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Happy April Fools' Day!

Lots of high tech April Fools' jokes out there today, several from some big name tech companies. Here are a few of my favorites. Happy April Fools' Day all!

• Sony Unveils the World’s Smallest Ultrabook™: The VAIO® Q Series
• Introducing Gmail Tap
• Google 8-Bit Maps for NES
• Google Fiber
• YouTube collection on DVD

Student Screencasting

We just started in on student screencasting this past week. What is screencasting you ask? It is a video recording of your actions on the computer screen. In our first practice run, students used the DabbleBoard web site to record a lesson on a virtual white board.

Obviously, a computer lab full of students recording at the same time is not the ideal setup for audio quality, but imagine using a classroom computer as a station for screencasting during a quiet work time. Classrooms could develop quite a library of student generated mini-lessons, reinforcing the lesson for the screencast producer and acting as a resource for students struggling with a concept. Having students write & edit a script for the screencast simultaneously helps develop writing skills.

Here is a short example of a screencast from this morning's session. We used a free program called Jing to make the movie. Jing runs on both Macs and PCs.

If you record a screencast, let me know in the comment section below!

Mr. Engstrom

Vimeo

I recently set up a Vimeo account to host videos moving forward. Vimeo has more of a focus on HD videos than YouTube and also has a cleaner interface.

I am hoping to train teachers on how to set up Vimeo accounts and how to embed videos from Vimeo onto their web pages.

I have already shown students at Metzger and Templeton how to embed a video on their web site.

I like the idea of a generic school level Vimeo account that all staff could utilize. It would be a good way to showcase some of the amazing things that happen inside the building.

On Tuesday I will be attending the ITSC conference in Portland. I am looking forward to meeting other tech folks and getting some new ideas to bring back to the district. My conference schedule is below.

All of the "wish project" videos are finally online. Each took about two hours of post-production work: trimming clips, adding transitions, titles, soundtrack and credits. The files are a little larger than I would like, but I think the project came out really well.

• Metzger Videos
• Templeton videos

Free Music Archive logo

Most of the music I will be using for the "wish project" movies will be from the Free Music Archive website. This site allows musicians to make their work available to the public for use under the creative commons license.

Creative Commons license example

Teachers and students, this is a great resource for music to use with your projects. Just remember to credit the original artist somewhere. Although the FMA website is very well organized, their collection is quite extensive so it may take a while to find the ideal track to use. It's a fun process though!

Welcome to my new blog! I will post updates to this blog through the rest of the year with information about what students and staff are working on in terms of technology. I will also post links to resources for students and staff. We maintain a robust collection of links on the district site as well so be sure to check them out.

Mr. Engstrom