so fortunate. Snow days (as Thursday and Friday were for both Oklahoma City Public Schools and Edmond Public Schools) are MUCH less fun without heat in your house. This morning before things started to melt a bit, my six year old and I enjoyed a sledding run down our street, which we documented with our flash-based camcorder / camera. One of our golden retrievers accompanied us on our run. Since this video was over 90 seconds long I published it to YouTube. I published the rest of our video and images from today to Flickr.
I continue to be amazed by the “publish at will” environment in which those who are digitally connected today can live. It is both sad and instructive that so many of our schools continue to operate as if this environment of video and media sharing does not exist and will simply go away if it is ignored long enough.
Students in my Technology 4 Teachers (T4T) course are creating short VoiceThread digital stories as their first “miniproject” this semester. To assist them (and potentially help you) I created a seven-part screencast series this evening, demonstrating how to find copyright friendly images (using CompFight and FlickrStorm) as well as how to use VoiceThread to create a basic digital story. I need to continue thanking David Jakes for first introducing me to Flickr Storm, as well as inspiring me regularly with his wealth of digital storytelling resources and experiences. This is the VoiceThread (“Why I Love Severe Weather“) I created this evening for these screencasts.
One of the project options I’ve given my students for this VoiceThread assignment is contributing to the Great Book Stories project. You’re welcome to not only view and use the 60+ stories already in “Great Book Stories,” but also contribute your own! In addition to embedding these screencasts here, I also shared these on our T4T FAQ blog. I also cross-posted these to my YouTube channel, which is something the free screencasting website Screenr automates with just a few mouse clicks. (If Screenr goes away, it’s good to know these screencasts are still available somewhere else too!)
My favorite quotation from your post was, “If more students like Cameron could find a way to use their technology as more of an education purpose versus an social network they might be better off.” That is exactly right! I think we have an obligation as teachers, parents, and responsible adults in our communities to help students learn constructive ways to create and share digital media. Cameron is a great example of this, as you point out. This is a big motivation behind the Storychasers nonprofit I’ve helped start here in Oklahoma.
It is also important to keep in mind that as students read and write with greater frequency when they are on social networks, this can have positive impacts on their literacy skills. Sometimes we just hear and read headlines like, “Isn’t it horrible kids are losing handwriting skills,” or “Isn’t it bad kids use abbreviations when they send text messages.” It’s important we help students learn how to communicate appropriately for different contexts. Overall, I think the increase in social media use is a good thing for communication and literacy skills, and there is research “out there” which supports that contention. The April 2008 PEW Research Report “Writing, Technology and Teens” is one example.
This weekend my son and I had a great time (despite the cold) at the 33rd annual Trappers Rendezvous near Newton, Kansas. I am going to edit together a video of the weekend, but today published most of the unedited photos and videos I took with my iPhone and Sony GSC Netsharing camera. Four of the videos were too long to publish to Flickr, which limits them to 90 seconds each, so I published these to YouTube. This campout was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to learn from some very passionate re-enactors!
This weekend my son and I attended the 33rd annual Trappers’ Rendezvous near Newton, Kansas, along with about 4500 others. I created the following as a new entry in the “Tell a Story in 5 Pictures for Educators” Flickr group, using five of the 165 photos I published this afternoon after we returned. Alexander found an abandoned deer leg (strangely a popular item to trade among the Boy Scouts present) and “traded it up” for turkey feathers and then a railroad spike. The resident blacksmith graciously turned it into a hook, suitable for impersonating Captain Hook at an upcoming Halloween party or other similar festive occasion.
The hook was certainly a better souvenir of the weekend to bring home than a deer leg!
I read Stacy Martin’s article last Wednesday in the City Sentinel newspaper of Oklahoma City, “Historic NAACP Center in danger of closing,” with great dismay. According to the article:
The timing of the Jan. 18th 2010 tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn’t arrive at a more ironic time for Oklahoma’s NAACP office, 2609 N. Martin Luther King Ave.
NAACP’s historic Freedom Center headquarters in Oklahoma City is currently crushed by debt, operating costs and is in dire need of repairs. Conditions may force leadership to close its doors, said NAACP president Anthony R. Douglas.
The EduTopia video “YES Prep Boasts a College-Bound Culture” is right on target: Helping students “picture themselves” at college, develop the goal orientation which leads to college attendance as well as the SKILLS required for success in college all start with face-to-face visits to different university campuses.
This video inspires me to think about setting up college visits for my own children as I have opportunities to travel with them this year. It’s never too early (or late) to talk with each other about our goals and dreams for learning and our lives.
