Xtranormal to script a short animated film

This is another ELTAS Tech Tools Day task.

Pre-task thinking:

• What do your students get out of listening to and writing out dialogues?
• How is students having puppets or cartoon characters speak the dialogue different from speaking it themselves?
• How important is it to your students to present the fruits of their learning to others?
• Do you/ How do you correct dialogues?
  

Some uses for working with dialogues:

• review the language of natural conversation
• catch typical mistakes
  
• practice functional language

Added value in videos:

• become aware of body language and sounds in conversation

Added value in an easy-to-use app:

• Fun and motivation! Varieté et surprise! Coolness factor!
  

Xtranormal is an easy to use "drag and drop 3D animation" program. The "Text-To-Movie" function lets you or your students set the scene, choose characters, type in a dialogue, add body language etc. and turn it into a movie.

Creating a movie and saving it as work in progress is free. That's all you need to have your students view yours and work on making one themselves.

BUT to publish an Xtranormal video, whether your own or your student's work, on a website to show it to others, costs $$. You have to buy points. How many does not become clear. Don't miss Darren Elliott's excellent rant about this new aspect of working with online tools.

Working with what we have:

In my video project, an assstant is being interviewed for a company magazine. As work in progress, I can only show it to you if I am logged in. We could work on it collectively on one computer, with one carrying out the edits the others suggest. For you to be able to access and simply view the video on your own, it would have to be published.


How to edit:

I've made a SHORT VIDEO of my editing this project inside Xtranormal.

Task 1:
We could edit my project together. (Link for me.)

Task 2:
See what other teachers are doing and comment on their ideas:

• Ana Maria Mendez has a lesson plan for phrasal verbs using Xtranormal.
• ESP writer Jeremy Day has used Xtranormal to present a script and do language work, and shows how (and how not to) in his blog, Specific English.
• Kathy Niebuhr has guestposted on Shelly Terrell's Teacher Reboot Camp blog about how she uses it in elementary school, including a video announcement.
  
• Note: The Xtranormal YouTube channel contains highly entertaining, completely inappropriate material. The Xtranormal site itself has more suitable videos.
  
• Please add any ideas and blogposts you know of in the comments below.
  

Task 3:
Create a short dialogue using Xtranormal. Make it as natural as possible.

• Go to http://www.xtranormal.com and sign up.
  
• Use a showpack with two characters to make a text-to-movie video.
• adapt the characters in the "Design the scene" area at the bottom of the page. Note that you can choose from a wide range of voices/ nationalities.
  
• Write the script and "direct the action" by dragging in features and selecting options.
• Preview and save.
• Sorry: We can't share unless you buy credit. :(

Link + embed media to start a discussion

This is another ELTAS Tech Tools Day task.

Pre-task thinking:

• What kind of media do you want to share with your students?
• How do you think they will to respond to media?
• How can you encourage them to respond?

The tech basics:

• Online you can create a link from your site to any webpage containing the content you want your students to see.
• You can only embed a file so it looks like an element of your webpage from sites that are explictly set up as filesharing sites for documents, games, pictures, presentations or videos. These sites provide you with the specific embed code.

Easy to use filesharing sites include:

• videos on YouTube, Vimeo and TED
• pictures on flickr
  - use Tag Galaxy to find pictures for your subject on flickr
  - create your own gallery on flickr to collect your favorite pictures
  
• documents on Scribd
• presentations on Slideshare
• wordclouds on Wordle
  

You can

• embed media others have made directly from such sites
• embed media others have embedded on their sites
• create such media yourself, upload them to the filesharing site and then embed them from there on your site

Embed media when you can, but link...

• when you want learners to go to the site where you found them (to introduce them to that environment)
• when the embed code doesn't work on your site (e.g. Google Docs in Ning) - and always check your page when you make other changes to see whether the embed code still works flawlessly
  
• when the media is in context and you want to refer to that.
  
• when copyright restrictions apply
  
  
  Here is a SHORT VIDEO that shows how I use embedding and linking in a class log in Ning.
  
  

Work with two tabs open:

• It's easiest to have both your and the other page open at once.
• To open a second tab, press control +T.

How to link to anything:

• Open your page.
• In your second tab, find the page you want to link to.
• Copy (highlight, press Control + C) the URL into your mouse.
• Go to your text, activate "edit" to open the rich text editor
  
• highlight what will be hypertext.
• Click on the "link" symbol.
• Paste in the code (press Control + V).
• Some rich text editors let you chose between "open in the same page" and "open in a new page". These also let you label your link: the text that shows when you mouseover.
• Save.

