Let’s say you have an audio file but you only want a piece of it, not the whole thing. How do you remove just a few seconds of audio from a larger file? Online MP3 Cutter does exactly that, and does it well.
Online MP3 Cutter allows you to quickly and easily take an MP3 file and cut a section out of it. The entire process takes about 10 seconds, and best of all, you don’t lose an iota of sound quality in the process.
BY BILL FERRIS
How much does your school spend on software? You’ve probably got Microsoft Office installed in the central office. Maybe the school newspaper uses Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. That’s a few thousand dollars worth of software right there, depending on the size of licenses you need. Open Source Alternative wants you to save that money by suggesting, well, open-source alternative programs that do the same things as their pricey commercial counterparts, but won’t cost you a dollar (let alone several thousand of them).
A word of warning about this blog entry: if you don’t do any work with websites or Moodle, you might not find this very pertinent. But if you do, you’ll be interested in NanoGong. This app lets anyone with an internet connection and a microphone record audio via a web-based interface, then save it locally or to a website (click here to try their sample website).
If you have a microphone, even a cheap one, and access to the Internet, then you can create a simple podcast. Vocaroo is one such site designed for simplicity. You plug in a microphone, click the green button, and record your voice. Within seconds, you’re listening back. If you stumble over your words it’s easy enough to try a second or third take. Just click the “Record Again” button and the old file is gone, replaced by the newer one.
Lately, during my lunch break, I usually sit at my desk and drop crumbs of food into my keyboard. That’s a terribly boring way to pass your lunch hour. So, naturally, I started watching my favorite show, The Golden Girls, on a streaming TV site. The main problem now is that most sites don’t have full episodes, just the excerpts. So I dug deeper. One site that streams shows is based somewhere in Asia. There are all sorts of foreign characters bannered across the top of the screen and the subtitles can sometimes take up one-third of the screen. How cool would it be if I managed to learn to read Chinese from passively exposing myself to the subtitles on my streaming episodes of The Golden Girls during my lunch break?!
In the comments for Bill’s posting about the Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast, I mentioned that people who enjoyed that show might also enjoy Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. It’s a little dry and demands some attentive listening, but can be pretty rewarding if you find that you enjoy it.
Dan Carlin brings a really unusual perspective to looking at history. In one of his more sensational episodes, “History Under the Influence,” he explores how drugs and alcohol might have played a role in history. For example, have you ever considered the possibility that certain historical figures were tweaking on amphetamines or strung out on painkillers? How about asking who was drunk and possibly bi-polar? It definitely sounds irreverent, but remember that history is often written by the winners.
BY BILL FERRIS
This week’s MBTN features larger file attachments for Gmail users, following your favorite authors on Twitter, and how to shoot better video. Read more after the jump.
Now that ScreenToaster has rolled out a truckload of features for free, older screencasting apps are doing what they can to keep up. Screencast-o-Matic was the first screencaster we wrote about on Instructify, and they’ve added a bevy of bells and whistles to work their way back into our hearts. Now you can upload your screencast straight to YouTube and choose between more capture sizes.
The best new features, though, are the improved audio and video quality, and the ability to export your screencast to Windows Media Player (AVI), Quicktime (MOV) and Flash (FLV) formats (no exporting in sight for RealPlayer, which I can only hope the folks at Real take as a hint and just bury their player already). That means you can download your screencast and edit it later, so if you flubbed your lines and want to overdub new audio for your electronic sub plan, or you want to add credits or a title screen to a demonstration, you can do so with the video-editing software you probably already have on your computer.
As companies keep adding features to their screencasting apps, I have a hunch these tools won’t remain free forever. For the time being, though, you can create some high-quality screencasts without spending a cent. -BILL FERRIS
Tutorial showcasing new features
Toast your screencasts with ScreenToaster
Record your screen for free with ScreenCastle
Make Awesome Screencasts with Jing
Effortlessly Create Video Demonstrations with Screencast-o-Matic
3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction
Every teacher’s got a wiki these days. So what do you do with it in class? Integrating a piece of technology doesn’t lend itself to flying by the seat of one’s pants. THE Journal presents 3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction, discussing what factors must be overcome to get the most out of wikis in education.
