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This is a re-post of information I've collected in an educational Wiki for my CURR. English Course at Queen. It's intent is to aid teachers who are trying to successfully utilize technology, or to produce A/V material for the classroom.I'll periodically update this post as I encounter new and useful topics
Topics so far:
-Freeware Web Gallery Generator (turns folder of images into an HTML gallery) (UPDATED Feb. 2/09)
-Online File Converter (ex: Powerpoint .pptx to regular .ppt) (UPDATED Jan. 21 /09)
-Website Copier - Allows Offline Web Page browsing (UPDATED Dec. 8 /08)
-How to use, find, and mange Torrents
-How to Burn a .AVI movie (optionally with Subtitles) to a 4.7GB DVD-R
-How to find Subtitle files (.srt) for .avi movies, and Merge 2. srt files into one (UPDATED Dec. 15 /08)
-What Codecs you Need to View most video files
-How to Edit audio files or record sound
-How to Read/Write .doc and .pdf files without MS Office
-How to Use Gmail to save online research
-A Brief Primer on Video Formats
-How to Play Almost any Video or Audio file on your computer
-How to Convert between almost any audio or video format
( Click Here to Continue ) Note: All references and links to programs are recommended on the basis that they're a.) free to download and use and b.) that they've worked for me in the past. That being said, I can't be held responsible for what any particular piece of software can/could do to your computer. They've worked well for me, but use at your own discretion and risk.
Useful How To's, Programs and Website Links by Blayne
Freeware Web Gallery Generator - Creates a clickable Internet Pic Gallery!
Recently, I needed to share some photos with my family, but didn't want to resort to Facebook. I found an amazing FREE online Web Gallery Generator program for Windows:
"LightBox JS Web Gallery Generator" is a very tiny program you download from this site: http://pranas.net/WebGalleryCreator/
-After you download it, open the program, and point the program at a folder of pictures you've organized. Make sure the files are named the way you want each to appear in your gallery.
-Make sure you specify what the image size is you want the pictures to be when people click on them. I find that for most 4x6 type images 400x270 is good for small pictures. Leave it as the defaults if you want really high resolution images to pop up.
-This is great if your class needs to create a web gallery related to a class project. It's easy, and all it requires is a website to Upload the generated files to. The program makes a few folders by default called "library", "photos", "thumbs", "lightbox", and "default.htm" (the gallery's webpage file). Upload all of those to an FTP server (like Geocities, or another free webpage hosting service) - and off you go!
Also: This gallery can run without the internet: Just copy the contents of "My Web Galleries" (contains all those folder I mentioned) to a USB drive, and open the "default.htm" using Internet Explorer, or Firefox (or any internet browser). It's a great way to showcase a persons work, or an interesting alternative to Powerpoint is you're just showing a variety of images.
-Check out this example of what a gallery looks like after this program creates it. Very smooth and professional looking!
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Online File Converter - Allows you to convert file types your computer can't read
A classmate recently sent me a .pptx Powerpoint presentation file. Since I use "OpenOffice", I'm in the same boat as those who use older version of Microsoft Powerpoint: We can't read .pptx files. They're somehow different. I found this website to help solve that problem:
http://www.zamzar.com/
On the website, select the file format your computer can't read, then using the pull-down menu bar, select one that you can. Enter your email address, and it emails you a download link to the converted file.
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Website Copier - Allows Offline Web Page Browsing
I've found an excellent program called "HTTrack Website Copier". It's a FREE program that lets you download an entire website (everything that's linked from a particular web page) to your hard drive.
This is very useful if you need to present a website to a classroom in an area that is without internet access.
Simply point the program at the URL you want (ex: http://www.boingboing.net) and set it to download.
All related images, HTML files, etc. will be downloaded into a single folder. I wouldn't recommend pointing it at any large, file heavy websites (Youtube, Google, etc.) - but it's VERY useful to saving a particular History or English website.
After the program finishes downloading all the necessary file, open the index.htm (or index.html) file later with a web browser to view your webpage. You can also burn this folder of website materials to a CD or DVD (or just copy it to a USB jump drive) to bring elsewhere.
http://httrack.com/page/1/en/index.html
HTTrack is available in both Windows and Macintosh OSX compatible versions.
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Need to Download a Torrent File?
