Screen and Video Capture

I can foresee a great disturbance in the near future.  Our district is going to update all of the computers to Windows 7.  What is wrong with this?!  Nothing!  But there are many people that have yet to use this version and when they open Word or PowerPoint they are going to freak out and be very overwhelmed.  Not because the software does so many more amazing things than it ever did.  It is because it looks so very different than it ever has.  Especially as we are still working in 2003 software and have totally bypassed Vista.

So with the impending doom of the freak out I began to think about how I could soften the blow to the faculty that would be overwhelmed.  I could schedule a training session but that time is very precious and they would get very little out of it.  So I began to think about what I do when I get stuck on something.  I usually google my issue and end up watching a youtube video of how to fix my problem.  BINGO!  I just need to make some "How to...." videos and upload them.

I found free Video Screen Capture software that even includes audio and converts it to flash for easy upload to youtube, if you so desire.  It is called CamStudio and is easy to download and easy to use.  I downloaded it about 15 minutes ago and already made a video on how to convert MP3 files to WAV files using Itunes.  I already have my handy dandy headset hooked to my computer for gaming.  Why not use it for something even more useful?

I really like that it does not have a time or file size limit for your video.  Most of the free capture software out there does have that limitation.  I love the ease of use as well.  I am totally excited to get started on my new adventure of making my videos!

Here is the link to go download this yourself!
http://camstudio.org/

Ethics....

I have been teaching my classes all week about ethics and computer use.  I know it seems like a big topic and that they may have a hard time understanding what this topic is....but trust me, they get it.  When I discuss ethics and computer use I talk about bullying online, posting things online that are either not true or just hurtful, about logging  in as someone else and getting into their personal files, stealing music and programs by downloading them from file sharing sites, stealing other people's intellectual property (taking copyrighted material or even just someone's ideas that do not belong to them), and just all around bad behavior that is not acceptable.  It is a hard area to cover at times because of the sensitive nature of some of these topics.  I do it by using real life examples and make them think about how they would feel if "the shoe were on the other foot".  It is easy to drown out boring lecture with the exciting plans you have going on in your head for after school, but if you include them in on the discussion and in the scenarios, they tend to pay more attention and give more thoughtful answers on how they would feel, or how their friend might feel in that situation.

I have had people tell me that they don't teach about things like this because they feel it is the job of the parent to make sure their child behaves ethically.  I would agree with this...to a point.  We need to make sure that they hear over and over about how we should be treating our fellow human beings.  We need to make sure they understand what a huge impact words (spoken or written) can have on a single person's life and view of themselves.  Bullying is a HUGE issue and children need to think about their actions and how they can change a person forever.  

I love technology.  I can do some scary things with a computer.....if I want to.  What keeps me from doing things I shouldn't?  It goes back to my Grandmother teaching me right from wrong, my teachers reminding me of what is right and wrong, and through that,  my own sense of ethics were formed and keep me from treating my fellow humans like garbage online and off.  I remind the children that it is too easy to sit in your house in front of a machine and type horrible things about a person, but would they say those same horrible things to that person if they were face to face with them?  It takes two seconds to stop and think about your actions before you post that nasty message on Facebook for everyone to see.  It also only takes two seconds to completely tear someone's life apart for all to see.  We read about these things in the paper and see these stories on the news.  I know it sounds like fantasy.....but I just wish that people would wake up and look at each other and remember that we are all feeling people with needs and faults.  The power that words have on people just astounds me more and more every day.  

So what does that have to do with education and technology?  I find more and more that we need to include these topics in our curriculum.  I have students who have great potential to do harm if not guided to treat each other with respect, or at the very least, doing nothing.  There are many sites out there that cover how to talk to students about being bullies, about using the computer for harmful things, about stealing and downloading, and how to protect yourself online.  Those things are great, but I still think that you need to use examples that they can relate to.  I know that the post here today is a bit different than what I usually put out, but I just felt the need this week to talk about how important it is that WE ALL make sure that our children learn about how to use technology for good and make sure they understand fully the consequences of going against our teaching.

Right Click Disabled....Grrrrr!

It has been forever since I last posted!  I have been swamped with projects left and right from work and just have not been able to find the time (or effort) to come here and post.  I feel bad in saying that last line because I am still very excited about sharing technology information with you to help you meet your tech needs in your lessons and classroom.  I hope you can cut me some slack because of my huge work load.  My friends that work with me know just how swamped I have been.  Don't get me wrong either....I love doing tech projects!  It is in my blood.  But deadlines must come before the blog...followed closely by spending time with my children and getting some sleep...LOL!

You may have noticed that I added a little something to my blog.  In the upper left hand side you will see that it says Right Click Disabled.  Many people get angry when people disable the right click feature on their webpages.  I understand why people do it though.  When you are on a web page that is not protected, right clicking will allow you to copy, save, or print something that is on a web page.  People who want to share their photos, artwork, or anything else but do not want people to take it and use it for their own purposes will make sure to protect their page by disabling that right click option.  That is not why I did it.  I have all of these links on my pages for student and teacher use that I want them to go and check out and use.  Almost every time I walk into my lab the past few weeks I find papers in the printer where a student has right clicked on my blog page and has hit print.  I don't think they are doing it on purpose.  I think they are in a hurry and are clicking that right mouse button on accident and when it brings up that menu they just left click to get rid of it, which will then print the page.  I do not like that there is not a confirmation box that makes sure you really want to print, so I had to find a way to keep this from happening as it is just a waste of paper and ink.

Of course, I went out to my favorite search engine Google and put in the search box about how to disable right click on blogspot.  I found a whole bunch of posts about how you shouldn't do that because it makes users angry because they feel limited.  While I totally understand that view point, I still had to wrestle with the printing issue, and the printing won out over anyone being irritated at me for blocking them from using that right click.  I am sure that I am not the only person out there that has struggled with this issue.  I will send you anything you want or need from my blog in an email if you want something.  I just needed a way to block student printing, or rather, the too easy way of printing.

So how did I do it?  Bwahh haa haaa... (horrible evil laugh, I know....) I used my evil genius brain and wove special traps and snares to keep you all out!  Not really.  I just added a "gadget" to this blog: HTML/JavaScript and copied and pasted a script in that someone else wrote.  I did go in and add my own little message that pops up and lets you know that right clicking has been disabled, and I even said why because I felt so guilty about blocking it after reading all of those posts online about why you should NEVER do this to your followers.  So I do feel badly that I have resorted to this, but the other side of me feels good because I am just trying to save a few trees.  I am totally open to suggestions on how to stop them from being able to right click and print if anyone has any special code to just block the printing and not the copy part.  Feel free to shower me with any advice or code that would help.

Now I just have to go through all of the computers and remove that pesky print icon off of the browser because in all of their fast, mad clicking that they do they still find a way to click on that silly icon and....PRINT my blog.  However, the printing of the blog has come down considerably, so I know that disabling that right click was a good decision.

Again, this had nothing to do with my trust in my fellow teachers or followers.  I know that we teachers are always "borrowing" information and cool pictures to help teach our students.  We are scavengers and proud of it.  If we are not given all of the tools we need to get an idea through to our students, well we will just go that extra mile and find what we need.  Sorry about that to all of the people who we have "borrowed" from!