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    • Flip Video – revisited

    July 11th, 2008 by misterel

    I have now had my flip video for a week and most of that time it has been evaluated by ICT support. The reason for this is that I want to use it for the DiDA 202 course and possibly iMedia. This means that my pupils have to be able to edit the footage. This is where flip video develops some issues.

    At school we will be using Adobe premiere elements across an RM network. The raw video from a flip video is a compressed AVI… hence the reason you can get a reasonably high quality video on 2GB of storage. Adobe will import this format, but then requires you to render the footage first before editing. This means that it can turn a 29MB file into a 100MB file. You also need to have a DivX package rolled out across the network.

    So from a secondary, video editing point of view the flip video suddenly has a few issues. However, I would firstly like to say that these issues do not necessarily out way all the positives:

    Plus, after consultation with ‘ICT support’ they tell me that all cameras of this style are going down similar routes and some are even using file formats that aren’t unique to the camera.  Personally, I am going to get more flip cameras. Discuss with the techies about extra storage (its pretty cheap these days) and compromise on the fact that media back up might not be as rigorous as the rest of the network.

    I would like to add that this is my experience so far, and if anyone has alternative views, feelings etc, then I am more than welcome to receive them.

    Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged , , , , | | 0 Comments

    Flip video… first impressions

    July 4th, 2008 by misterel

    Flip video arrived at school today…First impression, what a great box and great packaging. Maggie in accounts (who had ordered it for me) was as excited as I was.  Got the white one (as you can see in pictures).  Took it out, put the batteries in and recorded some kids playing outside the window. It was that easy.  No manual needed to be read, no fiddling looking for the right button to press. Easy and simple to use.

    I have now taken it home, given it to the kids.  My youngest (age 10) figured it out in seconds and is rather gutted her birthday isn’t til next April. I have tried to persuade them to write their own review…so far no luck.

    Below is a clip of my chickens. (have had to use blip.tv as this seems to be the only way I can embed fileand it was filmed at 9.20pm). It was a tad windy and that is noticeable on the vid.  However, this is so easy to use, easy to download content, either by using the in built software or just accessing your videos via the folders.

    So far I am extremely impressed.  Will be trialling it with the kids at school and will definately be using it for the DiDA coursework.

    There are a lot of other reviews of the flip video out in blog world. A good one is here. It is the second review that Mark has done, this time using his class.  He is getting great results and is my inspiration for it working at my school.

    Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged , , | | 2 Comments

    information overload

    June 30th, 2008 by misterel

    I don’t think I am cut out for blogging.  I follow various educators on twitter and they bombard the network with so many fantastic websites, resources and ideas that I have trouble keeping up… I haven’t dared look at my google reader for fear of information overload.

    I have recently been debating what ASUS to get for school.  The cheaper 701 or the 901.  I have seen both and reckon our kids would easily get on well with the 701.  I also like the fact that it boots up remarkably fast (linux version) and the battery will last for ages (especially if you don’t have the wifi on).

    I have also been studying with interest the development of easy to use hand held camcorders. I especially like the new flip video .  However have had discussions with my techies who think the .mov format means that doing any meaningful editing in adobe premiere elements is difficult.

    Then, there is the great website I found thanks to a tweet on twitter called wordle.  This site allows you to create fantastic word clouds and will even creat them based on rss feeds and delicious tags.  Below is my first wordle created using my delicious tags.

    This may not look like an information overload, but there have also been shed loads of info on moodle, including the latest moodle book and the new games module. Amongst this melee of information, (of which I have forgotten loads or added to stumble or delicious for later), I am also trying to get my head round re-writing SoL (Schemes of Learning) for KS3 and also getting ready for the next academic year, where ICT Coordination is high on the agenda.

    Going to go now, have a new toy to play with. Just got a nike+ sportsband. Now all I need to do is go for a run.

    Posted in Resources | tagged , , , , , | | 1 Comments

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