The internet's world wire P2P (Limewire, Gnutella Networks) and Torrent networks are rich (although legally dodgy) resources for teachers looking for rare video, audio or digital (scanned) text resources. What program can I use to download a torrent? There are a few, but the most useful Windows (Win 98/Xp/Vista) Bittorrent client is Azerus(Vuze) - (The logo is a blue frog). It's a free, open source, javascript based Torrent client, and is very straightforward to use:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
If you are using Mac OSX, I'd recommend the self-titled program "Bittorrent":
http://www.bittorrent.com/ What is a Torrent? When you find and download a ".torrent"-type file, you'll notice it's very small and downloads very quick. This isn't the ACTUAL file(s), it's just a link the tracker that keeps tabs on where all the parts of that file are. After the file downloads, double click on it to open it. the .torrent file is reconized by your Torrent Client program (ex: Azureus). Torrents have no centralized download server. Instead, they're made available by online good samaratins who "seed" or host the entire file, or parts of it for other people to download. This occurs often when people will "seed" their favorite movies, albums, etc. because they want to make it available to others to download from them. People who seed are called "Peers". When you download a file, you're "leeching". Your download client (ex: Azureus) uploads ("seeds") while you're download ("leeching"). Once you've finished downloading a file, you become a "Peer", and become one of the many people hosting a file for other people to download. Once your file finishes download, it's expected you're expected to host it for a few days or weeks before removing it from the Torrent programs list. However, how long you let it "seed" for before copying the finished file to a CD/DVD (or deleting it) is totally up to you. Where can I find a torrent for (insert topic here)? If you can't locate a particular resource for your classroom at the local video rental store or library, there are two primary "trackers" of torrents I'd recommend: The Pirate Bay: http://www.thepiratebay.org Mininova: http://www.mininova.org Both of these torrent sites actually host the .torrent files, and keep track of where all the various Peers are who have the file available. If you do a Google search for "insert topic here" + "torrent", you can find more results, but MANY torrent trackers actually track OTHER trackers, and will just refer you to the Pirate Bay (TPB) or Mininova.org anyway. It's easier (and more reliable) just to go to these in the first place. When you search for a .torrent file, you'll see something that resembes a search box. Type in what you're looking for, in this case I used "Hamlet" as an example: ex: a typical result for a torrent search In this case, we can see: 1.) the category this is hosted in, 2.) the name of the file (you can click on it to get a detailed description of it), 3.) when it was uploaded (older files tend to have less Seeds 4.) Size (and easy way to tell if a file is large is if they have it listed as MB or GB, not KiB. For reference: 1.4MB is the max size of an old style floppy disk. 650MB -> 700MB is the size of a regular CD-R disc. 4.7BG is the size of a regular DVD-R disc. 5.) SE: Lists the Number of FULL versions of these file(s) are available. If there's at least one, you can get a whole copy of it. If theres 0 listed, don't bother with that torrent, and find another similar one with more Seeds. 6.) LE: lists the number of "Leeches" - people who are downloading a file. (If a file has way more Leeches than it does Seeds, download speed will be VERY slow) Here's a better example from a Pirate Bay search if you trying to find the Hamlet 1948 Film: This file is a much better choice to download: It's Seed ratio (17) is greater than the number of people currently downloading it (6). Click the Name of the result you want, and see a detailed description (written by whoever originally hosted the file) and a link to download the .torrent file. Are Torrents Legal to Download? Generally speaking: No. However, there are Legitimate torrents out there hosted by the people who made them. This is common with music artists or filmmakers who use torrents to distribute their work.
By hosting or downloading a commerically created file (like a DVD Rip), it's like downloading an MP3 - the classic argument that you're 'stealing' the intellectual property of someone else when downloading is well known. Weather you agree with it or not is your choice - just keep this in mind when finding torrents.
Concerned about being tracked/legally charged for downloading torrents? If you're paranoid about your Internet Service Providor (ISP) [ex: Bell Sympatico, Rogers, Cogeco, etc.] monitoring or tracking what you're downloading with Azureus (and contacting the RIAA, etc.) it's recommened you install an IP Blocker. I'd recommend "SafePeer", a free plugin for Azureus: http://sourceforge.net/projects/safepeer/ "SafePeer allows you to retrieve IP ranges to which some other software should not connect to. The main purpose of SafePeer is to be a plugin for Azureus, importing IP ranges retrieved from some sources to the IpFilter" This provides some anonimity for the torrent-downloading/sharing user, but is not 100%. Keep this in mind if you decide to utilize torrents.