This past fall when discussing 1:1 computing options at an educational technology conference, I asked an Apple rep the reasons schools should choose Macbooks over netbooks at this point. The person’s three part response was:
Netbooks have weak batteries that won’t last more than two hours.
Netbooks are flimsy / not rugged and won’t stand up to continual student use.
Netbooks are underpowered, therefore you cannot do anything creative on one.
Although I did not say so at the time, my thought in response to these assertions was that none of these statements are accurate. Certainly some netbooks may have two hour batteries, but some of the netbook reviews on Consumer Reports show effective battery life of six and seven hours on a charge. As far as durability, it seems a little early to make that prediction with certainty. The third point was the one which really surprised me, however. Can’t do anything creative on a netbook? Really? Having become a Google Certified Teacher this past summer, I knew that wasn’t true. There are an amazing array of creative, powerful things which learners ARE doing and CAN do right in their web browsers, whether they are using a netbook, full-sized laptop, or a desktop computer.
What about multimedia creativity, however? I knew netbooks are regarded as underpowered by full-sized laptop standards, but today’s “underpowered” processor would have been a comparative rocket of speed just a few years ago. To find out if it is possible to successfully create multimedia on a netbook, I decided to give it a try this weekend with my Dell Mini10 and Windows7 Home Premium. Using a Sony DSC-950 Digital Camera, which shoots 320 x 240 pixel video, along with Windows Live Movie Maker (free downloadable software included in Windows Live Essentials) I created another episode today for “The International Cooking Show” project. Yesterday, I used my iPhone and iMovie ‘09 to demonstrate how to prepare Yodler’s Fondue. Today, I demonstrated how to prepare “Huevos a la Mexicana,” or Mexican Eggs, using Redmond’s latest free video editing tools.
I was interested in using the Sony DSC-950 camera because it is the one we’ve included in the “digital backpack” for Celebrate Oklahoma Voices workshop participants in the past year. My conclusion after working with Windows Live Movie Maker is that the program still doesn’t have all the power and ease-of-use of iMovie (in any of its past or current variants) but is a BIG step forward in many ways from its Windows Movie Maker predecessor. The video quality of the Sony digital camera isn’t as good as my iPhone GS, but it also was a $125 camera compared to a $500+ smartphone. The biggest missing feature I didn’t find in Windows Live Movie Maker is the option to speed up or slow down a movie clip, like you can do easily in iMovie. Here’s a quick overview of what I did and learned using Windows Live Movie Maker today.
First of all, it’s important to know Windows Live Movie Maker requires either Windows 7 or Windows Vista. That eliminates 100% of the schools in Oklahoma currently who run Windows-based computer systems. I don’t know of a single district which upgraded to Windows Vista in past years. For schools purchasing new laptops (including netbooks) for students as part of our state’s TitleIID ARRA grant program, however, Windows Live Movie Maker may be an option. I’ll be interested to see what kind of licensing deals Microsoft offers to schools for Windows 7 upgrades. Given the overall condition of our state’s finances and school budgets specifically, however, I doubt many districts will opt to upgrade any time soon. Newly purchased computers are likely to be the only ones in Oklahoma schools running Windows 7 in 2010.
The first step for video editing on any platform is copying the raw movie files from your camera to your computer’s local drive. In this case I copied them into Libraries, Videos, into a new folder I created.
Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) has the following splash screen. You can drag movie files into the right hand side of the screen, or click the ADD PHOTOS AND VIDEOS button on the top ribbon of buttons.
Just as you can in PhotoStory3, you can click on one file and press CONTROL – A to select all the files in that folder. Then click OPEN to import them.
As with any type of multimedia project, it’s a good idea to save early and frequently. The save icon is a floppy disk (kind of ironic at this stage, it seems) in the upper left corner of the program window. I saved my WLMM file in the same folder where I’d copied my camera’s unedited video files.
The best feature in WLMM is the “Automovie” button. Click it and the program makes a complete movie with all the media you’ve imported, including titles and transitions. This works with both still images as well as videos.
If you have not added background music to your project when you click “Automovie,” WLMM will prompt you for music.
After selecting a music file, Automovie takes just an instant to create “a finished movie.”
This video can be exported or directly uploaded to YouTube. Today my “unedited” movie was 10 minutes and 58 seconds long, and I needed at least to get the time below ten minutes for a YouTube upload.
One of the most important menu options in a video editing program is the option to SPLIT an audio or video clip. I first chose to split the inserted music clip near the start of the movie.
I wanted to fade the volume level down, and make the volume level very low so it would not compete with my audio narration. Since my son recorded this for me using a Sony digital camera, which has a very small and relatively poor microphone, this audio level had to be VERY low.
