BP14_Screencasting_Post3

After giving ScreenFlow a try I found it to be very easy to use. The editing part is where it gets a little more difficult but not to hard that a little practice won't fix. I think this tool will really come in hardy for my AR project and at my work as well. I have put together tutorial before but only using screen shots and this will be more effective that just using the screen shots of the program.

Here is just a quick sample of ScreenFlow:

BP13_Screencasting_Post2

As I went through the training for creating Screencasting, I was amazed at how many different types of software you can use to create tutorials. The first thing I learned were all of the details you need to know to make a video. First you need a computer, a HD video camera, a microphone and lighting. Second, you need to create a script for your video that is if you are narrating your video. Last, the right software to piece it all together.

In my training, 4 different pieces of software were introduced in creating screencasting. Which you could use any of them to create your screencast video.

Quicktime is very basic. You can record live shots of your actions on the computer and it comes preinstalled on your Mac computer.

Snapz Pro X allows you to capture only what you want the viewers to see (so you have less editing). So if you only want the viewers to see a snap shot of your screen you can tell it to only capture that part of the screen. The down fall of this program from what I could see is you have to save all of your files as .jpg’s and depending on how many shots you take the exporting of the files can take some time.

Next was iShowU HD, this software only records live actions so no still shots with this one and lets face t sometimes you need still shots.

Last was ScreenFlow, you have the ability to capure still shots and live action of your screen. But in this one the real magic happens inside the editing process. After you have completed recording all of your actions on the computer you can add text, media and watermarks to the shots.

After going through all of the training I think I will give ScreenFlow a try. But no matter which one you choose they integrate with iMovie. So after you record your screencasting you can import your files into iMovie and polish it up.

BP12_Screencasting_Post1

For my practical experience this week I chose Screencasting. This software assists with capturing video and then importing the video into iMove. I think this software will be very helpful to me for creating tutorials.

By taking the Lynda.com course for screencasting I will be learning the following:

1. Scripting a screencast
2. Capturing video & audio using a screen capture utility
3. Shooting live video
4. Importing assets and editing in iMovie
5. Recording a separate narration track
6. Exporting and distributing a screencast

My hope is that this tool will be very helpful to me as I work on my Action Research Project.

BP11_OMM_Chatter

Chatter Commercial

BP10_Comment to Scottie

Click here to read about my comments to Scottie about his web 2.0 tool.

BP9_Comment to Pamela

Click here to read my comments on Pamela's blog about her great web 2.0 find.

BP8_Chatter

Chatter (http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/) is Salesforce’s new tool for business to collaborate online. Whether you need to collaborate about projects or customer service it allows you to talk to everyone at work in real time.

I would love to use Salesforce’s Chatter for team collaboration. It allows you to create groups within your organization for team projects and post up-to-date comments on projects ongoing. You can share documents with each other and give real time feedback instead of waiting for an email that everyone in the group needs to respond to. No more forgetting to hit “reply all” in an email or forgetting someone in the group when emailing important information. You can even bring in other Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. And for people always on the go there is a mobile version so you can continue to get up-to-date feeds on what is happening with the team.

Project management can be streamlined, assigning tasks, posting dues dates, and uploading your work to the group’s collaboration page and most importantly it all safe and secure. It is important to be able to talk to everyone on your team especially when they all work different schedules for from different locations. To have everything in one location is wonderful and you can belong to more than one group.

My organization currently uses Salesforce but we have not taken advantage of this new tool “Chatter” but I believe it would make us more effective with communication within the organization.

The Cost... it is a subscription based service and it varies depending on how many people you have in your organization and what there needs are.

BP6_Comments to Kerisa

Click on the Google Wave logo to see my comments to Kerisa's Blog.

BP5_Comment to Cheryl

Click on the Glogster icon to view my comments on Cheryl's Blog.

BP4_Issuu

Issuu.com is another great web 2.0 tool. This tool is great for publishing presentations, student reports, books, magazines, etc. It is a free service but of course if you want to be able to customize all your publications without the Issuu logo you can upgrade to Issuu Pro for a monthly fee of $19. Once you create a login you are all set to create your own personal library. You can upload your own documents or add other Issuu publications to your library which all can be stored in one location. Issuu will also recommend publications to you that might interest you.