How to embed anything:

• Open your page, click edit and create a line of empty space where the embed should go. Type a space marker, like XXX, to help you find this space again.
• Select HTML mode (not rich text editor).
• Open a second tab (pressing Control + T).
• In the second tab, go the website/ document you want to embed.
• Find the embed code for your document
• Copy (highlight, then press Control + C) the code.
• Go back, find your space marker.
• Paste the code onto your marker (highlight, press Control + V).
• Check the embed code for width. Change the width to 425 for most blogs.
• Save. Preview.
  
• Only after saving should you make any changes using your rich text editor, e.g. aligning your files or changing the size by dragging the edges.
• Publish.

Task 1: Start a discussion using a picture

• Find a picture using Google Image. Make sure you are allowed to reproduce it (advanced search) Find the URL.
• Open a new discussion in the Forum on the ELTAS Tech Tools Ning.
• Type an introductory sentence, for orientation and directions.
• Below it, use the rich text editor to embed the picture.
• Below that, type in a question.
• Save.
• When responses come in, respond to them.
• Visit at least one other video and respond to the question.

Here's a SHORT VIDEO on how to create links and embed media.

(Thank you to Jo Westcombe for the article used in the video!)

Task 2: Start a discussion using a video

• Find a short video (under 3 minutes) to discuss on YouTube.
• Open a new discussion in the Forum on the ELTAS Tech Tools Ning.
• Type an introductory sentence, for orientation and directions.
• Below it, embed the video.
• Below that, ask a question.
• When responses come in, respond to them.
• Please visit at least one other video and respond to the question.

Russell Stannard

Russell Stannard has written with this request:

"I have been shortlisted for ELTons British Council awards
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-innovation-awards.htm
I need to send in some examples of what people think of www.teachertrainingvideos.com and why they like it. If you like the site and use it, can you just write a few lines explaining why you like the site and how it has helped you?"

Give Jamie Keddie feedback

Jamie Keddie, now known to MELTA members through his recent workshop (which I, sadly, missed), is revamping his website and has asked for feedback. Can you give him some?

• Which lessons have you found promising?
• Which have been useful? To which effect?
  
• Have you carried any of them out to the letter?
• Or have you used them, but adapted them in some way?

I think we are probably all ready to move from the mere fact that YouTube videos can be used to using them to promote learning as effectively as possible. Jamie is at the leading edge here.

http://www.teflclips.com/?p=260#comments

Flip video camera review

Here are a few comments about the Flip camera I bought a few days ago.

I am quite impressed with the quality of the video, but I'd recommend using a tripod because the camera is so small and light that it's quite difficult holding it steady when you're filming something.

I'm using a standard camera tripod at the moment, but Amazon offer a small tripod called a Gorillapod which looks very handy if you don't fancy humping larger tripods around with you.

The sound quality could be better. It's a shame that there isn't a microphone jack plug on the Flip because without an external microphone you are dependent on the Flip's... which could be better.

I bought a Flip Mino HD with 4 GB memory and a maximum recording time of 60 minutes which is fine for most of the things I want to do with it both in and outside the classroom.

There is another version, the Flip Ultra HD, which has a memory of 8 GB and allows you to record for up to two hours, but if you intend uploading a 8 GB video file to the Internet make sure you have a high speed connection, otherwise it could take week or so to upload a file of that size! As they say, bigger is not always better.

The Flip comes with some very basic video editing software which seems fine if you don't want to do anything fancy, but if you do want to do anything more than just basic editing, you'll have to look for some video editing software.

Finally, if you do decide to get a Flip make sure you have enough space on your hard disk for huge video files. It's probably best to use an external hard disk if you want to store lots of video files somewhere.

The Flip is so small that most folk don't seem to think you can actually be filming them, so it's a great little gadget for filming people who are camera/video shy.

If you are interested in getting some idea of what the camera can do, watch a clip of MELTA's tram party that I took with my Flip.

Overall, I'd give the Flip 7 out of 10 - it's really simple to use, easy to carry around, the built-in USB stick makes it kid's play to upload a video file to your PC or laptop and the quality of the video isn't bad for an HD video recorder costing less than €200.

