YouTube. You edit. You need to try this.

YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

We've been working with a few different video editing software, and finding one that works for students accustomed to Macs, PCs, and Chrome books has been a challenge. Some students, we find, don't even have access to there own computers, so editing video can be a real challenge. Until recently.

YouTube's video editor is a great, entry-level, cloud-based software that allows students to create simple videos. After creating a free account, students can upload clips of video footage they collected and simply drag them into place on the timeline. They can also drag transitions into place and utilize creative commons video and royalty free music if needed.

Once the footage is in place, an audio file can be selected and typed words can be added to the clips. Right now there is no way to add your own voice-over to the video, so any audio you record on the clips will have to suffice. Once the project is done, just hit publish and it's on YouTube. 

This video shows just how easy this tool is to use.

It's Glog, Glog, it's better than bad, it's good

Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/)

I've been looking for a WYSIWYG cloud-based software that allows you to easily incorporate visuals, text, video, and audio files on one page. Glogs are like virtual poster boards, and I can't wait to use these in the classroom.

Right now, it seems as though the software has been updated and some people appear upset, but I have no problem figuring out how to create, move, and edit my project. In fact, I plan on using this website to showcase the zombie card game I designed at a QEP symposium.

While Glogster's primary market is elementary school children, the visual possibilities seem to be promising for college students. I think the program has potential as a way to introduce students to visual rhetoric in freshmen level writing and communication courses.

My plan is to have students use this program to present their final projects to the class. Since they are completing a community outreach project outside of the classroom, students are required to talk about their experiences using videos, photos, and audio files. Glog will allow the groups to create virtual posters that will help them organize their experiences, and share their projects to people outside the class.

The free plan gives you everything you'll need to create dynamic posters. Give Glogster a try. 

Maps and Photos and Files, Oh my: The possibilites are off the chart with Historypin

Historypin (http://www.historypin.com/)

While I haven't been able to use this in program in a class yet, the possibilities seem so limitless with Historypin that I wanted to share it with you now, while your syllabus for next semester may still be in development--like mine.

Historypin is an online collection of photographs, audio, and video files that are primarily organized by the place where they are taken/recorded. As people upload files to the map, they are also able to date them and write a little story about what is taking place.

Right now, the collection seems rather USA and Europe heavy, but I'm sure as time goes by we'll be able to find more files available. In any case, Historypin provides a few rather obvious teaching/assignment opportunities.

Next semester, my class will be writing, speaking, and filming a ghost tour of EKU's campus, and Historypin will allow us to create a collection of photographs to tell this story digitally. We will also create a tour using Historypin.

Another classroom use could be to see photographs of the time and place in which a novel is set. Writing topics could be generated by actually seeing the objects the author mentions or by seeing the damage occurred by natural disaster or warfare.

Then, of course, there is application for a history, geography, and architecture classes. There are so many directions you can take with this program. Try it out and see what you think.

Screen Captures made easy: Jing your monitor's images and videos

Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing/free/)

Tired of Print Screen? I sure am. Don't get me wrong; it can be useful, but Print Screen is a pain when you want to create usable jpegs, editing out all the random desktop clutter you have on the screen, and then saving the image as a low-resolution file suitable for only for online and low-quality printed documents.

Jing just might be the program you are looking for. This free program downloads in minutes and provides an easy way to capture images and video files on your computer. The video file captures sound and images; just draw a yellow box around the area you want to capture. The free version allows you to download the recorded file on your computer as an .swf file, which works well for online applications like Prezi and play in just about any browser.

The trickiest part about Jing, in my case, was actually finding the program. Because of my desktop image, I had a hard time finding the little yellow half-circle discreetly hiding at the top middle of my computer screen. Just hover over the yellow half-circle and you get three options. The tool that draws a box (just select video or picture), a history tab which shows you things you've already captured, and a settings option.

Jing also provides a simple too to highlight areas, write on an image, and draw arrows, which is a wonderful tool for teaching students how to upload or edit files in a new program. You can also record yourself using a program and have the video file available for your students to download.

Jing is also a helpful tool to capture simple flash animated advertisements for research purposes or live edits or meetings being conducted online.  

Brainstorming with Edistorm: Perfect for high-tech classrooms

Edistorm (http://www.edistorm.com/)

We've probably all brainstormed using a chalkboard or white-board, but have you tried doing this online? Consider using Edistorm. The classroom I teach in offers laptops to students as well as Internet access, so I decided to try Edistorm and found the program very useful.

Edistorm is a free, cloud-based program that utilizes a large, blank canvas and virtual Post-it notes. (Although you can also add videos and photographs.) I created a "storm" (it only takes a minute) before class began and invited the entire class by email. I would recommend having students create accounts before you need to use this program in the classroom. Then collect their user names and share the storm with them by typing in their user names. (This will make the process a little smother than my experience.)

