Jul 072021
 

Find this page at bit.ly/clintatursa


Canvas + Video = Online Superstar! Or, Recording & Embedding Quality Instructional Content

  • Access the session slides as well as the Canvas course with all of the steps and how-to videos.
  • Maybe you are not looking to become an online superstar, but you DO want to record video in Canvas for your students where they can actually SEE and HEAR the fantastic lesson you are delivering. Join me to review several different workflows and options to capture your teaching and instructions in Canvas, with the best balance of quality and ease possible.

Google Jamboard – A Free and Collaborative Interactive Whiteboard for Any Device – Advance with the “>” symbol on the top of the Jam

  • Google Jamboard is a new tool in G Suite for Education that you may not be familiar with, but if you’ve ever wished you could have more than a couple of students working at your Interactive Whiteboard (a.k.a SMARTBoard) at the same time, Jamboard is for you! Draw and sketch ideas, add text with movable “sticky” notes, add any photos and images, even Drive documents – and your students can interact and add their ideas in real time, from just about any device you (or your students) have in your classroom. If you run out of space, you can add as many more frames as needed. And just like any other Google Doc, all edits are saved and can be shared with a few clicks.

Keep It Together With Google Keep

  • You may not have heard of Google Keep, but you NEED to know about it. Keep is an incredible and easy to use tool for organizing all of the bits of information busy educators tend to collect whenever, wherever, that always seems to get lost. Keep allows you to bring together notes, links, photos, really anything you can grab with your computer, tablet and phone! Beyond gathering and organizing your digital ‘stuff,’ you can share your notes, collaborate with others, set reminders… even drag-n-drop text and photos into your Google Docs! Join me today and make Google Keep an integral part of your daily workflow.

Looking for my presentations from past URSA Conferences? Find them here or click on the URSA tag on the right.

Aug 272020
 

In these days of uncertainty in education, we all should be preparing blended learning resources for our students – whether we are lucky enough to be instructing students face-to-face, if we have some students who are learning from home, or if we all have to return to remote learning and instruction. See my post on Blended Learning Strategies, Instructional Video & Tools for Student Engagement for best practices and an overview of some great tools available. This post, however, focuses on some different workflows to easily (as possible) record your own instruction and embed your video into Canvas.

Unfortunately, there is not one ‘Best’ way to accomplish this, so I have outlined several approaches. Find one that will work best for you, and master it! Below are some slides that outline these strategies and workflows, but for some more depth, how-to videos and to see and compare what the recorded video looks like (not all methods and recording tools are equal!), please explore the pages in this public Canvas course that I have created:

Recording & Embedding Instructional Video in Canvas

 

Aug 132020
 

Apr 162020
 

We cover:

  • YouTube Facts and Figures
  • Account basics and privileges with different channel types
  • Logging in, creating and verifying a channel
  • Uploading video files from Zoom meetings or any recordings & Live Streaming
  • Approving videos for student viewing, adding videos to Canvas & Google Classroom and using Playlists to organize content

Training slides:

Oct 062017
 

adobe spark iconAdobe Spark is is a suite of FREE apps, including Video, Post, and Page, that allows you and your students to create beautiful social graphics, web stories and animated video – in minutes – without being a creative professional. With Spark in the classroom, you can easily create high quality reports, research papers, posters, writing assignments, presentations and so much more. See some examples and resources on the Adobe Spark in the Classroom page to discover how your classroom creativity can be enhanced. You and your students can use Adobe Spark on any desktop or laptop, Chromebook, or on any iOS device with the Adobe Spark apps. And yes, it is completely free!

Spark Video

Whether you want to gain a following, launch an idea, or support a cause, video is the most engaging way to communicate. Create and share compelling videos in minutes by easily combining video clips, photos and icons into an engaging product. Add impact with text overlay with no design experience required! You can also select from a wide variety of free soundtracks, bring in your own personal music, or even use your own voice to make your point. Spark Video also includes a wide array of rich visual themes to match your story, mood, and message. Each theme includes beautiful transitions and motion that bring your story to life.

Spark Post

Create stunning social graphics in minutes. Get started by previewing a huge assortment of professionally designed templates, and make it your own with a few simple steps. Turn your text and photo into a professional-looking graphic by simply applying the theme of your choice. You don’t need any design experience! Resize your text to your liking – beautiful typography is applied on the fly. It works like magic. There are also automatic sizing options so that your graphic is the perfect height and width for Facebook, Pinterest, or a banner for your web site or Canvas course. Once you have created your masterpiece, it’s simple to share it to social media, or download the image file to use as needed.

Spark Page

Create beautiful web stores by taking your photos, videos and text and easily adding them into a stunning professional web page layout. Photos can come from your own device, from your favorite cloud services, or choose from thousands of free stock photos. Your text, photos and videos instantly come into life with fluid, elegant motion. You call it easy, but your audience will call it amazing.

