Monthly Archives: March 2008

How I Use RSS To Make My Life Easier

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So I’ve tried my best to explain what is RSS and why it’s important to learn how to use. And as I said I find it hard to explain probably because the power of RSS is really something you need to experience first hand.

I’m really into RSS — a RSS power user may be an appropriate title since I grab every RSS opportunity to make my life easier and maximise my ability to interact effectively with others.

Remember I’m using RSS as a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the site; instead information is brought to one location, my feed reader, for me to read at my convenience.

So let me show you some of ways I use RSS with my Google Reader.

Subscribing To Blogs

Image of Conversations in the blogspherI read a lot of blogs by subscribing to their RSS feeds because blogging isn’t about working in a vacuum; it’s about the conversations.

Conversations aren’t about you just writing a reflective post that invites / encourages / evokes readers to express their opinion by writing comments on your post. It’s also about you engaging in conversations on others’ blogs by linking to their posts and writing comments on their posts.

To engage effectively in blogging conversations you need to subscribe to blogs that interest you. If you aren’t already subscribe to educational blogs — why not use this list of blogs or the blogroll on my personal blog (on the bottom right hand side) as a starting point.

Effectively Managing Comments

Image of Comment ConversationsOne of my most important tips for keeping up the conversations on blogs is being very effective at managing your comments on other people’s blogs. I’m really good at this because I use tools that track my comments posted on other people’s blogs plus subscribe to the RSS feed from these tools.

Whenever a person comments on a post that I have commented on, their comment is transferred from the post into my Google Reader, so I can choose to immediately respond back if I want.

Currently I use two comment tracking tools — co.mment and cocomment. The RSS feed from co.mment is better than cocomment however cocomment is better for community building. Here’s my explanation on how to set up and use co.mment. You can check out my comment tracking account’s here — on co.mment and at cocomment.

Managing Interactions on Flickr

Flickr is really cool Web 2.0 tool that didn’t initially grab me because I didn’t get the whole idea of sharing photos online and it’s Image of using Flickr in RSSwhole social networking aspect.

Now I’ve made Flickr friends and comment on their photos; my friends newest photos and any comments I make are automatically feed from Flickr to my Google Reader (here are my instructions of how I do it).

This interaction has shown me a different glimpse of their life compared to what I see from reading their blogs or following them on twitter.

RSS is More Than Blog Posts

As Rafa Ribas said about my previous post on RSS:

There is more to RSS than just blog posts. You can RSS news, comments to your posts or others, audio and video, comic strips (I am an absolute fan of xkcd.com), other people’s bookmarks (del.icio.us), and so on and so forth. In summary, RSS is a bit daunting at first, but absolutely amazing in its potential.

Image of RSS iconI’ve only given a small glimpse into the ways I harness the power of RSS. Remember to look out for the RSS icon whenever you visit a web site and consider if subscribing to it’s feed will make your life easier and/or more fun.

FINAL THOUGHT

So have you set up a feed reader yet? If you’re just getting going – please let us know what’s working for you and what’s not.

If you are experienced with using RSS how about telling us about the different RSS feeds besides blog posts that you subscribe to, and why you like subscribing to them.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Are You Making Your Life Easier By Using RSS?

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There’s the easy way or the hard way. RSS makes your life easy but for people new to RSS it’s easy to overlook it’s importance. And educating, those new to the concept of RSS, how to use it effectively should be a priority.

What is RSS

Image of RSS iconSpend any time on the Internet, and you will see the word RSS or the orange icon normally used to indicate a site has RSS feed. RSS is an acronym which stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In simple terms RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the site.

Check out RSS in Plain English for an excellent explanation of how RSS saves you time.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/0klgLsSxGsU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Forget about bookmarking sites in your web browser, email updates or visiting your favourite sites — these all take time and time is precious. Read What is RSS and why you should use it? An introduction for newbies for a more detail explanation of why these practices are more time consuming. Using RSS is way more time effective; simply subscribe to the RSS feed from a web site using a Feed Reader.

Subscribing to RSS Using A Feed Reader

A feed reader or RSS reader is able to take the RSS feed from a site and present in a readable form for the user. Google Reader, Bloglines and NetVibes are all examples of feed readers. Instead of visiting numerous sites the RSS feeds from these sites comes to one location — your feed reader, where you read the information.

I, like many, prefer to use Google Reader. Check out this 5 min video or download this “How To” guide to learn how to set up and use Google Reader.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ltttw5yORv8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Final Thought

I always find explaining why it’s important to use RSS hard, probably because it really is something you need to experience first hand. If you’re not currently using a feed reader now’s the time to learn. You could use this list of top Edubloggers to find some blogs you would like to subscribe to.

Please let me know how you go :) or if you an experienced RSS user is there more information you think I should add?

And off course don’t forget to subscribe to the Edublogger RSS feed Subscribing For Free!

