Video ANT - Discuss and Annotate Videos

Video ANT is a free tool developed by Brad Hosack at the University of Minnesota for the purpose of providing a platform on which students and teachers view and annotate videos. Video ANT plays your specified video and while watching you and your students can and marks along a timeline and write comments alongside the video. Annotations are archived and emailed to you when you've completed the annotation process. Video ANT works with YouTube videos as well as with some video files that you can upload to the site. Click here to watch a screencast created by Brad Hosack of Video ANT in action.

Thanks to Desert Diver on Twitter for sharing this great resource along with a sample of one of his annotated Video ANT videos.

Applications for Education
In the past I've used back-channels while my students are watching videos so that they can discuss the footage as they're seeing it. Annotating videos with Video ANT could take that process a step further by creating an archive that matches the various points in the footage.

Viddler also allows you to annotate videos, but the drawback to Viddler is that you're somewhat limited as to the length of comments you can write. Also Viddler may be blocked in some schools. Video ANT provides a clean, easy-to-use interface in which you and your students can annotate and discuss videos.

Thursday Tech Tip Video - Video Sub Plans

In this week's video tech tip I share my secret for delivering more effective substitute teacher lesson plans to the substitute and my students.



All you need to make a video through Viddler is a webcam and an Internet connection. Check out Viddler.com and try creating your own video lesson plan.

Delivering Modern Substitute Teacher Lesson Plans

When I started to consider going back to school to become a teacher, I spent nearly a year substitute teaching in a wide array of high school classrooms. It was mostly a very positive experience, but there were a few days when I felt like this substitute teacher, overwhelmed and frustrated. Usually, the root causes of those feelings was not the students' behavior. Rather the causes were a lack of clarity of direction in the plans the left behind by the classroom teacher and a lack of clarity in expectations for the students (and there were a few times when no plans were left at all). There are two resources that I wish teachers had available and had used when I was substitute teaching, Viddler and Drop.io. I use these now when I'm absent from my classroom.

Viddler is a free video hosting and sharing service. Viddler, like YouTube, allows you to record and post videos directly to the site through your webcam. I use Viddler and my webcam to record short videos in which I explain to my students my expectations for what they are to accomplish while I am out of the classroom. I post the video to my course blog. My written plan for the substitute always starts with "have students watch the new video on the course blog."

Drop.io is a free service that allows you to host and share files online. Drop.io also has a free podcast recording service called Phone.io. Using this service you can call into your Drop.io drop (Drop.io's term for a page), record your message, and have it appear as an MP3 on your Drop.io drop. Anyone visiting your Drop.io drop can listen to your recording. Drop.io also provides an embed code for your recording to put your recording on your blog or website.

Applications for Education
By using Viddler and Drop.io I can directly deliver my plans and expectations to my students even when I'm out of my classroom. Doing this eliminates the possibility of a student saying "the sub didn't tell us to do that." It also helps out the substitute teacher who now has a clearer idea of my plan for the day.

I'm in the fortunate position of working in a 1:1 school. If your school is not 1:1 you can still use Viddler and Drop.io. You just need one computer in your classroom that the substitute or your students can access when you're not in your classroom.

Finding Your Voice In the Edublogger Community

In this video I explain the three roles that people can play in the edublogging community. A lot of new bloggers struggle to find a voice in the edublogging community. If you can identify a voice or role for yourself in the edublogging community, you should be able to better focus the diretion of your blogging efforts.

Technology Needs to be Like Oxygen

Next week is the MLTI Summer Institute. The keynote speaker for the conference is Chris Lehmann. If you're attending the conference and you're not familiar with his work, please watch this video. This video has been around for almost a year now so many of you have probably seen it once. In that case, watch it again, it's worth a second, third, or fourth viewing.


Here are some of things Chris Lehmann said that caught my attention.
1. "Technology needs to be like oxygen."
2. "Good data costs a lot more than we want to spend. Good data is the work kids do every single day, it's not the answers they get on a test."
3. "We teach kids, not subjects."
4. "You want to see what kids have learned, give them a project."
5. "We have one thing left to teach and that is... wisdom."

What are your thoughts about Mr. Lehmann's presentation? Leave a comment on this blog or better yet, register for a Viddler account and comment directly on the video for the whole world to see (as opposed to just the visitors to this blog).

Acer Netbook After Two Weeks

As many of you know, two weeks ago I purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook. I bought it just in time for NECC 2009. At that time I posted about my decision to buy a netbook rather than an inexpensive Toshiba notebook at roughly the same cost. After two weeks after my initial review of the netbook I can still confidently say that the netbook is worth every penny I spent.