Jan 142016
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/GIdXlK

A teacher emailed me to ask how this 6-Word Memoir project was created so that she could do the same thing with her classes. I instantly recognized it as an iMovie project, and one that would be simple for this teacher to compile from the text and images that her students provided.

The rub is, she has not made a video with iMovie since the complete interface redesign (and a true downgrade in features) of iMovie ’08. I, too, had a hard time adapting to the new interface, but with subsequent updates and improvements from Apple, the new iMovie is once again a great tool for easily editing and creating video projects.

Due to the different Mac OS versions installed in this district, I won’t be using the latest version of iMovie. iMovie 11 is the last version to come out with iLife and is comparable with a wide variety of Mac OS’s.

Let’s take a tour of the iMovie ’11 interface:

A couple of tweaks:

  • Since I spent SO MUCH time in the old iMovie interface, I still like to have my timeline on the bottom and clips above. To switch this, click the up/down arrow button next to the video camera button on the left of the Toolbar. You can’t move the Preview window to the left, but we will make due. You don’t have to make this switch, but that’s the view I’ll be presenting with :D.
  • Unless you are on an iMac with a giant screen, you’ll probably want to use iMovie in Full-Screen mode. View –> Enter Full Screen (control+command+F) or the expanding arrows button on the upper right of the window will get you in full screen. If you click the green + button on the upper left, you’ll still have the top menu and Dock taking up screen space.
  • As suggested in the interface tour, make sure to turn on the Advanced Tools. iMovie top menu –> Preferences… Then in the General tab check the Show Advanced Tools box. Close the Preferences window.

Before we get started, we need some source material to make a very brief version of the project. Since this project will most likely end up published on the Web, we REALLY should be considerate of the copyright and use licenses of the creator of the images and music used in this project. When students are trying to find appropriate images to use from the millions out there, here are a few tips:

  • Use the Google image “Search tools” to make sure that students are finding images large enough (Size option of larger than 1024 x 768, which is an HD image) as well as the appropriate “Usage rights”, which should be “Labeled for noncommercial use with modification”
  • The Creative Commons Search tool (https://search.creativecommons.org) is also very useful to find images with the proper copyright licenses. Uncheck the ‘use for commercial purposes’ box at the top.

Below are a sample of student memoirs with a link to an appropriate accompanying image, as well as some background music you can use from Soundzabound from Pioneer Library:

  • Opening Credits:
    • A long, long time ago… The students in my Language Arts classes were challenged with the task of creating their own memoir… in exactly 6 words. These amazing students came up with equally amazing memoirs, and pairs them with a photo they believed would fit the tone of their piece. Although brief, these memoirs took time, practice, and patience; and ultimately, they came out great!
  • Finishing an illustration is incredibly satisfying, image
  • Skating is a way of life, image
  • DC comics over Marvel any day, image
  • Cherish every piece of your childhood, image
  • Definitely born in the wrong generation, image
  • Salty air, sand in my hair… image
  • Background music: Beginnings, Ambient Audio from Soundzabound, which is a great source of royalty free music provided to Utah schools by UEN
    • Head to pioneer.uen.org, choose Soundzabound. On the left, click ‘Category’ under the ‘Browse by…’ box, then I chose Ambient, but feel free to explore the many category options here.
  • To save time if you are already comfortable with gathering images and downloads from the Internet, here are all of the images and music:

Quick video tutorial is below. I’ll write out the steps in detail soon!

  • Create new project
  • Set Project Defaults
  • Import photos
    • Add folders to photo browser
    • Drag and drop straight into the project
  • Add scrolling “Star Wars” title
  • Add 6-Word Memoir as a title on top of each image, format as desired
  • Drag in background music as green block behind clips, or add music from iTunes music browser
  • Watch your final project full screen
  • Share with the world!

 

Jan 302014
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/0V5eGC

Thanks for joining me today at the SEDC Secretaries Conference. Below is the presentation in PDF form – all of the links are live!

Here are the links included in the presentation:

May 022013
 
Permalink: http://goo.gl/keFTF

WeVideo:

Animoto:

Aug 032011
 

Here’s the agenda and resources for our Digital Video in the Classroom session today:

 

  • Importing Video and Images into your Project
    • The nice thing about iTunes & iPhoto…
  • Basic Edits
    • Trim vs. Crop
    • Splitting clips
    • Separating Audio from Video Tracks
    • Changing the direction of a clip
    • Speed up/slow down clips
  • Adding Still Images
  • Adding Titles, Transitions & Effects
  • Adding Audio & Sound Effects
  • Discussion of Copyright Issues
  • Sharing your work
  • Wrap Up

Some resources that you might find helpful: