Week 6: Video Killed the Radio Star

There had to be a first: 33 years ago this summer, MTV (Music Television) launched their broadcast with the Buggle's "Video Killed The Radio Star."

Watch the video on YouTube by clicking HERE.  And note, when you open the video in YouTube, you'll more than likely get a quick advertisement attached to the beginning of the video. You'll have the option to skip the ad after a few seconds. That was enough time for me to find out the first two times I pulled up the video the ads were selling female personal hygiene products and make up. You'll also see links to other similar videos; gems by Tommy Tutone (anybody remember who you'll get if you call 867-5309?) and Men Without Hats (where are their hats?)

Now, watch the video HERE. For this link I'm using a free online service called SafeShare.TV.  This service offers you a way to watch and share YouTube videos with advertisement and other external content removed. By copying and pasting the YouTube link into SafeShare. TV you'll get a URL to a page with just the video; no other advertisements and no similar suggested videos queuing up. You can even customize the name and background colors.  

Benefits: create SafeShare links for short video clips you might show in class or in a meeting. You can post the links to your Moodle page, PowerPoint, or create a Google Doc to hold your links. Or email the links to your group prior to meeting. No more awkwardness when a questionable ad pops up or unusual video links show up at the end of your video.

Note: occasionally a video on YouTube is set for "no embedding." When this happens you won't be able to use a service like SafeShare.

Other Video Tools You Might Find Helpful

 Zaption: is a tool for creating video-based quizzes or embedding extra content within videos. You can sign in with your Google account credentials or create your own user account. Free services allow you to add text, images, drawings, multiple choice/check box questions and open ended questions to the video.

While you're not capturing any user credentials (unless your first embedded questions is "Name"), you will see data on how viewers answered questions and distribution of answers, how much time they spent in the video, dates of viewing and more.

Video can be embedded from YouTube, Vimeo, NatGeo, TED, Discovery, NASA, edutopia, VSauce, CrashCourse, SciShow, CGP Gallery or you can upload your own videos.


Edited videos are referred to as "Tours" - here's a sample I created: Zombie Training.
Or view the Zaption Gallery for more examples, then try your own!

If you like the Common Craft style videos (I use them frequently - see Zombie Training above - and they are usually titled "In Plain English"), check out Wideo.  This is for you if you want to try your hand at the entire video creation; you can copy another Wideo from the gallery (if the creator has set it up for copying) or you can start from scratch. This is a fun tool, you'll feel like a movie producer! It's helpful to work through some of the tutorials before diving into Wideo. Warning: Wideo can be time consuming!

Lastly; I have a new tool in my office called a "Swivl". If you've ever considered recording yourself teaching for the purpose of improving your teaching methods, or perhaps capturing a portion of your class for student review or flipping, the Swivl would be a great asset. It holds an iPad, which is the recoding device. The Swivl uses follow-technology to track you (you'd be wearing a small dongle so the Swivel can find you) while you teach and move throughout the room. Drop me an email if you'd like to check it out.