Universally Designed

Converting Videos to and iPod Format

Finding a solid free application to convert videos to an iPod format isn’t easy.  I’ve tried several out and have came to the conclusion that WinFF is about the best available at the time of this writing.
WinFF is about as simple to use as it can get.  Simply click “Add” (see screenshot below) to add the video you would like to convert, then choose what format you would like to convert it to.  The purpose of this post is to show a good converter for converting videos to an iPod format, but WinFF can convert to many other formats as well.

Download WinFF for free at http://code.google.com/p/winff/

Podcasting 101

I’ve held off on doing a post on podcasting because every school, district or organization I help get started have things in place that make them unique.  For example, I typically recommend using a blog to run your podcast through, but many places do not have or even allow the use of blogs.  Others may want to use their own server for podcasting while some organizations do not provide access to their servers by anyone except IT staff.  Having said this, I’ll use this post to provide the basic information you will need to create your own podcast.  You may email or leave a comment if you have additional questions.

The first thing I recommend is to give my previous post on “Podcasting and Podcatcher Options” a read.  It talks specifically about what a podcast is and how you subscribe to one.  This is important because I find that most people interested in creating their own podcast would be just as well off finding podcasts that are already out there.  There is no use in re-creating the wheel when many high quality podcasts are already available for you to download and use with your students for free.

Keeping the above in mind, here’s my 4 step process to creating your own podcast:

1. Record your audio.  Most podcasts are audio podcasts unless defined otherwise.  To record audio, I recommend downloading the free application Audacity.  It is simple to use and works great for podcasting.  One thing to note is that by default Audacity does not save audio files as MP3 files (the format needed for podcasting audio).  To remedy this, you must download the LAME MP3 encoder.  You can find this on the Audacity download page.  Once downloaded, upzip the file and copy the folder onto your computer in a location that you will not delete or move (your C drive, my documents, etc…).  The first time you use Audacity and export your audio to an mp3 file it will ask you if you would like to locate the encoder.  Just select yes, and browse to the folder. You will only have to do this the first time.  Audacity will remember the location for future exports.  Although Audacity works with both PC and Mac, most new Macs come with Garage Band, which has all sorts of additional bells and whistles for creating audio podcasts.
2. Store your audio file. This is where the unique part comes in.  Once you have created your audio file, you will need to store it in a place that is accessible via the web.  For example, my organization has a website at www.cksec.org.  If had an audio file named audio.mp3, and uploaded it to our server, you could access it by going to www.cksec.org/audio.mp3 (this is just an example, it will not work if you try to access this link).  Once there, you would either download the file or listen to it straight off the site.  This is important because if your file is not accessible through the web, no one except you can access it.  So where will you store your file?  Several options exist… For example, you may be able to store it on your organization’s server.  There are also several hosting services, like switchpod.com, that will host your files for you (usually for a fee).  You may also use a blog to store your files.  Blogs typically come with a predefined amount of storage space for videos, images, etc… that you want to share.  I use Edublogs.org and it gives me 100MB of storage for free.  This should be sufficient for several short audio files.  If you plan to produce large files (like video or long audio segments) you will want to upgrade your storage limit or only keep them up for a specified amount of time and remove them afterward to save space.
3. Syndicate your files.  Syndicating your file simply means making it available for subscription.  I explained in fairly good detail why you want to be able to subscribe to your files in my podcasting and podcatcher options post mentioned earlier.  In short, a podcast is not a podcast if you can’t subscribe to it.  It would only be an audio file on a website.  Syndicating your files is the primary reason I recommend using a blog to run your podcasts through.  Since blogs are already syndicated, simply including a link to your file in a blog post should suffice.  If you are not using a blog, you will want to use a service such as RapidFeeds.com to create RSS feeds for your files so users can subscribe.  Other services, like feedburner also help with syndicating feeds, tracking your subscribers and more.
4. Subscribe to your podcast.  Most information you need here is also available in the podcasting and podcatcher options post.  You need a podcatcher, such as iTunes, to subscribe to podcasts after they are syndicated.  Once you have your feed from step 3, simply go to Advanced – Subscribe to Podcast in iTunes and enter it in.  Then iTunes will automatically download your most up to date podcasts each time you open it.  If you use a blogging service, like Edublogs, this feed can be found by clicking the subscribe to posts button.  After clicking, copy the link from the new web page that is displayed and paste it into the subscribe to podcast box in iTunes.

