Copyright or CopyLeft?

See this documentary! Select Play all

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=44F4EBDBE6879CE5&search_query=Rip+a+Remix+manifesto

An article in the Insight section of The Toronto Star today talks about professors who are creating fake virtual identities to join the class online. Some of the profs claim that it helps them connect with their students. Students feel shocked and deceived.

Here's the link to the article.

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/643140

In a world where some teachers are questioning the ethics of the millennial generation, I find this interesting. Hucksters!

Probably most people have heard of and seen clickers in the classroom.

With the proliferation of cell phones and smart mobile devices everywhere, it seems logical that one shouldn't need any other device to take part in an interactive presentation. What Poll Everywhere offers is audience response technology without the hardware. It can be used to poll an audience, for group brainstorming or to allow the audience to add twitter comments to a presentation. Messages can be sent as a text message or online free from any web enabled device.

The basic free service for education in higher ed includes an account with a maximum class size of 32 but an unlimited number of classes. For class sizes up to 400 with mulit-poll reporting, response moderation, and student rosters it's $399 US per semester or $699 US per year.

Here's a link to Use Twitter in PowerPoint

I read about a site called Funnelbrain a day or so ago. That day I tried to access their video demos and got nowhere but decided to try again today.

I'm a mac user and when I'm on email the default browser is Safari.

Here's the message I got from funnel brain while using Safari:
"We're sorry, FunnelBrain.com only supports FireFox 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 7.0+ due technical limitations of older browsers. For the best experience please download FireFox 3"

OK, so they aren't that interested in Mac users. Strike One!
But that's not going to stop me. They bill themselves - "FunnelBrain is an academic question-and-answer site that provides an environment for team based learning and multi-media flashcards. Create FunnelBrain Flashcards with videos photos, audio, text and math equations! "
This sounds kind of interesting and since I just blooged about Cobocards, it's worth a look.

So I click Video #1 Working with FunnelBrain Groups..a whole lotta spinning and never reaching anywhere. Strike 2!

OK. What about Video #2- creating Funnelbrain Flashcards- click--spin spin spin.

Strike 3!
Somehow I find the name "FunnelBrain" most interesting.

Once upon a time it was all free.
Only a couple of weeks ago Scribd was just the most popular free online document sharing service; today it's also an online store that will sell your educational texts.

From their site, "In the Scribd Store you can buy exclusive books, research reports, never-before-released chapters of Lonely Planet city travel guides...for less."

What's the deal? Scribd will take 20% of each sale and give the rest to the copyright owner.
According to eSchool News, Scribd's advantage is that their documents will be able to be read on any type of device. The New York Times says they are turning themselves into a kind of "vanity publisher."

From Scribd's website About Us, "Scribd’s vision is to liberate the written word — to turn everyone into a publisher and create the best possible reading experience on the web and mobile platforms."

I have to admit it-- I often go to Wikipedia for information but I generally check the sources at the bottom of the page to either find more information or verify the information.

Early this month as part of a social experiment involving globalization, Irish student Shane Fitzgerald added a fake quote to the Wikipedia entry for composer Maurice Jarre.

Here's the quote, " One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear."

Jarre had just died. Quickly the quote was included in obituaries around the world - in major newspapers. Fitzgerald waited a few weeks before he reported that the quote was inaccurate. What surprised him was that it so quickly appeared in major print media. He had thought it might make blogs and websites. Corrections were printed in some papers and it was removed by Wikipedia but it remains out there uncorrected in printed and online form.

So why was this quote so quickly picked up and passed around? Here's my take. First, it's timing. The quote appeared right after the death. It was convenient and easy to find and use. Second, it was a great quote- the kind of quote you wish you had said if you had been a musician. Third, it's a great romantic notion that one will dance on to beautiful music in some ethereal space.

Fourth, we want to believe.

In a recent blog post, I talked about TeacherTube's MySite, a paid place to create a site for your videos.

There are sites besides YouTube where you can create a site that includes your own videos and videos hosted elsewhere.

Once such place is Fliggo. On Fliggo you choose between a Community blog where members can contribute by uploading videos and adding comments or create a Video Blog where you are the only one who adds videos, but others can comment. Your site can be open, moderated (you have to approve their membership) or closed (by invitation only.) You can customize the look and feel of your site too and there are no ads.

Their site promises that it is "grandma friendly." Not sure I approve of that language!

What's the catch? The add on features will be extra. For the extras there's an introductory price of $14.95 a month. It includes a custom domain, no fliggo logo and an increased video length limit.

Fliggo looks like it could be useful for a class video community or for a group project. It could also be useful for teachers who are looking for a channel on one particular subject. Here's one example of a compilation of videos with a georgraphy theme GeoTube

This looks like something I'll recommend to my students for group projects.

Are you sick of boring PowerPoint presentations?

Well Prezi may be your answer. With Prezi you can create a mind map that takes your viewer through ideas, images and videos. You can zoom in and flip and zoom out again all through the use of a simple navigation path.

The basic version of Prezi allows you to create and download your presentation. If you want your hamburger with the works, you'll have to sign up and pay 39£ for 500MB space, no logo and an offline player; or the Pro version that includes more space and an offline editor for 119£ a year.

The site contains a couple of basic tutorials that teach you how to place objects zoom in and out and create a path. I have to say though that after a couple of views I did feel like I was on a bit of an acid trip.

Still, it looks like it could be a cool little tool. Here are a couple of videos

Learn Prezi Tricks



Prezi Editing: Ice Cream for everyone



Yes Prezi looks cool, but I think you really need to have a solid plan and really think out what you intend to do. Zooming and flipping are lots of fun, but do you remember the PowerPointers who used every zip and zap and zoom and zip..they kind of made you crazy. With Prezi, I could see some going a bit wild. So consider those of us who have visual issues. My imitrex is at the ready!

TeacherTube the teachers' version of YouTube has just announced "Teacher Tube MySite."

You can now create your own site to post videos, audio or documents, customize the look and feel of the site, decide who is allowed to upload, and customize privacy.

The site can be updated by one person or a collaborative team. It looks like you can create a specific site for a class for them to upload their work. And- No ads!

On the down side, for 20 members it's $99 US per year and the cost increases by number of members.

This sounded great until the cost. I'm not sure that you couldn't do all of the above for free on YouTube. Except maybe you'd have to put up with the small ads. Check out their TeacherTube's pitch here http://www.teachertube.com/mysite/

TeacherTube is a nice place to find other educational videos, but I've found that sometimes the videos are very slow to load. I like their MySite concept, but I think it would have been better to offer it free with small educational type ads.