A RSA Animate adaptation of a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education Paradigms.

How to embed YouTube video into PowerPoint 2010. Method #1.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum.  One of our teachers went to show her PowerPoint presentation which she created last year and updated this year, saving it as a .pptx 2010 file.  With horror she watched as the YouTube movies that she embedded refused to play, the screen went black and motionless.  We also got a message stating that our version of Flash needed to be updated.

The videos played fine in her web-browser but not in PowerPoint.  Her Flash was the latest update so what gives?? I determined that since it played in the web browser that it was not a problem with Flash but with PowerPoint.  For a lack of better terms, Flash somehow became (or never was or couldn't be) associated with PowerPoint.  It seems that this issue happens with versions of PowerPoint 2003 and later.

After some research I found 2 fixes.  The easiest one came from Shyam Pillai's YouTube Video Wizard (YTV) freeware page.  THANK YOU Mr. Pillai!!! 

You download the YTV zip file then;

1. Extract the contents of the zip to a folder. 

2. Launch PowerPoint.

3. Click on File tab in the top left hand corner | Underneath that go to Options. 

4. In the Options dialog, select the  Add-ins tab.

5. Select 'PowerPoint Add-ins' from the Manage drop down and click 'Go...'

6. On the Add-ins dialog, click 'Add New...' .

7. Navigate to the folder where the contents of the zip file was extracted and select 'YouTubeVideo2k7.ppa'   and click on OK.

8. You might be prompted with the macro virus warning. Enable the macros. When the Add-in is properly loaded, it will display a tick against the add-in name.

9. That's it. You have successfully loaded the add-in.

Look at the top of your screen (ribbon) in PowerPoint and click on the insert tab, it should look like this;

Look all the way to the right and you'll see "YouTube" video. Click that and follow the directions.  JUST A HEADS UP FOLKS...when it asks you to insert the URL of the video, don't use the one you get from YouTube's "share" or "embed" tools.  Copy the URL right from you web browser, GABBEESH? :-)

A future post will deal with the other method to embed.

U.S. Census Bureau’s New Web Tool - "Easy Stats"

The U.S. Census Bureau has released “Easy Stats,” an online tool developed to make statistics quicker and easier to access. The interactive tool provides selected demographic and economic statistics from the American Community Survey. “Easy Stats” allows searching by geography down to the local level, including incorporated places like cities and towns and census designated places. View detailed race, age and gender breakdowns, and compare communities.

http://www.census.gov/easystats/

Beginner's Guide to Research produced by Rutgers University

Are you sensing a theme yet?  After the last post, it occurred to me that there was another GREAT resource produced by Mr. Magoo's Alma Mater, Rutgers.  It's the Rutgers RIOT (Research Information Online Tutorial).  It's is an interactive beginner's guide to research.  They even give you a certificate when you pass all 5 modules! Click here to get started.

What is Plagiarism? A video produced by Rutgers University.

Thanks to the Massachusetts School Library Association Yahoo Groups and Alissa Rosellini of The International School of Boston for providing me with the link!

What's your financial I.Q?

Came across this article (pdf file) in March 3rd's Boston Sunday Globe and since this blog is about saving money AND education, I figured it would be a nice side trip!  The article talks about financial literacy and gives a 12 question quiz.  The Globe got the quiz from Northwestern Mutual, FINRA Investor Education Foundation.  A Harvard professor gave it to 50 students who attended a financial workshop hosted by the Harvard University Employees Credit Union.  

This is how the grading of the quiz broke down:

• A - 1%
• B - 5%
• C - 10%
• D - 15%
• F - 69%

The article and a paper from Northwestern Mutual went on to say that this country as a whole need to improve it financial literacy skills.  Take the quiz!  The slides will move after 5 seconds and the percentage of the students that got the answer right will be listed under the correct answer.

Copyright and schools--a simple primer.

I attended an excellent presentation/talk by Salem State's (and my former) professor Carol Kelley about copyright and schools.  This has always been a subject that makes my head spin, gives me an upset stomach and gets me all sorts of looks by fellow staff members.

Trying to explain copyright and fair use is like understanding the concept of the mass at my old church in 1970, I was five and the mass was in latin.  Trying to explain to people why they couldn't show the movie "Shrek" in the auditorium, to the entire middle school on the last day before vacation always drove me nuts.  Questions like: "how much of a song can I use in my presentation, class project?" were akin to getting the answer to "what is the meaning of life?"

Thanks to Carol she simplified the explication of this matter to the point that as she was talking, a yellow glow appeared above my head and I fell off the horse like Saul of Tarsus. OK I'll ease up on the religious metaphors, but that's how I felt, it all started to make sense.

She suggested a book; "Copyright for Schools" by the guru of copyright, Carol Simpson, as a starter. Next she explained that most of the "rules" we followed about copyright and fair use were guidelines NOT laws and that no librarian has ever been found guilty or arrested for breaking copyright laws.

Copyright law is very flexible, it is the guidelines that are restrictive. Any work created or compiled is automatically copyrighted. You can have your work dated and notarized to protect it from being stolen.

She asked the question, "do we obey copyright because of the fear that we may get caught or because it is the right thing to do?"  I'm hoping the latter.  She gave us an acronym to help us deal with these issues PANE;  Purpose, Amount, Nature and Effect.

• What is the PURPOSE for? To teach or to entertain? Can't use to entertain.
• What is the AMOUNT being copied? You can't copy so much that you end up not needing to purchase it.
• What is the NATURE of the work?  Is it fictional or factual?  Fair use is less lenient with fictional works than factual works.  Music has two copyrights; the writer and the performer, while common knowledge is not covered under copyright law.
• What is the EFFECT on sales.

Another aspect that can be added to the above criteria is "the Teach Act (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act passed in 2002."  The importance of the TEACH Act stems from the previous copyright laws that allow educators to copy documents or use copyrighted materials in a face-to-face classroom setting. Because of the growth of distance education that does not contain a face-to-face classroom setting changes in these laws had to be made.  This allows the teacher to post anything on the web for teaching but it must have restricted access and a time limit.  It can't be left up there forever. 

So to decide what does or does not violate copyright use, apply the guidelines above and then YOU must decide using those criteria if you are using it ETHICALLY.

I believe we should teach that; if I use something...

• I cite it.
• I ask permission
• I buy it

Need to find a place to recycle old equipment?

Check this App of the week.

Apply effects on your photos on your Apple device for free.

Ok, maybe I maybe a little slow on the trigger with this one, but it was such an Epiphany, I had to share.  I download Adobe PS (Photoshop) Express from the iTunes App Store and started to play around with some of the effects that came with it.  I tried to "reduce noise" on a picture of mine.  I applied the effect but it didn't allow me to save the picture, I had to purchase the advance App for this to work.  Then it hit me, I got the effect to do what I wanted I just couldn't save it.  So what happen if I just took a screenshot? (hitting the power button and the home button at the same time--you'll see a flash on your screen).  So do you know what happen?  I got a new picture of the picture WITH the effect.  WHO KNEW??

Edit .pdf files in Word 2013.

Was reading a little about the new Office 2013 and this feature got me all warm and fuzzy:
Until now, you could not edit PDF files in Word without first converting them to the .doc or .docx format.  With the new Word 2013, however you can now open PDF files, edit them there, and then save them as either .docx files or PDFs.  Even when opened in Word, the file retains the structure of the PDF file, including that of elements such as tables.  So now you can just open a PDF file and get straight to work.


Here is what to expect in terms of pricing…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57564342-75/office-2013-pricing-what-to-expect/