[Caution: Please use YouTube judiciously.]

Instructional Purpose: When displaying PowerPoint slides to students, it is often inconvenient to display a YouTube video by exiting the slideshow and opening up a separate browser window. If you have an active internet connection (and are using Microsoft Windows), there is a technique for pointing to the YouTube video and having it run right inside your PowerPoint slide. Just follow these easy steps (a video demonstration is available at the end of this description):

Step One: Select the YouTube video.
Find the desired video on YouTube and copy its URL.
Step Two: Prepare PowerPoint.

1. Open up PowerPoint and make sure that the developer tab shows up in your ribbon. If the tab is not there, click on the Windows logo in the upper left hand corner, click on “PowerPoint options” (at the bottom of the displayed list), and check the “show developer tab “box.
2. Select the developer tab and “more controls” (the icon that looks like a hammer and wrench). Scroll down and choose the “Shockwave flash object” option.
3. Go to the slide where you want the video to appear and draw a box. You can edit the size of the box anytime so don’t worry about the ideal size now.

Step Three: Link YouTube video with the slide.

1. Right click in the box you just created and select “properties”.
2. Paste the YouTube URL In the box to the right of “movie” and edit it as follows: change “watch?v=” to “v/” (deleting “watch?” and replacing the “=” with a “/”).
3. The property “playing” controls whether the video starts automatically when the slide is displayed, and “loop” controls whether the video will continually start over it finishes playing. Set these values to “true” or “false” according to your desires.

Step Four: Play the video.

1. Exit the properties by clicking on the red X in the top right hand corner.
2. Save your PowerPoint presentation and run the slideshow. The YouTube video will run within your PowerPoint slide, accessing it via the internet, without having any copy of the video on your computer.

Click here to watch a YouTube video that shows the procedure described above.

Instructional Purpose: YouTube videos can contain valuable instruction, but if you send students directly to YouTube to watch a video, they will be exposed to additional clutter beyond your intended video. Distracting advertisements, user comments, and other related videos, all outside your direct control, fill their viewing window. An alternative is to provide them a URL that displays the YouTube video in a relatively clean environment. Here’s how:

Step One: Install in your browser toolbar quietube.com–it’s a bookmarklet and can be used for most of the main video sites, not just YouTube.
A. Go to http://quietube.com/

B. Drag the little “quietube” button in the middle of the screen to your toolbar. This installs the quietube bookmarklet in your browser to you can activate it from YouTube. Unfortunately, quietube does not install in Internet Explorer, so you will have to use another browser (e.g., Firefox, Safari).

Step Two: Obtain the quietube URL from the YouTube video.
A. Browse to the YouTube video you would like to share with your students.

B. Click on the quietube bookmarklet in your browser toolbar. You will be taken to a new URL, which displays the YouTube video without the YouTube clutter.

C. Copy the quietube-provided URL.
Step Three: Share the quietube URL with your students. Paste the quietube URL to share with your students (e.g., email, Blackboard, MSWord document, Adobe .pdf, PowerPoint slide, etc.)

Watch for our final YouTube Tech Tip:
“Showing a YouTube Video in a PowerPoint Presentation”

Method 1

Step One: Select the YouTube video.
Find the desired video on YouTube and copy its URL.
Step Two: Use Zamzar.com

1. Open up your browser and go to Zamzar.com.
2. Select the “URL” link located in “Step 1” under the Convert Files tab.
3. Copy the YouTube video URL into “Step 1” space provided under the Download Videos tab (the box that is partially filled with “http://”) .
4. Select the video conversion format in “Step 2” under the Download Videos tab (.mov for Mac, .wmv for Windows).
5. Enter your email address in “Step 3” under the Download Videos tab.
6. Select the Convert button in “Step 4” under the Download Videos tab and “OK” in the popup window.
7. Wait for the conversion and mailing to complete. The YouTube video will be sent to your email address.

Step Three: Access Your Video.
Access the message from Zamzar.com on your email account, follow the download link, and save the video file to the desired location on your local computer.

Method 2

Step One: Select the YouTube video.
Find the desired video on YouTube and copy its URL.
Step Two: Use KeepVid.com

1. Open up your browser and go to KeepVid.com
2. Paste the YouTube URL into the URL field and select the “DOWNLOAD” button (above the large Download, Convert, and Play icons).
3. A green “Download links” bar should appear (below the large Download, Convert, and Play icons). Occasionally, there will be a message in this area to refresh the webpage (F5) for the download links to appear.
4. There are two download links: low (flv) and high (mp4) quality. Select the download link that matches your desired quality and/or format.
5. Save the video file to the desired location on your local computer.

Watch for more Tech Tips about YouTube …

• Sending Students to YouTube without all the Clutter
• Showing a YouTube Video in a PowerPoint Presentation

Want to save a little bit of time and simplify your workflow? Then these tips are for you. After all, the less mouse clicks the better. Right?

