I remember in TPTE 485, one of the biggest challenges I had was finding images that were appropriate for public use. I had heard of Flickr in the past and looked at images from the site, however, I had never heard of Creative Commons. I am so glad that we went over this in class; it was so easy to find appropriate pictures without the hassle of checking for copyright concerning public or private use. I wish that I had known about this before I made any of my digital materials! I do make quite a few soft artifacts for my Spanish lessons, so I will most definitely be using this quite frequently in the future, if not daily! Another added bonus is the quality of the images; I will be able to save time looking up images that will be visible and crisp on the Smart Board or Promethean Board (it also lets you choose the viewing size which I think is helpful depending on your screen size, such as showing it on your class board or simply making a WebQuest for students to be used on a desktop monitor). Speaking of students viewing the images on their own computers, when assigning students digital projects, this will be a great resource to teach them to use, as well as provide an opportunity to explore copyright issues and citations, something that can be applied to any subject or class they might take!
While I had experience using iMovie and making my own videos, I had never actually tried to include a YouTube video within an iMovie project. I am so glad that I now know how to using ClipConverter! It is so easy to use…all you need is a YouTube URL. I was amazed that I had never thought to use this before, as I had used YouTube to .mp3 converters several times in the past for audio from YouTube. I didn’t realize that doing the same with the video itself was just as easy. The site is great because it will automatically recommend and choose settings for you, yet also gives you the option to choose the size of the file, the type of file, etc. I will definitely be using this tool in the future because it has so many purposes for education. Yes, there are issues with copyright when downloading these video files from YouTube, but as long as the videos are kept private, this should not be a problem. What I am the most excited about concerning downloading YouTube videos as .mp4 files and .mov files is the ability to edit the files as needed. Several times I have wanted to use a YouTube video and found the video too long, or the clip I need is right in the middle of the video. Now, I can simply edit the clip using iMovie and get exactly what I need out of it for my future classroom. Also, this makes it nice because so many schools have YouTube as a blocked website; now I know how to store the files on my computer and share them in other ways.
I have used iMovie several times in the past for different projects, probably more so than GarageBand or any other program of the iLife package. I have created slideshows, presentations for classes, education YouTube videos from my future Spanish classroom, etc. I have always used iLife ’06 for all of my projects, which offers a slightly different version of iMovie than available on the Macs in the computer lab, as well as several of my colleague’s computers. I actually prefer the older versions of iMovie, mainly because it does offer less features but is more intuitive and offers all of the necessary means to make a quality iMovie project. Also, iMovie makes it super easy to share the videos once they are completed as you can publish them directly from iMovie to YouTube or through the Media Browser, as well as select the size of the video. I found this process much easier than publishing my audio-only podcast. I will most likely use enhanced podcasts, or vodcasts, more in my future classroom because I just find them so much more engaging than an audio-only podcast. I enjoy the inclusion of visuals and will most likely use vodcasts to take my students on mini virtual field trips to different destinations and historical sites.
Becca Feher - Web 2.0 