Downloading Videos

I frequently come across videos on websites that I think would make a great part of a lesson, but the website is blocked by an internet filter (i.e. YouTube).  When I come across this situation, I turn to a very helpful Firefox add-on called "Video Downloadhelper." This little utility adds the ability to download to your hard drive most videos on webpages.

The add-on automatically detects when a video is present, and the three colored spheres in the logo begin to rotate. Just click on the animated spheres and you will see the name of the video file playing. Click on the file name, and the video will immediately begin downloading. On sites like YouTube, you will even be presented with different file types and video qualities for the same clip. You can then put the video file on a flash drive and use it as part of your lesson.

Video Downloadhelper

Wingclips

Video clips can often serve as great introductions to units, concepts, or literary themes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to locate quality clips that meet the needs of the lesson you might be teaching on a given day. That is where Wingclips comes in.

This website has a large collection of clips from popular movies, past and present, arranged by theme. When you visit the website, one of the first things you will see is a slider on the left-hand side of the webpage. Simply drag the slider up and down to locate the theme you need. Once you click on the theme, you will be taken to a list of clips that fit that topic. Each clip is playable and can be viewed full screen. Downloads of clips can be purchased on the site. But for most classroom needs, simply playing the clip in order to stimulate discussion about a topic is probably enough.

So the next time you are looking for a video clip to help your students engage in a topic, give Wingclips a try.

Creating Classroom Posters

Last year one of my students wore a t-shirt with a thoughtful quote: "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard." I immediately wanted to put the quote up in my classroom so that students would read it and be challenged by its message. I thought of making a poster, but realized that our poster making machine no longer worked. But then I remembered the website www.blockposters.com. This great web tool easily creates a poster from any image a user uploads. The poster is "blocked," that is the image is pixelated when viewed up close, but looks excellent when viewed from a distance. A quick search on Google images provided a large number of pictures with the quote. I downloaded an image and immediately got to work creating my poster.

Blockposter.com walks you through three easy steps to create your poster. First, you upload the image from your hard drive. Next, you choose how many pages wide you want the poster to be and what size of paper you will use. Finally, you download a PDF containing your image. I would recommend checking the PDF file to make sure your poster was created correctly and then find a color printer to actually print out the file. It takes some time and patience to assemble the sheets of paper, but when you are finished you have a pretty good poster for your classroom.

Below I have included a link to the poster that I created using the quote mentioned in this post.

Hard Work Beats Talent Poster

5 Dropbox tips

By now, most of us have used dropbox to sync and share files with others. In this post, I want to share with you five things you can do with Dropbox that you may not be aware of. Most of the tips I am going to share will require you to login to the web based version of Dropbox. To sign-in to the website, use the username and password you signed up with when joining DropBox.


The best first step is to install DropBox at home if you haven't already. That way you can keep all of your files between work and home synced. I find that using DropBox at work and home means I never have to carry around a flash drive.

A free dropbox account comes with 2 GB of storage. But after using the service for a year or more, you may be discovering that you are running out of room in your Dropbox. Luckily, there are ways to increase your space for free. First, you can share Dropbox with others. After signing in, you will see a "Get More Space" link at the top of the web page. If you click on the link, you will see instructions for sharing DropBox with others. Each person who joins earns you an extra 500mb. They also have a new photo upload feature in beta which can also earn you more space. You can read about this feature and how it can earn you more space at https://www.dropbox.com/help/287.

DropBox can also be used as an inbox for student assignments. Students can turn in assignments to you even if they don't have Dropbox. If you go to http://dropitto.me/ you can sign up for a free account. This allows students to send things to your Dropbox account and saves the hassle and waste of printing out assignments.

You can also use the service to share large files. Many email programs limit the size of an attachment, but Dropbox allows you to share any file with one simple link. There are two ways to obtain the link. The first is to login to the website and click on the file you want to share. You will see a link icon appear at the right. Or you can right-click on a file in your desktop folder and click on the Dropbox option. Then choose "Get Link." Now that you have a link to the file, you can email the link to another person and they will be able to download the file.

Finally, you can always restore a file that was accidentally deleted. In your account just click on the trash can icon to see a list of deleted files. You can restore any file in this list to your Dropbox folder.

I hope these tips help you get more use out of Dropbox.

Diigo

I am frequently discovering new websites. I find websites to use with students, to increase my knowledge on a particular topic, or information to read later. The trick is keeping track of all these web resources. Usually people bookmark websites they want to return to later, but then the list of links is trapped on the computer it was created on. Therefore, I use a browser add-on called Diigo to keep track of the websites I bookmark. This add-on not only keeps all of your links in one place, but you can also access them from any computer via the Diigo website. In addition, you can tag each link and then share them with others.

You can also use Diigo to search for resources on a particular topic. I have recently been researching information on the Common Core Standards, and the public bookmarks collected on the Diigo website have been an excellent resource.

If you have trouble remembering all of the web resources you find, Diigo might just be the solution for you. I have included a link to my bookmarks about the Common Core Standards as an example below.

http://www.diigo.com/user/mia_sarx/commoncore

Audioboo: Record and Share Audio

This week i want to introduce you to an app i have started using called Audioboo. The company tagline is that it is the simplest way to share audio. Audioboo works with Android, Nokia, and Apple devices. If you don't have a smart phone, you can also record directly in your web browser. I have been using the iPad app, but the process works the same with another smartphones or the Audioboo website. Simply open the app, click on the record button, and begin talking into the microphone. When you're done with your recording, press stop, and then click the upload button. You can then go to the Audioboo website to view the audio clip that you created. You can share the audio file via Twitter, email, or there's also an embed button so that you can embed the clip into other websites. Right now, I am using the app to create audio agendas of what we do in class each day. This helps students who are absent and need to make up the work they missed that day. The agenda takes no more than two minutes to record. I'm also thinking of using Audioboo to create book talks with students. Students will describe and evaluate books they have read, and other students will be able to listen to their opinions. I'm sure that there are many other ways to use Audioboo. But these are the two ways that I'm using it currently. Below I have embedded an Audioboo of this TechTip.

You can also view my class website to see how the Audioboo player looks when embedded on a webpage.

http://mtview-beaumont-ca.schoolloop.com/brubaker

Creating Secure and Easy to Remember Passwords

With all of the websites teachers have to sign-in to these days, it is easy to forget your password. Luckily there is a way to create passwords that are both easy to remember and secure. This tip can also work for teaching students how to create passwords. Just click on the link below and watch the tutorial.