Web Two Telegraph - A Collaborative Web 2.0 Environment

After spending a great deal of time taking photographs, importing them into Sony Vegas Moviestudio, I was ready to upload my digital story based on the fantasy world of Rainbow Beach into a posting in my blog. This video was created as a result of Le Enchanteur’s promptings.

However, after several hours I was still trying to embed it. First, I uploaded the video into www.teachertube.com because youtube refused to complete the uploading process.  I tried to copy the various codes from teachertube and place them in the post’s code section. Failed!

Then I noticed a note on the teachertube site alerting me to the fact that if I wanted to embed teacher tube into wordpress I had to place various codes into the theme section. That was no good to me as I am not at all technical. Tried youtube again but still no success. In desperation I emailed my yahoo group who are working on the joint blog, and Imogen made a sugestion that finally worked. I had to goto the upload section where images are uploaded, click on the videos tab and place the url in there. Again the teachertube url did not work.

My last resort was to try google video. This would be my first attempt at uploading to this site. Anyway, it was a fairly simple procedure and within a short time, my video uploaded. It was then quite simple to goto>upload>videos and paste the url code in that window. Click my mouse cursor where I wanted the video to go in the post writing section and choose send to editor. That worked!!!!

So voila, here it is…..!!!!

When my internet connection is stable, I shall try youtube as I am sure this would work as well. Now, I will have to work out what to do when I return to school as google video is probably blocked. Perhaps I could just stay on Rainbow Beach.

Using Vokis
School holidays are always a welcome relief from the pressure of lesson plans, assessment, general adiminstration and report writing. It can be a time to catch up with some genuine web 2.0 research, establish social networks and explore some of the improvements to existing web 2.0 software and discover new applications.
One software that I revisited,  was the rather ‘kitchy’ voki website at www.voki.com These little computer animated vodcasts allow you to customize your own personal ID, add your voice or use a computer generated voice to communicate online or via a mobile phone. Students love using these and even the shyest don’t mind talking into the microphone.

See examples of student vokis used on a collaborative project at http://anzaconnection.wikispaces.com/Introductions Be patient as it will take a while to load!

Steps in using vokis

First register for the website with a user name and password. If a student ensure they use an unidentifiable user name and if they are under the age of 13, let them access your voki logon as many vokis can be created under one user name.
You must activate your account from the email you have directed registration towards. (do not forget or you will not be able to save your vokis.)
Return to voki website and login. Click create a new voki.

(If you have already created a voki choose use existing scene to keep your voki consistent. Choose one of your existing examples. (The audio message only is changed.)
Choose your face, clothing, glasses, backgrounds and even an audio player style by clicking on the approprate icon and build your little voki. The illustrated voki above  allows messages to be shared by clicking on the little notepad icon in the bottom right hand corner (just above the player) If the cube in the lefthand corner is selected, it will choose a random character for you.
When satisfied with your voki, it is time to “give it a voice”.

Choose from telephone, T or microphone. We use the microphone (making sure you allow access) and press the record button. Wait until you see the little wheel going around and it actually says ‘recording’ and start talking. A written script ensures that the audio flows smoothly. When finished, click done. If student is too shy or recording does not work, choose the T which allows text to be keyed in and an accent chosen for the mechanical voice.

Replay your message and when satisfied, click done. Save to your hard drive. You are then returned to your startup window, so that you can now find the code required for your site. I choose the small dimensions, agree to conditions and then copy the code that appears. This code can then be used to embed into a wiki, blog or webpage for collaborative use by pasting it in the usual manner.Some voki characters allow you to add messages. This opens up further educational value. Eg discussions between students or teacher/student on an initial statement made by the original voki.
Some possible classroom uses
·  introductory  purposes between students from other schools or countries with class member vokis all embedded in a table on a wiki.
· Allow questions to be posed and answered between classes.
· To introduce a topic in an interesting manner on their wiki, blog or web page
· If a character allows insert message, then a discussion can take place on the one voki between students.

If you use vokis or wish to use them, please add a comment and let us know how you use them.

Some year 8 girls were given the challenge to produce a short movie on Christmas in Australia through the eyes of a child. They independently interviewed students from prep through to grade 5 and asked these students what they wanted for Christmas or what Christmas meant to them. A cheaper, simple desktop microphone was used to record their voices directly into the software, audacity. (a free download software). After some editing, the interviews were converted into an mp3 file. (A codec needs to be downloaded from the audacity site, otherwise it will be a wav file which is far too large for online use.)

The audacity window

Photos of Christmas crafts, activities, lights and decorations around school and Hawkesdale were then taken. After careful selection, photos were imported into MS Photostory. Effects were added, and the mp3 interview file imported. The story was then made into a movie for playback on the computer.

To enable music to also play in the background, we had to use a more professional software package, called Vegas Movie Studio by Sony. This allows a number of sound tracks to be added and easier insertion of text, for headers and credit rolls. The internet was searched for “free mp3 Christmas songs” and a large number of sites were located. However, our service provider had blocked many of our first choice, so we used a couple from sites that we could access. A right click on the link to the mp3 file, allowed us to save that song into our folders and then import into Movie Studio.

