The free software, VUE (Visual Understanding Environment), is used for creating concept maps. VUE can be installed on your computer but if you want a class of students to have access to VUE, you can install the VUE on a server. But if you don’t have access to a server, you can install the VUE applet in the Public folder of a DropBox account. Although the main use of DropBox is for synchronizing files across multiple computers, DropBox can also be used for sharing files (and accessing with others by placing them in the Public folder, by placing the VUE applet in the Public DropBox folder, anyone can create their own concept map with VUE.
Here’s what you need to do.
1. Go to http://vue.tufts.edu/download/index.cfm and set up a new account if you don’t already have one.
2. Once you have created an account, you will be taken to a page where you can download the Applet.
3. The applet will be downloaded as a zip file. Unzip the file which will create a folder called vueapplet. Place the folder in your DropBox Public folder. You can rename the folder if you like.
4. One of the files within the vueapplet folder is named “index.html.” In order for others to create a concept map using the VUE applet, you will need to get a URL that will access the index.html file. The instructions for getting the URL can be found on DropBox’s site on this page. Give this URL to others and they will be able to create a map using the VUE applet.
Although YouTube allows you to create hyperlinks to other YouTube videos using the Annotations feature, if you want to create a hyperlink that will go to an external site, you can use the LinkedTube. You won’t be able to create a hyperlink within a video that is playing at the YouTube site but if TubeLink will allow you to embed the video in a Web page, blog, wiki, or any site that will accept the HTML code for embedding a video.
Apple’s word-processing program, Pages, can now create ebooks. Files exported in the ePub format can be imported into iTunes which will cause them to show up in the Books section of iTunes. After you have synced your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone with iTunes, the ebook will appear in iBooks.
In order to create ebooks with Pages, go to Apple’s support page found here. Interestingly, in the section “More details on using ePub,” it indicates that video can be embedded in the document. What it doesn’t state is that audio files can also be embedded into your ebook.
If you decide to create an ebook using Pages, which states that you need to download the file, “ePub Best Practices.” You can use the document as a template or import the paragraph styles from the ePub Best Practices document into a new or existing Pages document.
One of the nice features about videos embedded in an ebook in iBooks is that you can choose to make the video full-screen.
In the “old” days of educational technology, we asked students to create Powerpoint or Hyperstudio files. But now they can create multimedia ebooks that can be read on an iDevice.
The Pulse SmartPen created by Livescribe may be *the* thing for students to consider, especially if they take a lot of notes or if they can’t write very fast (or at least can’t keep up with the teacher). I recently purchased one and will give students turns in using it during a course. With this pen, files which contain the corresponding audio can be uploaded and viewed by others at the Community site.
Some interesting scenarios in the form of videos, including the ability of the SmartPen to translate words to other languages can be seen on this page called Sneekpeek.
I’m becoming more interested in how video can be used in education and how to make it interactive. An interesting application that can be used is VideoPaper Builder, a free program produced by the Concord Consortium.
If there is video on the Web (i.e., You Tube, Google Videos, etc.) and you want to create some text or hyperlinks that relate to certain objects within the video, go to Asterpix to see how easily this can be done.
Hyperstudio has been resurrected and is in version 5.0 now. There are some new features. Years ago, I used Hyperstudio instead of Powerpoint and before Keynote was out.
I wonder if you can still export the Hyperstudio files and put them on the Web? If I remember correctly, a plug-in had to be installed on the server but I don’t think the user (the person wanting to view the Hyperstudio file on the web) had to install anything on their computer. (I know they had to install a Hyperstudio viewer on their computer and I assume that is still the case.)
Unfortunately, the MacKiev website provides some information but I’d like to see a more extensive list of the features.
If you would like to create presentation slides similar to the appearance of Powerpoint, but are web-based (and a whole lot better looking than Powerpoint on the web), check out this free software.
Macworld: News: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much more: “With Toast 7 Titanium, Roxio has added an iLife Browser that makes it possible to browse and drag and drop content from your iLife applications directly into toast. iTunes music and playlists appear, for example, as do iPhoto photos and albums. iMovie projects show up in that list, as do iDVD lists and Video_TS folders from DVDs you’ve ripped to your hard disk. What’s more, Toast 7 Titanium integrates with Elgato’s EyeTV PVR software, so you can drag and drop television shows you’ve recorded to your hard disk.”
Need a video for a class? Go here to see what is available? You’ll also want to check on the Internet Archive’s section on movies – http://www.archive.org/details/movies
According to the site, “SimpleVideoOut X converts any QuickTime movie into a FireWire stream, regardless of whether it originated with your digital camcorder, your hand-held camera’s movie function…”O’Reilly: Exporting QuickTime Movies with Simple Video Out X