The Flip Digital Video Camera Introduction: Part 1

Greetings,

We are all now rested after the long break. I took a break from last week in observance of Easter. We are ready to go again, full speed. I have been looking online for tutorials on the New Flip Digital Camera Software, and so far I am unable to find any. So I decided to create one.

The training on this new digital camera is usually a 6 hour class, so I am going to break it down in my blog into a 5 part series. In the series I will be posting pictures and videos I took with the camera. I will also post helpful video tutorials you can find online. I will also post helpful ideas on how to use your Flip digital camera with your students or for you own personal use. Ok, lets get started.

Here are the titles of the blog session topics I will be following over the next 4 weeks.

Week 1 or Today: Introduction and Session Breakdown

Week 2: Digital Video Cameras in the Classroom

Week 3: How to Use the Pocket Digital Video Camera

Week 4: Working with Video Footage and the Software

Week 5: Using Video Footage with Other Compatible Software

Make sure you let all your colleagues know that I will be continuing with week 2 on this topic next week. For now you might want to visit the web site http://www.theflip.com/ so you can get acquainted with the camera.

I recently saw comedian/singer and celebrity Jaime Foxx using the Flip digital camera at the Grammy award show a few months ago. I think he was recording one of the music acts. They showed him on TV holding up his flip digital camera. If celebrities are finding these cameras easy to use, then we can all learn to use them with ease for our own personal use.

I did a review about this camera a few months ago. If you have not read it, I recommend you read it before you go through this blog tutorial. It can be found by visiting my January 3, 2010 blog post, or you can just click here: The New Flip Camcord Camera by Pure Digital

Next week I will be blogging about how to use the digital video camera in the classroom with students. So don't forget to let all your colleagues know about my free technology blog. See you next week.

How to Find Free Microsoft Office Power Point, Word and Excel Templates

Greetings,

Today I am blogging about how to download thousands of free office templates from Microsoft Office. If you click on the picture above, it will take you to the Microsoft site where they post their free templates. Also if you create a template, you can upload it to their server and others will be able to download it as well. I am currently working on a (5 Year Planner) 2010 - 2015, 3 month planning calendar that I will be posting soon on the site. Stay tuned and I will let you know when I post it. It will be posted under academic year calendars. Hope this helps out. See you next week.

How to Create a Podcast or Vodcast Part 2 of 3

Hello,
Today I will be covering the following steps:

3. Installing Audio Software to Record Your Podcast
4. Using Audio Software to Record Your Podcast

So, let's get started with installing the audio software.

3. Installing Audio Software to Record Your Podcast: You want to use the best possible free software to edit and prepare your podcast. The one I recommend is Audacity. It's free and a very good sound editor. It can be found by clicking on the picture above. Once you go to the site you want to download Audacity 1.2.6 Once you get to the site you will want to choose Audacity 1.2.6 installer and if the download does not begin, choose the option direct link Save the file to your desktop. When you are using the software in Audacity you will need to convert your sound files to an Mp3 and you will need to download the LAME encoder by going to LAME Mp3 Encoder Once you visit the site, you will need to choose the operating system you are using, then click on the LAME download page Toward the bottom of the page you will see the following picture. Click on the appropriate link on the site, and save it to your desktop. Next, you will go to your desktop and double click on the icon and it will ask you to run it, click run and follow the instructions. You will want to remember where you saved it, usually it will be in your Program files menu. Next, double click on the audacity icon on your desktop and you will see the following:

Open Audacity and click on Edit -> Preferences -> File Formats Now this is what you will see. Click on Find Library and follow the instructions. (Here is where you want to find the LAME Mp3 Encoder file, remember it is under Program Files)

4. Using Audio Software to Record Your Podcast: Once you have your software and the Lame Mp3 encoder is installed you are ready to test your microphone. You can either use a headset with a microphone or you can use a microphone and your computer speakers. Plug in your microphone or headset. The microphone is usually the red jack and the headphones is usually the black jack. Go to Start -> Control Panel and double click on Sounds and Audio Devices. Next, click on the Voice tab and click the Test Hardware button. Follow the instructions to test your microphone. For additional tips on settings to make your recordings great visit the following site Great Tips on Recording When you are in Audacity make sure "Microphone" is selected as the recording source in the drop-down menu on the mixer toolbar.

