eNews #90

Welcome to SchoolCounselor.com, an electronic newsletter designed to advance counselors' level of technological literacy, application, and integration. You will find practical solutions and answers to technology related problems, especially as they apply to your job as counselor. If you would like to share a tip or trick, or if you would like to ask a question, e-mail Russ Sabella at newsletter@schoolcounselor.com.

Frieda, a SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter reader, writes, “Thanks for the newsletter. As always, it has great information. I was wondering if you could tell me how to get video clips for presentations. I use a couple of movie parts for some of my presentations, but it is always frustrating for me to get them paused at the right point and stopped at the right point. Is there a way or website to get video clips? I see presenters use them all the time, but I have no idea how. That's my technology challenge right now. Can you guide me. Thanks.”

Your question has two parts – getting short video clips (as is) and second, editing out a clip from a longer movie or program.

More and more, presenters are using video clips to enhance understanding in a lesson or training. Indeed, our world continues to become dependent upon a rich array of media for information and learning. When working with children who are growing up on multimedia information it becomes even more true. Although there are some days when I would like to return to a simpler time when we used overheads and index cards, I have to admit that I’m glad to see more videos in presentations, it’s a more effective and appropriate use of technology.

PowerPoint was never really meant to include screens filled with paragraphs – only short bullets and, even more important, the delivery of rich information such as with videos. The good news too is that using videos in our lessons is now easier than ever given the proliferation of videos online such as with YouTube and Google Videos.

So the big question is, “How do I get the videos from YouTube into my presentation (assuming that you are using PowerPoint)?” Well actually, you don’t really have to. You could just link to an online video from your presentation if you are sure to have Internet access during your delivery. However, you could run into a problems such as your school blocking the video site or that the video eventually gets deleted by the person who posted it. Your best bet is to download it and there are a couple of ways to do that. First, check out this list of websites here that allow you to simply put in the website address (URL) of a video and get a new link to the actual video file. In other words, your first step is to go to the original web page on which the video exists, copy the web address of that page, and then insert it into one of these online services that will extract the video for you.

One thing you should understand is that most online videos are in the Flash Video (FLV) format which is not easily handled by PowerPoint. If you do want to download and use the FLV files as they come, you will first have to install a FLV video player. Then, you can just link to the FLV file from PowerPoint which will then play in the FLV player when you click on the link. On a bit of a side note, I do recommend linking a video from PowerPoint instead of inserting or embedding it which results in all kinds of problems. Here’s how it works ....

What I do is simply (1) put a graphic (e.g., a video reel or camera) into the slide; (2) right click on it and choose Hyperlink; (3) in the Insert Hyperlink menu, navigate and choose the video file that you want to play. Click OK. Now clicking on the link while you are viewing the presentation will launch the associated program in slideshow mode. If you have linked to a RealVideo movie, this might initiate RealPlayer or the QuickTime player in case you have linked to a MOV video. In all cases you will have to close the video clip independently of PowerPoint (click here for more info about videos and PowerPoint).

A free FLV player that I use and recommend is called “FLV Player” and can be download from this website. By the way, a trick I’ve learned with this player is that to close it, you have to press ALT-F4 on your keyboard because there is not red “X” button on the top right corner. Another FLV player is “Wimpy Desktop FLV Player.” Although I’ve not used it, it seems to be a pretty good one and also supports Macintosh.

To avoid the FLV format altogether, you can use a free service that actually converts the video into a more common standard (I recommend WMV or AVI) before downloading it. My favorite is Zamzar (Watch a video of ZamZar in action here). Again, once you download the movie, just link to it when you are in PowerPoint. Another advantage of converting a FLV video to a more standard format is that you can much more easily edit that video if you need to.

Once you have a movie clip, you can use a free and powerful video editing software to get it just right. I recommend Windows Movie Maker 2.1 which usually comes with a Windows XP or Vista computer or you can get it here. Macintosh users typically use iMovie. Windows Movie Maker supports lots of file formats including:

•         Video files: .asf, .avi, .wmv
•         Movie files: MPEG1, .mpeg, .mpg, .m1v, .mp2
•         Audio files: .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff
•         Windows Media files: .asf, .wm, .wma, .wmv
•         Still images: .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif, .gif
•         MP3 format audio: .mp3

The most difficult thing you might run into is actually getting a video clip from a DVD movie because the file formats (VOB) are difficult to deal with and because DVD’s have embedded in them copyright code which prevents this very thing. There is software out there that you can purchase to do this such as AOA DVD Ripper. Or, you can convert VOB files into something more editable by using software such as Yasasoft or Blaze Video Magic. If you run into copyright problems, you could use software which copies the movie to your hard drive without the copyright code such as DVD Shrink or DVDFab HD Decrypter. Speaking of copyright though, I have to say that you should never infringe upon copyrights and stay within the limits of the law (e.g., educational fair use).

Here is a list of websites that will help you deliver more dazzling, impact full, and fun lessons or presentations.

• PhotoStory 3. Create slide shows using your digital photos, music, and/or narration. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures and save as a WMV movie. It's that easy and it’s free. Check out a PhotoStory that my son Joe did a while back ago here.

• Film Clips. Film Clips Spirit of America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing short film clips from major motion pictures to America's teachers for use as teaching resources.