Video project: I am everyone

Found on http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/youtube.htm:
This wonderfully thought provoking video from Orange demonstrates the value of relationships and makes us think of the people who have had an impact on our lives.
Use it to create your own. Write your script, find images and music and use video editing software to put it all together.
Orange: I Am Everyone

Sheringdale Primary School 4C: I am who I am

CLIL in the classroom

Here’s a nice way for your business English students to practice their English, talk about their course/ jobs, and learn about a nice Excel application all at the same time. I recently played this video downloaded from YouTube in new class with a small group of business students. It shows how to make a rudimentary Gantt chart using an Excel spreadsheet. It’s very clearly explained in a step-by-step fashion.



Afterwards the group then made a Gantt chart to outline the stages planned/goals set for our course.

In order to do this in your lesson you will need a computer and a projector. If you don’t have YouTube access in your classroom – possibly due to a company firewall – you can always download the video to your computer at home first. See Anne’s post from March 19th on how to do this. http://askauntieweb.blogspot.com/search/label/YouTube

Finally, for homework, students make their own Gantt charts on business or personal topics relevant for them to present the following week. It was quite fun and the students not only learned how to do it, but also through English! :-)

Let me know how it works out for you.

The Flip video camera

If you sometimes use a video camera in the classroom, you've probably hit the same problem as me, namely it takes quite a lot of time to set everything up and familiarise yourself with the equipment (especially if you teach in different companies and have to use different TVs and DVD players or video players).

If that's the case, maybe you ought to look into buying The Flip - a video camera that's simple to use - and easy to carry around.

I've decided to get one myself, so watch this space to find out more about using it in the classroom.

TEFLclips

Here's a great site for EFL teachers who like to use YouTube videos in the classroom.

TEFLclips

The site offers videos and lesson plans.

The project was set up by Jamie Keddie.

Thanks, Jamie! It's a great idea and wonderful resource.

Digital storytelling

Digital storytelling is the art of creating a story in multimedia using any of the myrads of tools currently available, and sharing it online. One of the most famous and inspiring sites was created by Alan Levine and tells the story of one man's relationship with his dog, Dominoe, in 50 different ways. http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/Dominoe+50+Ways

SlideShare, one of the best sites for uploading presentations (create source material in Powerpoint or other presentation software, upload for conversion to Flash. To include a soundtrack, record audio as mp3, store on external server, and link to create "slidecast", synchronizing audio to slides), and Fuze Meeting, an application for virtual meetings using a shared desktop, are currently running a Tell A Story Contest, the winner of which will get $5,000. Participants tell their story through a slideshow using 30 slides. (Contest information passed to us by ELTWeekly blog (India's first weekly ELT eNewsletter).)

Fuze Meeting & SlideShare "Tell A Story" Contest

View more Microsoft Word documents from Amit Ranjan.

Anyone can view the entries on the contest site. Registered SlideShare users help decide on the winning entry. Most of the entries are, quite frankly, disappointing. Hardly anyone used audio - pity!

you have a choice

View more OpenOffice presentations from Laura Vargas.

Update: Karenne Sylvester has posted a nice presentation entitled "Plenty of Fish".

Plenty of fish

View more Keynote presentations from Karenne Sylvester.

If you like it, vote for her here: http://tinyurl.com/myc7t3.

Simple picture + text presentations are something your EFL students could make. Caveat: Experience shows that your students will spend quite some time learning how to use the tools, and (at least in the first project) a relatively small amount of time on the actual production of English - which is why I haven't used it with my students. Still, if your students are interested in acquiring or developing their creative digital skills it can be very motivating.
Do you have projects to show and inspire other teachers to use SlideShare? Please add links to them to the comments below!

Telephone training using a built-in video camera

If, like me, you are married to someone who speaks English as a foreign language: Have you ever tried to teach them your native tongue? Until last week I would have said that it can't be done. But then we had a brainchild:

My husband is a bit of a ham. He's had video training to gear up for TV interviews, and is interested in learning how not to make a complete fool of himself when they home in on him and ask unpleasant questions. I was trying to make a "talking head" video for a project of mine on cellphones, and he saw me and said, "Let's do it together. You call me, and you'll film yourself and I'll film myself using the cameras on our laptops, as we speak on the phone." And that's what we did. We thought up a phone scenario together and scripted the dialogue. Then we went into separate rooms and each of us set up our laptops. Each of us had a cellphone in hand and told the camera what we were doing, and then I called him and we went through the moves, and he called me back. We then compared the two films (and laughed our heads off) and then did it again (he actually put on a tie to make himself feel like he was at work), and this time he had some food for thought about his expression and tone of voice. After that, satisfied, we decided to call it a day. But if we'd wanted to create a "product" and not just a "learning experience", we could have recorded the scenes until we and they were perfect, then cut them into one film using moviemaking software (we have Macs with iMovie; on a PC you'd use Windows Movie Maker), and then published the finished film to YouTube. I might just do that with a class one day.