Hopefully this post will be enough to get you started with podcasting.  If you are interesting in video podcasting, know that is very similar to audio podcasting excpet you will be recording video instead of audio in step 1.  I’ll go over some things to think about when recording video in a separate post.

Removing Shortcut Arrows

OK, so this post doesn’t really have much to do with educational technology, but it solves an annoying problem.  In Vista, if you have a shortcut icon on your desktop there is a huge arrow that attaches itself to the icon to show that it is a shortcut to another location.  One way to fix this is to edit your registry, but that’s never really recommended unless you are an experienced user and aware of all the risks.  Instead, download the free Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover by FXVisor.  You can download it from http://www.frameworkx.com/ or PC World.

After installing, simply open the program, choose no arrow and log off.  Once you log back on you’ll see that you no longer have a shortcut arrow on your icons.

Free Learning Styles Inventory

One of the first steps in creating a Universally Designed classroom is to complete a learning styles inventory with your students.  This gives you a better understanding of how your students learn best, which in turn should effect the way you deliver content.  My personal favorite free online learning styles inventory comes from Learning-Styles-Online.com.  Not only does it provide information on how you learn best, but if you are an educator it allows you to create an account so that after your students complete the survey it will build a classroom profile for you.  This is much easier than calculating and putting together a profile manually.  

Newspaper Generator adds Engagement to Activities

I just finished doing a session on using technology to motivate writers and came across this cool website. It’s called the Newspaper Clipping Generator. It’s purpose is to generate what looks like a newspaper clipping out of whatever you have your students write. They can choose the title of the newspaper and download an image of the completed product to print off and hand in or include in their blog or website. It does have a couple of shortfalls, namely it’s inability to show the full text of the newspaper title or the article itself. But then again it is a clippings generator, not an entire newspaper generator. My colleague, Lisa Shaw, mentioned how this is a great strategy for teaching students how to generate leads for feature articles.

Podcasting and Podcatcher Options

For those that aren’t aware, a podcatcher is a software application used to collect and play podcasts. By far, the most popular podcatcher is iTunes. However, not everyone wants to rely on only one software application. In addition, there are many schools or entire districts that do not allow the use of iTunes. So what exactly is a podcast and are there options for those wanting to subscribe to podcasts other than iTunes? That is what this post hopes to answer.

To start with, a podcast is simply an audio or video file that is syndicated, which means people are able to subscribe to it using a podcatcher. Why would you want to subscribe to a podcast? Let me use an example that I think will help. Imagine there are 5 podcasts that i am really interested in. They are on various topics, maybe Spanish lessons, technology, financial information, music, and math strategies. All of these podcasts contain great information, but it is a time consuming task for me to visit each site every day just to see if a new podcast has been posted. If I find that there is a new post, I then have to download and store it somewhere before I can listen to it on my computer or on a portable media player like an iPod.

Now let’s look at using a podcatcher, such as iTunes, to make this process more efficient. Instead of visiting each site everyday, I only visit it once. While there, I find the feed information for that podcast (usually by clicking on a link that says “subscribe to this podcast”). I take that link and copy and paste it into my podcatcher (if using iTunes go to Advanced – Subscribe to Podcast) and viola, I am now subscribed to that podcast. I do the same with the other four sites and now every time I open my podcatcher it searches to see if any new posts have been made. If so, it automatically downloads and organizes them for me. Is that cool or what! iTunes also offers an extensive list of podcasts you can search and subscribe to without ever leaving the application.

So moving on, are there other podcatcher options than iTunes? The answer to this is yes, but you may need to spend some time exploring the options to find which works for you. Below is a list of a few options you may want to try:

• Doppler
• gPodder
• Juice
• MediaFly
• myPodder
• NewsFire (mac only)
• NIMIQ
• PrimeTimePodcast
• QuickNews (for PalmOS)
• RSSRadio
• SmartFeed (for Windows Mobile)
• ZiePod
• Zune (Microsoft’s Version of iTunes)

I figure this list will do you for awhile. I personally use iTunes, but if I didn’t I would probably give Juice, MediaFly or ZiePod a try.  If you have tried one of the options above feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Using Jott as a Writing Tool

I know that I am not the first, and will surely not be the last to do a post on Jott, a free web based tool to convert speech into text, but I still feel the need to mention it here for my readers.

