Did you know that you can use Google Docs to upload a video and generate an embed code? I didn’t until today.
This is a nice workaround for a way to embed videos to a web site without having to put it up on YouTube, TeacherTube, or some other sharing site.
The advantages of embedded content are streaming (faster loading), greater compatibility, and preserving context (not sending your user/student off somewhere else).
There are so many great technology tools…wikis, blogs, Google docs, podcasts, Moodle sites, VoiceThread, and on and on. Sometimes it’s difficult to know which tool to use for a given project or activity.
The best way to approach this problem is to always start with the question “What are the instructional goals?” and then to think about how to accomplish those goals. Sometimes the answer will be technology; other times it may be paper-and-pencil, f2f group discussion, or something else.
Here is a grid that outlines the main differences between things like wikis, blogs, document sharing, etc. with some thoughts on which are best suited to different classroom activities.
If you have your own tips to share about how you choose which tool to use for different activities, post your thoughts here to share with others.
At NECC last week, I presented a session called “Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate and Enrich Instruction.” The ISTE folks had wanted to podcast the session, but I wasn’t crazy about the legal agreement they were using. (It wasn’t Creative Commons and gave pretty extensive rights to Apple.)
So….I created my own digital version of this session for folks to download:
Video version (streaming, for viewing in a browser; loads faster, but lower quality)
If anyone is interested in a higher resolution version to share with folks who weren’t able to attend, email me, and I’ll try to send you a CD.
For those who are interested, I audio recorded this with a very inexpensive Olympus WS-100 pocket recorder. I edited the audio in Audacity and brought it all into Windows Movie Maker for editing. The visuals included exported jpgs from my presentation slides and screen-capture videos made with Camstudio. I used HandShare to create the Palm movies (which is the same software I used to present). Creating the whole thing took about 4 hours.
It was a lot of fun making this and was a good way to reflect on my own style of presenting (and hopefully refine it for upcoming events).
I hope this is a useful resource for you all.
I was initially pretty skeptical [my normal frame of mind] about the potential of Web 2.0 type tools to replace Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Now that I’ve used them though, the idea is growing on me.
With the recent announcement of a forth-coming presentation (read: PowerPoint-like) application, this suite suite will be adding a piece we’ve all been looking for.
Another critital piece that is apparently in the works is the ability to sync documents to the desktop for offline use. This is a pretty important piece for schools (many of which still don’t have 100% reliable connectivity) and for those of us who spend a lot of time on planes.
Every time I’m in a school and hear a kid telling some variation on the “the-computer-ate-my-homework” story (“My document was here and I have no idea what happened to it,” “I forgot my USB drive,” etc.), I think about the potential of these tools. Pretty exciting stuff. And did I mention that they’re free? 