• TeacherTube officially launched on March 6, 2007. Our goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

• YouTube Establishes Anti-Bullying Channel. The first online anti-bullying channel has been launched to encourage young people to denounce the intimidation. YouTube has set up a site where youngsters can post their own videos and messages.

• Embed YouTube Video into PowerPoint. If you must embed a YouTube video directly into PowerPoint, you can watch a video tutorial here.

• Zuula video search now offers searching of video sites, including Google Video, YouTube, iFilm, MetaCafe, and DailyMotion.

P.S. Warning: if you search on the term school counselor or guidance counselor on YouTube, you will see results that are less than flattering. This is a brutal fact and a wake up call about student perceptions about school counselors. For example, watch this one, this one, or even this one.

On a final note, realize that when you link to a video (or any other file for that matter) within PowerPoint, the files will not be included in the presentation if you copy it to another computer or send it via email. To include all your linked files, you have to “package” the presentation. In version 2003, click here for instructions and for 2007, click here.

Connect with up to 15 people in different locations and get your point across by showing them what's on your screen. Share, review, and update documents with multiple people in real time. A Windows Live ID (Passport, Hotmail, or MSN) is required to start sessions, but not to join sessions. New in Beta2: now even easier to use, with group chat and performance improvements!

Those whom have upgraded to the latest version of Microsoft Office have already figured out that the newest file formats are not backwards compatible. Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2007 Office System) uses a new XML based file formats and extensions for new documents, workbooks, spreadsheets or presentations that been created by Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. These new file formats (in .docx, .xclx and .pptx extensions) are not backward-compatible, meaning older version of Office suites such as Office 2003, Office XP and Office 2000 cannot open and read the XML files. And by default, Office 2007 will save the document, workbook or presentation as new XML file format, which cannot be immediately opened or viewed or edited by users with earlier version of Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

First, recipients using older versions can download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, which when installed on the computers of users using Microsoft Office 2003 or Office XP (2002), will allow them to open, edit and save documents in the new 2007 XML formats.

Second, to allow a file created by Office 2007 to instantly be available, readable, or editable across all editions of Office suites, especially Office for Mac which also does not support new XML formats, save the file in an earlier Office format (97-2003) manually. Here are the directions for each program:

2. On the left, click Save. Then on the right, set Save files in this format to Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

4. This will change the default save file type to the older Office type. You can still choose to save as an Office 2007 file in the Save As menu.

NOTE: Click here to get a visual of these steps. Or click here to watch a video that also includes how to make similar changes in PowerPoint and Excel.

A sign of the times? Sometimes you don't want to dump him or her in person. Sometimes you don't even want to do it over the phone. So you send an email to say that your relationship is finished.

Although this book focuses on business, it is laden with solution focused principles that can easily help counselors with leadership.

FREE SEARCH & PHOTO SOFTWARE

From photo tools to mapping software, try these for FREE:

• Google Picasa:

Organize & edit your photos

• Google Earth:

Satellite views and maps

• Google Desktop:

Search your entire drive

• Google Toolbars:

Use the Web better

Get your FREE Google Tools!

http://www.schoolcounselor.com/google/

I show this video during my classroom guidance lessons and it really has an impact among the students (all levels).

Lazybase allows anyone to design, create and share a database of whatever they like.

These tutorials are designed to help students, teachers, and administrators learn how to use Microsoft software in the classroom.

Lately, more people are declaring bankruptcy. No, they’re not financially insolvent. They just can’t keep up with e-mail. They empty their inbox, announce e-mail bankruptcy, and start over from scratch. Don’t let it happen to you. Get a grip on the problem before it is too late.

Google has continued in its zeitgeist tradition with the release of a year-end trend summary. The main page shows a listing for the fastest-growing search terms both in the US and across the world -- the world list includes terms like second life and ebuddy while the US list includes heroes and transformers. (The iPhone is number one on both lists). There's also a list of the fastest-dropping search terms, which includes such nonsurprises as sudoku. Be sure to check out the tabs on the side of the main page so you can check out the most popular newsmakers.

This feature describes the concept of walking 10,000 steps per day (using a pedometer to keep track) to obtain health benefits. "The British Heart Foundation (BHF) says 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) can give you a healthy heart and reduce body fat." It includes quick tips regarding the 10,000-step challenge, statistics on fitness in Britain, and an illustrated description of how a pedometer works. From the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The contest to identify the wacky warning labels as presented on this site aims to "reveal how lawsuits, and fear of lawsuits, have driven the proliferation of common-sense warnings on U.S. products." Features a list of some of the best labels from the first eight contests, and images of labels for recent years. Includes rules for submitted labels to the competition. From Michigan Law Abuse Watch (M-LAW), and organization that opposes frivolous lawsuits.

Excit is the best safe for workspace puzzle game ever. You’re trapped in a spreadsheet and you need to escape the 30 levels using the cursor keys without sliding of the screen. The game mechanic might be familiar from games like Road Blocks and Orbox. So although it is not entirely innovative, we put some effort into polishing the game and we introduced some new, cool game play elements in latter levels. Note that this Version was cropped to fit into the resolution of Kongregate’s window. The levels are sometimes a bit cropped on the left and right edge and the Layout is a bit off. I adjusted the game graphics so you should have no problems because of that.

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