Paperslide Videos! Easy Student-Made Video Content

Kids like videos. They like watching videos. They like making videos. Videos engage students. Teachers like engaged students. Therefore, teachers should like using videos during instruction.

That's a great concept. In the not-so-distant past, using video in the classroom meant either pushing the play button for a 2 hour sit and stare time or planning out the 2 week computer lab lesson where the teacher had to learn advanced skills and live stressed during the whole project.

This morning, Austin teachers participated in Discovery Education's Virtual Conference and heard Dr. Lodge McCammon of the Friday Institute share the simple Paperslide Video concept in an online webinar. The paperslide video is merely the idea that students create graphic representations on paper that slide across the table below a video camera. No faces on screen, no names given, and the whole process can take less than 25 minutes.

Do you know what 'integers' are?  Watch this student-made video and see if you learn anything.

On Dr. Lodge's website, he discusses  the Why and How to differentiate your instruction in the classroom using these quick one-take videos.  He had over 30 free to use songs on Discovery Streaming in many different curriculum disciplines.  All students have to do is apply the lesson content to their one-page graphics and let their Multiple Intelligences engage them in their learning process.

- Video on "How To Make A Paperslide Video"
- Video and printables describing the successful "No Lecture Classroom"

Teachers using classroom technology, like the standard document camera on the Innovation Station, can easily capture student work in a video and in less than a single class period, they can have students create and publish their work online to be shared with peers and parents! Use the document camera creatively to capture students showing understanding of concepts. It WILL pay off in the classroom.

Reducing File Sizes of PDF Files

So, you have a .pdf file that needs to be shared with people at a different location. Sometimes, those graphically-intensive file can be substantially large files.  Sure, we could put the file on a server, share as a Google Docs upload, or upload to a wiki so others can download it.  Emailing, however, just isn’t a good alternative for large pdf files or any large file for that matter.

One possibly helpful tool is a web-based pdf file compressor.  Neevia.com has a very easy to use website that lets anyone upload a file and receive it right back with the file size reduced. http://convert.neevia.com/pdfcompress/

Trying this out several times with 5M pdf files gave different results. One particular 1-page document was reduced 92% shaving almost 4M off the file size.  Another attempt only shaved 14% off of a 32 page pdf at the maximum compression setting.

The nice thing about this site is that it lets you try different compression settings before actually downloading the file.

There are various other downloadable apps that one can install and use to compress pdf file sizes.  (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ways-reduce-size-pdf-file/) Using a web-based alternative works well regardless of the computer platform or browser you are using.  Just try to use a fast network if your original pdf is a very large file.

Making a Slideshow Using The Innovation Station

Today's topic is demonstrating the capture of images using the Innovation Station's document camera. These pictures can be used in many ways, such as making a slideshow of book pages that can be viewed for multiple class sessions during the week.



What to do with the captured images?  How would YOU use the pictures? Our next post will share some of your ideas as well as give some concrete steps for incorporating captured images into your instructional time with students.  Stay tuned!! 

This video was made using an iPod Touch to capture the video, a Canon Elph to capture buttons on the doc cam during the two-camera shoot, and iMovie '11 to put both camera feeds together. The black bars on the side exist because of the very narrow video captured by the iPod Touch. 

Easy Geometry Practice Using Spreadsheets

There are many ways to use manipulatives to teach geometry concepts in the classroom. The Innovation Station makes sharing these so much easier. Projecting a close-up image of a student made shape helps all students in the classroom analyze the shape to see if it meets the project criteria.

Capturing the images using the document camera will allow the teacher to use student-made geometric examples for classroom projects or visual examples that teachers could use during lesson assessments.

Texas technology assessments include assessing students on their ability to use spreadsheets. Some of those skills include formatting text, changing row and column sizes, and drawing borders. In an amazing coincidence, we can use those same tools to create 2D geometric shapes that can be printed and cut out to build 3D shapes. Spreadsheets can help students visualize the measurement of perimeter, area, and volume while also practicing technology skills at the same time.

