Tag: YouTube

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School’s out Friday

This is Hector Projector’s ‘It’s art’. (Hectornado on YouTube) who has created this hand drawn stop motion animation to his original composition. He represents talent and initiative in my opinion. He’s a guy living in Sweden, who, with the help of myspace and YouTube, is managing to carve out a name for himself and his creative talents.

Great, isn’t it. This is what is possible for the students we teach. Our schools need to start recognising that we can assist our students to showcase their talents and use this media to create a positive digital footprint for themselves (and quite possibly a future career for themselves as well).  

It’s inspiring to see young people using social media to good effect.  Almost makes me excited about the prospect of returning to school soon. I did say almost. I have to admit that I am enjoying the downtime holidays afford!

Have a great weekend. Forecast is for sunny weather here in Melbourne and I intend to soak it up.

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YouTube into Powerpoint – Wikihow has advice

I have never successfully been able to get a YouTube .flv video to play in a PowerPoint presentation. We have a Library PowerPoint that runs through a large television and we have often wanted to embed videos from YouTube into this. Our workaround has been to use a converter like keepvid to shift it from .flv format to .avi format so that they will play in PowerPoint.   

I followed a link tonight from Dai Barnes onTwitter that took me to an article from the School Library Journal written by Joyce Valenza.  It was called, ‘When YouTube is blocked (eight ways around)’ and is worth reading if you work in schools facing problems accessing YouTube. One of the links had me intrigued re the PowerPoint solution and I ended up at ‘wikiHow  – The How-to Manual that you can edit’.  The article in question was called, ‘How to Embed YouTube Flash Videos in Your PowerPoint Presentations‘  and step by step instructions were provided. I haven’t tested them as yet, but come my return to work I’m sure I’ll be putting them to good use! According to instructions at the bottom of the page you can embed the article in its entirity into your blog. Their creative commons licence makes them very generous. Hence, the following; 

 

How to Embed YouTube Flash Videos in Your PowerPoint Presentations

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

YouTube is considered to be one of the world’s most popular online community. YouTube is known for its fast video download rate, making it the number one choice for presenters when it comes to the video aspect of their presentations.

Steps

Play YouTube Flash Video Online in PowerPoint with Internet Access

  1. In PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions, go to View -> Toolbars -> select “Control Toolbox”. In PowerPoint 2007, go to PowerPoint Options -> Popular -> tick “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon”.
  2. In the Control Toolbox, click the last icon “More Controls” which is displayed as hammer plus wrench. In the set of controls available on your computer, select “Shockwave Flash Object”. Then use your mouse to draw and resize an area in the slide as you like to place your YouTube video.
  3. Go to the YouTube video page you’d like to add, and check the URL in the address bar of your Web browser. You’ll get an address like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChq5drjQl4 Change the phrase watch?v= to v/, and now the address become http://www.youtube.com/v/hChq5drjQl4
  4. Right click the area you drew which is displayed as a big cross, select Properties and go to Properties tab. Copy and paste the YouTube video address in the field as value of attribute Movie; set the value of attribute Playing and Loop to False. Close the Properties tab when everything is done.

Get YouTube Flash Video Offline and Add To Presentations
When you don’t like the live YouTube video way, which requires live and reliable Internet connection, you may download YouTube video to your hard drive, and insert the video into presentation offline. It’s also very easy to make in a few minutes.

  1. Go to the YouTube video page you’d like to add, and check the URL in the address bar of your Web browser. You’ll get an address like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChq5drjQl4. Then try some online services like KeepVid or other offline tools to retrieve and download the original Flash video file from the address. Rename the downloaded YouTube Flash video file from “get_video” to “xxx.flv” as you like in FLV format.
  2. Now you need to decide in which format of YouTube Flash video you’d like to add in PowerPoint presentation. If directly inserting the Flash video in FLV format, you have to ensure the FLV file could be properly played back at first. It’s recommended to install VideoLAN VLC media player to play YouTube Flash video files in FLV format.
  1. Find the hidden Control Toolbox out in PowerPoint and go to “More Controls” as the way in the first steps of online YouTube section above. Select “VideoLAN VLC ActiveX Plugin v1/v2” in the set of controls available, then draw and resize the displayed area with mouse in the slide as you like. Right click the area you drew and go to Properties tab, and complete the value of attribute “MRL” with the path of the YouTube Flash video file, like D:\Temp\2008\temp.flv, then close the tab. Now the YouTube Flash video in your hard drive is ready to play in the presentation.

