I am in cadre that was given MacBook Pros to do podcasting and vodcasting this Summer and upcoming school year. Not too shabby, I downloaded Handbrake already in order to convert video from one format into another.  This was made essential because my Flip video camera only records in .AVI format, something the mac hates.  Downloaded Handbrake, change the .m4v extension to .mp4 and I am all set.

But today I am scanning blogs on Reader, and I discover this video on on one of the blogs.

Do me a favor though. Before you watch it, turn the volume DOWN to zero.  Don’t listen to it, just watch it. It is 6:02 minutes long.

Then watch it again but turn up the music and listen to the music along with the visuals.

Do you hate the music as much as I do?

Someone has spent enormous amounts of time getting the facts, the visuals, and then the orange / black/ white color scheme just right. It is an amazing video that is ruined by the cheap GarageBand audio tacked onto the video.

I think Dan said it best.   Don’t Let Your Students Use Music In Their Video Projects. Really.  Don’t do it. This video is every reason why not to allow music.

If the authors had spent one quarter of the time on audio as they did on the video, they would have an amazing video. Instead, they get something significantly less than they wanted.

When we were doing our training on Garageband, I spoke up and asked why we were being encouraged to spend 4 hours on a video and 5 minutes on slapping a cheap sounding soundtrack to our podcast.   The answer from the Mac trainer was dismissive and pointless. “The kids really get into finding something they like.”

Big deal.

The authors of the video above “really got into finding something they liked” and because they did that instead of finding something that fit with the story, the visuals, and the emotional impact of the pictures, they weakened their video.

Don’t do it. Don’t let yourself or your learners use music in their, or your, videos.

This post from Free Technology for Teachers made me think about the videos I use in my classroom.  In it, they go through over 30 different ways to get video for the classroom.  Some are better than others, but they annotate the sources to the quality and content.

From these sources, I use TED and YouTube and Vimeo the most.  Neither TED or Vimeo is blocked by my school district, so they are easy to use, but YouTube requires some … er … massaging to get the videos.  To get the videos from YouTube I have been using KeepVid. It works well for me, allowing me to save the videos in MP4 format and drop them into iTunes and play them on my iPod I have connected to my projector.

It has worked well, allowing me to have around 70 videos by the end of the year ready to go. This summer I am working on identifying another 70 or so and building my collection to use.

This is one of them. The Sixth Sense project. If you haven’t seen it. Do so. Now.  Don’t wait. It is short, and worth every second.

Free Technology for Teachers has a lot of links that I never knew about, so it will be fun to explore them and find more good math videos to use.

Here is one that will make your math class groan. I love it!

I have really been struggling this year with my electronic organization.

Firstly, I am in charge of web development using the Angel LMS for the group of teachers creating and teaching our Advanced Algebra Applications 5-6 course. It is a new course, and the only course in the US that teaches the math it does. 

What that means is that I am in charge of a small amount of content today (250 megs) that will blossom over the next few years. Assessments, worksheets, photos, videos, and more will be created by this course.

And then there is the 200 megs of my AP stats material, and the 400 megs of powerpoints I created for my Alg 2 courses last year.  They suck, but given they were my first year teaching it and my first attempt, they will get better.

All that material is on my laptop.  Yes, the same laptop that is strapped to my back on my way back and forth to school on my motorcycle. Yes the same laptop that can be dropped and all the material created is gone in a second.

EEEK.

I have dealt with backing up before and have been doing manual backups.  That is so yesterday. If you have not been introduced before, meet Dropbox! It is a wonderful system that will synchronize your files with any number of computers for FREE! (2 gig limit on the free accounts).

With the very small Dropbox app on my computers, I now have full access to every file on my laptop I want. Using a very small “junction” hack, I directed Dropbox to look three folders in my directory, AP stats, Alg 3 -4, and AAA files.

Now, on my Mac laptop, my Destop at school, my smart panel desktop at school, my desktop at home AND my laptop I have access to every single file.  Even more, if any file is added in ANY of those locations, it is added to ALL of the computers I use the next time I turn it on.

Even better! I can access those files anywhere I have web access.

But wait, there’s more!  It is FREE for 2 Gigs.  Now, I actually have 2.25 gigs, because I used a link to login from another blog. As a way of giving back (and perhaps getting more myself) I would like to invite you to use Dropbox as well.

All you need to do is follow this link here, enroll in the Dropbox service, and you get a free extra 250 megs and so do I. Many of your (and mine) file backing up and syncing problems go away using this service. Heck, I may not even need to take my laptop with me everywhere I go!

I have been rather silent in my blogging the last several months mainly because I was so overwhelmed that I had to not do something, and blogging was it.

You see, 5 years ago this month I ran for my local school board. (I know, I know, why do you care but there is a point to this).  It was for an open seat, the member who was retiring had been on the board for many years and was an amazing and powerful woman who demanded success of the schools and worked tirelessly to achieve that. Very large shoes to fill, but I was passionate about education and from the private sector I felt this was the best way I could be involved.

Short story. I lost.

I came in third behind two very strong women who had lived in the community for many years and had many thousands of contacts and involvements. I lost to two very good candidates.

Losing was the best thing that happened to me!  Losing got my name out there as someone who was interested in contributing and helping, not tearing down. I became a board member of what was then the Education Collaborative. I served on committees and worked my fanny off.

Until one day I realized that I did not want to be a committee member, I really wanted to be a teacher. “Self,” I said, “it is time to either poo or get off the pot.”  So I did. Three years ago this month I quit my job, that I loved and enjoyed, and went back to school at UNR’s department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning to get my teaching credentials.  [I loved the department and the courses, and had a tremendous time learning. Probably one of the few people who won't bash the education department it seems.]

This May, I graduated with my Masters in Education. That is the reason I was so behind in my blogging, because I was fulfilling what was in the end a 5 year plan. To become a teacher was a journey that lasted 5 years, and it was worth every second of the pain and agony of the trip.

Granted, I have been teaching now for 2 years with the Washoe County School District and am still on many committees (LOL) but the trip is over with the M.Ed.

Where do I go from here?  Time for a new 5 year plan.