The World of 100
Imagine if the world were condensed into a village of 100 people. Now imagine if these villagers’ lifestyles were documented in the form of snazzy-looking charts. Toby Ng Design has created The World of 100, an illustration project in which demographic information such as population, literacy and air quality are depicted in striking graphic representations.
Learn 35+ Languages for Free in iTunes
LifeClever presents this list of free language courses available on iTunes. Good for your language students, or for anyone who’d like to converse in another language.
100 Free Online Lectures that Will Make You a Better Teacher
As a dedicated teacher, you’re always looking to improve professionally, right? A good tip at the right time can make a world of difference. This list of online videos will give you knowledge and ideas for getting even better at what you do. These videos deal with instructional suggestions, technology demos, and rules of the road for new teachers. -BILL FERRIS
Photo credit: One Good Bumblebee on Flickr.
Another free service is going the pay route. Gcast sent out an email recently announcing that in order to call in, users will need to pay a $99 fee to make mobile podcasts (Gcast still hosts podcasts for free, however). Twitter and Plurk were abuzz with talk of this. While I respect Gcast’s right to make a buck on this deal (and not to go broke in the process), it’s not a “mission critical” service for me at this point, and there are other options that I can switch to that will not involve a big investment. I had only done a handful of podcasts on Gcast at this point anyway. So what are my other options?
Utterli is a nice service that allows you to post pics, video, and phone calls from your mobile phone. They have recently dropped providing international numbers, due to the expense. I’ve posted a question on the forum about their revenue stream. They do carry Google ads on their site. Since I tend to embed in other sites, that’s not a big deal. Here is a sample phone cast from Utterli. It has a player that you can embed as well.
You may know about drop.io, for “dropping” files (dead simple), but one of the “extras” they’ve added since I started using it is a call-in number. This will create a phone cast, and like Utterli, there is a conference-call option. Here’s a sample from drop.io.
There are no ads on drop.io. They do have a premium service, but I don’t know if that’ll pay the freight for all of this. My suggestions are this:
Send really big files over the Internet
Top 6: Using cell phones in school
Photo credit: Ocell on Flickr.
Let’s say that one day you reserve the clunky and complicated audiovisual cart with the laptop and projector and wheel it painfully to your non-electronic classroom so that you can give a live demonstration to your students of how to do something absolutely crucial that can only be done on a computer: how to use a particular library research database, how to make a PowerPoint presentation for their final class project, exactly where to go in the learning management system to check their grades. One wheel of the cart was apparently possessed, heading north when its brethren were heading east, just like a wheel on any given shopping cart. You hate that A/V cart. You’d be willing to deal with anything, anything, never to have to use it again. Even video codecs. Yes. Even those.
CamStudio is for you, then. It’s open source, Windows-only software that will allow you to make a video recording of whatever’s happening on your computer screen; it outputs video in .avi or .swf formats. CamStudio lets you add captions to your screencast, but if you’d like to add a voice-over, you can get a little PC microphone such as the Logitech USB Desktop Microphone for under $20, and there are some mic models that sell for under $10. Record your lesson, post it online, tell your students to watch it, and there you go. No more cart.
CamStudio is a fairly easy program to use, as long as you don’t count the settings. Video recording settings can be very confusing, which certainly isn’t CamStudio’s fault, but the default settings in CamStudio aren’t going to give you the high-quality, small-size, easily shareable files that you want. I therefore recommend watching this helpful CamStudio tutorial on YouTube — and yes, the YouTube tutorial was itself made with CamStudio. It’s been viewed over 150,000 times as of this date, so hey, that tells you something. — AMANDA FRENCH
Make awesome screencasts with Jing
Effortlessly create video demonstrations with Screencast-o-Matic
How often have you had the urge to make a salad from office plants? How long have you secretly wanted to play the Theremin? How much better would your life be if you could describe the weather in Japanese?
WonderHowTo.com will help you satisfy hypothetical urges, fulfill unidentified wishes, and perhaps even improve your life. The site advertises itself as the largest collection of free how-to videos anywhere. From the main page, you can search for a specific how-to, browse by category, or check out recommended videos. Each clip comes with a short description and a letter grade assigned by other viewers. The collection runs the whole gamut of instructional video, covering everything from an explanation of the U.S. Presidential election process to how to draw and color a cartoon.