Anyway, he's hooked, we had lots of laughs and a good think, and I think we'll be doing this again. Oh, and I've got a new shtick for one2one classes :)

Wordia

Wordia is a free online video dictionary where "real people" define words. You can watch - or make and contribute - videos, which the editors go through to select to provide a "word of the day". The videos are uploaded through YouTube, but cannot be embedded the way YouTube videos can, or downloaded through www.savevid.com. But if you do a search on YouTube with the name and the word, you'll find the video you want. I really enjoyed watching Scotswoman Jenny Colgan defining "expatriate". Gin at 10 in the morning?


The site claims:
"We're redefining the dictionary.
1. Think of a word that has a special meaning for you.
2. Record a video defining the word
3. Upload your video."
I might want to define "Weißwurst" ;)

The team running this project collaborates with HarperCollins, The National Literacy Trust and The Open University, among others.

Found through Nik Peachey's Wallwisher wall, "Web 2.0 Tools for teachers" - a must-see collection where you can add your own favorites.

Using TED in the classroom

The annual TED conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers to give short and concise talks about their work to their peers. It's an invitation only event, but luckily for us the best and most popular talks can be seen and downloaded (as audio or video files) for free.

The talks range in length from around 3 - 25mins and can be used in a number of ways in class.
One of my favourites, as it's short but also very interesting and relevant is this one by Richard St. John. In 3mins he gives us the 'Secrets of success in 8 words'.


Here's how I have used this in my lessons > level B1+:

1. Get your students to brainstorm what they think leads to success. This could be done as a pair activity with reporting to the whole class or as a whole class brainstorming activity.
2. Depending on the technology available to you, play the presentation in audio format only for students to listen for the key words. Play it 2 or 3 times if necessary. At this stage though, tell them to listen only for the key words. He speaks quite fast. This talk can be downloaded in MP3 format to you computer. From there you can either play it directly from a laptop, from an MP3 player, or burn it from your pc to a cd and play it on a cd player.
3. Compare St. John's tips with those the students brainstormed and discuss. You could also have a few comprehension or questions based on his content.
4. Show your students the video. This can be downloaded separately and shown on a laptop or using a projector, or viewed directly on the website, depending on which technology you have available in the classroom. If none of the above options are available you can get students to watch the video at home before the next lesson.
5. Conclude by discussing the power of presentation visuals, body language, and being able to see the person you're listening to. Your students will understand more from the video than from the audio version of the talk. In this sense you could change the topic and lead into the topic of presentations with your students, if they're Business English students, for example. If not, I still think this video/presentation is relevant for all students as success is not merely confined to business.

If you try this with your group(s), please post a comment and let me know how it goes or if you can recommend any variations to the suggested lesson plan.

Converting Flash video to mp4 and mp3 online

You know that the YouTube Flash videos (flv) are easy to convert online into mp4s (the iTunes format) and to download onto your computer using www.savevid.com. But online conversion of non-YouTube videos is not quite as simple. For any conversion you must first find the URL of the video you want to convert. How? YouTube and a few other sites post the URL plainly, but often you need to be a Sherlock Holmes to find the URL. Step one: Play the video. If it opens up in a new window, you'll see your URL in the browser window. If not, you're lucky if you have Safari (Mac), which allows you to find the URL easily, as Frieda Pattenden first pointed out to me:

Go to the Safari browser bar and select "Window". Then go to "Activity". This opens up a long list of file names that the computer is busy with. Look for a large one that will probably contain "watch?" or "flv".

Once you have the URL, you can use any of a number of sites to convert the file into an mp4 video or even an mp3 audio file. Since audio files are much smaller than video files, conversion into mp3 is often quicker than into mp4. I actually often like to go for a sound bite accompanied by a film still - a very nice media combination for teaching.

So: To convert online video to mp4 or mp3 I use Safari in combination with iTunes. The online sites I use for this are www.convertdirect.com for mp4 (video), and www.flv2mp3.com for mp3 (audio).