Go to Edit -> Preferences -> On the Audio I/O tab make sure your sound card is selected as the device for playback and recording. In the Channels drop-down box under Recording, choose 1 (Mono). You can use stereo if you want but it will make your file larger and you want to try and keep it as small as possible. Under the Quality tab make sure you choose 44,100Hz as the Default Sample Rate and 16-bit as the Default Sample Format. Under the File Formats tab make sure you choose WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM) as the Uncompressed Export Format.

Now you are ready to record. Check on the microphone Meter toolbar in Audacity and you should see a red level indicator moving when you start recording. You can talk into the microphone and make adjustments to the volume until it looks like the picture below.

Now, your almost ready to record. Down below in the picture you will see the featured buttons to start your recording.



Simply push the Record button and you can start talking. When your done recording press the yellow square button to Stop the recording. If you want to edit your file, where you want to cut out parts of your recording or delete parts. You simply edit out parts by clicking and dragging to highlight the part you want to remove. Select Edit and choose either Cut or Delete. The part you want to edit will turn a grey shaded color. If you want to keep only one section of a recording, highlight that section and select Trim from the Edit menu. Take a look at the picture down below and you will see how to edit your clip.

You can also record many multiple tracks to add to your podcast, which is one of the many features you can't do with movie maker 2.Ok, next week I will be talking abou the final steps in your podcast, step 5. Turning your Podcast into a Vodcast and step 6. Publishing and Promoting. I will also be covering how to add music to your podcast and how to convert your WAV file to an MP3 so you can post online. See you next week.

How to Create a Podcast or Vodcast Part 1 of 3

Greetings,

Today I am blogging about podcasting and vodcasting. According to wikiipedia, podcasting is defined as a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication. It is a series of digital audio files, usually MP3 that can be downloaded on a regular basis automatically. It's kind of like having your own radio station and you are the broadcaster. Vodcasting or Videocasting is defined as online delivery of video, or using still digital pictures in a video. There are four steps to creating a podcast: plan, produce, publish, and promote. The detailed steps into creating a podcast include the following stages:

1. Planning

2. Gathering Ideas

3. Installing Audio Software to Record Your Podcast

4. Using Audio Software to Record Your Podcast

5. Turning your Podcast into a Vodcast

6. Publishing and Promoting

This blog will break down these steps in a 3 - 4 week blog episode. In this blog episode I will be discussing the first 2 steps. 1. Planning and 2. Gathering Ideas

1. Planning: When you start to create a podcast you need to plan what you are going to say by scripting your words. You might want to have an introduction and a welcome. After you have your script then you can practice recording it. You want it to sound like a radio broadcast or a radio show. When you start a podcast it is important that you continue to create new and regular episodes for your listeners. If you are planning on your students to create podcasts, then you need to monitor the planning process to make sure students are well prepared before recording their podcast.

If you are going to create a podcast or vodcast, and put your students' voices in the project and upload them to the internet, then you are going to need a podcast/vodcast permission slip for their parents to sign. You also want to include a brief detail of what a podcast is, (this will educate the parent) and how only the voices will be used. Now, back to planning your podcast: Here are a few questions you want to ask yourself while you are planning your podcast. What do you want to communicate to your listeners? What do you want your students to communicate in their podcast? How often do you want your students to create a podcast? What do you want to teach your listeners? What type of action do you want your listeners to take during the podcast?