So what exactly is Jott, and how can it be used in your toolkit of Universally Designed activities for students? Well, to access Jott all you need to do is go to www.jott.com and setup an account. Once setup you will receive a verification code to use when you call 866-JOTT-123. After dialing the number and entering the code, you can choose to Jott yourself or someone in your contact list (which you can create after signing up for an account). To Jott is simply to speak a message. Once spoken, you can set up a reminder to go along with it if you wish. When finished, Jott will sent you an email or text message with the text of that voice note. How cool is that! You can use Jott to send yourself reminders while driving in the car, create lists, and even add dates to your Google calendar or make a blog post.

So how can this be used in Education? It just so happens that a colleague and I did a session titled “Ugh, I Hate to Write!: Innovative Ways to Use Technology to Motivate Reluctant and Struggling Writers” yesterday. A major component of it was using services like Jott to motivate writers. For example, one critical part of writing that is seldom done these days is writing to learn. These are the kind of things students do to help digest information. They are not graded, and the main audience are the students themselves. Activities typically seen in writing to learn activities include writing breaks (stop talking for 2 minutes and let students write what is on their mind), exit and admit slips, brainstorming or clustering, drawing and illustrations, write arounds and much more. So imagine next time you want your students to participate in a writing break you allow them to call Jott and speak what’s on their mind! This not only increases engagement, but is also much more accessible for students who may struggle with writing due to cognitive or physical disabilities.

The above is of course only one example. I can see students using Jott as an organization tool, a method for delivering admit and/or exit slips to teachers (remember that students can Jott to teachers and other students, not just themselves), brainstorming, and to take notes among many other things. Have an idea for using Jott? Write it in the comments section below.

UDL Guidelines Released by CAST

The Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST), the number one resource on Universal Design for Learning, has released version 1.0 of UDL Guidelines. According to cast:

As the UDL field has grown, so has the demand from stakeholders for Guidelines to help make applications of these principles and practices more concrete.

These UDL Guidelines will assist curriculum developers (these may include teachers, publishers, and others) in designing flexible curricula that reduce barriers to learning and provide robust learning supports to meet the needs of all learners. They will also help educators evaluate both new and existing curricula goals, media and materials, methods and assessments.

You can pick up your own copy of the guidelines from CAST’s website at http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/version1.html

Video Self Modeling Part 2 – The techy stuff – Updated June 2008

This post is part 2 to my introduction to video self modeling (VSM). Part 1 is only a few paragraphs long so I recommend you read it first to gain a better understanding of what video self modeling is. You can access the post BY CLICKING HERE.

So now the fun part… What do you need in order to successfully use video self modeling? Well, first you will need a video camera. This is typically the most expensive part of the process. Go into any electronics store and you will likely find several different models of video cameras all saying they are the best. First, know that the price doesn’t always equal the best. It all depends on what you are wanting to use the camera for. For example, a popular video camera might allow you to burn your footage directly onto a DVD. This allows you to immediately take the DVD out of the camera, pop it in your DVD player and watch it. Sounds great right? Maybe, but probably not if you are wanting to use the camera for video self modeling because you need to be able to edit the video before you burn it on a DVD. Most other video cameras will work fine for VSM, but you need to be cautious and make sure it will work with whatever editing software you choose to use. I take the easy route and use a FLIP Video Camera that runs about $100. See it at http://www.theflip.com/. You can get a 30 minute or 60 minute camera that runs off AA batteries and plugs directly into your computer via usb just like a flash drive. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Now that you have your camera you are ready to start recording. I’m not a professional video person by any means so I only have a couple of pointers on this part. First, remember that you can get creative with your video when you get to the editing process. Many times I see a person go in and follow a student around for two days trying to catch them doing something for the tape. Instead, maybe you can piece a few things together later that gives the appearance of the student performing the behavior you are looking for. Second, don’t worry about getting the perfect shot. Some people try and shoot the whole thing over because they got someone or something in the video for a few seconds. You can just edit those kind of things out. Also remember that these videos do not need to be high quality. You are not making a major motion picture here, just a self modeling clip.

