Time Lapse Holiday Cheer

Well I finally got it to work. My time lapse video works! Windows Movie Maker was painful to work with - but it did work. I shouldn't complain about a free tool - but I am going to. My computer crashed three times while trying to make the movie. Converting the photos into a video in the program was actually quite easy (read about how to do it here). Title and credits were easy to add. However I almost gave up when I tried to save the video. I could save the project quite easily but had problems trying to save it in a format that could be played in any other player. Turns out that I am not alone in having this problem. I think that the problem was that my computer did not have enough memory. I finally got it to work by lowering the output video quality. Thanks to the people who gave me any help getting Windows Movie Maker to work.

I took the pictures with a little Logitech webcamera that my school division bought for me. It did not handle the low light in my living room very well (as you can see). I think that it would work fine in a brighter room. I used the Microsoft Powertoys program Webcam Timershot to take a picture every two seconds. This guide pointed me to the tools I needed. It also showed some other methods that also looked good (both Mac and PC). Next time I try this I will use another camera - maybe a hacked Cannon camera like in this post.

I guess that I should also point to Dean Shareski's post Supper's Ready in 80 Seconds that originally gave me the idea.

My next step is to try to recreate this video (using the same pictures) on a Mac in iMovie. I will let you know how the process compared to Windows.

Skittles and Bits (Again)

Another day, another tech meeting, another head full of ideas. Today we talked about digital citizenship - what is it, what does it look like ("What does it smell like when it goes wrong" - Terrel Hill), and how to teach it.

True to some of the new pedagogical teachings it was not a stand a deliver day - it was collaborative. 25 people working together on one Google Document. We all edited it at the same time (that was an fascinating exercise). I liike that tool.

My thoughts - we all think along similar lines - at least when it comes to education. No running in the halls. When a bunch of teachers get together to create a policy we first think about what behaviors to ban/limit/control. Our Digital Citizinship curricum started out looking like that. (I am not innocent in that regard.) It didn't stay that way - we moved onto more constructive thoughts.

All in all, another great day.

Computer Science Taught through Games

Play Games at AddictingGames

Here is a cute little game that helps teach programming. I think that it does a great job of teaching functions. My students picked up the idea right quick.

In case the embedded game does not work here is the link.

The Laptops are Coming, The Laptops are Coming!!!

I feel a little bit like Chicken Little. This just arrived.

Now we have not been told anything about the laptop lab yet but the big bulky cart is a good sign. It is all sorts of rolling power bar happiness.

One problem - it is a great, awesome, amazing, and practical solution - for another school. Here is our problem.

And here is the rest of our problem. All of our highschool classrooms are not accessable by the rolling lump of laptop happiness.

I am not sure what to do about it. We need to find a solution that works with stairs. I am going to email the head of our tech support and see what we can do. (I am going to try the collaborative approach.) I would like some sort of tub that we can carry up the stairs with one person. Anybody have any suggestions?

Concentration and Video Games

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/21/magazine/1194833565213/immersion.html

Watch that video. Then watch your kids playing video games. Then tell me how it compares. (My son just turned 2 so he isn't into video games yet - I am living vicariously through you other parents.)

To tell the truth the video doesn't really surprise me a lot. Just watch other people when they are concentrating on driving - we tend to focus like that too (at least we had better).

Do schools today kill creativity? (Ken Robinson, TEDTalks)

An intern and one of the other (non-teacher) staff member shared this video with me today. Who would have guessed! Bah - these ideas get in the way of the system.

Warm and Fuzzy Sharing

Well, I finally got around to it. This blog is officially licensced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. I mean that I had always operated under that kind of sharing philosophy but I guess that I never told anyone else. Okay - for the record - I am sharing.

Oh, and since I haven't made any money off of this blog please don't show me up by finding a way (unless you ask nicely).