2. Ideas: What topic or idea do you want to share with your listeners? You want to create a 3 -5 minute podcast for your listeners maybe once a week or once every 2 weeks. You want your listeners to always want more from your future podcasts. Here are some additional web sites of sample podcasts:

Elementary Schools:
http://www.kid-cast.com/
Willowdale Elementary School
Wells Elementary School
Jamestown Elementary

Middle Schools:
Harrington Middle School
Mabry Middle School
Twin Valley Middle School

High Schools:
Amphitheater High School
Coral Gables High School
Briggs High School

Educational Podcast Directory You can also go to Itunes and search for student podcasts. You can also go to google and search for podcasts as well. Here is a Podcast Legal Guide you may want to review to make sure you follow all the legal guidelines in podcasting http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

Here are 25 more ideas that you may want to think about for your podcast or vodcast:
1. Visit http://www.pppst.com/ – This site has thousands of teaching PowerPoints that can be used for Podcasting
2. Talking books
3. Having students read a book
4. Vocabulary lessons
5. Oral tests
6. Test Reviews
7. Spelling lists
8. Pledge Allegiance
9. Numbers and Alphabet songs
10. Recording lectures
11. Introduction to staff
12. Faculty meetings
13. Communications to parents and community
14. Homebound lessons
15. Announcements
16. Lecture notes
17. How to:
a. Check out books in the library
b. How to use the Grade book program
c. Validate grades
d. Fill out forms
e. Do a certain project
18. Book reviews
19. Field trips
20. Student forms
21. Staff Development
22. Dictation
23. Student information
24. Registration information
25. Senior information

Hope these ideas help you out, as you plan your podcast. Next week, I will cover step 3. Installing Audio Software to Record Your Podcast and step 4. Using Audio Software to Record Your Podcast. See you next week.

Free Resources You Can Download and Use in Your Classroom!

Greetings Colleagues,

Today I am blogging about a Great web site where you can find free, and valuable resources that other teachers have created and posted. You can sign up and join the community for free. When you sign up, you can search for all types of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point documents, as well as pdf's. You will find many forms on classroom management, behavioral reward systems and behavioral contracts. I personally have searched the site for many useful documents that I have shared with other teachers. Just click on the picture to the left of this post to get started. Here is a list of 10 additional resources you will find on the site:

1. Beginning Teacher & Professional Development
2. Teaching Practices
3. Classroom Management
4. Managing Student Centers
5. Homework Ideas
6. Writing Ideas
7. Seasonal and Holiday Ideas
8. Science, Social Studies, Math, Reading, Language Arts Ideas
9. Technology Ideas
10. Visual and Performing Arts Ideas

Hope you enjoy the site. This is probably one of the most comprehensive collections of helpful documents I have found. When you get a chance, sign up for a free account and search for many ideas that you can use in your classroom. Hope this helps. Next week I will be blogging about podcasting and vodcasting. See you next week.

How to Take Pictures of Your Computer Screen Using MS Office 2003

Hello,

I hope you had a great week. Today I am sharing with you how to take screenshot pictures using MS Office 2003. Remember, all you have to do is push the print screen button on your keyboard. Whey you do this it will take a digital image or picture of your screen, like you see on the top. After you click it, you will not see any message that tells you that you have taken a picture and it is now ready to post. In fact you won’t notice anything different about your screen. When you click on the right side of the mouse chose the option paste and it will copy your picture in your office Document or PowerPoint. To edit the picture you have to double click fast on the left side of the mouse and you will see the Format Picture Box. If this does not work you will need to go to the very top of the screen and and chose the third option View. Then go down to the Toolbars option and check the option: picture and you will see a Picture tool bar appear on your screen like this Once you see the Picture option box, choose the little dog. It is the 4th Picture from the right side of the toolbox and choose the option Tight.