When reading this evaluation of netbooks, bear in mind that I do 97% of my work online. Over the course of the two weeks since I purchased the Acer Aspire One I've only opened my old laptop four times. Of those four times, only once did I "have" to use my full size laptop. That instance was when I was using Google Earth. The ten inch screen on the Acer Aspire One is just a touch too small for accessing the full functionality of Google Earth.

The three cell battery (6 cell wasn't in stock when I was shopping) has consistently lasted for close to three hours when running just Firefox. When I run TweetDeck and Firefox simultaneously the battery life decreases to roughly two hours.

Overall, during the last two weeks using a netbook for all of my daily tasks like writing blog posts, watching video, and creating videos on Viddler has been a good experience.

Question Most Commonly Asked of Me at NECC

This is the last morning of NECC 2009. Since Saturday the one question that I've been most frequently asked is, "how are you finding so many things to blog about?" In the video below, filmed in the NECC Blogger's Cafe, I give the answer that I've been giving most frequently.


Here are the three real-time search engines mentioned in the video:
OneRiot
Scoopler
CrowdEye

Goodbye YouTube - It Was Nice Knowing You

Yesterday, YouTube announced that they are now selling video placements in search results. They call it "sponsoring" a video. What it means is that if you want to promote your video to as many people as possible, for a nominal fee you can have your video at the top of YouTube search results.

Applications for Education
I didn't think anything of this announcement from YouTube until I read an article written by Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch about the topic. Schonfeld pointed out that it is only a matter of time before there are videos of "questionable morals" at the top of generic search terms. For an example of this go over to YouTube and search with the term "sports" or "science."

Most of the teachers I talk with tell me that YouTube is blocked by their school district's filters. The school I work in does not block YouTube. For those of us who do have access to YouTube now I fear that the addition of more "questionable content" on YouTube will lead to YouTube being bocked by our filters. For those of us who have advocated for access to YouTube in our schools, I fear that this announcement from Google weakens our arguments. So YouTube, it was nice knowing you, I hope we meet again.

Fortunately, there are many other good video sharing sites that teachers can access. Some of these services are Teachers.tv, Teacher Tube, Viddler, and Blip.tv.

If there is a video on YouTube that you just have to use, you can always try one of the methods I've suggested here.

The Best Video on Viddler

Today, I found the best video on Viddler. I actually didn't find it on Viddler, it's hosted on Viddler, I found it on Blogging on the Bay. This is a video of an awesome presentation given by Chris Lehmann about the things that schools need to change in order to help students learn in today's world. I strongly encourage you to watch this five minute video and comment on the things that Mr. Lehmann has to say. I've already inserted a comment and I would love to see what other teachers have to say. (In case you're unfamiliar with Viddler, Viddler's comment system allows you to insert comments directly into the video stream). Below the video are my five favorite quotes from Mr. Lehmann's presentation.



Here are some of things Mr. Lehmann said that caught my attention.
1. "Technology needs to be like oxygen."
2. "Good data costs a lot more than we want to spend. Good data is the work kids do every single day, it's not the answers they get on a test."
3. "We teach kids, not subjects."
4. "You want to see what kids have learned, give them a project."
5. "We have one thing left to teach and that is... wisdom."

What are your thoughts about Mr. Lehmann's presentation? Leave a comment on this blog or better yet, register for a Viddler account and comment directly on the video for the whole world to see (as opposed to just the visitors to this blog). I want to see that video loaded with comments from teachers.

Video Discussion via Youtube

If you're fortunate enough to work in a school that doesn't block Youtube, Youtube has a new feature that could be useful. Youtube, like Viddler, now allows users to add comments within a video. Youtube refers to the comments as annotations because users can insert additional information about their videos.

Applications for Education
Youtube's and Viddler's comment system is a nice platform for sparking or holding a discussion about a video. If you find yourself using video in your courses the commenting systems are useful for you. Rather than stopping the video to insert your commentary or to emphasize a point to your students you can insert comments to highlight something for your students.

Here is a sample of Youtube's new commenting system in action.

Free Technology For Teachers: Five Alternatives to YouTube - #3 Viddler

Viddler is another good alternative to YouTube that provides better image quality and a unique commenting system.

The commenting system on Viddler is what makes it quite unique. Rather than posting comments in a list below a video, users can insert comments into the video itself as the video is playing. Let's say you're watching a video and have a reaction to a particular aspect of the video, you can insert your comment at the exact place in the video where the comment seems appropriate. (The video below demonstrates this better than I can describe it).
Viddler is also a recording service. With a web cam you can record video directly to Viddler. On most video websites you have to upload your video from a file created off line.

Here is a sample video from Viddler about the MacBook Air.