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Need to burn a .AVI or other computer video file to a DVD-R disc? Sometimes a movie or video file is so hard to locate at a local rental store, it's far easier to just to download it from Limewire or one of the many online torrent tracker sites (thepiratebay.org or mininova.org are two reliable ones). However, here's a really fast/basic way of burning those video files to a DVD-R Video Disc (so they can play on an A/V unit's DVD player in you classroom): I've uploaded the full version of a very basic program called "DVD Santa" here: http://blayne.dark-ware.org/resources/dvdsanta_installer.zip After you install this Windows program,the first button on the menu's left side allows you to take a video file (.avi, etc.) you've downloaded and burn it as a DVD-Video disc on a DVD-R disc. (Although there's a button in the menu of that program that says "buy full version online", ignore it. This is the full version of the program.) * * *
Where can I find Subtitles for my favorite .avi formatted movie or TV show?
For primarily English Subtitles (great if you need to accomodate for a hearing impared student in your classroom when burning a Movie) do a search at:
http://www.subtitlesource.org/
If you're looking for Subtitles in different languages, a quick GOOGLE search using the movie files full name (ex: Terminator 2 Judgement Day Special Edition.avi) plus the word "subtitle" or "sub", along with your preference of language.
Failing that, try searching this site for multi-lingual subtitles for movies and tv shows:
http://subscene.com/
Because different people who encode movie files online (or if you've done it yourself) start the film at different places (ex: some start it after the Studio logos, some before) - your subtitles time codes can be drastically different.
Make sure the subtitle file you download is the right one for your Movie File!
Before adding the subtitle you found with "DVDSanta" or another similar program, CHECK which subtitle file (ex: MovieNameHere_whoReleasedIt_OtherInfo.srt) you should download and include on your DVD (or imprinted in the video of your DVD).
You can do this by comparing the time codes for when dialogue text is cued to be spoken in BOTH your movie file AND when in your Subtitle file.
Look at the time code in your subtitle file (usually looks like "00:00:00:001". This breaks down as Hours:Min:Seconds:Miliseconds, and has the dialogue that goes along with it underneath. Each one is also numbered.
Time codes in a .srt file are for dialogue. Look at these by opening your .srt file in Wordpad, or another basic text editor. Open your movie in the background.
Jump to a section in the middle of your movie (ex: 00:55:01 in Windows Media Player, or another video player program) and hit PLAY. Now locate a similar time code in your subtitle (.srt) file. Compare the timing of the speech to when each bit of text is scheduled to pop up in your .srt file.
If the timing looks drastically off, try to find a different Subtitle (.srt) file online. Sometimes "Special Editions" or "Directors Cuts" can cause a subtitle file not to line up. Try and find the right subtitle for your movie's verison.
Help! I've found subtitles for my movie, but the movie file is in 1 piece, and the subtitles are split into 2 small pieces!
I ran into this problem, and found a great solution online. If you find your film's Subtitles, but they're split into two files (ex: MovieNameHere_CD1.srt and MovieNameHere_CD2.srt), visit this website:
http://submerge.delarue-berlin.de/
Make sure you have your split Subtitle (.srt) files downloaded onto to your computer. Visit this website, and follow the brief instructions. It will generate and save a new, combined subtitle file for you to add to your movie when you burn it.
Before you try burning any video files to DVD: Install a codec pack. Codecs (ex: DIVX, MPEG-2, etc) are essentially different ways a digital movie file can be so small. If you don't have the right one installed, it can slow down or even prevent a video file from being read or copied. I've found an easy solution to making sure your windows computer has all the codecs you'd ever need: The Combined Community Codec Pack: http://www.cccp-project.net/ Choose the download link for the ``Windows Vista/XP/2K`` version. Once that's installed, you shouldn't ever have a problem playing back or burning any video files you may find. Need to edit a music or sound file? Get the free, "open source" Windows/Mac OSX program called "Audacity". It works well for splicing/editing out swear words in music files, or editing a recorded speech / making Podcasts, etc.: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is also useful for having students record themselves speaking a story if you're using this for ELL / ESL applications.
Even as a teacher, it's useful to record yourself speaking (perhaps when you're practicing a small lecture) to hear objectively how you sound to others. In this way, audio recording can be used as a tool for self reflection and development.