1. Printing. You can print a document without initially launching Word. Right-click the document’s icon and select Print from the pop-out menu. The document briefly opens in Word, is sent to your printer, and then Word closes.
2. Searching a folder. If a folder has lots and lots of documents, doing a right-click search can quickly bring up the specific one you want. Right-click the folder’s icon and select Search from the pop-out menu. A search window opens. Type in the name of the document and click Search. Your document will display in the results window.
3. Sending an e-mail attachment. Right-click the icon of the file you want to e-mail. In the pop-out menu, click Send To and then click Mail Recipient. A new Outlook message will open with the file automatically attached.
4. Adding or removing programs to the Start menu. Right-click the icon of the program you want to add to your Start menu. Select Pin to Start menu from the pop-out menu. The program will be added to the bottom of the menu. To remove a program, right-click the program’s icon in your Start menu and select Remove from this list. The program will no longer be pinned to the Start menu.
5. Checking grammar and spelling. By default, Word automatically corrects misspelled words. If by chance a misspelled word isn’t corrected, it is underlined in red. Right-click the word and select the correct spelling from the pop-out window. If something is underlined in green, this is a grammar error. Click on the word and select the desired option in the pop-out window. Or, select Grammar from the pop-out window to access the grammar tool.

Stickies is a computer program (for both Mac and Windows) of virtual sticky notes (similar to Post-It ® notes) that you keep on your computer desktop. By using this program, you can eliminate the myriad scraps of paper that pile up on your desk and have a pesky way of getting lost or forgotten. Stickies can organize all those snippets and reminders into one convenient place.

Features of Stickies on a Mac computer
Stickies come pre-installed in your Application folder on a Mac. This application has simple, basic features. Stickies notes can:

• Float and stay on top of all open windows
• Be transparent
• Be one of six different colors
• Be arranged by location on the screen
• Be resized and easily moved around your computer screen
• Have bulleted lists
• Display images that are dragged into them
• Display the date created and the date most recently modified
• Create a clickable link when you drag a URL from a browser, document, or an Apple’s Mail message

Features of Stickies on a Windows computer
Stickies (for the Windows OS) is a free utility from Zhorn Software. It is a small, simple text-based program that does not affect the system files in any way.

In addition to having the same basic features found in the Stickies program on the Mac (except for inserting images), this Windows program has these extra ones. You can:

• Put a sticky to sleep and hide it until you need to be reminded of that information
• Set an alarm to have a sticky grab your attention at a certain time
• Send Stickies over the network to co-workers
• Use them in roll-up mode to save space on your computer screen
• Give the note a title (in a title bar)
• Snap several sticky notes together to keep them neatly lined up
• Set hot keys to create a new sticky note and to show or hide all stickies
• Download skins for a different look and feel

With all of your fragments of information tucked safely in your Stickies notes, you’ll never have to worry about a ‘notes-to-self’ tsunami ever again.

When new knowledge is integrated with and connected to existing knowledge, that new knowledge is easier to understand and to remember. A professor’s job is to build scaffolding from existing knowledge on which to hang incoming new knowledge. Using a concept map is one way to build that scaffolding.

A concept map is a visual organization and representation of knowledge. It shows concepts and ideas and the relationships among them. You create a concept map by writing key words (sometimes enclosed in shapes such as circles, boxes, triangles, etc.) and then drawing arrows between the ideas that are related. Then you add a short explanation by the arrow to explain how the concepts are related.

How Professors Use Concept Maps

Dr. Jeff Fox, Political Science
We were studying the influence of political socialization on belief systems and I needed a way to have students think systematically about their views and identify the sources of their values and beliefs. I chose to use a concept map to help students explore this.

Student first identified their stance on the war in Iraq. They then brainstormed and listed factors (attitudes, values, beliefs, etc.) that came to mind that led to their position. Students were able to use branching to show more complex associations. After fleshing out their cognitive maps, students identified where their attitudes, beliefs, and information came from (family, media, teachers, peers, political party, etc.). Students found it valuable to explore their own thinking in this way. They also found that they were able to detect assumptions in their thinking, see that many of their views were essentially reproductions of what they heard from other sources, see that their views were not systematically or rationally obtained, as well as assess the influence of various socialization forces on their thinking.

Since students might not know how to create a concept map, it is beneficial to model the process in class. Once students understand the process, you can use concept maps in the following ways:

• Use as an in-class pre-assessment. Prior to discussing a topic, ask students to create a concept map. Then, as you discuss the information, they can add to or modify their map to reflect their understanding about the topic.
• Do as a small group activity. Give your students a problem, case study, or question about a key concept. Divide them into small groups of 4-5 students. Have each group create a concept map as they analyze and synthesize previously learned information into this new scenario. Have the groups present their conclusions.
• Do as a whole class activity. As a class, create, a concept map and use it as a springboard to discuss relationships among the concepts and ideas listed in the map.
• Fill in the blanks. Before class, create a concept map of the material you want to cover in class. Then, remove some of the concepts and labels. Show the partially completed map to the class and have them fill in the blank spots and label the relationships.
• Organize your research. Use a concept map to build and organize your ideas, layer details, and find connections and relationships that might never have occurred to you before.