Once you have your video, it’s time to get to work on editing. This part is going to require you to do a little self learning, but I can give you information on the basic software you may want to look into using. If you are a PC user, Microsoft Movie Maker is free and comes installed on your computer by default. Just got to Start – All Programs – Accessories – and choose Windows Movie Maker. It will take you through the process of capturing and editing your video.  I use QuickTime Pro ($29.99) for most situations. It allows me to make quick edits and save them in different formats including an ipod format. QuickTime Pro will also work with a MAC, but MACs usually come with iMovie, which is also an excellent choice. Finally, I should mention that if you use an older video camera that takes VCR tapes, you can create most of your video editing either on the fly while you are filming (by rewinding and recording over bad parts) or by using two VCRs (one to play the original and the other to record only the parts you want to keep).

Once you have your video filmed and edited you will want to put it in whatever format you need for final viewing. This really just depends on how you plan on viewing it. If you have a DVD player, you will need to use your video editing software to put it in a DVD format (you will also need a DVD burner on your computer). If you’re editing software doesn’t allow for this, you may find that whatever software came on your computer for burning DVDs will convert to the proper format for you. If you are going to watch it on a computer you can put it in a .avi or a .mov (QuickTime) format. I occasionally like to use a .wmv or .avi format and imbed the video segments into a PowerPoint. Then I can set it up to where students click on a picture and the video will automatically start playing.

Hopefully this will give you enough information to get started with Video Self Modeling. I’ll try to put some specific tutorials up in the future on how to use some of the editing software.

What exactly is UDL anyway?

Oddly enough, I don’t get asked this question enough.  I find that most people believe they already know the answer and see no reason to ask or don’t care and assume if they ignore it long enough it will go away.  Whatever the reason is, I figured I should go ahead and create a post with a basic explanation of what Universal Design for Learning is.

For starters, the term Universal Design for Learning comes from Universal Design, an architectural term.  The idea behind Universal Design was to create things to accommodate the most users from the beginning.  Think of curb cuts as an example.  They help people in wheelchairs, right?  But who else uses curb cuts?  I know I do.  So do people with luggage, baby strollers, and bicycles.  This is an excellent example of designing things in the beginning with the end in mind.  Other examples include Closed Captioning and automatic doors.  Can you think of anything else?  If so, post in the comments section below.

Moving from architecture to education, the term Universal Design for Learning came about.  Its purpose, similar to Universal Design, is to make learning accessible to the largest group of students possible from the start.  The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) describes UDL in the following terms:

One important thing to keep in mind that is often confusing for people is that UDL is not something you can touch.  I remember in Kentucky for example, when UDL was really gaining support, the state took the initiative of getting a special contract with a text reader software company to help make text more accessible in KY schools.  The text reader of choice was Read&Write Gold from Texthelp so for the next 3 or 4 years I think half of the state thought that UDL and Read&Write Gold were the same thing.  This of course was not the case, so during trainings I always started off with an explanation of each.  I’m not sure if this helped or not, but I always referred to UDL as a theory.  I believe CAST described it as an “educational approach,” which I always thought sounded good too.  CAST also laid out three principals to help people understand UDL.  They are as follows:

1. Multiple Means of Representation – provide students information in multiple ways (lecture, audio, video, learning centers, etc…)
2. Multiple Means of Expression – allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in multiple ways (instead of paper and pencil tests for example, allow students to create a powerpoint, make a blog post, etc…)
3. Multiple Means of Engagement – motivate your students.

One misconception of Universal Design for Learning is that you must have technology for it to happen.  This is not always true.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a technology guy and technology really helps, but don’t think that you have to spend thousands on a smart board to have a universally designed classroom.  There was an article in CEC back in 2005 titled “Using Universal Design to Unlock the Potential for Academic Achievement of At-Risk Learners” by Cynthia Acrey, Christopher Johnstone, and Carolyn Milligan.   It had tons of useful information in it, but the main take away for me was that you don’t always need expensive equipment.  It talked about what paper color to use and how you should use bolded text instead of underlines because it is easier to read… Things that all of us can take note of and start implementing today. 

Ideally new technology will make its way into your classroom over time and you can begin getting more creative with how you make class accessible for ALL of your students.  I’ll post ideas and resources as time goes on to help with this, but just wanted to give you a quick overview for now.