Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

Web 2.0 in Education Software Directory

Each package is a huge group of programs that are all bundeled together into one CD that is easily burnable. The OpenDisc programs are listed here and the OpenDiscEducation list is online right here.

There is no Mac version at the moment. Steps on how to burn the CD are online right here.

I will be stockpiling copies of the CDs in the SJA ResNet office located on the first floor of the library. If you’d like to pickup more than 5 copies, please email me (jseamon@gmail.com) and let me know so I can make sure they are ready for you.

Of course, due to filtering issues, we can’t access YouTube here on campus.  But there’s a perfect clip of “The Colbert Report” you want to show in your Current Events class.  What oh what to do?

There are a lot of ways to handle this – plugins for Firefox, downloadable programs, scripts you can run in browers, etc etc.  The process I’m about to outline is a little slower than some other methods, but it is the easiest in terms of steps.

First off, you’re going to need a home computer and Net access – broadband recommended, the faster the better. 

Find the video you want on YouTube – or Google Video, or almost any other Flash-based video site.  Go to the page with the actual video.  A quick word about YouTube – say you’re looking for a clip from “The Colbert Report”, and you find five samples of the same clips.  You’ll want to take a quick look at the first few seconds of each clip to determine which ones are the best looking.  Some people upload files with terrible encoding, others upload pristine copies.  Go with the best-looking one, it’ll result in a better end-product. 

You’ll then want to open a new window, and in that new window head over to http://www.all2convert.com/index.html. This is an online converter / downloader for Flash Videos.  Look on the left-hand side of this new page.  There is a field marked “URL Video”.  Copy and paste the URL of the video you want (from your original window) into this field.  Below that is a drop-down menu.  Choose the last option: “WMV Windows Video” (it is not the best choice, but it’s the only choice that is guaranteed to work with our Windows Media Player here on campus due to codec issues).   In a few moments, your file will start downloading.   Your mileage may vary in terms of time, subject to the speed of your home connection.

Then all you need is a school computer and LCD projector to show the clip in class.  I highly recommend putting Windows Media Player in “Full Screen Mode” when doing so.  In terms of actually getting the videos to school – they’re going to be too large to email to yourself through the school’s email system, so you can either use an external email (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo) or you can put them on USB keys and bring them in.

You can obviously convert multiple clips at a time, and when you bring them to school set them up as a playlist on Windows Media Player.

These clips will be of decent-but-not-spectacular quality – but keep in mind that Flash videos are half the resolution and half the frame rate of “normal” video, which is how the files are kept at a reasonable size.

Next time – how to rip DVD’s for more efficient classroom use.

Well, it’s always nice to find out it’s already been done before :)

Check out: SoftwareFor.org: Home of Software for Starving Students

From the website:

“Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We’ve gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a full-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more. For more information, check out our Questions and Answers.”

This looks fantastic. I’m going to try it out myself and have some student play with it. I’ll post more once I know more :)