If you enjoy classic films this site is for you!

Movies Found Online (www.moviesfoundonline.com) offers an array of programming including classic film and documentaries. They also feature public domain programs. I enjoyed watching the 1922 version of Nosferatu. This is a film I’ve always been curious about but still hadn’t seen. Now I have and it didn’t cost me a cent. It was odd watching a silent film though.

Some other titles I plan to check out include The Great Train Robbery, The Lost World, and Bluebeard. I also want to explored their 9/11 and Iraq documentaries. Looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time online this weekend!

This site doesn’t provide for expanding the video to full screen, at least Nosferatu didn’t show that option. But it may be the best collection of classic films online.

We have every right to expect much from the Discovery Channel. They’ve brought high quality educational programming into our living rooms for years. We consider them a leader in educational programming. To be honest its the reason I wouldn’t settle for the basic cable television package. So I was shocked when I took a look at their web programming and found it to be too little and too inflexible.

The first step to viewing nirvana is to surf to discovery.com. You’ll see the “Video” option among the drop down navigation menus. You will be presented with a menu of about 19 choices. “Watch Full Episodes” is at the top of the list which will take you to a page where you can download a viewer. There are installation instructions for the the PC and Mac. I noticed them after clicking to install on my Mac but everything worked flawlessly. You’ll also see about 4 shows listed at the far right of the page. BIG DEAL!

You’ll also have problems resizing the player window and maintaining access to its controls. They want to hide and the size of web page elements are awkwardly absolute.

I don’t like the proprietary player. It works fine but so do all the others installed on my computer. Why should I have a player taking up precious hard disk space just to watch the Discovery Channel? The biggest disappointment is the player’s total lack of sharing and embedding capacities. This means you will not be able to include a link to the program in your web course. BOO! HISS! We can only hope the advertisers can force Discovery to expand its reach and their effectiveness by adding these important extensions.

The 4 full episodes I could view were Meerkat Manor, Project Earth, Smash Lab, and Flip that House. The only one that interested me was Project Earth. It only had 2 episodes available Wrapping Greenland and Engineering the Future. I enjoyed it but it left me wanting more.

It was hard to believe this organization had done such a poor job so I decided to have a look at shows listed outside of the full episodes. “Perhaps the folks at the Discovery Channel just didn’t understand the all of the shows should be listed under full episodes?”, I pondered.

I clicked on Deadliest Catch and caught a Swiffer advertisement followed by less than 2 minutes of the program. This was followed by another Swiffer ad followed by a 2:30 segment. It became obvious this cycle would continue until we ran out of segments. To add insult to injury the video was made available through a first-generation video player.

The Discovery Channel doesn’t understand to use the web yet. Its too bad because they have some of the best footage in the industry just waiting to be made available to web viewers and online learners.

Last week I talked about the free web casting being done at hulu.com. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check that out. I’m very impressed they have all of the Highlander episodes. I’ve been trying to collect those on dvd but now I can watch them for free.

There’s more than one sheriff in town! Fancast is also providing on demand web broadcasting of television programs and feature films. Fancast programming is also funded by advertising so its free to us. The programming is a little different than hulu giving us more selections in viewing. I was so enthralled with the Jericho series I watched the whole thing. I also enjoyed watching the remake of the Planet of the Apes.

Unfortunately I did not see an option for getting the embed code to include programming on a web page but if you know HTML you can cut and paste the link into you page as a hyperlink.

Check this one out this weekend!

I just discovered something exciting in the area of education and entertainment. It goes by the unlikely name of hulu and it allows you to watch television programs and movies on demand over the World Wide Web. You can even embed a link to a show as I have for the original episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

This site offers television shows organized by genre. Some of the choices are classics while many are new. My favorites are the SciFi and Fantasy, Technology, and Travel and Nature. The movies seems consistent with what you would find broadcast on cable tv. The big difference is there is no subscription price. The programs include limited and brief commercial announcements but nothing compared with what you will find on regular tv. I also like being able to start and pause the program whenever I wish.

You ought to surf out to www.hulu.com and check it out for yourself.

Perhaps the days of subscribing to cable are numbered!

Google docs is exciting!

It has word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. So does Microsoft Office. Yes, but you have to buy Microsoft Office not to mention all of the upgrades. Google docs is free! But that isn’t the only reason to consider using it. Watch.

Documents are securely saved on Google’s server and you can access them from any computer capable of connecting to the Internet. No more lost files. No more lame excuses. The dog cannot eat anyone’s homework. Imagine having your files available anytime and anywhere. But that’s not all.

