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Tips and tricks: Workarounds

I realized earlier this week that I've figured out several workarounds for when I'm working on my school computer. With filtration that would have Mao crying foul mixed with a lack of administrative access to install programs or change settings, what works at home doesn't at school.

The setup

  • PC: running Windows XP.
  • Internets: Filtered.
  • Administrative rights: None.
  • Browser: Firefox 3 (for whatever reason, I've found that Firefox will often install even on machines where you don't have administrative access. However, the computer tech at school did put Firefox on my computer when I asked.)

How to get YouTube videos at school when they're blocked

There are many ways of doing this, but the following is simply the method that I have found the most effective.

At home: Find a video you like. Go to Zamzar.com. Click the "Download Videos" tab and paste the URL of the video into the appropriate box. Enter the file format you want the video to be downloaded in. For school I usually use the .mpg format, simply because it meshes well with all the Microsoft stuff. Put in your school email, hit convert. It can take a couple hours for your video to be converted, but it's usually ready within an hour.

At school: When the file has been converted Zamzar sends you an email with a link to a page where you can download your file. My school doesn't block Zamzar (so I doubt yours does), so I just go to the download page and save the video to my school computer to use as I see fit. I like this method because it automatically sends the email to my school address and I don't have to remember much.

TwitterAccessing Twitter from school

This is only a trick if Twitter is blocked by your school's internet filter. You need to be running Firefox for this one. Ask you tech people to install Firefox for you if you can't do it yourself. I'd bet they'd be okay with it.

Install either the TwitBin or TwitKit Firefox add-ons. For some reason they're able to retrieve and post tweets even when Twitter is blocked. I suggest both because at my last district TwitKit didn't work with the filter, but TwitBin did. Currently the opposite is true. I don't know enough about how these programs work to give you insight into why that might be, my best advice is simply to try one- if it doesn't work; try the other.

Print screenSaving and editing screenshots images on my school computer

My school computer's a PC, so the clearly superior Skitch program is right out. Other free screenshot tools that are PC compatible generally require administrator access to install, which in my situation is a deal breaker.

  1. Use your PrintScreen button to copy your screen as an image.
  2. Paste the screen image into PowerPoint.
  3. Crop the image, add text, arrows, emphasis, etc.
  4. Save your edits in one of two ways:
  • One: Use the "Save As..." function to save the entire slide as an image. This only works if the screenshot you want is as large as the entire slide, otherwise you get a lot of unnecessary white space.
  • Two: Select all the shapes and text you've added along with the image (do this by holding Ctrl while clicking on each element). Right click on the image. One of the options should be "Save as Image..." Pick that one and it will give you the options of saving your selection in a variety of formats. I generally use .jpg or .gif.

Hopefully you'll find these useful. What workarounds do you use to get around overly protected digital environments?

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Image sources:

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Caught on YouTube

The NEA recently posted an article about teachers who have been unknowingly taped digitally recorded by their students who then posted the videos online. The article mentions some cases where teachers are clearly acting inappropriately. However, it also mentions a few cases in which the video clip was taken out of context or edited in a manner that created the appearance of unprofessional behavior.

The article goes on to describe how one might go about requesting videos be taken off of YouTube, and right near the end it states:

Problem is, kids aren't always responsible. That's why cell phones and other digital media should be banned in classrooms, advises NEA General Counsel Michael Simpson. He also suggests that schools make it a punishable offense to post a video of another student or teacher without that person's permission.

But the safest course of action is to prevent students from capturing humiliating or damning video in the first place.

Questions

  • Why is the first reaction to this "ban 'em all?" Shouldn't we recommend first that teachers not go on mad rampages, call students hateful names, or physically assault students?
  • How do you teach students to use digital cameras responsibly?
  • Is it inherently a bad thing to record a teacher in their classroom without their permission?
  • Is it ever OK to post video of a person online without their permission?

Comments

  • The suggestion to ban cell phones based upon these instances seems lacking to me. There seems to be two classifications of video recording according to this article: (1) students purposely trying to get teachers fired, and (2) students recording honest-to-goodness atrocities committed by teachers. The first group of students aren't going to be affected by a ban. They're clearly looking to create trouble. I doubt a ban on cell phones would prevent their mischief. As for the second group, I have a hard time believing that what they're doing is all that wrong. It's very likely that when students make serious accusations of teacher misconduct their complaints are fully believed. So to prove their point, they get hard evidence.
  • This is a tough issue. Take five 30-second clips of my worst teaching moments throughout a year and play it back to me. I'd be horribly embarrassed, feel like a terrible person, and anyone you'd show it to would believe that as well.
  • I don't think teachers should live in fear of being taped. I think teachers should be comfortable with anyone see them teach at anytime. What's to hide? I realize we all have bad moments, but as a profession we should be striving for transparency and professionalism. Teachers should be managing their classrooms in such a manner that being covertly video taped won't turn up any dirt.

