GoAnimate - Engaging Tool for Creating Videos

I had the pleasure of  presenting with my colleague Dr. Patricia Schall today at the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English Conference which was hosted at the College of St. Elizabeth. It was exciting to be part of this conference since I usually present at special education venues. The keynote speaker Andy Cohen who heads up the Bridge Film Festival at the Brooklyn Friends School shared with us some of the video's that students who participated in the file festival have crafted over the years. It was truly inspiring to listen and to watch the stories unfold on the screen. Andy shared that students used many tools to create the videos and shared one of then called GoAnimate, which he demoed for us. When I saw the ease of use and the potential of GoAnimate I signed up for a free account and gave it a whirl. Even with the free account you are able to create animated videos that are sure to capture your audience's attention.

Using GoAnimate, it is easy to create eLearning assets and engaging materials that can be embedded into your website or blog. If you upgrade your account you get to select more move makers and the ability to upload to YouTube. Having tried GoAnimate I have to say wow! it is extremely easy and intuitive to use. Within minutes I had created my first animated video which was so easy to do. I am definitely going to explore the possibilities of GoAnimate and look to use it in my graduate classes for projects. I was anxious to share GoAnimate with you and so I am embedding a short but unfinished video so you get an idea of what is possible. I hope to complete this one so stay tuned! Enjoy!

Accessible Books by AssistiveTek on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.

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Swivl-The Hands Free Way to Record Video on Your iPhone

I would like to thank the folks at Satarri, Inc for sending me the Swivl to review, which arrived this past week. The Swivl is an innovative product for the iPhone 4, 4S and iPod Touch 4th generation that lets you capture video without the need for a camera-person. The Swivl is comprised of two different units-the Swivl base and the Marker. The Swivl base is a motorized turret that houses your iPhone and allows the base to communicate with the Marker which can follow your movements as you record. Set up was a breeze at the company provided a Quick Start Guide that got you up and running quickly.

To get started I downloaded the free Swivl app to my iPhone 4S, placed the provided batteries (nice touch) into the Swivl base and Marker and then seated the iPhone on the Swivl base and plugged in the connector. I powered up the Swivl base and the Marker, opened the Swivl app and hit the record button to start the video recording. As I moved around the Swivl followed me which made recording a snap. The actuators in the Swivl base are very quiet and barely perceptible. I should note that the Marker in addition to being used as a way to track your movements, includes a high quality digital microphone that is used in the recording process. Once you have finished recording you can quickly upload your video to YouTube directly from the Swivl app which makes this a great tool for bloggers, educators, or anyone that wants to incorporate more video into the work that they do. Having the freedom to move around while doing your videos and not be constrained is really a fantastic feature. The Swivl is easy to use and I know that I will be doing more video blogging with it in the future. So if you find yourself wanting to do more video work and you usually work on your own, this is the perfect gift for you. You can purchase the Swivl on the Swivl website or on Amazon.com.

Below is the video that was captured using the iPhone and Swivl with Medium Video size setting in the Swivl app. The Notes for this video were captured using Quartet Kapture, a digital flip chart capturing tool. For more information about Quartet Kapture click here. Please let me know how you might use Swivl?

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YouTube on Your Blackberry

For those of you with Blackberry phones who need to access YouTube it is very easy to do. Just open your browser and type in m.youtube.com. Now select your favorite YouTube video and watch it come to life on your Blackberry. I had a chance to play some of my screencasts that are on YouTube on my Blackberry Curve and while the picture is small I was impressed with the image and the audio quality. So go ahead and enjoy YouTube on your Blackberry

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MindManager Video's on YouTube

Since January, I have been creating the Tips 'n Tricks Screencasts for the Mindjet Connections Newsletter which has been a great deal of fun. Using Camtasia Studio 5.1 I craft each screencast which are then shared on the Mindjet website. If you have missed any of them I am happy to share with you that Gaelen from Mindjet was kind enough to upload them to YouTube- just in case you missed any. Here are the links:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkd5TDRcQS4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPJgodMCyc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4xDvByhCjU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfYJJo9TA4Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5K1uYDz7jo

So enjoy!

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Inserting a YouTube Video into Your Google Presentation

As I reported it is now possible to embed a YouTube video in your Google Presentation by simply using the Insert Video command and then searching for the video you would like to use. It is best to do your search within YouTube since it will help you to sort out which keywords to use to search for the video you will use. Here is a very simple Google Presentation showing you what a YouTube video looks like when it is embedded in your slide. I embedded a YouTube video that I created showing how you can Hide and Show the Ribbon in MindManager 7. Enjoy!

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Google Apps- New Features

I have been a big fan of Google Apps and with each passing day the suite of applications keeps getting better and better. Today Google added two new features which I thought would be of interested to you. Google Presents just added the ability to add Speaker Notes which is certainly a really nice feature. You can access the feature when editing a slide- simply click on the Speaker icon on the bottom right of the slide.


This will open up a window where you can type your notes. With the release of this upgrade we will now have the ability to embed a YouTube video right within a Google Presentation. I'm sure this is going to be a big feature and one that most users will delighted to have. Enjoy the new features and isn't great that all we have to do to access these features is point our browser to Google Apps.

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