embedding YouTube videos in PowerPoint

When there is an online video that I want to play during a lesson, I like to have it downloaded (or at least cached) ahead of time, so that I know it will work. Having Flash videos play in PowerPoint is very slick and not that difficult, although it does involve a few steps. Unfortunately this only works in the Windows version.

So we'll assume that you have downloaded the video in Flash format. I started to write out the steps, but then decided that the wheel had been invented. So here are instructions from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291875.

PowerPoint 2003, 2002, and 2000

To add a Shockwave Flash Object control to a slide, follow these steps:

1. Start PowerPoint, and then locate the slide that you want to insert the control into.

2. If the Control Toolbox is not already visible, point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Control Toolbox.

3. In the Control Toolbox, click More Controls (which looks like a hammer and wrench), and then click Shockwave Flash Object.

Note: Shockwave Flash must be installed on your computer for the Shockwave Flash Object to be listed in the Control Toolbox.

4. Draw the control on your slide.  The Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX control now appears on your slide.

To make the Shockwave Flash control play back your Flash animation file, follow these steps:

5. Right-click the inserted Shockwave Flash control, and then click Properties.

6. Click the Movie property. In the Value box, type the full drive path, including the file name (for example, C\:MyFile.swf) to the Flash file that you want to play.

7. Make sure that the Playing property is set to True.

PowerPoint 2007

Make sure that the Flash Player is installed on the computer. Then, follow these steps:

1. In PowerPoint, display in normal view the slide on which you want to play the animation.

2. Click the Microsoft Office Button at the top left, and then click PowerPoint Options.

3. Click Popular, and then click to select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box under Top options for working with PowerPoint, and then click OK.

4. On the Developer tab, click More Controls (which looks like a hammer and wrench) in the Controls group.

5. In the list of controls, click Shockwave Flash Object, click OK, and then drag on the slide to draw the control.

6. Resize the control by dragging the sizing handles.

7. Right-click the Shockwave Flash Object, and then click Properties.

8. On the Alphabetic tab, click the Movie property.

9. In the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), type the full drive path, including the file name (for example, C\:MyFile.swf) to the Flash file that you want to play.

social bookmarking

del.icio.us (or delicious.com)

and we're back

Welcome back to another school year, I trust you had a good summer.

This year you can look forward to a blog post here every week. There may be posts more often if necessary, but there should at least be new posts on Wednesdays.

As always, feel free to comment on any of the posts.

undeleting emails in FirstClass

One last post before the summer, but I'll be posting again in September.

If you've accidentally deleted an email in FirstClass, you can undelete it as long as the "trash" hasn't been "emptied". I think the trash is emptied nightly.

In order to see what you've deleted, open your mailbox and choose "show deleted items" from the "View" menu. Find the message you want to undelete, right click it, and choose "Undelete".

You can then hide the deleted items by choosing that option under the view menu.

Have a good summer.

on my desk this morning

I thought perhaps I could list the electronic devices that are on my desk this morning.

• My desktop PC, of course
• wireless keyboard
• wired and a wireless mouse
• wireless presenter
• VGA video splitter
• VGA video switch
• VCR and DVD
• remotes for these, and for my projector
• speakers hooked up to the computer, DVD, and VCR
• USB DVD burner
• a stack of blank DVDs
• USB external hard drive
• USB webcam (not sure where that came from)
• Bamboo tablet
• Wii remote
• OLPC XO laptop
• three EeePCs (two that I'm setting up for other people)
• half a dozen USB flash drives
• two SD cards
• USB card reader/USB hub
• clock radio with an iPod dock
• a students' iPod touch (charging in the dock)
• and many cables, connected and disconnected

My desk doesn't always look like this, but perhaps more often than not...

iPod touch

I'm typing this post on an iPod. If you've never played with an iPod touch before, borrow one from a student. Better yet, get them to show you things like how it displays photos, videos, and album art. It also has a notepad, wifi, and a web browser. It can function as a PDA, or even almost be a replacement for a laptop.

There is also a phone version that you may have heard of, the iPhone. I've seen a few of these around, but they are officially coming to Canada July 11th (the second generation iPhone). Everything I just wrote about, plus mobile phone and GPS.

student email addresses

There are a few options for providing student email addresses. At my school we're using Google Apps Education Edition, and we like it. If you're looking for filtered email and don't mind somewhat more intrusive advertising, Gaggle.net is an option. Another option, though, is to use an existing FirstClass system and add students as users to it; this isn't as easy, and may not be free, but it is an option.

We have gmail (Google email) accounts for all 1250 or so of our students, as well as gmail accounts for the staff. Students can use their to forward assignments home, collaborate with other students, and get in touch with their teachers outside of class. I have also had students use them to hand in assignments (either as attachements or as Google documents), as email reminders or class communications (I have a group email list for each of my classes), and I have a shared calendar of upcoming assessments.

We've made up a list of the pros and cons of using Google Apps Education Edition.
Cons:

• No uptime guarantee
• Who owns your data?
• No control over spam filter, password policies, logs, blacklists, etc (some of this is available through the API)
• No directory lookup for >200 users
• Advertising (although targeted text ads only)

Pros:

• Free (but there are paid options)
• Easy to setup and administrate
• Bulk account upload/update
• Stable
• Good Spam Filtering
• Other Apps (calendar, docs, etc.)
• POP and IMAP
• Lots of space (>6 GB per user)
• API (provisioning, usage reports, SSO, etc.)

I recommend GAEE, and in fact there are quite a number of Universities implementing it as well. And hopefully we won't have to worry about Google going out of business.