— Insert YouTube Video As Common Video

Besides, you may also try to convert your YouTube Flash video in FLV format to other common video format like AVI, MOV, etc with some online services such as vixy.net or other offline video conversion tools. Then you can directly insert these converted video in your hard drive via “Insert Movie from File” in PowerPoint.

— Insert YouTube Video As SWF Flash Movie

Generally speaking, to avoid video codec problem with different computers, and ensure the properly video playback in PowerPoint, Flash video in FLV format and other video formats is not recommended to be inserted in PowerPoint. Based on the popularity of Adobe Flash player, which is widely installed on most computers in the world, Flash movie in SWF is highly compatible cross-platform and properly played back. You may try some video to Flash conversion tools, such as WebVideo Author, to convert FLV or other video formats to SWF format.
The Flash movie file in SWF format could be inserted into PowerPoint presentation as “Shockwave Flash Object” in Contorl Toolbox like the way in the first steps of online YouTube section above. And you can embed the SWF Flash file in your presentation through setting the attribute “EmbedMovie” to True in Properties tab.
By the way, some presentation authoring tools, such as PPT2Flash Professional (http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html), Articulate Presenter, offer the shortcut to insert SWF Flash files quickly, and finally output the PowerPoint presentation with YouTube Flash video as Flash movie in SWF format. Flash-based presentation is kind of great solution to avoid compatibility issues from video codec, PowerPoint versions and operating systems, and easy to make Web compliance.
Maybe the total guide for YouTube video in PowerPoint is a little of complicated for everyone. Google’s PowerPoint killer in Google Docs is highly expected to add the feature to add YouTube video in online presentation instantly, if Google really wants to be the killer. After all, YouTube is a great video treasure for everyone, we can make better use of it with our works and life.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Embed YouTube Flash Videos in Your PowerPoint Presentations. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

(The grammar in the final paragraph suggests English is not the native language of the contributor. What is wonderful is that people are willing to share their knowledge across language barriers.)

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School’s out Friday

Another improveverywhere effort to keep us smiling. This time they congregate at JFK airport to welcome back a stranger. The unsuspecting victims  find themselves confronted with a crowd bearing signs, flowers and ballons. It’s magic watching the expressions on their faces.

Improveverywhere have  a mission planned for tomorrow, the 10th of January.  It’s the 8th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. Here are the details of the mission as they appear on their site;

DETAILS

When: Saturday, January 10 at 3:00 PM, Sharp! (Over by around 5:30)
Where: Meet at Foley Square at the black sculpture/fountain. It’s near the Brooklyn Bridge 6 train stop, between Centre and Lafayette, just north of Duane. (Google Map)
Bring: A backpack and a metro card.
Do not bring: A camera (we’ll have several photographers on hand)
Wear: Normal winter clothes (hat, gloves, etc)
Facebook: You can RSVP to the Facebook Event
After Party: For those over 21, there will be an official No Pants after party at Sidebar, 15th Street and Irving Place. First drink is free if you arrive without pants.

If you’re a reader living in New York this should be a lot of fun if you’re comfortable riding the subway wearing only your underpants.  Wish I was there, although I really don’t think I’d be game enough for this mission!

Have  a great weekend.

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School’s out Friday

This is One year in 40 seconds. It’s beautiful. It’s the work of eirikso  (Eirik Solheim)  from Oslo in Norway. All the images were taken at the same spot over the course of 2008 showing the changing seasons. Look at this and contemplate the year ahead. What will you be doing as the seasons unfold? An open book right now ready to be filled.

Thanks to Elizabeth Holmes who posted the link to this on Twitter.

Enjoy the weekend!

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School’s out Friday

Tania Sheko, who writes a great blog called Brave New World, tagged me recently to come up with a top ten list. I’ve decided to share with you my ten favourite School’s out Friday videos that I’ve posted over the course of this year. I’m really happy that School’s out Friday has been popular because I enjoy the levity of it all. If we spent all of our time taking ourselves seriously this world would be a very dreary place.