Download this Excel document is a two-page sample that teachers can use to develop their technology-friendly geometry lesson. Lesson scaffolding ideas are included for elementary through high school students. Edit the file and make it your own!
http://austinit.pbworks.com/f/geometry+spreadsheets.xls

Spreadsheets can be a valuable tool for teaching geometry concepts and the Innovation Station can help share their small examples much more easily.

Does My Projector Need A Dentist?

Your projector doesn't need a dentist, but some do need regular cleaning. Those classrooms with Epson projectors will need to remember to get the filter cleaned.  (The 3M projectors are DLP which means they do not have filters.)

What does the filter do? It keeps some dust particles out of the inside as the machine draws in air to cool the mechanics.  Unfortunately, as the filter gets more clogged, less cooling air comes in and the machine will more quickly overheat or burn out the bulb prematurely.

Remember, dead bulbs are the consumable cost of the campus. Help them live longer by keeping the filters clean!  The official Epson directions for cleaning a filter can be found here.

Otherwise, one can carefully locate the filter, remove it, clean it, and replace it with minimal techno-skill. 

This filter is very clogged.  When you see it, think "running a marathon breathing through a straw!"  It really needs to be cleaned.

This filter was cleaned. One can carefully tap the large excess dust chunks off or use a small vacuum to pull out the dirt, but pouring water slowly though it will wash the dust out of the filter. Air dry if possible or carefully pad the filter with soft absorbent cloth to get the water out.




Keeping your filter clean means checking it every 2-3 months. Don't let it get bad enough to kill the projector.

Quick Classroom-made Videos!

So you are getting used to using a document camera during your instruction.  Are you taking advantage of the video capture capabilities? The AISD Innovation Station's document camera will capture video onto the SD memory card that came with it. Many other brands of document cameras will also capture video.  Try capturing project directions on video and putting it out there for the students to review on the school shared network or your online classroom website.

But can the students also use the video capture?  Sure they can!  We have middle school Language Arts teachers capturing student book report presentations on video. We have student math demonstrations in high school being captured as a group reteach resource. I've been in discussions with elementary teachers about using captured video clips in a student's digital portfolio that travels with him from grade to grade.

Dr. Lodge McCammon, demonstrates how 'paper slide videos' are easily made in the classroom. These are videos with a mounted camera, like the doc cam, and students create their visuals on separate pieces of paper. Sometimes the content is student-created graphics that illustrate an educational song (many cool tunes available on DiscoveryEducation.com that cover high school-level economics through elementary science) or videos like the example here which is a simple voice-over with graphics.




Don't be afraid to try something new or different.  Remember, our digital natives are often looking for reasons to come to school in the first place. With an already-made audio, your doc cam or digital video camera, and warm student body, a teacher can spend half a class period making a video that could stick in their heads the rest of the week. (Believe me. I still have the sublimate song stuck from 3 weeks ago!)

Installing Software on AISD PC Computers

In the past, teachers often met a brick wall when they had some software they wanted to install or just wanted to some district-licensed software on all of their computers. This year, some fantastic changes have been made that empower our teachers to install software without any special passwords or permissions, outside of their own.

Sonia Conrad is doing great things with network installs here in Austin ISD. The process has been outlined in a short video by Marc Thrall. You can view the video at http://tinyurl.com/networkinstall .


The basic process to install software on your district PC computers is to:

1. Open the Control Panels
2. Open Programs and Features
3. Click on 'Install Programs from the Network
4. Click on the program you wish to install and follow onscreen prompts.

On of the great things about this process is that even students can do this with their login on a district computer.  If you go to the lab to do a Comic Life lesson and find that a computer doesn't have it, have the student follow the directions above to install the software right then.

Thanks to Sonia and her group for providing such a wonderful tool that benefits all teachers!