One of the challenges of Web 2.0 apps is that there are frequent changes to the business models, often resulting in services that were originally free going to a pay-per model or sometimes going away altogether. I understand that everyone needs to be self-sustaining, but it’s a challenge for schools using these tools. (This is one of the reasons I love open source software — you know it’s always going to be free.)

This recently happened with two tools I use. One is Gabcast, which used to be free, but now has a time limit of 4 minutes as a free trial plan. In looking for another free tool to do phonecasting (recording audio from a phone and posting it directly to your blog of podcast), I haven’t quite find one that fits the bill. I tried phonecasting.com but had some challenges getting it set up. I’m still looking into a few other options, so stay tuned. (drop.io allows you to record files by phone but is lacking some other useful features. It is really intended as a broader file sharing tool, rather than just a phonecasting app.) If you have an app for this you like, please let me know.

I also used a web site for checking for plagiarism that was free but now charges. In looking for alternatives, I found The Plagiarism Checker from the University of Maryland, which looks good. They also offer a premium version for a fee, but the basic one worked fine for me. (I tested out others as well, but they seemed to think everything written at a high level was plagiarized, even original work of my own.) I have not used this application extensively, but in trying it out, it seemed to work well.  I also looked for open source alternatives, but didn’t find any.

If you have your own favorites in these categories, please add a comment and let us know.

There are so many great open resources that teachers can use legally in creating multimedia projects (reports, PPTs, web pages, wikis, etc.) with their students, but they take a lot of time to find and correlate.

As a part of a recent project, I’ve started putting together “media sets” — bundled collections of photos, maps, diagrams, videos, etc. on very specific topics for teachers and students to use.

Here’s an example of one on Ancient China. It includes a timeline, photos of art from various dynasties, maps, etc. Each piece is open-licensed. You can right-click the file to get source and license information.

We also have media sets for ancient Egypt, contemporary Asia, contemporary Africa, American westward expansion, human interaction with our environment, etc. with more to come.

Questions for you:

• Is this something that is useful to you?
• What would make it more useful?
• What other topics would you like to see?
• Would you be interested in attending a 3-hour workshop at a conference at which participants would all build media sets on topics of their choice?

I’m especially interested in answers to that last questions, since it’s the time of year when I’m submitting workshop ideas for conferences. How about it?

It’s surprising to me that in 2010, there are still big districts that are blocking all Web 2.0 apps — wikis, blogs, etc.  These are some of the most powerful tools we have for differentiating instruction.

I have to think these decisions are being made by people who aren’t in charge of instruction and who are mainly motivated by wanting “no problems.” (And as I always say, if you want no problems, just pack the computers away or don’t even by them.) I restate my offer here to talk to leadership teams at these districts about the benefits of these tools and the ways they can be implemented safely. Please let our teaches and students have the tools they need for 21st century learning!

Are whole categories of tools blocked in your district? Do you know who is driving policy on this? Have efforts been made to revisit these policies? What are the barriers?

I noticed recently that when I updated my iTunes software, it reverted my import settings back to AAC. Not very nice of it.

(As background, AAC is the default audio setting on iTunes. It works great with iTunes or an iPod, but doesn’t work with other players like a Sandisk, Zune, Palm, etc. MP3 is a much more compatible format that is preferred. If you don’t change this setting, all the music you rip on iTunes will not be accessible on other players.)

To change this in iTunes:
- Go to the Edit menu (iTunes menu on Mac).
- Select Preferences.
- On the General tab, click Import Settings.
- For Import using, choose MP3 encoder.

Doing this will save you a lot of time if you ever want to listen to audio on some other device.

Engaging your students in creating standards-based projects is a great way to differentiate instruction.

But what to do when your students want to rip their favorite CDs to include music in their project? If you are posting the work online, this probably doesn’t fall under “fair use,” and it is important to model good copyright adherence with our students.

Creative Commons and open music to the rescue! There is now a wealth of open-licensed music that you and your students can use in your projects.

I love the sites ccMixter (contemporary; note that there is a small amount of music here with “adult language” but this site is not blocked in most schools) and MusOpen (classical) for this, but if you’d like to give students a little more limited selection of music to streamline the time they spend on it, we’ve set up this page with a limited selection of open-licensed music that you can use for free and legally for any student work.

Make sure to have your students attribute the source for any works they use, including music. For these music files, just right-click the mp3 file and view properties to see the source and license details.

Enjoy! And if there are any particular types of music you’d like to see added, let us know.

Blogging in schools is a great way not only to convey information, but to engage students in learning.

Some of the ways teachers use blogs with students are to give writing prompts, have students respond to reading, do formative assessment, have book discussions, and prompt reflective writing.

