YouTube LIVE! Educational Use…

So there have been live online streaming services for a while now, but none of them have seemed to take off.
Today TechCrunch linked to a video that said YouTube was going to have offer live video streaming services sometime later this year.

Aside from being a huge Google fan, this could potentially be important in Education for one reason… users. YouTube has a HUGE user base.

A lot of teachers are already familiar with YouTube and will be more likely to start using a feature in a program they already use. I need not repeat the value of live streaming for a classroom. Teachers can teach for distance education, not to mention a global audience! With real time feedback tools like chat and twitter, teachers can also get real time feedback from around the world! 🙂

Students will also find a much larger user base to present to.

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. What about you? What other things can you think of?

Why We should use YouTube in the Classroom

Michael Wesch posted notes from a presentation he just did about why we should use YouTube in the classroom that I found very useful.  Topics he covers:

• Legality of using YouTube video’s
• Why we use them
• Tips for finding good video’s
• Ways to Download them locally
• Tools for Remixing them
• Ways to incorporate them into our teaching

A Vision of Students Today / Information R/evolution

Michael Wesch of Kansas State University just published two more AWESOME video’s that definetly deserve your time to take a look at.  The first is about Students of Today.  It is a startling look into what students are really using technology for… where students are really spending their time.

The second is about information and how the internet has changed the way we interact with and find information.   Enjoy.

Randy Pausch: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

A couple of days ago my boss, Marc Tillett, recommended I watch this lecture by Randy Pausch. It is about an hour and half long so it took me a while to find the time, but I just finished it and must say I recommend it to EVERYONE! It was one of the best lectures I have ever heard!

I think that Randy’s story is getting pretty well known, but for those who don’t know, Randy is dying of pancreatic cancer and only has a couple of months left to give. Despite his condition, he is in great shape and really energetic as he gave his last lecture. He talks about his professional career and how he got where he is, some virtual reality and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) stuff, and then lastly give some great advice.

If you have the time, you should certainly watch this. If you don’t have the time, you owe it to yourself to find the time. Enjoy!!

[Note: If you want to skip the introduction go to 8:25 in the video player]

EASY! Screen Capture and Share? Forget Camtasia, Try Jing!

As technology and teaching becomes more and more important, so does the need to teach others to use that technology. For a while the standard in the industry has been Camtasia. Don’t get me wrong, the program is great, but it costs around $300. Not always feasible for educators like me.

A couple days ago Doug Edmunds from the School of Law here on campus sent out a link to a new, free (for now) screen capture program called Jing. This article looks at how to use the program, some of the features, and some missing features.

Education in the Future – Videos

Here are a couple of video’s I just ran across that just confirm why changing the way we educate our students in important. Enjoy.

The Connected Classroom

When I Grow Up…

4 Things Good Teachers do to Get Students REALLY Involved in Projects

Almost all of the students in classrooms K-12, and a large percentage of students in colleges are ‘digital natives,’ or students who grew up with ubiquitous access to digital media. These are those who can’t remember a time without e-mail and the internet. Because these students are intimately familiar with computers, the web, and the latest and greatest technology we can benefit by teaching them differently than students in the past… they are a new generation of learners.

4 Things to Get ‘Digital Native’ Students REALLY Involved

1. Make the Final Product SHAREABLE!

If a student knows that their work is going to a larger audience they will naturally take more time to work on it. The easiest way to do that is use Web 2.0 technologies like blogs, wiki’s, podcasts, and online video. Of course, you will need to be comfortable with those technologies yourself.

2. PROJECT’S, not Assignments!

Don’t give students a bunch of assignments, give them one larger project with a end result that students can see. Although this may take longer, students will naturally get more involved. They will want to be involved with the topic beyond the end of class.

3. Encourage students to use POPULAR TECHNOLOGIES they are familiar with!

The latest and greatest technology is more than likely taking over your student’s life’s. Encourage them to find educational uses for it. Almost every new web startup, or tech gadget can be used in an educational way. If you encourage the students to use these technologies they will come up with ideas that you could never have thought of yourself. (Oh, and they will think you’re cool because you encourage them to use their iPod in class. 🙂 )

4. Give the Student’s OPTIONS!

Don’t limit your students to any specific medium of transfer. Some digital natives love music and would make an amazing music video, or write an amazing song. Others would do better with video like the example below.

EXAMPLE of a Great Project!

This morning I was reading the Infinite Thinking Machine, a blog I highly recommend, and I came across a video produced by some 12th grade students for an English project. The project is called MacBeth Wars and can be seen below.

From the introduction on Google Video:

This movie was done for a 12th grade english project, parodying Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with a Star Wars style. It features the majority of the Macbeth storyline, and includes a 3-minute lightsaber duel between Macbeth and Macduff near the end.

Then the most amazing part…

We hope to release Macbeth Wars II, a project purely for our own fun, by summer 2007.

Wow! You don’t have to watch the whole production to realize that this project was probably WELL beyond what was required of them for the class. It has great digital effects, sounds effects, multiple video shots in each scene and appropriate background music. This project surely took hundreds of hours to complete AND they want to do another one in their FREE time! Now that is a good project!

What other things have you done, or seen done that really get student’s involved? What other projects have you seen that are just amazing? Do share in the comments!

Manipulate Digital Objects with Hands

On the back end of Haptic devices and Multi-touch displays I ran across this article and video this morning that demonstrates another possible way to manipulate computers with your hands. 

As more and more possibilities present themselves for physically manipulating data on a computer, the more and more it will become mainstream.  I really like this option because, as it says in the video, all you would need would be a USB camera device and software.  This is potentially much more affordable than Haptic devices (although they are getting super cheap too) and certainly more affordable than a multi-touch display.

Medieval Help Desk

Do you ever feel like either of these guys?

This video speaks to me on two levels, both as a tech guy, and as a guy trying to learn new things from technology… 

May be all be a little nicer to our tech guys today… and perhaps a little nicer to the people we support.  We all are learning together. 

The Internet has a Face – Video!

Digital Ethnography, the people that brought us the edublogger smash-hit “The Machine is Using Us,” has put out a new video entitled “The Internet has a Face.” From their post introducing the video:

“Before, we were reliant upon what the user has expressed through words, however, when one can read beyond words through visuals, the communication seems to become more “human and personal.” If there was a fear that the internet was making society antisocial, vlogging would seek to prove otherwise.”

UPDATE: The video used to be here, but I removed it because of a repeated expletive throughout the video. If you want to see it you can click here but it may not be work appropriate.

As I watch this video I begin to realize the impact online media has had on our culture and will continue to have. We are truly digital people who live and share our lives online.