The split option is available in WLMM for both video and audio tracks. Simply select the track you want before clicking SPLIT.
Transitions can be added between split clips.
WLMM gives the option to add “captions” to still images or video sequences. iMovie calls these “titles,” whether they are on a solid color or superimposed over images. I added several captions in today’s video, to give credit for my music source as well as share links to The International Cooking Show and our family learning blog.
WLMM lets you copy and paste captions within your project. This is handy to replicate the same font, color, and size settings used previously.
WLMM separates imported video into different segments which are clickable. To move to a specific position in a video clip which is not at the start of one of these segments, click and drag the mouse till “the hand” icon is shown. Then an effect or media element can be inserted/added at that specific location.
After finishing all your desired movie edits, click the YouTube button at the top of the WLMM window to publish directly to YouTube.
WLMM will then prompt you to sign into YouTube, and enter meta tag information for your video.
The limited processing power of a netbook is most evident at this point, when video is exported and compressed. I think it took about 30 minutes for my Dell Mini10 to export and upload my seven minute video. WLMM exports the video first, and then uploads it.
WLMM does save the exported video file locally on your hard drive during the YouTube publishing process.
Given the option, I will DEFINITELY prefer editing video with iMovie over Windows Live Movie Maker in the future. As with many computing topics, however, I’m glad to have experience and expertise working on multiple platforms so I can share credible opinions with others about them.
I’d certainly never make the claim, “You can’t do anything creative on a netbook.”
The unedited version of the movie was almost 14 minutes long, with the stirring portions sped up the final video is 8 minutes and 14 seconds long. The free “royalty free music” I chose for this video was “Shiny Tech” from Incompetech.com. I noticed that in the video titles I actually misspelled the name of the recipe, it should be “Yodler’s Fondue” rather than “Yodeler’s Fondue.” I’m not going to go back and make those changes, however, since it would require recompressing and uploading the video again to YouTube!
Sarah recorded the entire video except the last two minutes, which were filmed by Alexander. She still needs to work on keeping the camera still and stable, but this is an improvement over some of her past recording efforts. We’re all continuing to learn together! It’s so fun to be able to put together a quick video like this on the fly, add a few edits, and then publish it online.
If you have any gourmet chefs or aspiring chefs (we have the latter) in your house, please join The International Cooking Show wiki and add your own contribution!
In many ways I think this video is an improvement over the original version which was posted in August 2009 and now has over 10,000 YouTube views. When I blogged about it originally I noted:
The song was written by Kevin Honeycutt of ESSDACK, and Charlie Mahoney from Turning Point Learning Center (TPLC) helped with percussion as well as some Garageband vocal adjustments to make him sound even more awesome! The video was shot and produced by Shawn Gormley, a friend of Kevin’s.
Static images synchronized to narration and/or music can be just as powerful as moving video. We take this approach as Storychasers in the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history project. From visual literacy and attention economy perspectives, I think it is very important we pay attention to the images with which we synchronize our ideas in digital stories. At several points in the original video, I found myself wanting more variety in the presented images, and more direct relevancy to the lyrics of the song.
In this 2.0 version of the video, Quang Minh (YILKA)’s Flickr image “How many non-Mac are there” is used several times. Several other images are repeated as well. While I think this 2.0 version is an improvement, a 2.1 version could be even better by avoiding repeated images altogether and using other fresh, new images in each verse. Of course this takes time, and we all have a limited amount of it… So I am not offering this as a criticism to Kevin and Rae but rather as a suggestion for future versions as an aspiring digital storyteller myself.
Attribution of image sources is also very important, and this is another area the video could improve on. My 12 year old just completed his first oral history video documentary over the holidays (we burned the DVD version last night, in fact, for him to turn in during class today) and image attribution was something we talked about and worked on together. This can be a pain, it is time consuming, but it is also important. It’s vital we model respect for copyright and intellectual property in published videos like this, and to do that one of the best ideas is to start with copyright-friendly image sources. Joyce Valenza shared some great image source links in her “Getting Started” strand keynote for K12Online09, “The Wizard of Apps.”
If you haven’t seen Joyce’s K12Online09 presentation, set aside 50 minutes in the next few weeks and DO IT. I challenge you to find and share a more creative and helpful online presentation about the practical ways learners can digitally collaborate in constructive and legally respectful ways online!
Kudos to Kevin and Rae for creating and sharing this “2.0 version” of Kevin’s song. I will definitely be sharing this with educator audiences in 2010 at conferences where I have an opportunity to present and share.
Wesley Fryer is the author of Moving at the Speed of Creativity. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of my employer(s). See my disclosure policy for more info. I am wfryer on Diigo.
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