Animoto

I have found a website I really like for creating pictures into video. If you go to www.animoto.com/education, you can create a free account for educators which allows you to make full feature videos. The main reason I like this site is because the music used is free and there are no copyright infringement. Students can select pictures of their choosing and then select pre recorded music from up and coming artitsts. Generally the music is not "cheesy". Average time for me to create a video is 3-5 minutes; when I am finished it is a professional looking media.

Now that our district has SchoolPointe, you can share or embed the video links to your classroom website and be free of creating dvds and such. As a parent, I would appreciate seeing some of my child's work online.

Here is an example of an animoto I created:
http://tinyurl.com/bgisdanimoto

Google for Administrators

Terri Stice and I are conducting a professional development on Google tools for administrators. The group is very talented and intersted in the topic

Professional Development with Cool Teachers

Today we learned about skype, twitter, thinkfinity and more. It was a great group of teachers who certainly love what they do for a living.

SchoolTube - Prezitation at BGHS

SchoolTube - Prezitation at BGHS

Here is a very nice tool students at Bowling Green High School used to present book reviews. Mrs. Duarte shared this tool with Mrs. Hatcher and both teachers and students appeared to like the opportunity to use a new "tool" to share their story. Check it Out!!! Make sure you choose to set up student accounts, which do not post their email addresses or personal information. Here is the direct link to set up for students: http://prezi.com/profile/signup/edu/


www.prezi.com

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter

Click Here to Start the Show Tweet Tweet



There is so much more to http://www.twitter.com/ than what a lot of people think... Educators across the world are now sharing information in blazing fast speeds. Here are ways I use twitter to help me:

1. I can tweet a presentation to a group and they can have access immediately

2. I can become aware of events like: TeachMeetNashville (which was great) which do no advertising whatsover using paper.

3. I can learn about new ideas and strategies for teaching by following "very smart" Tweeters

4. I can catch up on news and world events as they happen.

5. I can share and view pictures of events immediately

6. I can connect with smart people all over the world and United States

7. I DON'T SHARE DUMB THINGS LIKE: "I am standing in line at the grocery store"



My Twitter name is: allenraymartin

Revised Flip Camera Info

I found this on Robert Byrne's Blog site:
http://tinyurl.com/BGISDFlip

Bowling Green City Schools are beginning to utilize the flip cameras in the classroom. They are extremely lightweight and versatile.

Here is a link to create a library for you to store your flip camera videos:
http://tinyurl.com/bgisdflipstorage

The newest flip camera creates videos in mp4v format which is problematic for Windows Movie Maker users. I have created a wiki on how to avoid the conflict in file types, just click here:
http://tinyurl.com/yydluhs


If you want to purchase a camera with your own funds, check out www.digitalwish.com and you can purchase two cameras for one price.

Google Earth

I think Google Earth is one of the most fascinating tools available to teachers today. Most of the students and teachers realize by now that you can type in your address and look at your house using Google Earth; but there is a lot more to the tool. Check out this link to see a short tour of what Google Earth offers: http://tinyurl.com/yc3utbh

One great feature is that once in google earth, you can go into the add new gallery section and tour journeys already created by other users, for instance:
1. View all the major league baseball stadiums
2. View the location of the titanci and see the 3d image (underwater)
3. View the journey of a book, such as "Into The Wild"
4. The opportunities are endless

Check out my sharepoint site for a few ideas: http://tinyurl.com/ybc7gcc

The link below is just a fun site to see what goes on while the googlers create the imagery for Google Earth:
http://mashable.com/2010/03/27/must-see-google-street-view/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29