CBL Research Tool

Since the ADE 2010 Summer Institute in July, my Challenge Based Learning team hascontinued to work on our projects-- building resources for educators who wish to earn more about or try CBL.

I decided to draw on my experiences with CBL last year to create a few short video modules on research and media management. My first endeavor was created using past blog & presentation material, Flickr Creative Commons photos, Voila, GarageBand, and Photo to Movie.

Dragon Dictation & Movie Making

I had the unusual experience recently of using my iPhone to help make a movie. No, I didn't use its movie camera. Instead I used the dictation app, called Dragon Dictation. I dictated my script over the phone and emailed myself the text. Now, granted, I might do something like this just for the geeky heck of it. But in this case it was pretty helpful. I was scripting a narration to accompany some movie screen captures , and I needed a rough idea of the timing, since the audio would have to be synched with the video (I used the iPhone as a stopwatch for this).

Below is the result. In addition to Dragon Dictation, I used GarageBand, iPhoto, Keynote, Voila, and iMovie. I worked much harder on this than my last module, but you'll see that I was not up to smoothing out all the rough patches.

Flickr Creative Commons Rocks!

This summer I put considerable effort and energy into creating some tools for teachers interested in trying Challenge Based Learning. For example, I created one called "CBL Media Management Do's". Recently, I completed a companion piece about the "don'ts" of media management. But there is a different twist,. On the first one I primarily used screen shots for my demonstration. But for this one, I relied heavily on Flickr Creative Commons photos. Though these pictures were not taken with CBL in mind, I still think that they help illustrate the points I tried to make in the narrative. Do you agree?


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The movie was created with GarageBand, Yahoo Advanced Image Search, Photo to Movie, Voila, Keynote, and Preview

Suggestions for Group Research [Video]

Group research can be a tricky bit of business. What kinds of steps may be taken to encourage accountability, communication, and quality? I recently produced a short video for the specific purpose of helping out teachers who are venturing into Challenge Based Learning. However, the suggestions apply to other types of group projects as well.

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This movie was made with the following tools: Dragon Dictation (iPhone), Voila, Evernote, Flicker Creative Commons, Photo to Movie, and GarageBand.

Giving the Supreme Court Some Face Time

From time to time I link some of my little instructional movies to this blog. I've edited several this summer, but all of them have been for my film class or Challenge Based Learning. This is ironic because American Government classes comprise nearly all of my teaching assignment this coming school year.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, plenty of media is already available for current events and political issues. And secondly, a video presentation would not enhance many of my subjects what a podcast or slide show can do. The videos demand more time and attention, so the pay off is simply not worthwhile.

But recently, I was updated some podcasts on the court system, and I decided that a piece on the current Supreme Court would benefit from visuals. While facial identification of Supreme Court members is not exactly a major goal of the curriculum, I decided that a montage of photos would help make my points about Court demographics. Let's see if you agree:



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This movie was made using the following tools: GarageBand, Voila, Dropbox, and Photo to Movie

Steven Spielberg, Dropbox and Me

Both of my posts this week conform to the "down in the trenches" theme of this blog. While I am not slogging it out in the classroom this summer, I am trying to develop actual solutions for real classes, using available technologies. No pontificating guru, I.

Recently I added to my collection of resources for my film class. I've described this process before: I write a script or outline and lay down a soundtrack with GarageBand. I then select jpegs and drop them and the soundtrack into PhotoToMovie. It took about five hours to synch the photos with the sound in the following ten minute movie :



This Speilberg movie has two new elements. Most of the Minority Report stills were captured with Voila. And I completed my work across two computers, using Dropbox. Dropbox is free. As described on its home page, this is what it does:

Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they'll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you've installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox's secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device.

I have already added the link for my Spielberg movie to Moodle. My students will be required to listen to it. I hope you will sample a couple of minutes, voluntarily!

I Love Being Lost in La Mancha

Ordinarily creating a study guide for students is a bit of a chore. However, I've always enjoyed fashining guides for my Lit into Film class. When Tom S. and I created the class a few years ago, we both thought it was pretty important that students have a guided viewing of the films, so that they would be prepared for discussion. Since we selected films that we really liked, it was no chore to comb through them for good discussion topics.

Two years ago, I began to convert my guides to Google Docs with hyperlinks, so that they popped out with YouTube and jpeg examples of film techniques that were merely defined in prior semesters. Putting the guides on Google Docs also allowed me to link them easily to Moodle.

This summer I have begun to improve the guides by using the screen capture software, Volia. I recently completed a study guide for Lost in La Mancha, a film directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe which "chronicle[s] the making of a movie that was never actually completed . . . Terry Gilliam's repeated (and repeatedly failed) attempts to bring the story of Don Quixote to the big screen." It's a wonderful documentary, a genre unappreciated by most students.

Voila has permitted me to inch through the film and pull out illustrative images from La Mancha. Viola allows for publishing directly to iPhoto, where I edit them before import the photos into the guide. I am very pleased to show off my handiwork and look forward to more summer fun with Voila:

Lit into Film Study Guide for Lost in La Mancha

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Terry Gilliam on location in Spain-- Voila screen capture from Lost in La Mancha.

A Baker's Half Dozen

I enjoy trying out the toys in Gmail Labs ("a testing ground for experimental features that aren't quite ready for prime time"). Just go to settings in Gmail and click the labs tab and a long list of options appears. One very useful gadget is the "undo feature", a setting which allows for up to 20 seconds of pause time after you hit the send button. I've clicked the "undo" more than a few times, and the way I see it, no email is likely to suffer from the delay of an extra few seconds.

Recently I was participated in a conference call involving dozens of educators. This was scheduled using Doodle. Check it out-- It is a splendidly simple piece of software that can be used for whipping up a poll. If you are setting up a meeting poll your members with Doodle and it will produce a matrix showing you the optimal meetings times. Pretty cool.

Have you been bewildered by Ning's announcement to eliminate its free social media sites, followed by a the mysterious statement that "A major educational company has offered to sponsor Ning Mini Networks for educators"? If your confidence has been shaken in Ning, perhaps you would like to try Spruz, which seems to offer similar functionality.

I've only been playing around with Voila for a few days, but I am already hooked. It is an inexpensive screen capture software made for Macs by Global Delight. Voila allows you to "capture and record anything on your screen." It also comes with an easy to use annotation tool kit. which I find very helpful for creating presentations and classroom resources.

Speaking of free accounts, some of the bloggers that I read have referred to Instapaper. If like me, you hopscotch all over the place when you read online, this might be a handy tool. It's simple to register for an account. Then drag a bookmarklet to your toolbar. This will create a "read me" button. When you are scanning an article and want to save it, click the "read me" button and Instapaper will save it for you.

My last recommendation is for pop music lovers. Downplayer offers ten free downloads a day, Monday through Friday. It's easy and fun to preview the songs. If you feel as though your playlist is stale, spend a few weeks sampling from this site and you will discover some new music. The free feature has hooked me into spending some cash on albums, just the way it's designed to do.

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"Six" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by duncan