Option 1: video to audio

Let's start with coversion of Flash video into an audio file using www.flv2mp3.com:
Copy and paste the URL into the flv2mp3 URL window (see illustrations) and click "I accept the terms: OK".

The site then uploads the file and says "upload complete". Don't enter your email or the output file name. Just select "convert".


Once the file is converted (after a few seconds), your iTunes will automatically detect a new file to play and open up. In iTunes, rename your file and put it in a folder where you can find it. Mp3 - Bingo!

Option 2: video to video

Now for conversion of Flash videos into an mp4 video file using www.convertdirect.com:

1. Copy the URL into the URL window at www.convertdirect.com (this works with any FLV file, not just YouTube)
2. Select the output format MPEG4 + AAC.
3. Type in your email address. You can also download the converted file directly, but I find the process takes quite some time and don't want to wait. Leave your browser open: If you close it while the file is being processed, you can't be sure that the process will be completed.
   

The program will take some time to process the file and then send you an email with a link to a page sporting a big "Q" for "Quicktime". In your browser, save that page using "save file as...". Mp4 - Bingo!


If any of this doesn't work for you, or if you have any tips on finding the URL for videos using a different browser than Safari, we would love to hear from you.

Making animated films with your students

Want to have students create dialogues and watch them being played by animated characters with funny robot voices? Your students and you can make an animated movie online for free by going to www.xtranormal.com. Here is a sample, made just for teachers :)



Tweeted by Graham Stanley

You've heard of YouTube, but...

have you heard of TeacherTube? Most of the videos are aimed at teachers teaching at primary or secondary schools, so useful for teachers of English to young learners, however, some are aimed at teachers working with adults.

Here's one of my favourites

Check the site out!

Many thanks to Andreas Büsing of ELTA-Rhine and now of IATET (The International Association of Technical English Teachers) for sharing this link with me/us.

YouTube for teaching English

Jamie Keddie has created TEFLclips, a site with free lesson plans for using YouTube videos in TEFL. Geared to very different levels and target groups, he pairs videos with pdf lesson plans and worksheets.

He has also created a nice video on how to download YouTube videos and organize them in your iTunes:



So the site he recommends for conversion is www.savevid.com.

His site is more than "simply" a free resource for the busy teacher. Jamie Keddie is exploring media with this project, and if you study his lessons carefully and try them out yourself, you can learn a great deal about the didactic potential of video. He explains:

"For the language teacher, YouTube may be the single best source of material the classroom has ever seen. The question, “How can we use YouTube in the classroom?” encompasses many others including:

* How can we use moving images in the classroom?
* How can we use audio in the classroom?
* How can we use film in the classroom?
* How can we use art in the classroom?
* How can we use technology in the classroom?
* How can we use music in the classroom?
* How can we use adverts in the classroom?
* How should we use and approach news and current affairs in the classroom?
* How should we approach the subject of the media in the classroom?
* How can we organise class film-making projects?

This website has been set up in order to address some of these questions." TEFLclips: About

Jamie Keddie has just won an ELTon from The British Council for TEFLclips. Visit his website at http://www.jamiekeddie.com. Thank you to Dagmar Taylor for recommending this teacher and his site. Have a look and tell us what you think.
Technical problems with downloads? Ask Auntie Web.

Stephen Fry on digital natives

Do you ever wonder whether the "digital natives" John was talking about yesterday can write a text message, watch a YouTube video, do their homework on paper, all at the same time, and still be listening to you? I sometimes wonder, but übergeek Stephen Fry seems to think it's no problem. He contributed to a broadcast by Kenan Malik on BBC Radio 4 that asked whether the web is rewiring the brains of young people, and if so, whether we should be worried. A prolific user of twitter himself (http://twitter.com/stephenfry), Stephen Fry has only positive things to say about his own experience. The experts are saying that kids today may not be reading and researching the way older generations did, their attention spans may be shorter, but they can switch quickly between different media and use the huge amounts of information there in new ways. But are they multi-tasking or multi-slacking? Listen to the 28 minute broadcast as a podcast (an mp3 download) and read or print out Stephen Fry's comments here: BBC News.

About two years ago Stephen Fry talked about the potential of the internet for learning in an interview recorded for www.videojug.com, a video sharing site. Did you know that you can download the videos there? It's easy, you just need to register there. Here is Stephen:


Understanding The Internet: Stephen Fry: The Internet