Your library could look something like this:

Upload any pdf document to share or make it a private document that you distribute out.

Uploading a document is easy, just click on upload document and tell about your document, like the name of the document, who it is for, keywords that describe the document, and a short description. Additional features that you can add to the uploaded documents are audio, share (email) button, download, rate it and add comments. I found that uploading a document is very simple but it does take a little more time than what the website says. It took me about 4 minutes to upload a document and then it converts it to the easy online viewing.

Here is an example of an uploaded document:

http://issuu.com/PWImpact/docs/student6.2.sample?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=2A5083&showFlipBtn=true&autoFlip=true&autoFlipTime=6000

Issuu also has different embedded codes depending where you want to share the file such as Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, and Joomal

One of my favorite features is the statistics page. After your document has been distributed you can track how many people viewed the document, what day they viewed it and how many pages where viewed.

I really like this web 2.0 tool and think it has great potential for me to use this tool. This tool can come in handy for sales and marketing. This allows me to create an online catalog that has the ability to be emailed or added to our website. I give this tool a thumbs up!

BP3_Spicynodes

Spicynodes - http://www.spicynodes.org/

What is a Spicynode you might ask…a Spicynode is a interactive graphic organizer. They can add interaction to a website or in the classroom. By adding a Spicynode to a website it allows the organization to clearly state what their product is in a simple way and with the interaction it creates the visitor will be more inclined to stay on the website. So, you might be asking, “Who uses these Spicynodes?” There are a number of different people who could use this tool: Non-Profit Organizations, Designers/Developers, Educators, and Businesses.

Some examples of how the Spicynodes can be uses is as follows:

1. Students could use it to organize their thoughts for studying.

2. Poets could use it to organize their thoughts

3. Researcher could use it to provide a visual aid.

4. Business could use it to add interaction to a website or to add visual aids for a presentation/training session.

This tool is very easy to use and create. There is a draw back to using this web 2.0 tool it is still in the beta form so there are kinks to be work out. If you aren’t afraid to use the tool and provide feedback to the creators then this could be a great find for you. If not, you should wait until they officially launch the tool to start using it.

The cost of this tool is free to individuals but comes with a monthly fee for businesses, which allows the business to have the rights for the use. Included in the monthly fee a business then has the ability can customize the nodemap to match their organization’s style.

Spicynodes would be a great tool for anyone to use!

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

Here are my iGoogle Screen Shots.

Home Tab

FSO Tab

AR/CBL Tab

ETC Tab

BP1_Google Reader

International Reading Association is an important blog for me to follow since I work for a curriculum publisher. It is very important that I stay up on all of the reading trends and research for secondary reading. You can also get updates on reading conferences that are happening all over the United States.

http://www.reading.org/General/Default.aspx

Next is ASCD, their motto is “Learn. Teach. Lead.” I love that motto. ASCD SmartBrief provides educational news from all over the U.S. It is a great tool when you sell curriculum in 4 different states. The stories they provide are great tools for our social media networking… to retweet a story or post a link on Facebook to the story gets our fans talking on our sites.

http://www.ascd.org/

Then there is ESPN. I am a huge football fan but my job also requires me to keep up with the sports headlines. The company I work for Principle Woods writes high-interest articles and one of our biggest sources for high-interest topics are sports! Students have wonderful background knowledge of sports, which gets them involved in discussion and the class work.

http://espn.go.com/

Another great source of information on topics that are high-interest can be found on MSN Entertainment. When we aren’t writing about sports we are writing about pop-culture or celebrities in the news. One of the great benefits to celebrities getting in trouble is we get to write great ethical dilemmas about what the celebrities did which makes for a great open discussion in the classroom. By writing these high-interest topics it gives the teacher the opportunity to build a better student-teacher relationship.

http://entertainment.msn.com/

Finally, I keep up with SmartBrief on Social Media. My company just recently entered into the world of Facebook and Twitter and this blog send us information on the do’s and don’ts of the Social Networking World. It also provides great stories of campaigns that other companies have used as well as case studies/research of social networking.

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/socialmedia?sb_code=rss