Week 5 All Things Video: Creating, Watching, and Sharing

Video Resources
The 6 Easiest Video-Making Tools for Marketers (article)
Nutshell
Magisto
Animoto
Videoshop
iMovie App
iMovie for Macs

Powtoons
AniMaker

Edmodo - http://www.edmodo.com/

          Edmodo reminded me of www.4teachers.org and iLearn.  Edmodo is free (no tuition required ;) )  It does for any kind of teacher what iLearn does for our online professors.  The teacher in the testimonial video stated that she appreciated having all her web tools in one place, e.g. calendar apps and homework drop boxes.  She said that her students like the social network interface.  She made a point that students are going to jobs that require familiarity with this type of networking.  I never had online classes before grad school.  Through this class, I see where physically sitting in a traditional classroom is becoming (if not already) passé.  Also, I see where collaborating web tools are “where it’s at.”  A growing trend in high school seems to be to figure out just how much you can squeeze into 24 hours.  Can you go to class; do your homework, play a sport or instrument, work your part-time job, chat with your friends, do your chores, and remember to eat dinner all in a day?  It’s more like meeting the bookclub at a wi-fi café while clicking “submit assignment” on your laptop, hitting “reply” on your Blackberry, while listening to your text to speech app read you the events for tomorrow off your calendar app on your iPad.  Edmodo is enabling students and teachers to do things easier.  We, by our very nature, want to consume that saved time with other activities.

          I love Edmodo though, truthfully.  It’s free and versatile.  If students are enjoying their assignments, they won’t “work” a day that they are in school.  I always recommend having an electronic form of anything you want to do somewhere.  If you plan to bring your assignment on a flash drive, you should email it to the teacher the night before.  That way, no matter what happens the next morning, you have your assignment with you.

Math dictionary http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/dictionary.html

          This site has a graphical dictionary of math terms.  The design is simple and colorful.  Students of any age could navigate the site easily.  This site is free and has a copyright date of 2013.  The webmaster is maintaining it.  If you encountered a problem, you could email the webmaster using the “feedback” link at the bottom of the page.  The terms are organized in alphabetical order.  Have patience when clicking a term and waiting for the definition to appear.  It takes a few seconds.

          I can see this being useful for studying math.  It would really be helpful for ESL students trying to take math in their second language.  I could reference it in a lesson for any equations I might do but I don’t its usefulness in my science class.

          I do recommend it.  I have a friend that is teaching seventh grade math.  She and her students would like this site.

Glogster - http://www.glogster.com/

“Glogster EDU is the leading global education platform for the creative expression of knowledge and skills in the classroom and beyond.  We empower educators and students with the technology to create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more.  I thought that they explained themselves pretty well.  Let’s break down the key features.  The creation interface that allows you to make a Glog uses simple drag and drop commands.  For collaborative projects, the teacher can work with students in a classroom or through remote instruction using this multimedia platform – a community system for sharing is prepared where student‘s work is stored and available at any time.  The teacher creates projects with templates and instructional guidelines, assigns them to the students, provides feedback throughout the assignment, and assesses their finished work.  You get social aspects like instant messaging, comments, and profile customization.  You also get a search engine, RSS, privacy control, educator resource library to help put your Glog together, Glog recommendations, and a Glog rating system.

Glogster EDU creates a digital learning environment, where teachers and students learn technology in an easy to use and scalable format that simplifies the educational process and produces assessable multi-modal results across the curriculum spectrum.  Glogster EDU enables public or private schools, districts, states, and education institutions of all kinds, to meet and exceed educational technology and content area standards for creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and digital citizenship.  Glogster EDU creates an adaptable and innovative learning environment for all learners, regardless of age, gender, culture or learning style. Students are encouraged to be independent, inventive problem solvers and lifelong learners.

An EDUcator Free account allows you to manage up to 10 student accounts, and have access to the Next Gen Glog. Additional students can be registered using the teacher code.  EDUcators do not, however, have access to our student management tool, the “reGlog” (share) option or full access to our rich Glogpedia resource library of content Glogs.  You may view your student’s work directly by clicking on the “student” tab on the Dashboard, scrolling to the student you would like to view, clicking on their avatar, and visiting their account page.  Students who are in your account but not managed will have to send you the URL to their Glog.

This site is iLearn, Twitter, and Edmodo rolled into one!  The creators want to be paid though.  I can appreciate that.  It seems that the site’s functionality and user-friendliness is moderated via price tag.  I would not recommend this site and I lean towards Edmodo.

Jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

Jing Tutorial

Short Jing tutorial that I created, follow the link above

When people wanted to take a screen shot, they usually just hit the “print screen” button.  They couldn’t save or share that image. Jing is a ready-to-go app that you download that allows you to take that screen shot, email it, embed it in your blog, or attach a hyperlink of it to a social media page.  Jing will also save your images, as opposed to saving them to your hard drive. 

          This site is where tutorial videos happen.  I definitely would use this in class.  I could make videos for students and for substitutes of lessons and navigation of websites.  I could let students use this feature to help each other and their parents!  A must-have!  I’m excited about this app.

You Tube for Education - http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400

          YouTube EDU brings learners and educators together in a global video classroom. On YouTube EDU, you have access to a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.  Come here for quick lessons from top teachers around the world, course lectures from top-tier universities, or inspiring videos to spark your imagination.  You can also create videos.  Youtube for Schools is a Youtube channel that boosts that it can be viewed while at school.  They don’t allow comments, nor do they showcase the annoying margin of “related videos.”  Videos on Youtube for Education are from Stanford, PBS and TED as well as from future YouTube partners with millions of views, like Khan Academy, Steve Spangler Science, and Numberphile.

This site does everything you need youtube to do in school.  Videos are relevant to today’s teaching, almost synonymous.  I loved TED but now I don’t have to stop there.  I have already used this application to observe high school science being taught.  It’s always good to see how someone else executed a lesson plan, especially if you are stumped while creating your own.  Videos are really great when someone says something just right.  Students can also use this as a resource for demos, information, and to enrich their own projects.  I made a joke the other day.  I said that I don’t need a husband; I just need Youtube.  Is there anything about which youtube is missing a tutorial video?  *cricket cricket*  I didn’t think so.  It’s free and informational.  I recommend it.

SchoolTube http://www.schooltube.com

          This site is a collective of student-made and teacher made videos.  It’s a lot like Youtube.  In the “About” section, you read that the creators wanted a safe, moderated place for students and teachers to watch and/or upload videos.  You can watch Schooltube videos on most school networks.  There are no adverisements or comments.  You can share the video through a URL or embedding it.

TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com

          This site has all kinds of multimedia.  You can view videos, documents, photos, and listen to audio clips.  There are appropriate ads but no comments.  You can share the various multimedia items through social networking sites, embedding into blogs, or attach the media to an email right from the Teachertube page.  This site is a little more organized and user friendly than Schooltube.  For the most part, still like Youtube.  Your account is free and so is uploading.