How to Use ustream.tv to Stream Live Video to Your Students in Blackboard: Brief Screencast

This screencast will demonstrate how to use ustream.tv (free service) to live video stream lectures or office hours to your students and embed it into Blackboard. This is a great tool for distance learning and for instructors that can not make ito to campus due to bad weather or other circumstances but still want to cover material in their course. All you need is a web cam (a cheep one will do), a computer, and an internet connection. To view the screencast click on the following link:

How to Use ustream.tv to Stream Live Video to Your Students in Blackboard

-Angel Brady

How To Embed a YouTube Video into Your Blackboard Course: Brief Screencast

Embedding a YouTube video right into your Blackboard course has many benefits. First, your students do not need to leave Blackboard and go out to the site. If part of their assignment is to write a reaction using the Discussion Board to this video, they can view it right inside the course. This is great for distance learning courses. Another benefit for embedding a YouTube video is that it enhancing learning by tapping into media. Media is a great way to address learning styles. This is also a great way to enhance your face to face or hybrid courses too. Check out the link below to view the screencast:

Embed a YouTube Video in Blackboard Course

-Angel Brady

YouTube, Quick Capture, Pixelated Video and &fmt=18: Brief Solution

If you are currently using quick capture and your video looks super pixelated when you view it, try adding &fmt=18 at the end of the video’s url. When you add this at the end of the url, the video is a H.264 encoded clip at 480×360 resolution with a bitrate up to 850K (good for iPhone viewing). YouTube has been trying to up the quality of their video. Adding the &fmt=18 a was posted on VideoHelp.com’s website (go there to learn more). I would like to thank Suzanne Carbonaro for bringing this solution to my attention :-).

-Angel Brady

Rapid Reference: Introduction to YouTube

This Rapid Reference gives you an introduction to YouTube. YouTube is a free service that allows you to record video and audio and share it with the world or keep it private to share with only a few. This Rapid Reference will discuss how to create an account, capture or upload video, respond to a video (comment or video response), embed a video into a web page, and much more. Down this pdf and start enjoying the great benefits of YouTube.

YouTube Rapid Reference (PDF)

-Angel Brady

Making Your YouTube Video Private: Brief Tutorial

Many people share their videos with the general public on YouTube. Some people want to record videos but only want to share it with a few close friends. YouTube allows you to privately share your video with up to 25 people at a time. Here’s a brief tutorial on how to set your YouTube video to private.

1. Log into Youtube.

2. Click on My Account and choose Videos, Favorites, and Playlists

3. Click the Upload Video button.

4. Next to Broadcast Options click Choose Options

5. Choose the Private Options. You can then select people in your contact list to share this video with. You can also invite people to YouTube (by clicking Edit Contacts, but this will take you away from the video upload screen).

6. Click the Use Quick Capture button to start recording you video in YouTube.

*You will be asked to allow YouTube to access your camera and mic, click on allow.

Note: There was a hack that allowed people to view private videos on YouTube. Some people reported that the hack no longer worked because YouTube changed their code based on this discovery.

-Angel Brady

Rapid Reference: Audacity

I have been creating short little cheat sheets called Rapid References for different programs. This Rapid Reference is an introduction on how to use Audacity. You can use Audacity to record audio, edit the audio, and export it into different file formats (like mp3). Audacity is free and open source and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. You can use Audacity to clean up audio or add effects to the audio. Feel free to download and use this Rapid Reference (pdf format).

Audacity Rapid Reference

-Angel Brady

Capturing video from a streaming video site

A friend of mine wrote:

John,

I had a [friend] ask about capturing the video that is streaming into his computer. I have used Camtasia and Captivate to capture things playing on the computer, but [I] don’t know how to capture a YouTube video, for example. The [friend] was interested in ways that don’t require the purchase of any addtional software.

This is easy to do if you are using Firefox - get the free extension called

DownloadHelper http://www.downloadhelper.net/

or UnPlug https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2254

and you can easily save video from many sites, including YouTube.

If anyone would like an overview, I can help.

John. 

Audio: LeMasney on How to use Powerpoint at Rider University Media Server

Audio: LeMasney on How to use Powerpoint at Rider University Media Server
I gave a presentation on How To Use Powerpoint today to a semi-packed room in the new Faculty Staff Training center in FA 113. Powerpoint was discussed in some detail, but of course, we talked about alternatives to Powerpoint, ways to avoid death by Powerpoint, Google Docs newest addition, Presently, and related topics. Take a look at Rider technology training site (log in as a guest if you wish) at http://www.rider.edu/training and click on the How to Use Powerpoint course to follow along with the audio if you want the whole effect. - John.

Audio: LeMasney FOSS Presentation to Brookdale Computer Users Group

Here is the audio from my presentation on Friday night on Free and Open Source Software to the Brookdale Computer Users Group. We had a fantastic time, and I can’t wait to go back. We had a lot of laughs, we all learned a lot, and I feel like I have a lot of new friends out by the shore. Thanks to BCUG for being so welcoming!

http://media.rider.edu/authors/lemasney/2007_lemasney_bcug_foss.mp3

How to Embed a YouTube Video into a Web Page or Blog

Did you ever want a YouTube video to appear right inside your page of your blog? Moodle course? Blackboard course? web page? All you need to do to embed the video is copy the embed code on the YouTube and paste it into an area you write your text. Sounds a little confusing? Follow these steps and you’ll be embedding YouTube videos in no time.

1. Go to http://www.youtube.com

2. Use keywords to search for a video you would like to post on your blog, Blackboard, Moodle, or web page.

3. Once you found the perfect video, look to the right of the video. In the text box that describes the video, find the information in the text box next to the word Embed.

4. Highlight and copy (Control+c) the embed code (the information in the text box).

5. Open the application you want to embed the video in.

• Blogs-Create a new post and paste (control + v) the embed tag into the text box of the post.
• Blackboard-Open up the Content Area you want to add the video to. Create an Item. in the text box, paste the embed tag into the text box. Click Submit
• Moodle-Go into the course you want to add the video. Add the resource Compose a web page. In the text box, paste the embed tag. Click Save Changes.

The YouTube video will now directly be displayed in the page and you can play it on that page.

Enjoy!

-Angel Brady