Embedding Videos From Video Sharing Web Sites

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Our last post showed how to upload videos directly into your blog plus linked to tutorials on creating your own videos.

I love teaching people how to create digital stories and videos because it’s a skill that most learners, regardless of age, enjoy learning, experimenting with and are more likely to spend time perfecting their skills in their own time. Great way of engaging even the most reluctant educator to use technology.

However there are so many videos available online, on so many different topics, that it’s sometimes more effective to use ‘others videos’ than create your own video.

Locating Videos Online

I find the fastest way to locate videos is to search video sharing sites. These are my favourite sites:

1. Google Video

When you search Google Video it searches videos that people have added using Google’s services (YouTube, Google Video) as well as videos from other third-party video sites (e.g. Blip TV, Yahoo Video, Expo Television).

2. YouTube

YouTube searches only videos uploaded to their site. The same search term may give different results for Google Video and YouTube, even though Google owns YouTube. This is why I often search both Google Video and YouTube (check out results for aquaculture – Google Video compared to YouTube).

3. VideoJug

This video site has lots of great “how to do” videos with written transcript of the videos. Here are examples of their video tutorials on using ipods, podcasting and itunes. Only downside of this site is you definitely don’t want to send your students to the site to check out the videos. You may be better downloading videos from this site and showing from your computer.

Embedding Videos

  1. On your blog dashboard, go to Write > Post
  2. Completely write your post adding all text and images including adding your categories, tags and post title.
  3. Make sure you tell your readers that you have embedded a video below as many feed readers such as Google Reader may remove the video).
  4. It’s best to add any code you want to embed as the last step just before you click publish as you’re less likely to have problems.
  5. Click on Save and View this Post to do any final edits on your post
  6. Locate video you want to embed from Google Video or YouTube. Copy the embed code for the video.
    Image of Locating Embed Code on Google Video
  7. Click on HTML Tab
  8. Paste the embed code for the video into your post where you want it to appear then immediately press Publish.

Image of Embedding Code into post

I’ve added the Jurrasic fart video below using this method (apparently it’s funny).

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=3953709505775506774" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Customizing YouTube Videos

The related video links at the end of YouTube Videos is an issue for educators who don’t want their students to checking out the other videos. YouTube now allows you to customise your player which means you can choose not to show the related videos.

  1. Locate video you want to embed from YouTube
  2. Click on customize
  3. Change to Don’t include related videos
  4. Copy the Embed code
    videoyou.jpg
  5. On your blog dashboard, go to Write > Post
  6. Write the contents of your post i.e. add all text and images plus your tags and categories. Make sure you tell your readers that you have embedded a video below as many feed readers such as Google Reader may remove the video).
  7. Just before you are ready to publish your post click on the HTML Tab.
  8. Paste the embed code of the video from YouTube in the desired location then immediately press Publish.

At the moment embedding objects into posts are a bit touchy (when you embed a YouTube video like this you are embedding an object). If you press Save and View this Post or go back into the post after it has been published it generally will break the code and you will need to re-paste the code back into your post.

I’ve embedded Evolution of Dance below to show you what a customise YouTube Video Player looks like. It’s also funny and I thought we could all do with education on the evolution of dance.

Final Thought

What is your favourite video sharing web sites? How do you use video with your learners?

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Embedding Videos Directly Into Your Blog Posts

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Let’s be honest video’s are cool. Fun to create and enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately video sharing websites such as Google Video and YouTube are often blocked by schools which causes problems if you want to embed videos from these sites into blog posts.

The good news is you don’t have to upload your and/or your student videos to video sharing websites and then embed the videos from these sites into blog posts; instead you can upload and embed them directly into your blog posts.

Benefits of Videos

Videos offer so many benefits for learning:

  • Great for illustration purposes; can be supported by text and interactions
  • A 20 second video can easily replace a full page of text, especially when trying to explain a detailed process or activity (i.e. “How To”)
  • Fantastic for recording excursions e.g. video the excursion and edit into a movie of less than 5 minutes. Get students to view the video and reflect on what happened during the day, what were the high points etc
  • To show others what the students are doing so that the community can feel part of the learning environment
  • Highlight, freeze-frame or slow-motion an event can be of incredible benefit e.g. playing a musical instrument
  • Pictures in a textbook seem quite boring compared to real scenario shown in videos
  • Subtitles, on-screen labels or voice-overs are of immense benefit to the language deprived learner and second-language students
  • Videos stored on-line allow students to review at their own pace on demand

Creating Videos

Free desktop applications for creating/editing videos include:

1. PhotoStory 3

PhotoStory 3 is downloaded free from Microsoft (if you use Windows Operating System). However you will need to also have at least Windows Media Player 10 on your computer (you can download Media Player 10 here!). It’s really easy to use; allowing you to create videos from photos and images.