Of course, some of WonderHowTo.com’s content may not be suitable for children. A glance at categories ranging from Alcohol to Weapons may raise a few educators’ eyebrows. However, the site does at least make an effort to separate potentially objectionable videos by designating them 18+ and requiring an account to view them. The bottom line is that adult supervision may be a good idea, depending on the age and relative maturity of the student. The rest of us will only wonder how to describe the amazing instructional video we watched last night on WonderHowTo.com. –JIMI RADABAUGH
Learn to do anything with Yobler
Explanations Abound at Common Craft
Being educators, we are often conservative, especially when it involves the law, as copyright does. This has led to a growing concern about missed learning opportunities due to caution because teachers are avoiding doing anything with copyrighted materials, or not allowing their students to produce content using copyrighted material.
American and Temple Universities have been working on this and have a report coming out about the cost of copyright confusion in education. I recently attended a session at NECC given by Kristen Hokanson on this topic. This discussion brought up a concept that is really central to educational use of copyrighted material, and that is transformation. A big part of what makes it fair use is that you’re not just “copying” the work of others, but remaking it into something of your own. One of the best examples is the Fair(y) Use Tale video produced by Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. This video takes snippets from Disney cartoons to teach about fair use. Because it’s both education AND satire, it’s covered by fair use.
I was first introduced to this concept when I did a case-study discussion (a favorite way for lawyers to discuss and educate about legal points) about a potential fair use I had in a classroom project. Transformation is not often discussed, but it’s an important concept for fair use. Get to know more about it. -ALICE MERCER
Stanford University guide to Fair Use in Education check out the section on the “transformative factor”
Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society Fair(y) Use Tale
It’s Elementary: Copyright–It’s the Law
Copyright in education, part 1: Fair use
Photo credit: PugnoM on flickr
15 Awesome Tutorial Websites You Probably Don’t Know About
A couple weeks ago I decided to take up juggling. Right away I was amazed at the high quality tutorials I found online. If you have a random hobby you’d like to try, or you’re looking for a project during these summer months, check out this list of sites.
100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of
Here’s a great big list of sites you can use to find everything from literature to library references to health care. You can also find fun stuff like the Dialectizer, which can translate your text to sound like Elmer Fudd. Who doesn’t need that?
10 Brain Training Tips To Teach and Learn
Keep your brain fit for optimum learning potential. The folks at SharpBrains have these ten tips to turn you and your students into efficient thinking and learning machines.
Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources
Need to edit a class video project? Want some advice on how to create a video podcast? Or do you need to convert video to a different file format? Mashable has all that and more in this great post. -BILL FERRIS
Photo credit: zen on flickr
Have you ever needed the answer to some pressing question, but found yourself no where near a computer and yielded only a cell phone to get your answer? I know I’ve been there many times, especially when traveling, and while you can sometimes text message search engines (or call a web-savvy friend), you can’t always get the answer you need. After being in such a predicament, I’ve often resolved to finally getting a smart phone, but now I don’t have to!
ChaCha is a service that allows anyone with a mobile phone to text 242 242 (CHACHA) or call 1-800-2CHACHA and ask any question in conversational English and receive an accurate answer as a text message within a few minutes. It basically makes any cell phone a “smart phone,” and the idea is genius really: they don’t use a search engine algorithm with automatically generated responses, but rather a network of knowledgeable human “guides.” And since ChaCha uses people to respond with answers, you can easily reply with follow-up questions as if you are exchanging messages with a friend.
So let’s say you can’t remember who Gabriel falls in love with in Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd (it’s Bathsheba Everdene, by the way), or you need a quick weather update, or you just need to find the closest vegetarian restaurant to your current location, you can just call or text ChaCha and get a great answer quickly.
The service is totally free, too (except for any text message or minute fees that may apply based on your cell phone plan), so you don’t have to worry about encountering any hidden costs when you get your phone bill. So make your cell phone a bit smarter, and maybe make yourself a little smarter while you’re at it! -LAUREN FROHNE
ChaCha
Related Stuff:
How to use your cell phone for education: Mobile podcasting
Power up Your Phone with gWhiz
moxie design studios
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