Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 I covered the easy stuff.  Working with audio is trivial compared with working with video.  Not only do you have many more file types and codecs, but now you’ve got to worry about aspect ratio for HD and compression quality.   Given two video files with the exact same file extension, one might work in one situation, but the other may not.  It can be maddening.

The easiest thing to do is to upload your files to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo.  However, sites like that are usually blocked by school districts.  There is SchoolTube and TeacherTube, but sometimes those can be problematic, too.

Less likely to be blocked are sites built on the Ning.com platform.  A Ning site is free, and will support up to 30 videos as long as each is no larger than 100 MB.  That’s fairly generous, and will support most classroom needs.  Videos that are uploaded to the site are provided embed codes for blogs and social networking sites.  Here’s a sample video I recorded in Space Mountain on a trip to Disney World… (more…)

This is part 1 of a 2-part series…

I’m a BIG fan of embedding. The ability to take media files from one location and use them in another context creates learning environments that are rich and appealing to students. I like it even better when the process is simple. Embedding is now a standard feature for most social networking sites.  YouTube was one of the first, and now most media file hosts have followed suit. On just about any media site now days you can find something like the image below which allows you to copy the code and paste it into another site.

Bottom line – most teachers are uncomfortable with coding of any kind, so it’s got to be easy.  Most can do the copy and paste, but if you have to manipulate codes, it can be a problem.  Unfortunately, there are times when a simple cut and paste is not available.  A resource (such as YouTube) may be blocked by a district, or you may have an original file that you would prefer not to upload to a social networking site.  That’s where these tutorials come in.  I’ll show you how to create your own embed codes so that you don’t have to worry about blocked resources. (more…)

Google has made it easy to add cool stuff to your website with the release of Web Elements.  Each of these elements have been available for some time now, most with embed codes or API’s readily available.  Web Elements is a collection of eight tools in one easy-to-find place, each with a simple interface and refined embed code.

With this new set you can get maps to a specified location…

…embed interactive calendars…

…embed presentations and other documents from Google Docs…

…carry on conversations…

…and create custom search functions for your website…

…as well as include news, YouTube news, and spreadsheets on your site.

As I said before, none of these functions are new. Google has just bundled them together nicely with a simple interface. That simplicity can be a hinderance, though. For example, if you want maps with marked paths and multiple waypoints, you’re better off using the Google Maps interface rather than Web Elements.

Still, it’s a nice, quick way to get new content into your website or blog. The nice thing is that you can do all of this from one location, and you don’t have to have a Google API key on your website for each application.

http://wheresmyjetpack.blogspot.com/2009/01/tweet-your-breakfast_01.html

A synopsis/compilation of recent conversations…

Me: Yesterday several of my friends and I went for a hike in the…

Sibling/Friend: …yeah, I read that in your blog.

Me: For our anniversary we went to Disney and…

Sibling/Friend: …I saw your posts and pictures online.

Me: Um, is there anything new I can tell you?

Sibling/Friend: [silence]

I began to wonder if blogging and social media had, in fact, killed conversation, rather than enhancing it. (more…)

I’ve been tweaking my online presence over the past several weeks.  As I’ve gotten more involved with Facebook, I’ve started pulling in RSS feeds from Twitter, Friendfeed, Flickr, and most recently RandomConnections so that all of these automatically update on my Facebook profile.  For me it’s a simple matter of laziness.  I’d prefer to type something once, rather than put entries here, re-type them on Facebook, etc., etc.

With all of this automatic cross-posting, the boundaries between traditional websites have really become blurred.   All of the posts that I publish here automatically show up as notes on my Facebook profile.  I’ve gotten several comments on those Facebook notes – more, even than I’ve gotten here lately.  I wonder how many of those commentors are even aware that there is an analogous website, or if Facebook is their only way to view this content.

And this isn’t limited to Facebook.  A long time ago I set up a Tumblr site, and pulled in the feeds from RandomConnections.  I’ve neglected it, but it’s still an exact duplicate of RandomConnections, including the latest content.  The same goes for my account on Virb.com, which also automatically pulls in both the RandomConnections content and my Flickr photos.

I think about my own reading habits.  I use Bloglines to keep track of multiple websites and RSS feeds.  Many of those sites I rarely visit unless I want to leave a comment.  I just read the content on the feed reader.  I’m absolutely sure there are others that do the same for RandomConnections.

This almost almost begs the question of why we need websites at all anymore.  If you’ve got some way to create posts and feed them up through RSS, you’re pretty much set for a multitude of social networks.  Yet there is still some panache to having a cool, easy to remember domain name.  Getting a good one anymore is like buying waterfront property.  I feel fortunate to have gotten the RandomConnections.com domain, and plan to hang onto it as long as I can.

However, more important than having a good domain name is the concept of web branding.  My friends Lauren Cobb, Patrick Greer, Geno Church, and my nephew Chip could tell you more about that.  I personally try to keep a consistent presence across all of the social networking sites I use, with the same icon and RandomConnections username.  The result has been fairly good search engine optimization.  If you do a Google search for a topic with which I’m involved, one of my social network sites will be fairly high in the results.  (I know I could improve this by trying to keep my blog focused, but that’s for a different discussion.)

So, the upshot of this is that I do have a website.  It’s found at www.randomconnections.com (which is blindingly obvious if you happen to be on the site right now), but you don’t necessarily have to go there to read it.  Perhaps Lee Lefever puts it best…