home

= The 'Enhancing Learning Through ICT' Project = Independent Schools Victoria, 18th - 20th May 2011

The aim of this course is to enable teachers of Middle Years students to explore innovative ways of integrating ICT into the curriculum.

In the first session we:
We were informed of the outcomes of the course which involves teachers immersing themselves in a self-directed learning process to develop their own ICT skills. This is an ideal way for teachers to experience and model this type of learning for students in their classes. With this in mind, the ELICT program is structured around a small number of mandatory, whole group sessions, but mainly proposes break-out sessions in which teachers self-select an ICT tool for investigation and, with guidance, explore its functionalities and applications for teaching and learning.

We also reflected upon our own use of ICT skills, using a rubric modelled on the ePotential scaffold and lookd at some critical media literacies for the project.

In the second session we played with:
Is a free, easy-to-use and [|multilingual] audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/; Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/; and Freecorder: http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/ -
 * Record live audio.
 * Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
 * Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
 * Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
 * Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
 * And more! See the complete [|list of features].

=Freecorder= Is a tool for recording a video from the internet and converting it to a usable format (beware of copyright! Dont advise your students to use this to publish movies anywhere), with the aim of creating a podcast that we could upload to iTunes.makes it easy to save video and audio from the web, and convert to many popular formats. Once Freecorder 4 is installed, just use the following buttons in your browser. > > >
 * [[image:http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/screenshots4/youtube_dnldr.png width="51" height="20"]]**YouTube Downloader Tool:** Save the video you are watching from YouTube and other sites. [|//More...//]
 * **[[image:http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/screenshots4/video_history.gif width="20" height="20"]] Video History Tool:** Save recently viewed videos on your PC's hard drive. //[|More...]//
 * **[[image:http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/screenshots4/record_audio.gif width="20" height="20"]] Record Audio/MP3 Tool:** Record any sound you can hear from your PC's speakers. //[|More...]//
 * **[[image:http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/screenshots4/convert.gif width="20" height="20"]] Convert Tool:** An easy to use file format converter for video and audio

=Sothink Web Video Downloader for Firefox free:= Is a simple and free Firefox video downloader extension, is one of the most popular free Youtube downloader for you to quickly capture video, download video and save video from YouTube, Facebook, MSN, MySpace, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Viemo, Revver and almost all popular video sites.

You can use this free video/media downloader download embedded Flash videos, HD videos and direct Flash video content in different formats including YouTube FLV, AVI, WMV, MP4, MPG, 3GP, MOV, MKV, RM, RMVB, ASF, and more. It also lets you download Flash SWF files like Flash games, Flash cards and presentation from Internet at the same time. **For Windows and Mac**

Is a great web tool for chopping out bits/editing YouTube videos. It allows you to easily chop a //funny// or //interesting section// from any YouTube video and share it. You dont need to download the application - follow the simple onscreen directions.

This tool extracts the sound file from a YouTube video. This enables you to download the audio from non-copyrighted video clips on video sites! It supports sites such as: MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo, Google video and many more. Remember to bookmark the page for easy access.You dont need to download the application - follow the simple onscreen directions.




 * Take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor.
 * Share it instantly via web, email, IM, Twitter or your blog.
 * Simple and free, Jing is the perfect way to enhance your fast-paced online conversations.

Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your notable life using your computer, phone, and the web. Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe. Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks. Download it here

In the third session we worked on our own self-directed project:
I chose to create a podcast from one of my Year 8 Humanities mp4 'Weather' videos. I plan to attempt to create an mp3 audio podcast and a vodcast (video podcast). The software I will use includes: 1. ImTOO Video Converter Standard 6 to try to convert the large (99 Mb) Quicktime HD mp4 video file to something that can be ctreamed on the web as a vodcast. I tried converting it to a You Tube H.264.mp4 format first and they didnt actually reduce in file size!

=DAY 2=

SCOOTLE
Teachers need to register with Scootle. The school rep (Michelle) can email you a registration link. Students access Scootle via a learning path you give them and a corresponding PIN number you give them. Students give themselves an Avatar but should use their own name.

Teachers:
 * 1. Log in
 * 2. Click on the Software Analyser link. This will identify what is needed to run all of the Scootle resources using their particular laptop/PC. This will avoid system and application conflicts. They use the generated list to download any missing/suggested applications prior to working with Scootle.

Scootle is technically supported and allows users to send forms reporting difficulties loading resources.

There are a number of ways to search:
 * Via maps to find resources on specific locations
 * Via Word search
 * Via alphabetical list

When you find an existing resource, you can save it to a Learning Pathway folder that you initially create under the Learning pathways menu. eg Ancient Egypt

When you open the saved pathway, you can edit the description, add comments for your students (ie instructions) and add more learning pathway objects to create a unit of work.

You can share the Learning pathway with students via the PIN listed on the pathway. They login via the pin and can only access their class learning pathway. There are lots of options to share/email/save the unit of work.

SNAPPY Download Snappy from the Scootle website. You need to install Adobe AIR first (free from the web): []

Use 'Snappy' to create an interactive presentation. Create a new folder on your computer. put the application and all imaeg file (jpgs) and audio files (mp3) in it that you wish to use
 * Download Snappy
 * Add your own digital photos, audio files and text.
 * Choose a layout and style for each page.
 * Add a caption to each photo.
 * Your presentation will be saved while you are working.
 * Once you have created a presentation, you can view it in an internet browser, or print it to share with others.