I've recorded my voice in this program using a computer microphone, but what's a .WAVE file?
When you save a file from an audio recorder program (ex: Audacity) it will be in a .WAV format.
A .wav is an uncompressed sound file, and as a result it will take up MUCH more space on your Hard Drive than an .mp3 of a similar length.
To make this file usable, burn it to an Audio CD using iTunes or a similar program OR use SUPER Video Converter to convert it from a .wav to a .MP3.
For audio formats, .mp3 is the most common The lesser known ".ogg " music file type has better sound quality, and lower file size. However, very few mp3 players and external devices (ex: iPods) can play it, so I would avoid it.
.AAC is Apple's audio format. It is like MP3, but can contain propritary restrictions on how many time that file can be burned to CD, etc. Generally, it's good to avoid this kind of file type. If you have music files in this format, use Apple's program "iTunes" to burn it to a Audio CD, then Rip that CD into a .MP3 Format. .AAC files are usually found on the iTunes online music store.
* * * OPEN OFFICE: Read/Write .doc files and saves to .pdf for free! Open Office is a freeware suite of programs developed by the internet community (an"open source" project). It is modeled on the same format as Microsoft Office - It has a Word compenent ("Writer"), a Powerpoint compenent ("Impress"), etc. All the programs can save in Microsoft format, and be read by any version of Microsoft office. (ex: Open Office's "Writers" program looks like MS office, and can save in .doc format) It's awesome, updates are automatic and free - and I've never had it crash -- unlike MS Word. This is a great suite of programs to use as a teacher - and it doesn't matter what kind of computer you use. It's available for download for Windows and Mac OSX. This is also an excellent package to recommend to your students who might not have access to a good writing program. Many people make due with Wordpad, or a program that came packaged with their computer (ex: Corel Office) - and later on have alot of trouble having their essay file read at school, or by the teacher's programs. This was, everyone's using the same widley understood format - and it's FREE! Visit the main site for a free download. This program is available for Windows, Mac OSX and even for Linux computers: http://www.openoffice.org/ * * * Use Gmail or another online e-mail service to save research http://gmail.google.com Recommend that your students should use online email if they need to quickly save text or websites they find. Gmail is a particularly good option, as it has an "Auto Save" feature that automatically saves a "draft" of whatever is typed into an email message body every few min. This protects against accidental closing of a window, or crashing of your web browser. Recommend students compose a new email message, and address the "TO" field to their own email address. List the subject as what they're researching. In the message body, have them copy/paste links, text they find useful, or little notes to themselves on research. Periodically, have them send the message (which will appear in their inbox) and begin a new one. Gmail offers the user an easily searchable inbox - so you can keyword search among all your self-addressed email messages easily for the information you need. * * * A brief primer on video formats (because this stuff is confusing!) Most people are familiar with video and music files you can download from the internet. What most people don't know are the differences between .avi, .mov, .wmv, .mpg, .mp4 (video formats) or between the different audio files, .mp3, .aac, .ogg, .wav (audio formats).