Students can collaborate with each other. Collaborators can actually watch while a document is being updated. Rough drafts can be submitted and recommendations made in real time. This makes feedback immediate and motivate students through peer pressure.

I teach a general education course for college freshman that uses Microsoft Office to teach word processing, spreadsheeting, and presentation graphics and I’m considering using Google docs instead. It can give my students all of the functionality they need without confusing beginners with complex menu structures. However, what they learn will easily transfer to a Microsoft Office or open source office suite such as NeoOffice.

I recommend exploring this software and what it has to offer you and your students too.

We’ve been using Blackboard at Mount Marty College for several years now and developing mastery has been an evolutionary process. We’re using our installed version near to its limits and I’m ready for some new capabilities. I’m particularly interested in podcast support and student photo logs of my sections. Remembering names is a personal weakness and I could use the help.

Fortunately Blackboard keeps improving its course management software. There are tons of new capabilities in the latest release. What this clip to find out what’s new.

I’m impressed! The University of Cincinnati is using the latest version of Blackboard in lots of new ways:

• student photo roster
• integrated grade book
• podcast building block
• student-controlled portal
• campus polling
• multiple community organizations
• integrated campus services

I’m going to ask the Dean to make an investment in this update.

Second Life makes a compelling argument about joining its virtual world but it falls flat on its face at being user-friendly.

My first excursion into Second Life was cumbersome at best. Singing up involves selecting an avatar, a virtual persona, with extremely limited choices in bodies and last names. I felt force to make selections that didn’t represent me. Once I entered the virtual world I found moving around, communicating with others, and examining objects to be far too difficult for my degree of interest in the game.

Second Life fanatics will take offense at my use of the word game but it is intentional. The frustration I experienced with Second Life is the same frustration I experience with early role playing games. It just isn’t worth the hassle. If I have problems using this game imagine how our students would feel!

Educational technology should enable learning by removing barriers to learning. Learning to use Second Life seems to be a mountainous obstacle. Its just too tedious. Why bother?

Besides, I have no need to hide behind a persona. I like myself as I am and I prefer to deal with real people, places, and things.

Tips?

Teachers beware of any new product that promises to be everything to everybody. Nothing really is. Such talk indicates a failure of focus in product design. Without focus there can be no real substance. This usually means an old failure is being re-marketed.

Designers focus on simplicity.

Gamers get a real life!

DePaul University released 6 vods (videos on demand) on using the Blackboard course management system to iTunes U. These vods are released in the spirit of the open learning which means they are freely available to all.

The first vod entitled SNL Blackboard Training was recorded on March 14, 2007. SNL stands for School for New Learning and its a DePaul initiative to offer degree programs online. This first vod in the series is a videotape of a live faculty in-service. The production quality is low. The lighting is poor and the sound fades at times. The room was dark while taping and the screens shots are merely projector screen images. Shooting was from an angle rather than straight on. The course was based on the book Blackboard to Dummies and I’m sure you’ll get more out of the book than watching this vod for two hours and thirty-five minutes. I could only watch it for about seven minutes. However, I did spot check it throughout and the lack of quality was consistent.

Use this vod if you ever want to demonstrate the need for professional technicians on campus to your superiors.

Moving on. The next two vods consist of the same video-taping session offered in two halves rather than a whole. This is slightly better because the vods are shorter but that is the only improvement. Still too long given the lack of production quality.

There is hope though. The next two vods entitled Explorer Print Tutorial and Firefox Print Tutorial demonstrate how to print Blackboard web pages. They are brief and to the point at just over a minute in length. It appears they are using screenshots with an out of focus camera but no but I believe they are actually videotaping from an overhead projector which causes focus issues. Why does DePaul want to kill trees anyway? Let’s become the promised paperless society and let the forests grow.

The final vod Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Vista Blackboard Tutorial is produced in the same manner but the focus seems a little better. Unfortunately all this vod does is show a work-around to solve problems with Microsoft’s new products. It seems Microsoft’s new operating system and browser don’t like user input. I have a better idea! Use a Mac.

Nice try but no cigar! This series illustrates the difficulties involved in video production. All in all I have to assess this work as a failure. There is information here but its too much effort to glean it. DePaul’s effort is appreciated and I’m sure their hearts of are in the right place but they need to redo. It is a great topic and need to be done well. Next time I hope they have a professional camera man and a director. They also need to break the material down into manageable segments. These are smart people. They’ll get it right.

Kudos for trying!

The rest of us need to remember taping a vod is the same thing as taping a television show or movie. 

I’m deleting this series from my hard drive ASAP. Sorry DePaul, better luck next time.