Creating a video and uploading to LiveText

We are just beginning to roll out LiveTetx here at UW/CC, and with that comes the need to create and upload videos. We have a number of older Flip HD cameras and several newer Bloggies to be used for this purpose. It made sense to create a simple tutorial on uploading video to a Windows computer, load it into Windows Live Movie Maker, and then upload the completed video into LiveText. Of course these instructions are only of use on Windows computers. I will try to develop one for the Mac as soon as I can.

I 'd like to stress that this is not completely restricted to Bloggies and Flips. Just about any modern smart phone can be used for this purpose as well, along with most digital cameras that have the ability to shoot movies. Just follow the instructions in the tutorial and you will have a video that can be uploaded to Facebook, LiveText, TeacherTube, and many other services of this type.

You can find the instructions in PDF format here.

openSUSE Edu Li-f-e 12.2 Linux Distro

The open SUSE Edu Li-f-e 12.2 Linux has been released. I confess that I have not heard of this distributino before, and I am a long time user (back to 7.0) of this operating system. Given what I have read and experimented with in the past, this distribution looks to be an almost ideal option for schools wishing to create low cost computer labs without the overhead and expense of separate client and server software. Edu Li-f-e includes the Linux LTSP server, which makes it possible to use older computer hardware as thin clients for use in the classroom. This means no licensing fees or upkeep for the software on the individual machines as the operating system is delivered acros the network from the server. That means that every client (individual machine) has a copy of SUSE remotely running on it. That reduces the maintenance needs for the client computers to hardware and network maintenance. That is a significant saving over time.


In addition to the large selection of K-12 software included in the distribution, there is also a copy of both Moodle and aTutor to create hybrid and web assisted courses with.

Given the state of the economy in many states right now, this potentially represents an excellent opportunity to update older computer labs with modern software, without having to invest in newer infrastructure in order to do so. The minimum client requirements for this distro (knowing of course that a more powerful machine will be needed for the server) is "Any PC or a Virtual Machine with 1G RAM. PC should have a DVD drive or should be USB boot capable. For installation minimum 15GB partition is required. " That should not be difficult for just about any computer lab with machines less than ten years old to meet.

For more information, check out the wiki for the distribution here: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Education-Li-f-e

I bought an iPad, Now What?

Here is the presentation for the course at Casper College on Saturday the 15th. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzePI4lBjEKzdGxSNDkyWFdnVFU

WebP, a JPEG replacement begins to gain traciton

I'll be the first to admit that this development has gotten by me for the last however long that Google has been working on it. There is a new graphic format that is being developed at Google with the aim of replacing the JPEG standard for images. According to what I have read, the WebP format is supposed to be more size efficient than JPEG and PNG (over 20% smaller in both cases) at the same resolution, supports transparency like the PNG and GIF formats, and is capable of both lossy and lossless compression using two very different compression methods.

Why is it important? The WebP format will be able to provide smaller file sizes for graphics used on the web, and also smaller email attachments when sending images.

As of this time the format is supported natively by the Chrome browser, and plug-ins are available for some other browsers. You can find out more about the format from Google here: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/ . For those interested in being able to use WebP on Windows, the codec is available here: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webp_codec?hl=hu-HU

Considering the period that the PNG format was available before becoming a de facto alternative to GIF and JPEG, WebP probably has a couple of years left before becoming ubiquitous. It is good to see that there is continuing development on better image compression standards, especially given the continued adoption of wireless connected devices, where file size and transmission time is a real consideration.

iPad Security presentation link

Here is the link to the presentation from the Sept. 8th iPad security course.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zU03K2fXwMBE_RnV0FBozNaynvwAoNrE1WjgUUYsOlA/edit