Each file has a "container" - like a milk carton. A computer sees what 3 letters are at the end of the filename (ex: film.avi) and KNOWS it's a .avi file. However, within each kind of VIDEO file container, there's "codecs". Just like how the word sounds, codecs are like a special coding that compresses video files, and lets them be so small. Because there are different ways to compress a video and make it smaller -- there are TONS of codecs. The most popular container is .avi The most popular codec is DivX If you find other formats online, don't panic - they can be played, but some are more proprietary than others. For example, .wmv is a "Windows Media Video" file. Microsoft designed it with the intent that ONLY their programs and computers could read it. A .wmv file is a very poor file type compared to better containers like .mpg or .avi. The same can be said for Apple Computer's proprietary .mov format. Apple designed ONLY their "Quicktime" programs to read, save, and edit .mov files. Proprietary file types are a pain - particularly when you've got one, and need to show it on a computer that doesn't have the right software. (Ex: bringing a video to a school laptop to show, and it doesn't have the right stuff installed on it) Solutions: Below are instructions on how to get two EXCELLENT and free "open-source" programs that deal with all the different kinds of video containers and codecs without getting confusing. FYI: "Open-source" is the direct opposite of "proprietary". Open-source means that the building blocks of a program (how it works, what it does, and why) are open to whoever wants to make modifications to it. These online groups of people are just regular users with some experience in programming who want to make things a.) Better & b.) Free. The two programs I recommend are VLC Media Player and SUPER Video Converter. -"VLC Media Player" plays any kind of video or audio file available. -"SUPER video converter" is a converter program that can turn any kind of audio or video file into any OTHER kind of audio or video file. VLC Media player is an open-source program, available for free download online: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ It lets you play ANY video or audio format that exists. FYI: Also, if you have a video that won't play in Windows Media Player, (if a video or music file is damaged) - VLC media player can still play the parts of that file that still work. Other programs will just state it can't read the entire file. Download and install this program. VLC Media Player is available for both Windows and Mac OSX. * * * SUPER Video Converter This is the best program I've ever found online for converting file. It allows you to CONVERT any video or audio file you could find into ANY other video or audio format. Example: If you downloaded a video file, but couldn't play it on a school laptop - drop it into SUPER video converter. Select the "output container" to be something you reconize like an .AVI file that uses a DIVX codec. You can also change how big the video is (320x240 is the tiny Youtube size - choose 640x480 for TV-size video) Some Background on why the download instructions are so crazy: SUPER Video converter is a great program, but it's download instructions are REALLY confusing. The maker of this program did this to avoid other people linking DIRECTLY to his FREE program, and charging people money to do so. This application is so useful, there are actually cases like this where a website charged a fee to download the same program. This long sequence of instructions helps stop that. Download instructions for SUPER Video converter: FYI: If you visit these links out of order, the website just resets. It's weird. Just follow this sequence to download. 1.) Visit the mainpage: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html 2.) Scroll down to the bottom of the page where it states: "Start Downloading SUPER © right now and discover this fully featured Multimedia Freeware." Click the link that brings you here: http://www.erightsoft.com/Superdc.html 3. ) In the 6th paragraph down on this page (Superdc.html), click the link in this text: "SUPER © is a FREE Multimedia software to download and use" Now, it brings you to this page: http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html 4.) Scroll down the very bottom of the page (S6Kg1.html), and click the link in this sentence: "Download SUPER © setup file from official site 2" The download should start. After it's finished, install the program. * * * Youtube / Online Video Rip-and-Converter: http://www.mediaconverter.org/ This free website allows you to save to your computer Youtube videos (or videos from any other online video site). It also converts them before you save them so you can easily play them anywhere. Detailed Steps to Get a Video downloaded: 1.) Locating the URL for the video you want to download: Go to YouTube. Visit the page of the youtube video you want to download. On the left hand side, there's a box that says From:, Added:, etc. In it you will see two other options in Bold: ex: URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrXkBuWNx88 Embed < object width="425" height="344" >< param name="movie"[...] Click the URL text, and it will highlight BLUE Go to the File | Edit | View [...] menu in your web browser. Click Edit, and while that text is highlighted, click "Copy" 2.) Visit the mediaconverter.org webpage. On this page, you enter in the URL you copied into the 1st text box. To do this, go to the File | Edit | View [...] menu again. Click Edit, and now go down to "Paste" Click the "Next Step" button. 3.) Under Select File type pull-down-menu, click "AVI" option. This is the easiest file type to read and transport later between computers. To recognize this file easier later, under "Name the output file (optional):" type in a file name to save as. Click the "Next Step" button. 4.) Under "Set additional options for audio and video conversions": Select under the "Video Codec" pull-down-menu "DivX". This is also a widley read format. If you want to change how large the video is select "640x480" from the "Resolution" pull-down-menu FYI: Youtube videos are small: 320x240. If you wanted to play these on a Television set, selecting 640x480 Click the "Next Step" button. 5.) The video converts online - wait for the website's progress bar to finish. After a few min., the Conversion Wizard finishes converting your video. Click the image of the planet labled "DOWNLOAD NOW" that appears to download your video. Most web browsers will pop up a window asking you what to do with the file: * Open with [Windows Media Player] o Save File Since you want to save this file to burn to a DVD or copy to a USB jumpdrive, click "Save File", then OK Enjoy! Any questions about these, ask me in class or post a reply below. :-) --Blayne * * *
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blayne_'s journal
While shopping today, I came across Grape-flavoured apples, dubbed "Grapples".
Hey everyone,