For information on how to use PhotoStory 3 check out David Jake’s:

2. Windows Movie Maker 2
Movie Maker 2 is free software that comes with Windows Service Pack 2; so if you have Windows you should have it installed already on your computer (you can download it from here). It’s fairly easy to use and movies can be created from importing videos, pictures, audio and music. Here’s my instructions on how to use MovieMaker 2.

3. iMovie

iMovie is free software that comes with Macs. It’s fairly easy to use and movies can be created from importing videos, pictures, audio and music. Here are video tutorials for using iMovie.

Uploading Videos Directly To Your Blog

Edublogs allows you to upload videos, up to 20 MB in size , directly to your blog. Supported video formats include mov, mp4, 3gp, wmv and avi. Ideally it’s best to keep your videos short (i.e. less than 10 minutes) to ensure they load quickly when your readers view them.

  1. On your blog dashboard, go to Write > Post
  2. Click Add Video button and navigate to the area of your computer that has the video file you wish to upload
  3. Select the video you want to upload and click open. Be patient –will take time to upload depending on size i.e. several minutes
  4. Once uploaded click on Insert into Post.Image of Embedding video directly into posts
  5. Your video will appear as a link in your post.  Your readers just need to click on the link and your video will start playing — there will be some delay while your video is buffered.

videoembed.jpg

Below is an example of a video I’ve uploaded directly to this blog.

podcastingtips_0001.wmv

Uploading m4a Video Formats

Read Ken Pendergrass’s Getting your Garageband podcasts to work with Edublogs and other video hosting sites post for excellent explanation and instructions of how to upload m4a files to Edublogs. Here is a video tutorial on how to use Garageband to create podcasts.

Thanks Ken for sharing your great tips with us.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We hope you enjoy creating/editing your own movies. Let us know how you go uploading to your blog. We would also like to hear your tips for creating movies.

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Embedding Flash Into Posts

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UPDATE: Embed Flash swf button and Embed media button don’t exist since Edublogs has been upgraded to the latest version of WordPress.  You need to use the HTML tab for embedding videos and Flash Objects.

Now that Edublogs have given us new freedom and allows us to embed javascript, iframes and object code directly into our blogs we have to realise that “Freedom is a package deal – with it comes responsibilities and consequences.”

Just because we can copy and paste pretty much most ‘embedding’ code we pick up around the web directly into our Edublog posts using the Code Tab doesn’t mean this method is always be the best option. It may be better to embed:

  • Flash objects (swf) using Embed Flash swf buttonflash1.jpg in your Write Post Visual Editor
  • Videos using Embed media button media2.jpg in your Write Post Visual Editor.

Embedding Flash

If the embed code you grab includes .swf it means you are dealing with a flash object. Voicethreads, Voki, Animoto and Dvolver MovieMaker all use flash objects and it may be better to embed using Embed Flash swf button.

Let me demonstrate by embedding a Voicethread:

  1. Copy the embed code from Voicethread voicethreads1.jpg
  2. Paste the code from Voicethread into Notepad and locate the code enclosed in quotes after src= and copy this code. Don’t include the quotes.voicethreads2.jpg
  3. Write down the width and height. voicethreads3.jpg
  4. Click on the Flash Embed button on your toolbar.
  5. Paste the code that you copied from Notepad into the dialogue box that opens. Click OK.
  6. Enter 480 for width and 360 for height.

voicethreads4.jpg

If you prefer video tutorials Chris Betcher has created a video on adding voicethreads to Edublogs and an introduction to using voicethreads. You can check out Chris other great video tutorials here. (Thanks Larry Ferlazzo for your tip).

Below is an example of a voicethread embedded in this post. Larry Ferlazzo rates voicethreads as the number one Best Site To Practice Speaking English and Pronunciation. Check out the Voicethreads 4 Education wiki for examples of how educators are using Voicethread in their classrooms or for professional development.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=409" width="480" height="360" wmode="transparent" /]

Embedding Animoto

Northside’s blog indicated they were having a problem embedding Animoto so here’s how to locate the code you need to add using the Flash Embed Button flash1.jpg for embedding Animoto.

animoto.jpg

Here’s an Aminoto of activities I do with my aquaculture students.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/47e19663442c8a76" width="432" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]

Trial and Error

Not all flash objects will embed using the flash embed button which means you need to try the Code Tab. For example, Alice Mercer’s pointed out that Picassa Web slideshows only works with the code tab – you can check out Alice’s embedded slideshow here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m finding some online tools are easier to embed than others, and some I haven’t been able to work out how to embed at all e.g. Ustream. Let me know what works/doesn’t work for you, and how educators could use it.

UPDATE: Embed Flash swf button and Embed media button don’t exist since Edublogs has been upgraded to the latest version of WordPress.  You need to use the HTML tab for embedding videos and Flash Objects.

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