There are several benefits of using concept maps. A concept map:

• Helps visual learners grasp the material (however all learners benefit from the activity)
• Helps students see relationships between ideas, concepts, or authors
• Utilizes the full range of the left and right hemispheres of the brain
• Helps memory recall
• Helps to clarify and structure ideas
• Aids in developing higher-level thinking skills (create, analyze, evaluate)
• Helps students synthesize and integrate information, ideas and concepts
• Encourages students to think creatively about the subject
• Lets students do self-evaluation of beliefs, values, socialization, etc.
• Helps students evaluate assumptions.

The following list contains specific functions that can be performed by using concept maps. Click on each link to see examples (source: http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers):

• Analyze
• Brainstorm
• Compare and contrast
• Evaluate
• Hypothesize
• Interact
• Sequence
• Visualize

Once you have decided the type of mental function you want students to perform and the type of visualization that will help, there are several tool options. Students can use Microsoft Word to create their organizer by inserting shapes, smart art, and charts into a Word document. FreeMind is a free software option (open source software available for both Mac and Windows).

There are also many good Web tools that have been developed and most are free. To use them, all you need is access to a browser. Here are three popular ones:

• Bubbl.us: is a simple, and easy to use mind mapping tool
• Gliffy: has more complex shapes and tools, can export as a jpg, and provides a URL to a read-only version of the map
• Mind42: is more robust, can export a map as PDF or jpg, can add attachments, URL links, or notes to nodes, has good collaboration tools (e.g. connections to Skype or Google Talk accounts)

Resources

Web based applications (short list)
Mapping Tools Overview (comprehensive list)
A Periodic Table of Visualizations Methods
“The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them” by Joseph D. Novak ad Alberto J. Canas.

We are nearing the end of the first decade in a new millennium. Technology is more ubiquitous now than ants at a picnic. And, determining how to deal with technology in the classroom (used by both faculty and students) is not necessarily a picnic.

Instead of having a technology ‘tip’ per se, we’re using technology (video clips) to focus on pedagogy ideas.

In response to the video A Vision of Students’ Today (the second video below), one angry father said he was not paying $20K a year to have his daughter multitask, surf the web, or be on Facebook while in class. On the other side of the coin, folks claim that students using things like laptops, iPods, cell phones in today’s classroom are just visible signs of unengaged students who, twenty years ago, would have been looking out the window daydreaming, stealthily passing notes, or doodling in a notebook.

Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Maybe some of our thinking about teaching and how we teach needs to be altered.

Take a look at the big picture. What could you do differently in your classroom to get students actively involved in their learning? How could you engage students in problem solving or in synthesizing course content? What can you do to help students strengthen their critical thinking skills?

Maybe how we teach is just as important as what we teach.

Video 1: Did You Know

Karl Fisch, a teacher at the Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado created a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting. Originally, he was asked to speak about the new technology in their school building. Instead, he chose to give the faculty a vision of where they should be heading as educators. He wanted them to understand the world that their students would be entering upon graduation and what those students would need to be successful in the 21st century.

He turned his presentation into a video clip and posted it online. Over 10 million people have seen it.

Video 2: A Vision of Students Today

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University, and 200 of his students, created a video to tell the world what the students thought about their education. When it was posted online in 2007, it garnered one million views in the first month. An avalanche of comments about his video pelted his blog. It became the most blogged about video in the blogosphere. Click here to view the video.

Read what Michael has to say about his experience.

How does a meta-search engine differ from regular search engines? A standard search engine methodically crawls the World Wide Web, collects and stores that information in a database, and serves it up to its users. A meta-search engine queries several other search engines simultaneously. It does not crawl the web to gather information. It does not maintain its own database. Instead, it uses data already gathered by the other search engines. So, when a user queries a meta-search engine, the results provide a wider range of information. And this brings us to KartOO and Clusty.

KartOO

When you launch a search in KartOO, it analyzes your request and then queries the most relevant search engines. It then selects the sites that best fit your search terms and creates an interactive visual map with the resulting information.

As you mouse over the result icons, information about that page is displayed in the left-hand column. You are given the options to view more pages on that site, go to the site’s homepage, or view related sites. And, you can put a ‘watch’ on the page, which means that you can monitor any updates made. Mousing over an icon also draws lines to other map icons that are closely related in content.

KartOO has tabs at the top of the search window that allow you to narrow your search to just information on the web, to images, to videos, or to Wikipedia.

You can save your current map so you can return to the results at a later time. You can ‘erase’ (remove) items from your search that you do not want saved.

To try KartOO, click here.

For more information on how to use KartOO, click here.

Clusty

Clusty is unique in that it arranges search results in conceptual clusters (hence the name, Clusty). This clustering helps you to discover relationships between search result items that you might not have previously considered.

When you do a search, the relational clusters appear in the left-hand column and the main results are displayed in the main window section. When you click on a plus sign by a cluster item, it opens to show the results that were clustered under that specific topic. When you click on a clustered topic, the results will show up on the right-hand side of the screen in the main part of the window.

Clusty gives you these searching options: web, images, Wikipedia, blogs, jobs, shopping, and government sites.

To try Clusty, click here.