What do you think?

Check out the NEA article. Is my thinking on track? Or am I a certified wacko? Have you ever been caught on tape (for good or ill)? Is banning cell phones the way to handle this issue? Am I wrong to not be very sympathetic towards many of these teachers being taped?

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Awesome Video of the Week, Vol. 1

In addition to my interesting finds series, I'm starting this series which will include a video of something I found compelling, awesome, or interesting each week. They may be videos that are educationally useful or they may just be too awesome to not share with the world.

This first video's narration is in Japanese, and I don't know what's being said, but it still fits into both of those categories: educational and awesome (crazy awesome): The Goblin Shark

Besides the immediate (for me) connection between the Goblin Shark and the alien from the Alien movie series, this video can lead to some interesting discussions in a science classroom. Why did this species of shark evolve its special jaw mechanism? What type of terrain/environment/other factors led this crazy jaw mutation to be selected over the more standard type of shark jaw?

Taken further, this could lead into students "designing" their own crazy creatures, with the caveat that whatever crazy appendages or features their creatures have must be defended with an explanation of how these specific mutations would provide the creatures with evolutionary advantages over other animals competing for resources in the same ecosystem. You might even be able to work this type of assignment into using this game, but I haven't worked out the specifics of that quite yet.

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Interesting (SSOL) stuff 2

While I'm not sharing these with my students anymore (yahoo for summer!), I'm still finding good stuff that I'm tucking away in my personal files. Here's a sampling of sites that made me SSOL (say "sweet!" out loud):

The Big Picture

Part of the Boston Globe's online space, The Big Picture posts amazing high quality images of recent events.
Particular posts I found moving/incredible/inspiring:

Typography as art

I only recently realized there's this culture of utilizing typography in a wide variety of artistic ways. Some of my favorites:

Kinetic typography

The art of using spoken text to create animated text which extends, adds to, or changes your perception of the original text.

Who's on First?

V is for Vendetta

Typographic animation

This short animated video utilizes only letters, numbers, and symbols right off the keyboard to tell its story.

Death and Taxes

I just ran across this yesterday thanks to BoingBoing.net. It's a graphical depiction of the United States federal discretionary budget (i.e. where you income taxes go). Incredibly detailed yet incredible to look at, it's quick way to visualize the priorities of the government based upon how they fund the various departments. You can zoom and pan around the image at their site to get a better look. If you really like it, you can buy it as a 24-inch by 36-inch poster (that's roughly 61-cm by 91-cm for those world citizens out there).

Wow! SSOL!

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"Fun Facts"

I've taken to adding in "fun facts" to my class. I'm not sure if I got this idea from Dan Meyer in the first place, or if I stumbled upon it independently and then had my habit reinforced by his enthusiasm for a little fun unbound from the "standard" curriculum. They

Pro-crast-i-na-tion: I've seen all of my students do one of these at some point. I've done most, especially the "imaginary computer games with your furniture."

Kung Fu Bear : I used it as a pep talk for my students while they were working on a presentation project. When you go to the zoo to see a bear, it's pretty impressive. Bears usually are just lying around at the zoo, so it doesn't take long to get over the impressiveness and move on. However, this bear decided he was going to take his game to the next level (here's when I started the video). He wanted people to sit up and pay attention to him. People come from all over to see Kung-Fu Bear. People will watch him for hours. He's mastered his game. I then told students I didn't want their presentations to just meet the bare (hardee-har-har) minimums. Don't just be a lazy bear. Be a Kung-Fu Bear!

21 Accents: Some classes loved it, others hated it. I was badgered by one class to play it multiple times spanning through the end of that week. In another class, I was asked to turn it off about 15 seconds in and never play it again. It's amazing how different the personalities of my classes are this year.

I Love the World (The Earth is Just Awesome): I posted on this earlier. The class that hated the 21 Accents video loved this one. Wonder if there's some psychological reasoning behind that...hmm... My other classes enjoyed it, but didn't constantly demand to see it over and over and over and over...

666: I got the information for this from a RadioLab show (RadioLab totally blows my mind). Want to grab every student's undivided attention in a class (yep, even the ones who haven't earned a single credit since 3rd grade)? Throw up a 5 ft. x 5 ft. 666 on your projection screen- the room will almost assuredly fall eerily quiet. Here's the story I told 'em about their favorite numbers: It turns out the oldest known manuscript of the book of Revelations says the "number of the beast" is actually 616. Interestingly enough, this is the area code for much of west Michigan (where I spent my undergrad years). I've embedded the section of the show below where it tells the full story. Or you can visit the RadioLab episode site.

I'll try to update you with more good finds as I come across them.