1. OK Go – Here we go again  My very first School’s out Friday post!

2. Frozen Grand Central The improveverywhere crew’s fabulous effort at Grand Central Station.

3.  If Life were a Musical – Hardware Shop. The Chaser’s War on Everything’s musical number in a Bunnings store.

4. The best first dance at a wedding ever. Posted in tribute to Clay Burell who was getting married the next day.

5. What teacher’s make. Slam poet Taylor Mali’s take on teaching.

6. The world of chemistry. Very funny take on how the elements work.

7. Sneezing Panda. My mum loved this – she watched it again and again. 

8. Best game ever. Another effort from the improveverywhere crew.

9. Where the Hell is Matt?  Matt Harding’s 2008 effort that took 14 months to put together.

10. Hamish and Andy – Team Ghosting. The Australian comedy duo and their new sport of ghosting.

So there you have it. Ten of my favourites this 2008 in no particular order.

Enjoy your weekend. If it’s anything like mine you’ll be busy finding novel ways to polish off leftovers!

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School’s out Friday

Brace yourself. This time next week it will be Boxing Day. In between now and then I am sure you will have a million things to do. Like shop, eat, laugh, eat, stress, eat, sing, eat, socialise, eat, drink, eat, wrap presents, eat, drink some more, eat, cook, eat and on it goes. On Boxing Day I intend to cut down on the eating (and drinking) and embrace the walking and weight lifting. This year has seen my brain active but not much else. A situation that needs a remedy!

While you contemplate the next week and all it will bring, enjoy this little festive number from  madeinakqa. This little ditty accompanied the video;

Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

Stockings were hung
by the chimney with care,
as the microwaves’ thrum
was filling the air. 

I can’t begin to imagine the time it took to put it together, but it makes for compulsive viewing to see the outcome. 

Merry Christmas to you all. Enjoy the festivities with your families. 
 

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School’s out Friday

Yay!! I really am out from school this week. Holidays are here in Australia for some of us. Sorry Govt. school teachers- I know how hard that last week is – you have my sympathy although I don’t think that will count for all that much! 

And yes, I realise it is Saturday and I am late getting this up. I’m in Perth with my husband and we’re having a great time in this wonderful city. We’re meeting up with Sue Waters and Jane Lowe and possibly others this afternoon. I met Sue last week in Melbourne but I’ve never met Jane. Both of them have provided me with a lot of help this year- if not for them I wouldn’t have been posting from China. They both directed me to Posterous and Jane suggested Blogger as the platform that would be accessible in China for the blog I wrote for parents while I was there.   

Anyway, enjoy Charlie Todd and the improveverywhere crew as they entertain us once more. I’m looking forward to a Christmas extravaganza from them – hope they have something planned.

Enjoy your weekend.

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School’s out Friday

Couldn’t resist. Today was the last day for students from my school. They have now headed off for the holiday and Christmas break. I had a wonderful Yr 7 group who I am going to miss- they really gave me a lot of joy this year.

So this video from YouTube is for them because I know this is something they would enjoy. Have a great weekend. I intend to!

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School’s out Friday

That’s it.    I’m never complaining again.    Imagine having to do this everyday when you went to work!!

He does have some incredible skill. It reminds me of my recent time in China. One of the things I liked to do was to watch the people riding bikes with the most unbelievable loads attached. Made you very thankful for the life you lead.

Thanks to Paul (a parent from the school I teach at) for alerting me to this video. 

I think I am almost free of reports! Should mean a good weekend ahead. Enjoy yours.

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School’s out Friday

I loved Star Wars when I was a kid. I will never forget being 13, sitting in a cinema and seeing that Star Cruiser pan across the screen. It was truly an amazing special effect at the time. I was hooked and returned to the cinema on a further two occasions to take my fill of Luke Skywalker‘s story. Part of the special experience that was Star Wars was John William’s soundtrack. I even purchased the album. I lived Star Wars for a period of my early adolescence!

That’s why I love this a capella effort. It’s a tribute to Star Wars and to John Williams. Another thing I enjoyed growing up in this era were the musical soundtracks John Williams created for classic films like ‘Jaws’, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark‘. They all feature here. Clever lad who created this. I think he may have breached copyright somewhere because his original upload to YouTube is no longer available for viewing. I had to revert to someone else’s upload of his work.  I found it after someone put out a tweet about it on Twitter earlier this week. Sorry, I can’t remember who it was to give them credit.   

I face a weekend full of correction and report writing. Lucky me. Hope you are doing something great. I’ll be thinking of you!   

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