4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site

4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site by ClintLalonde.net:

Adding audio to your website, blog or online course is pretty easy to do these days. Long gone are the days when we would force students to download and install proprietary players like Real Player or Quicktime. With the ubiquity of Flash and JavaScript, and mp3 we now have more options for delivering audio on the web than ever before.

Twiddla - Painless Team Collaboration for the Web

"Painless team collaboration on the web."

"A no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it's all here, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly."

FREE features: use for meetings, document sharing, voice chat, screen capture. Other features available by upgrading to the paid version.

Free Technology for Teachers

A blog that you might want to subscribe to in your feed reader. "A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration in education." Winner of the EduBlog awards in 2008. I was linked to the site for a specific article and ended up staying quite a while because there were so many interesting (and helpful) topics, esp. those in the "top rated posts" column.

Media File conversions

If you haven't seen it, I have a page devoted to links to file converters (linked in my title above). I've just begun to include audio/video conversion tools on that page. Here are a couple examples:

PRISM Video File Converter: FREE. Windows & Mac.

"It can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp and more into avi, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Use this video converter software to convert video files into the formats you need to watch on TV, load to a cell phone, put on a website, create a presentation, watch on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful video file converter."

Debut Video Capture: FREE.

"Record video from webcam, capture devices or screen. Easy to use video recorder program to capture video files directly on a PC. Debut will record video from any of the following: Webcam (eg. to record a video camera); Capture device (eg. to transfer from video input); Computer screen (eg. screen recording)."

Please reply with a comment with you have any links to contribute to that page. (FREE applications; I don't want a bunch of retailers promoting their high-cost products here!)

Effective Use of Social Software to Support Student Learning and Engagement

A report of a study done in the UK.

"This study provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative. ...Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning. ...The educator’s role is changing from being a provider of information to a facilitator or moderator, which raises training needs, workload issues, and adjusting to a ‘new’ way of teaching."

[the bold is my emphasis]

Twitter in Education

You're going to get more posts from me about Twitter. I've started a new keyword label/tag for my blog. I'll try to focus my selection on articles that address Twitter's relevance for educators and students.

Here are a couple more today:

1. My own blog post: why I'm a fan after 1 week trial of twitter.

2. Why You Should Be on Twitter: "Don't listen to the critics. Twitter is a great forum for communication and community building." It's a long-ish article but if you're an educator concerned about the use of twitter by students both inside and out of the classroom, please read the whole thing. "...rather than engaging in forms of unneeded media panic, we need more thoughtful, more flexible accounts of how media work."

3. Scroll down to see my previous post: How to Present While People are Twittering

follow me on twitter! 

How to Present While People are Twittering

So, you're giving a lecture, and your students are all focussed on their handhelds, twittering back and forth or to/from the world. Read this article and you'll begin to feel differently about it all. As the article points out, at least they're not falling asleep!

The article has a very positive spin about what it calls "the backchannel". It's about people at conferences, but the positive notes and advice are something teachers ought to read and think about!

follow me on twitter! 

PRISM: Free Video Converter Software

"Prism is a free video converter for Windows and Mac. It can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp and more into avi, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Use this video converter software to convert video files into the formats you need to watch on TV, load to a cell phone, put on a website, create a presentation, watch on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful video file converter."

Teachers TV

| Thousands of education programmes on TV and online |

"With over 2000 videos available online, the Teachers TV website is an invaluable resource for any busy education professional. Watch videos when you want and download great resources including lesson plans, worksheets and more. ...Our programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website. We have 15-minute CPD offerings packed with useful information, exciting pupil programmes for use in class, and a daily education news summary. ...award-winning documentaries on everything from global citizenship to education practice in other countries. Regular specialist hours cater to new teachers, governors and other specialist audiences, and core curriculum hours cover primary and secondary maths, English, science and ICT."

ClassTools.net

FREE tools and templates for creating educational Flash games, interactive learning materials and activities, and more.

"Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge! ...A fantastic way of building cutting-edge technology into the curriculum! ClassTools.net is a brand new, FREE website allowing teachers and students to create interactive Flash diagrams for learning and revising material. All diagrams created can be saved as data files or web pages to host on your own school website or intranet!"

ePortfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts

Electronic Portfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts: This paper discusses a required university-wide ePortfolio Program at Clemson University.

"We believe that by getting students excited about the work they are doing in their classes, and the above examples certainly demonstrate excitement and motivation, and encouraging them to "show off" this work in their ePortfolios they will become engaged in the ePortfolio process. By helping students understand why they should create an ePortfolio, and by scaffolding them through the process of how to create an ePortfolio our chance for a successful implementation is greater."

Top Web-Based Online Tools

A huge selection of in-browser tools. No Download, No Install! A growing list, continually updated by author Deniz Akay.

For example, the site pointed me to SumoPaint. Check out "the fastest, most creative paint application on the 'net".
12/25/08

VLC media player

Cross-platform media player and streaming server. "VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network." My partner says that VLC Media Player, a FREE open source tool, is the "best media player in the world. I use it all the time. Plays everything without plugins and fuss." VLC Media Player works on Mac, GNU/Linux and Windows.

VLC Media Tutorials: If you're going to try out VLC, these tutorials might be a good way to start: "...a series of steps on how to convert video/audio, etc."

24 Killer Portable Apps For Your USB Flash Drive

These aren't necessarily teaching resources (the theme of my links here), but I have to link to this anyway because it's a great idea, and what teacher can't use one more great idea!

iSpring: Free PPT to Flash Converter

"Free PowerPoint to Flash converter creates web friendly Flash movies from your PowerPoint content keeping its visual parameters and animation effects. Generated Flash presentation will look as if it has always been a Flash movie. ...creates high quality Flash movies with vector representation of standard PowerPoint objects and keeps most of advanced PowerPoint features. ...you can generate .html code ready to place an .swf file on your web page or blog. ...wraps Flash slideshows in the attractive Player for effective navigation. ...supports automatic and mouse click animation step advance and looped playback. ...All iSpring Free functions are accessible in your PowerPoint through the standard toolbar."

Powerpoint to video: AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG

On request via a comment to yesterday's post about converting Powerpoint, here's an application that converts Powerpoint to video. Wondershare's application

"...can convert the dynamic PowerPoint presentation to real video show that can be run unattendedly with continuous loops ... an all-in-one PowerPoint to video converter. It can convert PowerPoint presentations to almost all popular video formats such as MPEG-1,MPEG-2, AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, 3GP. Ideal for trade show, digital signature, in-store displays and ready for video podcast. Benefits of converting PowerPoint slide show to video with PPT to Video: ready for burning to DVD; upload PowerPoint to YouTube; enjoy PowerPoint on iPod; view slides without PowerPoint."

PowerPoint to Flash

Seems this is becoming a popular way to put PPT presentations online. Here are a few applications (I'm not endorsing, just listing; haven't tried anything but Impatica.)

Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional: "PPT2Flash Professional converts PowerPoint to Flash with great accuracy through PowerPoint 2000 to 2007. With this PowerPoint to Flash conversion tool, presenters can preserve and reproduce important elements of their PowerPoint slides, such as animations, transitions, textboxes, bullets, formatting, pictures, background, sound, movie, WordArt, AutoShapes, callouts, SmartArt, and even slide master."

PresentationPro's PowerCONVERTER: "PowerCONVERTER accurately converts your PowerPoint presentation to Flash and retains all of your special effects, including: NEW Player format or Single file output; NEW Batch Mode Converts Multiple PowerPoints At Once; Narration & Continuous Audio; Inserted Video & Flash; Entrance & Exit Animations; Transitions; Hyperlinks; Auto Advance or On Click. PLUS you will have all the benefits of Flash: Easy distribution on the Web or CD-ROM; Greatly reduced file size; Stream the presentation with Audio and Video; A secure and tamper proof format; Single File output option for easy management; Viewing Capabilities with or without Player."