What ideas do you have for specific ways you could use a blog in your classroom?

What other Web 2.0 tools do you think would be useful in your classroom?

I have been asked many times how you can do “green screen” in Windows Movie Maker. (This technique, also known as chroma key, lets you import a background image, for example, the Taj Mahal, and then composite in video of a person over it. The video is shot with a solid green or sometimes blue background, which is then electronically brought in as the background image.)

My standard answer has always been that Windows Movie Maker doesn’t do that. You need a more sophisticated video program. But it turns out that is wrong.

I also assumed that iMovie would do this. Then I was at a school the other day working with 2nd grade students on weather reports that were planned to be chroma key’d in to pictures the kids had colored. I tried to do this on iMovie, but was surprised to find that the version they had didn’t support this.

So I did a little digging on chroma key and Windows Movie Maker and found this: a very easy to install and use add-on to WMM that makes chroma key a simple transition effect!

In a matter of minutes, we had some very cute videos!

I’ve reported here earlier about an easy way to convert Flip camera movies to WMV files so that you can import them into Windows Movie Maker.

Imagine my surprise last week when several folks in a workshop I was facilitating agreed to a Flip upgrade, only to find that after the upgrade to Flipshare v5, converting to WMV no longer worked.

While I am still waiting for an answer about whether this is a “feature” or a “bug,”* I did find a way to un-upgrade and return the conversion functionality. Here it is:

(I suggest you back up any video files on the camera before proceeding.)

Connect to your computer and open the Flip icon. Delete all files except for the DCIM folder.

Empty your recycle bin.

Disconnect the camcorder.

A. Uninstall FlipShare
1. Go to Control Panel>Programs and Features and remove Flip Share.

B. Reinstall FlipShare 4.5
1. Reboot your computer
2. Ensure that your camcorder is not connected to the computer
3. Click on this link and follow the on-screen instructions: http://download.theflip.com/update.theflip.com/app/fvsw/451/update/Setup_FlipShare.exe
4. Reboot again and launch FlipShare

(And obviously, if you want to keep this functionality, say no to future Flip upgrades.)

* Note to anyone from Cisco who might be reading this, eliminating this functionality would be tragic to many who use Windows Movie Maker as an editing platform. Using third-party conversion tools for this (as your tech support responses suggest) is not an option to many. Please bring back the conversion utility!

(cross-posted from K12 Open Ed)

Moodle glossaries are great, and there are so many ways to use them. Content can include everything from vocabulary to FAQs to fact-of-the-day to picture story starters. You can build them yourself as a teacher or have students build them. Glossaries can be displayed as a regular glossary type list, or you can auto-link words to glossary entries or display a random glossary block.

Here’s a new tool to make your use of Moodle glossaries even easier. The Kids Open Dictionary glossary builder now has an auto-export to Moodle! (And this resource is completely public domain.)

Here are the quick instructions.

1. In the dictionary, click Glossary builder.
2. Enter your list of glossary words separated by commas. Click build.
3. Check the resulting definitions. If there is more than one definition for a word, put a check mark next to the definition you want to include. If a word has no definition, you will need to add it. When you are done, click the Moodle button.
   
4. Right-click the “Click here to download your glossary button” link, and save the file somewhere (e.g. your desktop).
5. Go to your Moodle course. If you haven’t already, turn editing on and create a glossary by selecting Glossary from the “Add an activity” drop-down menu. (More on Moodle glossaries here.)
6. Select the glossary and select “Import entries.”
   
7. Browse to select the file saved in step #4.

That’s it! If you have suggestions on how to make this tool more useful or if you have a list of words that you’d like to have prioritized for definitions, shoot us an email.

“Engaging the Voices of Students: A Report on the 2007 & 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement” from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University is an important piece of research that I think everyone in education should read.

High school drop-out rates are a national crisis caused in large part by a lack of student engagement. This report looks at what students say about school and engagement. Among the findings are the following.

• Despite high drop-out rates, the aspirations of students are high with 91.4% reporting that they expect to graduate.
• Students report attending school not only because they have to (58%; the third most common response), but because they want to graduate and go on to higher education (74%).
• 67% of respondents report being bored in school every day. Their top reasons:
  • Material isn’t interesting (82%).
  • Material lacks relevance (41%).
  • Work isn’t challenging enough (33%).
  • Work is too difficult (27%).
• Rigor, relevance, and relationships are critical to engagement. Students need to feel some connection to an adult in the school.

There is so much more powerful information in this report, including a collection of student responses to an open-ended prompt. Read it. It might change how you feel about education.

Credit: Matthew Stinson, CC BY NC