DV for Teachers

Their list is here: The 10 best educational websites – Times Online. More after the jump.

John Gruber pointed to this comprehensive guide to podcasting equipment. Dan Benjamin, a veteran podcaster, offers recommendations at four levels:

1. Beginner
2. Entry level
3. Mid-Range
4. Prosumer

Go read, and get to podcasting. (I’ll join you as soon as I’m done editing this video…)

Mark Pilgrim posts a chapter from a forthcoming book about how video will work on the web under the HTML5 specification: Video on the Web – Dive Into HTML5. Heady, technical stuff, but it will become more and more important. I don’t understand the implications of the licensing issues. He finishes this secion this way:

Legally encoding and distributing H.264 video already costs money. But starting in 2011, it’s going to cost a whole lot more.

Hmm. Not sure I like the sound of that.

A quick post to this, so I can close the browser tab I’ve kept open for too long: Make Photoshop Faster: 2 little tips to help speed up the tool web designers love to hate. Thanks to John Gruber at Daring Fireball.

Another clear, screenshot-packed tutorial from the fine Ken Stone Final Cut Pro site.

Final Cut Pro offers some very powerful tools in its video scopes, not only to ensure that our finished projects are ‘Broadcast Safe’, but they are also critical when ‘Color Grading’ our footage to give it a desired ‘look’. To the uninitiated, the scopes can be very intimidating, even the terms ‘Broadcast Safe’ and ‘Color Grading’ can send some into hiding. But I promise you that this does need to be the case. Once you understand how the scopes work you will find that you will use them on a regular basis and to great advantage.

Quick, to follow up on later: 10 useful Twitter presentations. Have a Twitter account? It’s a heck of a lot more than what some celeb had for breakfast. You can use it to create an almost instantaneous professional network that can give you the help you need when you need it. Check out these presentations to learn more about how it can work for you.

Update: More on Twitter! Mashable, the social network site about social networking (meta meta meta meta, on and on), gives us this on Twitter for Beginners, and the fine folks at Twitter themselves give us a nice look at what Twitter can do for business. If it works for business, it can work for education too. Read up on this and you’ll get an idea.

I think jose. I do. I met him – only briefly – when he recorded an interview Ellen and I did last weekend at the National Storytelling Festival. The organizers of the festival were collecting peoples’ stories from their own experience in Jonesborough and at the festival over the years. The first time I went, 11 years ago, I had a memorable time and was part of a great onstage story. I’ll tell that tale here another time, but I want here to point to Jose’s site, which documents his many interests, achievements, and areas of expertise.

If you’re i his area, check him out, and if you’re not, check his site – there’s lots he knows about and can help you with.

Think Jose!

I’m at altitude, on my way to a weekend away with Ellen to Boulder. Got a free pass for in-flight wifi, so I’m going to post some of the too-many open tabs I’ve been meaning to close among my browsers. Yes, browsers—I use both Firefox and Camino most of the time, and once in a while I use Safari. This post is about a great add-on that makes the web more usable, by controlling all that animated distracting hateful nasty Flash. It’s great when you want to watch a video, but all the ******* ads that I see lurching around the screens when I walk through the labs makes me pity all the folks who don’t know that it’s an option. As the developer, Wolf Rentzch says, “The web is so much better without Flash.” He’s right.

So, with that, read about and (on your Mac, anyway) install ClickToFlash. From the website:

Ever wanted to get rid of the scourge of the web that is Adobe Flash, but still retain the ability to view Flash whenever you want? With ClickToFlash, you can! Using ClickToFlash, all of those icky Flash bits that have infected most webpages on the internets are replaced with a nice, smooth gradient and the word “Flash” set in a nice, pleasing font. When you want to view the Flash, just click on it!

The advantages of ClickToFlash are numerous. Since Flash isn’t loaded until you specifically ask for it, your CPU usage will stay at normal levels when browsing the web. This has tons of benefits: web browsing stays speedy, your Mac laptop won’t get as hot, and your Mac’s fan won’t come on as often. In fact, we guarantee* that ClickToFlash will quintuple your battery life and that it will protect those precious parts of your body on which you rest your laptop! (* note: not actually guaranteed)

Although similar to Flashblock for Firefox and Camino, ClickToFlash offers features over and above what Flashblock offers, and it offers them for Safari. Best among them, ClickToFlash supports viewing all those ADORABLE meowing cat videos, annoying dog videos, and hilarious rickrolls from YouTube without using Flash at all! That’s because YouTube also offers H.264 videos, which are used when viewing YouTube on the iPhone. With ClickToFlash, you get access to those same, higher quality videos.

Come join us! The web is so much better without Flash.