Impatica for PowerPoint: "...simply converts the PowerPoint file into a compressed format that is optimized for streaming over the Internet. The Impatica file is typically 95% smaller than the PowerPoint HTML files...supports most of the features of PowerPoint, including text, graphics, transitions, animation effects and, of course, narration." A reviewer says: "The good: A supremely simple packing tool for PowerPoint presentations.he bad: Too pricey for casual users."

FlashDemo's Converter: Costs a little less than most other professional converters. "Create professional-look flash presentations and e-learning courses with PowerPoint knowledge. Retain the original animations, slide transitions, timings, callouts. Preserve narration, sound, animation sound effects. Create Flash movie in extremely reduced file size. Ideal for web distribution. Compatible with PowerPoint 2007® and Windows Vista®. Extreme fast Conversion speed and easy-to-use."

Convert using Free applications: Marshall Feldman's forum post, describing a process for converting PPT to flash using a series of free applications.

OpenOffice's Impress: If you don't use a lot of fancy graphics in your ppt. presentations, here is an alternative that may work for you and it's free: Impress, like PowerPoint, will allow you to export a presentation as a single flash file that works much more smoothly than the multislide plus html file that the other programs create. [quoting Daniel Rubin's discussion posting.]

Robin Good's PowerPoint to Flash Conversion Tools - Mini-Guide, Part 1: When you get to the page, you don't immediately see the list of conversion tools or the Guide; googleAds are the biggest font. But look in the narrow grey-toned column for the Guide's Table of Contents. You can't tell by looking, but each item is a link. It's an extensive guide.
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Once you have a Flash file, you have to know how to put it into a webpage. Here's one tutorial, FLASH: embedding Flash, explained, written December 31/07. "There seems to be a lot of confusion about the code needed to properly embed Flash objects within a website: it's the most frequently asked question at this site's forum. The rise of social networking sites like Myspace (who filter lots of codes) and the Eolas patent enforcement have thrown quite some confusion into the mix. In this tutorial, I'll shortly align the best options to embed Flash."

National Film Board of Canada - films now online!

"We're opening our vaults! We have 70 years worth of groundbreaking documentaries and cutting-edge animated films and we're putting them on beta.NFB.ca as fast as we can. These films are accessible to all Canadians and free of charge for home viewing. So far, you can watch over 300 films, trailers and clips; new releases and forgotten gems — available in three speeds (56k, 356k and 1000k)...We're adding new films, clips and trailers every week - so visit often. To keep posted on all the latest news, subscribe to our weekly newsletter, read our RSS feed or check out our blog."

WiZiQ Online Teaching, E-Learning and Live E-tutoring for Education

"A FREE alternative to expensive conferencing tools selling as online teaching/learning software." WiZiQ is virtual classroom that's also a multimedia platform, "equipped with live audio-video communication, chat, content sharing, and session recording capabilities." Includes a whiteboard, video and audio chat, document sharing including PDF, and Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel. Similar to commercial options like Adobe Connect, Webex, Elluminate, Marratech, etc. "WiZiQ brings students and teachers together regardless of the boundaries. With absolutely no cost to join or use its state-of-the-art virtual classroom, WiZiQ is becoming a vital tool in an online teacher’s or a student’s toolkit." Also check out their WiZiQ Live Class Module for Moodle.

FLASH media: How to embed flash and still get your page to validate

Becky, instructor at LVSonline.com says, "There are several approved methods for validating the insertion of Flash movies. The most well-known (and pretty much the basis for all the others) is the Satay Method. I wrote up a stripped down version of this. It also addresses some accessibility issues. You probably need to update the link for the Flash plugin -- though you could leave that alt text out, if so desired."