Once titles, extra sound tracks and the photostory movie were imported, an mpg movie was created (in PAL format for Australian screens) and saved again on our hard drive. To allow online use, it was saved again but this time as an email (wmv version at 512 kps). Having already registered with teacher tube, it was uploaded onto teachertube following their very simple instructions.

Hints for speaking with a microphone:

Some of our student voices are not recorded well. A teaching friend has since given us these hints:-
if students hold the microphone just below their chin and put their fist on
their chest, the sound seems to work better for recording. No air flow into the
microphone and more even volume from person to person.

Skype has opened up a whole new world - both cyber and international worlds. Skype is VOiP (Voice over internet protocol) which allows (to put very simply) two computers to ring each other like a telephone. Such calls are then free, except for the cost of the download time.

We have two sons who live in London and skype allows us to keep in constant contact with them, either by speaking to each other, text chatting or by videoconferencing. Living in a rural community, our neighbourhood telephone lines went out of order recently and as there is no mobile phone service in our area, we were able to put credit on our skype account and ring landline telephone numbers. This allowed us to have some communication with the outside world.

Skype is wonderful and has huge potential in the educational field. It allows us to ring teachers in other countries, to share lesson plans and ideas, and to work collaboratively on setting up wikis. However, the best use for our school has been that of videoconferencing with a school in Korea. Last week, we spent five days trialling the use and impact of skype. First, we had students from each country ask impromptu questions . The second time, we had already worked out the type of questions to ask eg what are your school hours, typical foods, subjects studied, weather, where we live etc. By the fifth day we really used the technology.

One of our boys had found a blue tongued lizard. He brought it into our library and put it up against our small web camera. The Korean students could actually see his little blue tongue going in and out. The Korean students then took their camera to the window and we could see their beautiful snow clad school yard right down to a man sweeping the snow away with a wooden broom. We were about to go swimming though, because our temperature was 35 deg.

They had asked us about our sports. Having worked out the potential of the camera, a year 9 boy leapt from his seat to go and get a cricket bat, ball and stumps. Our library was converted into a cricket field with demonstrations of bowling and batting displayed in front of the web camera. It was then time to bring in a meat pie because no matter how we verbally described it, they could not grasp what it was. Vegemite soon followed and with that all sorts of questions and impromptu conversations flowed. Students forgot their shyness about their language skills and we started to really learn from each other. Korean students then showed us their wonderful mobile phones and features. Finally we compared uniforms but the bell went and we had to continue on to our other subject areas.

Surely this is powerful learning!!!! Students are activating their own education and wishing to research further and learn more about each other. As a result, short videos have been added to teachertube to show what Korean students have for lunch and a brief visual tour of the school. Our students made a canteen video to show them what we can purchase for lunch.

To use skpye, you need to

• download the software which is free,
• register with a user name and password. There are no telephone numbers, but instead a user name. You can search for other people’s usernames and add them as contacts. To ring, you simply highlight the appropriate name and press the green phone button.
• a web camera for videoconferencing.
• A desktop microphone gives better quality audio and headphones ensure some privacy.

Download powergramo and the conversation can be recorded. We have produced a podcast at (http://murch.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml or search for using skype - Australia and Korea students at www.podomatic.com), on our first skype session with Korea and Gail Casey, the English teacher in Korea captured it on video at their end. See it at http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d1cef75ffbe159c1f322) Still photos can also be taken whilst in the video conference. They are automatically saved in my pictures.

Skype is only on staff laptops as security could be a real issue. Our library has an interactive whiteboard for class presentations, but a datashow would suffice. There are other providers of VOiP. Conference calls can also be set up but the video will only work between two callers. Sound can be a problem at times and calls can tend to drop out but despite this overall it works wonders. So skype that call!!

If you are considering a new camera, please read about my latest experience HERE.

At school, we are using voicethread to share our interests, acitivities and other project materials with some schools in USA. The grade 3 and 4 class have been working on this project. Year 8 students have produced a photo album of our school to share with schools in other countries. It is relatively easy to use and there are great tutorials, examples and resources on the website.

Voicethread is like a photo album but it can capture and hold the voices and stories of an entire group forever. It is then stored online. It can be made public or private. Many identities can be created so that each class member will have a separate identity under the umbrella of the teacher. Each identity chooses an image for themselves and records their voiceover. Steps in using voicethread are as follows:-

Goto www.voicethread.com >upload and insert the required photo under browse (or flickr or photobucket) Give a title to your slide. Make sure you give yourself a digital image - photo or otherwise.

Goto comment and record your introduction or voiceover, add an image. Goto the top RHS corner where your photo or image sits>my account>add identity and follow the prompts.

Once in the voicethread, identities can also be added. Follow the prompts until completed. New slides, with different images, can be added etc. Ensure that the microphone settings are correct for the computer that you are using. Choose record and the person records their message. If you need to re-record the voice click on the rubbish bin which appears when selecting the image. See below.

To switch identities, click on your image in lower left hand corner, and choose the one you now want to work with. New identities can be added here as well.

These voicethreads can be shared with other classes, schools and globally. So they are a great collaborative tool.