Monday, December 14, 2009

Embedding a Video on your Blog

Hey there. If you're reading this, you may have wondered how to embed a video on your blog.

Here's what you need to know:

<embed src="" width="400" height="320" autoplay="false"> </embed>

Inside the src quotes goes the web address (go to the webcast archive, find your video, right click, choose properties, copy the address, paste the address inside the quotes)

The rest breaks out like this: autoplay="false" means it won't start till someone clicks play.

Width & Height are pretty self-explanatory and keep it small so it fits in your blog entry.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Screencast

This is a screencast that I created for my web design students. This was an introduction I made to help my students with their web site consultant projects, and I think I had quite a few views.

This was actually one of a series of screencasts that I created, the final one of which I need to re-record as I forgot to turn my wireless mic on, so it is just a random series of clicks and me typing in code for a web site.



I know this method of teaching will benefit me in the immediate future as I attempt to teach teachers how to use their tablet PC's. I will post more links soon.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Tablet PC (Ad)venture

As part of the move toward 21st Century skills, it has been my pleasure to test and debug our department's use of tablet PC's.

A couple thoughts I have on this (ad)venture:

  • Having the opportunity for teachers to use this technology means that our students are more likely to see increased use of computers in their education.

  • I will have to change the way I teach some things if this takes the next logical step and moves to students with laptops

  • I am going to have to teach more teachers about using this technology than I am students.

  • Having great tools does not negate the need for intelligent, competent, and student-centered teachers.


Curious if you have any thoughts along those lines or other.
Please comment and let me know.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Etherpad sign-up

Hello, there. I am experimenting with Etherpad for my English class, so I thought I would throw an entry up here.

My students are studying for The Odyssey right now, and as part of that, they are creating a glossary of terms on my class' Moodle page. Each bell has a separate glossary, so that everyone will be creating entries for a couple of the heroes, monsters, or gods that we encountered in the reading.

The reason I am using Etherpad is as a sign-up for which glossary entries they will be making. See that document for my first bell class here: http://etherpad.com/QHjU9ZHM7D.

I will post a follow-up after we have had a chance to fully explore this activity to let you know how it went, but I am hoping for good things!

***Update***

Today's activity went extremely well. Aside from some side conversations going on in the chat window, the classes were extremely focused. They really seemed to get into creating something for the whole class, and they really invested themselves in their work. It was good to see them all on-task with computers in front of them, as sometimes they like to play on sites that are not part of the assignment.

In all, I would call my first foray into a whole class using Etherpad a success. It worked well for what it was, a sign-up sheet. I can't imagine I have much use for Scriblink, the other site that we were exploring, but I could be convinced...

Till Later,