If you want to edit or crop the picture chose this icon Once you click on the little crop icon, you will see black lines around your picture. All you have to do is left click on the lines while holding the mouse and move the mouse to where you want to crop or cut the picture. Now if you double clicked on the picture you will see the following six tab options Color and Lines, Size, Layout, Picture, Text Box, and Web. You want to chose the third tab or the Layout option. When you chose this option you will see the following Next, you will click on the Tight option. It is located in the middle of the screen. Now you must decide if you want the picture aligned left, center, right or other. I would chose other and the when you click on the picture it will allow you to move it anywhere you want in your document. Once you chose the option you want click on the OK button on the bottom. You will see little white round dots around your picture (To see these white dots look very closely at the picture at the very top), which means you can now hold down the left side of the mouse to move it anywhere you want in your picture. You can also make the picture small or large by clicking on one of the dots and moving the mouse. Hope these directions help you out when you are practicing taking screen shot pictures and inserting them in your Documents or Power Points. We will see you next week.

Valuable Writing and Brain Based Resources!

Hello,

Today I will be sharing valuable writing and brain based research resources. My first web site has numerous writing resources you can use with your elementary writing class. The web site is located at: http://tinyurl.com/Writing201 I attended three full days of training in which most of the ideas came from Colleagues/Teachers who attended the New Jersey Writing Project and shared their wonderful ideas with us. Here is a list of the recommended books that were given to us at the NJ Writing Workshop.





The next web site has many brain based research resources that Eric Jensen shared with us at a Workshop in San Diego, California. Eric Jensen is a major leader in the brain based research area and speaks at numerous engagements every year. Also there are resources and ideas from another work shop I recently attended in Dallas, Texas. Most of the ideas can be used as topics for discussion with teachers to facilitate collaborative discussions in Professional Development settings. The web site is located at: http://tinyurl.com/ErikJensen Hope you enjoy these two resources. Here are a few of the resources that were mentioned in his workshop and I have already added these resources to my library.

Making Professional Movies with Digital Pictures/Videos for Free!

Today, I am going to share with you some valuable resources on how to make free movies or digital stories with your computer. There is a free software program the Microsoft has installed on all computers that have Windows and most people do not even know that this program is on their own computer. The name of this free program is called Windows Movie Maker (2).

So, what do you do with all those digital pictures and videos you have taken over the past holiday? You can turn them into a professional movie by using the program above. To find the program on your computers you click on Start -> Programs -> Accessories or you can find it in your Programs menu. Look for this picture to the left, when you are looking for it.
Now, I can go over the program and explain all the details of how to add pictures, add video, edit, clip, copy, cut, combine full-motion video, still images, narration, music, effects, titles, and transitions to create your own movies or you can learn it for free by viewing the following link through atomiclearning: http://www.atomiclearning.com/moviemaker2 When you click on the link you will watch professional videos on how to use the program step by step. You can watch from the comfort of your own home, then follow along step by step. Hope you enjoy the free tutorials (they are priceless). Here is another tutorial in which you can read step by step on how to use Windows Movie Maker (2): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx With this program you can also learn about Creating Digital Stories with Windows Movie Maker 2 Just click on the link above and it will take you to the University of Houston web site on Creating Digital Stories. Hope this helps and we will be sharing more and exciting and free info. in the future with you.

Power Point Resources - Free!

Greetings:

Today, I am sharing a wonderful web site that has hundreds of pre-made power points you can use with your students. You can also download them to your computer or a flash drive/jump drive or a portable hard drive. Here is the web site. http://www.pppst.com/

If you are interested in creating your own blog, it is as easy as clicking on this link below to get the instructions. http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/visual_media/2009/11/creating-a-blog-using-blogger.html or you can click on this link below to see the document http://www.scribd.com/doc/22339943/Creating-a-Blog-in-Blogger If you want to download the power point or PDF then you can become a member of http://www.scribd.com/ for free and download all types of free informational documents. You can post any online document to share with the community. You can also charge for people to download your document and you keep 80% of profit. Happy exploring, and we hope you will enjoy the web sites. More valuable resources to come in the future, so stay tuned.