ike on the camera and this was a good way to use it. Since then we bought a digital sound recorder and it is fantastic! We record them onto a card and can load it directly into Crazy Talk or use Audacity to edit it. Time management is always a proble. I have them write their review ahead of time and then ask for them to be sent down from their class at a time that is good for them. susally right after lunch or a little time before school. With the other things I do I have a backlog of reviews to get done. The ones you see are only a few of the many I have. I would experiment with a few and see how it goes time wise. BTW, You can render directly out of Crazy Talk and get some pretty good results as well if you don't have Vegas. Good luck with it!…
uthentic Voices (http://authentic-voices.wikispaces.com/) where students published their original pieces and recorded themselves reading their poems and short essays. This project has been a wonderful exploration of helping students find a voice, watching students spontaneously revise for a global audience, and connect (a little bit) with other teens.
I'd love feedback about this project! Ideas to improves. Ideas to connect with other classrooms. Or to just hear from folks trying similar things. Honored to be part of this group!…
urce Software (FOSS) with guests Laura Taylor (the director of the Office of Learning Resources at the Indiana Department of Education) and Jim Klein (the director of Information Services & Technology at Saugus Union School District in California). Below is a starter list of FOSS programs we came up with for the K-12 desktop that you can start using in the classroom right away--and that can be given to students for free.
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:
* Record live audio
* Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs
* Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files
* Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together
* Change the speed or pitch of a recording
* And more!
Blender
http://www.blender.org
Blender is the Open Source Software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation, and playback. Blender allows students and teachers to animate 3D computer graphics.
Celestia
http://www.shatters.net/celestia
The free space simulation that lets users explore the universe in three dimensions. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft, as well as a catalog of additional downloads. Students and teachers can plot a course and navigate a 3D solar system. See also http://www.stellarium.org
Dia
http://live.gnome.org/Dia
Dia is inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio', though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. Teachers and students can use it to draw many different kinds of diagrams.
FreeMind
http://freemind.sourceforge.net
FreeMind is a premier, free mind-mapping software written in Java. Teachers and students can use mind map diagrams to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in planning, organization, problem solving, and decision making.
GIMP
http://www.gimp.org or
http://www.gimpshop.com
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. GIMP works on many operating systems, in many languages.
See also http://www.inkscape.org
KNOPPIX
http://www.knoppix.org
Knoppix is actually a full operating system with a collection of programs, and is downloadable as a .iso CD image file. KNOPPIX is the technician's best friend, and actually runs as what is known as a "Live CD," meaning that you can boot KNOPPIX from your CD ROM drive and it doesn't affect (or need) the PC's hard drive at all. KNOPPIX gives you an incredible variety of utility and recovery programs for troubleshooting and solving PC issues.
Moodle
http://www.moodle.org
Moodle is a course management system, designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. It can be downloaded and used on any computer (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student university. We're calling it a desktop program since you access Moodle using the web browser, but it does need to be installed on a server somewhere.
OpenOffice.org
http://www.OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety…
to another, or creating dvd movies or just mp4 movies. Most are Free and many are open source, but the licensing on all of them should allow for use in schools. I have included some url's, for the others they can be googled. I think I have a few more that I have used for various tasks, so please let me know if you need anything else.
Movie Maker (Microsoft)
Photo Story (Microsoft)
Bink and Smacker (RadTools)
mediacoder (audio and video, various versions)
audacity (audio) multi-platform
camstudio (screen recording)
Avidemux (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ ) multi-platform
DVD Flick
DVD Styler ( http://www.dvdstyler.de/ )
Quick Media converter ( http://www.cocoonsoftware.com/ )
Video DVD Maker Free ( http://www.protectedsoft.com/products.php )…
d made. We were working on a huge project on the Titanic and as a small portion of the project I wanted the students to record podcasts as passengers/crew but didn't have the time to get things going. I halfheartedly said to two 6th grade girls..."Hey, will you two figure out how to do podcasts?" In 5 minutes they said, "Hey, Mrs. B. we're done, now what?"!!!! Out of the mouth of babes---we ended up doing 48 podcasts and uploaded them to our Titanic website.
Here's my humble thought on podcasts--they serve a purpose but reading reports and blathering on about daily reflections is not it. Stick to topics that are worth the effort (both by student and listener). Don't get wrapped up in the "newness" and forget the substance. We don't need to fill the airwaves with fog. N.…
hose file extensions(for video clips) you are good to go. We did have a problem with Kodak and JVC cameras in that they used the newer .mov format and this is an added step you will have to look out for if you don't have access to imove(apple) or quicktime pro. We had to convert our .mov files to something microsoft liked and it was doable but you'll get to do it! If you are just adding still images jpegs are fine.
A really good set of tutorials on movie maker and photostory 3 can be found at http://www.papajohn.org/Newsletters/162-PS3-Basics.html
These programs are all housed on your machines another neat way to do digital storytelling is on VoiceThread. It is very easy to use, students can access files at school or at home. Here is a link
http://voicethread.com/…
get full access.
You can also try http://photopeach.com
Visit my blog, I did a write up about both of them. http://edutechintegration.blogspot.com
The benefit of Voicethread, no download and web-based. You might need an email address though to create an account
Photostory can be downloaded which is great, if they have access to the Internet, unless it is installed on your computer.
You could have kids record their voice over, but they would need a secluded area, or they will get tons of background noise. The voice recording feature means no audacity.
I don't know if you can argue one over the other. You could offer all four to your students and then let them choose which to use.…
cord and edit and emphasized utilizing copyright friendly music.
I found this podcasting resources site, created by Eva La Mar, an Instructional Technology specialist, to be helpful. It has planning guides as well as a "status of the class" resource.
And probably the most helpful recording tip for students was to position the microphone so that it is not directly in front of their mouth, but rather off to the side. It reduces the "air puffs" often heard with p's and other sounds, which tend to be a distraction to the overall message of the podcast.
Good luck!
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