DV for Teachers

Lifehacker points to Any Video Converter. Looks good, but couldn’t download this at posting time; seems their server was overloaded, thus I haven’t tested it. Lifehacker’s recommendations are pretty reliable, though, in my experience.

Windows only: Convert nearly any video format to nearly any other video format with the aptly named Any Video Converter.

The program supports just about every video format known to man, including AVI, DivX, FLV, RM, and VOB. It also comes with output profiles for devices like the iPod and PSP, though you can easily create a custom profile with the audio and video specs of your choosing.

AVC couldn’t be much easier to use, and it supports batch conversions—always a nice perk. You’ll definitely want to add this utility to your video arsenal (though don’t overlook Videora Converter, arguably a better choice for converting videos for mobile devices). Any Video Converter is free for Windows.

At Streamingmedia.com, Jan gives a thorough and authoritative review, and gives it very high marks on compression quality, ease of use, and speed increases.

It’s small, but it’s a change. From today’s Quick Takes at Inside Higher Ed:

The Library of Congress on Monday published new copyright rules that give colleges slightly more leeway on the use of certain video materials in class, but some college librarians fear that the changes do not go far enough. The rules are part of a process in which the Librarian of Congress periodically considers exemptions from the general ban on altering without permission technology designed to block unauthorized use of videos or computer programs. The exemption created Monday applies to portions of videos that are held in college libraries and are used in classes by media studies or film studies professors. The regulations are complicated, and college copyright experts said Monday that they were still reviewing them. Pamela Snelson, college librarian at Franklin & Marshall College and president of the Association of College and Research Libraries, said that based on a first analysis, she was pleased to see the exemption added because “anything that adds to our availability is good.” She also said it was important for copyright officials to see that “we need this material to teach.” But she worried that the exemption was “too narrow,” and asked why professors in disciplines beyond film and media studies shouldn’t have the same flexibility for their courses.

A copy of the official announcement is here. This is a good step, and it means they’re paying some attention to our needs. We need to increase the pressure to allow our instructors and our students more leeway in using these works for educational and indeed artistic purposes.

Ken Stone posts another article on Multicam Sync in Final Cut Pro. I’ve done some multicam editing, and it’s a little trick to set up, but works well. Nice to have more information on tweaking it:

A workflow guide to syncing video clips using in-points for use with FCP’s multiclip feature. Assumes the footage has been generated by free running cams some of which have not been run continuously throughout the shoot. Also contains a workflow for cutting a realtime event into separate sequences to greatly reduce overhead.

Photoshop can be overwhelming. If you’re looking for a way to get a handle on using this vital tool but you’re not sure where to start, work your way through some of Kent Conklin’s 2 Minute Photoshop Tricks. You’ll watch a well-done narrated screen-capture video demonstrating a narrowly defined task. If you don’t know what Layers are, or Actions, or Palettes, watching just a few of these will tell you a huge amount about the Photoshop interface and what it makes possible.

A highly recommended resource for beginners and intermediate users alike.

Just finished a Skype video call with Bill Dotson and his class at University of Virginia at Wise. Bill is an Education Technology instructor there, teaching teachers and students more about using technology in the classroom. We talked about some of the possibilities of Skype and other free software, about blogs and wikis, and a little about sports. It was a good peek at what we can do with tools like this in the classroom.

Pearsonified offers this tip, Wicked WordPress Archives in One Easy Step, for making blog archives friendlier and more accessible to readers.

Therefore, if you want your archives to be effective (because most archives are decidedly not), then you need to provide specialized archive views that place a premium on scannability. Fortunately, you can accomplish this with almost no effort in one easy step!

In Professor in an iPod, the Wisconsin State Journal describes a program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison to encourage instructors to take advantage of the media habits of their students:

...instructors were invited to submit proposals for creating audio podcasts. Grants of $800 and 10 hours of technical support were awarded for 76 audio podcasting projects involving 86 instructors. Some took the opportunity to podcast their lectures, but most created new material to augment their classroom teaching, aimed at helping students learn more or better understand complicated subjects…

This is the right way to go. Too many instructors at all levels are playing too much catch-up and not enough lead-the-way with technology!

TELLUS is Peggy’s new site about literacy education (and pottery): TELLUS

Hello to teachers who teach in urban settings! This site is designed to share ideas and support work that in the English language arts that we do in schools. Please take time to listen and watch for new ideas that teachers bring to this site regularly!

The ever-reliable folks at Ken Stone present Working with Dual Layer Media, a tutorial I’ve known I’ll need one of these days. Since the price of dual layer disks and drives keeps dropping, it won’t belong until that’s what people will expect, even in schools.