For class that day we were coming up with topics for an informative speech. I had the students type in ideas and share them with the group. While they were typing in their ideas, I had the storm projected on the large screens in the classroom. This allowed me to walk around and talk about the ideas I saw appear on the screen. The students seemed to enjoy the process, and I know I did.

We then voted on ideas we liked--each person gets 10 votes. Edistorm allows you to sort the virtual Post-it notes by its rating and even allows you to see ideas that didn't get votes. Using the large screens, I was able to sort the ideas and initiate class discussion on what patterns we saw emerging and what speeches would be the most engaging.

At the end of the day I got an email from Edistorm giving me a report on who typed what idea. This was so helpful that I decided to use the same storm the next class period. I had the students use Edistorm to share their central ideas for the speech with the class. I then had students vote on their top 10 ideas and comment on all the others. Edistorm allows you to add comments to a note, so students typed in questions and ideas to share why they didn't find a particular speech topic as engaging as the others. Again, I got an email that day listing who commented on what idea.

It was so interesting to see how a student would ask a question on a note and the person who posted the note would respond. There are 24 students in my class and, by the end of the class, each student had feedback from multiple peers. We could also see what ideas were the most popular and what ideas needed to be more focused.

The downside to this was that some students had used their votes the day before, so they had to comment on more ideas than other students. Next time I'll delete the notes from the old storm before I create a new one.

Once they had their central ideas down, I used Edistorm once again. I had each student type in a one or two word note that pertained to the topic of their speech--words like film industry, music production, autism. Once all these ideas were posted I was able, with help from the class, to group topics that seemed related. These groups of four became "tribes" who were then seated together to form peer-support teams. 

I really enjoyed using this program and intend to use it again in the future.

Here's a short tutorial on how Edistorm works:

Forget Clip Art: Go Back to the Drawing Board

DoInk (http://www.doink.com)

Creating a flash animation (swf file) used to be practically out of reach for many college students, until now. DoInk provides a user-friendly, cloud-based, free platform to create simple animations. One perfect use for these files is with Prezi. Now you can create moving words, shapes, people, images and have them imported into your Prezi presentation. These repeating animations can be quite effective at re-capturing or holding an audience’s attention. Another way to use this program is to create a form of kinetic typography, perfect for visualizing a short poem or haiku. Since you can create an account and an illustration in a typical class period, DoInk would provide a perfect class assignment. Once you create an illustration or animation, you can download it as a swf file, embed it in a website, or link to it. It took me about 10 minutes to create this animation below (just hit the play button):


questions by apostels, made at DoInk.com

odosketch (http://sketch.odopod.com/)

While Microsoft Paint and Google Drawing provide an easy way for students to create their own clip art for presentations and documents, the results are usually a little basic. Though these programs are helpful (Google Drawing even allows collaboration), they can really frustrate those who are more artistically inclined. Enter odosketch. This ingenious website provides users with a dozen or so pencils and colors and a sheet of paper (all digital of course). Once the illustration is drawn you can share the file on a website or blog via an embed code. The result is an eye-catching animation of the drawing in progress. If you are more interested in a standard, still-frame jpeg-like version of the drawing, just take a screen capture of the finished drawing and paste it into your document or PowerPoint. The site works wonderfully with touch pad computers. The best thing about this site is there is almost no learning curve. Check out this animation featured on the site to see the potential odosketch offers (refresh your browser if the drawing is already completed):

Silver Lining: Cloud Storage for Easy Data Access

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)

Dropbox is an easy-to-use, simple means of accessing your data anywhere.

It's as easy as uploading it to your account on the website, or as easy to as dragging and dropping into a folder on your computer.

Signing up for Dropbox gives you 2 gigs of storage free (or, if you accept a friend's referral, 5) with paid options to increase your storage. Your data is available wherever you have an internet connection (through the website) or wherever you download the Dropbox program or app. I have a work Dropbox account that I access through the website, and a personal one that lets me see my files on my desktop at work and my desktop at home, and additionally on my iPod Touch. When you use the program or app, your data is available whether or not you have an internet connection, making it easy to access your data when you need it most. It also offers functionality to share files with other users, making it great for collaboration of both files and folders.

Skydrive (http://skydrive.live.com)

Skydrive is part of Windows Live, which controls many old and new Microsoft services (including Hotmail and Xbox Live). The most useful benefit to this service is that, if you're already part of Windows Live, it's the same username and password to access your Skydrive as it is to access your Hotmail. Skydrive at its most basic is a combination of both Google Docs and Dropbox, offering simple but effective versions of Microsoft's own Office products in a web browser to create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations while also offering 25 gigs of free file storage (with a 100mb upload limit per file).

Skydrive offering the functionality of Microsoft Office is perhaps the greatest strength of this particular service. Many of the features are present and able to be used, and there is a built-in export feature to the current Office product.

Currently it supports Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote. Like Dropbox it offers sharing options to other users, or keeps your data private.