It's About Time

Download Videos to Your Desktop

paccorinti — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:39:51 +0000

Now that the district office has opened up YouTube for teachers to use on campus, we have noticed a significant slowing of our network. So, if you try to play a YouTube video in your classroom during class, it is very likely that it won’t play smoothly without stopping now and again. To avoid this problem you can download an MP4 file of the movie and then play the movie from your computer.

There are different ways to accomplish this. You can just Google “download youtube video” and you will find lots of hits. But the easiest way that I have found is to use the Firefox browser and add an extention that adds allows you to download video in different fomats.

To get the add on, open up your Firefox browser and go to <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13990/> . This will take you to the Mozilla page for 1-Click YouTube Downloader. Follow the instructions for downloading the extension. You will have to restart Firefox but the next time you go to YouTube, you will see the little buttons that will allow you to download a FLV, MP4 or 3GP file. MP4 files work with Quicktime so you can play your video from your computer without the annoying lag times when the video streams slowly.

Internet Privacy – Your Digital Footprint

paccorinti — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:35:02 +0000

With summer upon us and a new batch of seniors on their way to graduation, it might be a good time to remind students about their “online presence” and how it can affect their future. A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft <http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx> showed that hiring managers are researching job candidates online and using the information they find to make hiring decisions.

Do Libraries Need Books?

paccorinti — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:15:55 +0000

March is Black History Month

paccorinti — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:48:10 +0000

If you haven’t checked out Shmoop.com yet, now would be a good time to do it. They have collected a bunch of their resources related to African-American history for Black History Month.

Shmoop is written by experts and educators, mostly Ph.D. students from Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley. It is written in a casual way that kids like and everything is citable. In face, they tell you how to cite the page in you choice of style. There are resources for English and social studies and even a resource center for teachers that include assignment ideas.

Using Your iPod to Listen to Audiobooks

paccorinti — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:24:35 +0000

I listen to more books that I actually read these days and I love using my iPod and iPhone for this. Recently I checked out a popular audiobook from the library and I knew I wouldn’t have time to listen to it before it would need to be returned. I decided to download it into iTunes but I found that wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. So I was really happy when I found this set of instructions with step-by-step screenshots that showed me exactly what to do.

I also found another site that has all kinds of information about using audiobooks with iPods or iPhones. Aldo on Audiobooks is a blog by Michael Alderete. Michael Alderete is a web application developer who lives in San Francisco. His blog contains all types of information about using an iPod or iPhone to listen to audiobooks. Definitely worth checking out if you’re not sure where to begin.

Last, but not least, Mary Burkey, teacher, librarian and audiobook lover, writes the Audiobooker blog for Booklist about all things audiobook. I especially appreciate her reviews of young adult audiobooks. It’s an area that I’m not familiar enough with.

Deconstructing the Games:

paccorinti — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:10:30 +0000

If you are interested in the Winter Olympic Games coming up soon in Vancouver, the Vancouver Sun has published a set of posters that explain the different events in a way that makes sense. Just might make your viewing (and your student’s) of the events a little more interesting.

Deconstructing the Games: Collect all 16 of our 2010 Olympic events pages.

Information is Beautiful!

paccorinti — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:18:55 +0000

David McCandless, author and “visual journalist” has put together this interesting site that looks at information in a visual manner. Being an artist and visual person as well as a librarian, I appreciate the clever way he presents his information.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

A cool little app!

paccorinti — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:10:12 +0000

I haven’t published anything yet this year but here’s a great little app that puts a MAC-like dock menu on your PC desktop. I love it because I usually have so many windows open on my small monitor screen that it’s always a pain trying to find something. This allows me to put the things I use frequently on the dock which is viewable all the time.

The download can be found at: http://download.cnet.com/RocketDock/3000-2072_4-10856104.html

SnagFilms Film Widget

paccorinti — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:56:53 +0000

From the SnagFilms website – “SnagFilms is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve.
SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 550 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.”

Some of these films will definetly be useful in the classroom. But what is cool is that you can embed the film on your webpage.

Watch or share film documentaries from your webpage.

Jing

paccorinti — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:31:20 +0000

I think I won’t be able to live without this! You can download the software for free and capture images and screen video to use just about any way you like. In fact, I captured the image for this post using Jing. I also think it will be useful for making quick little tutorial videos for teachers and students for using software and other computer applications. If you upload the image or video to the web, it will also put a URL on you clipboard that you can then paste into an email, blog or tweet. Cool, huh? I’ll try making a video capture and posting it next time.