Following are directions that will work with any web page.  For more specific directions for embedding videos in Blackboard see http://judybrophy.keenecommons.net/2010/03/02/embedding-videos-in-blackboard/

Get that Embed Code

Many videos can be embedded in another web page,  for example those on news website. The trick is to find the Embed Code for the video.  It is generally near the video in small print. First find the Embed code icon and copy the data given, usually by clicking in the field and pressing Control/C. Here is an example from the Economist videos and from the New York Times.

Copy this data by either pressing Control/C or by right clicking your mouse and choosing Copy. Now it’s on your computer’s clipboard, ready to paste into your web page.

Paste it into the web page

Navigate to your web page. Make sure you are in HTML mode. HTML mode is not usually the default mode. This may mean clicking an icon labeled HTML on the screen or a tab labeled HTML.  Examples:

When you are in HTML mode, paste the embed code that you copied by pressing Control/V.   Save your page.  Your video displays with picture and controls on the page.  The video file is not stored in your page, but only linked to it.

You make this sharing choice after you have  upload the video by choosing a radio button:

1.    Public-  anyone can search for and view the video.

2.    Unlisted-  “Unlisted” means that only people who know the link to the video can view it.  The video will not appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces, such as search results, your channel, or the Browse page, but the link can be shared with anyone.

3.    Private- Private means that only specific YouTube users that you choose can view the video, and they must be signed in to YouTube (that is, they must have a YouTube Account). You may only send a private video to 50 users.

In addition to the sharing options you can decide whether to allow comments:

Generally speaking, sharing and commenting are good things.

Sharing work among students has a positive effect on individual student work.  As members of a group, for example, a class, students are able to see what their peers’ work looks like.  This form of sharing work is also an act of publication. For students working to establish a representative body of work, this is a great first step.

Commenting:  Published work that allows comments requires that students learn to both critically examine the work of others, and internalize the critical comments they receive from others. This may require some basic ground rules about commenting, but will also push students to clearly state their opinion about the work they are examining.

Watch these short videos to hear their stories.

	Keene State Music department uses the Google Docs form to collect all the information they need to schedule student auditions, saving much time and effort.
Community Service Coordinator Mary McEntee used the form to collect student volunteer hours. It was easier for students since the form was on the web and quicker to get the data… no more data entry of paper forms.
	Steve Bigaj, Coordinator of Professional Studies and Continuing Education needed to do a quick survey of seniors who were “walking” at graduation but had not yet finished their coursework.  His survey open for only 24 hours got more than 100 responses and some valuable information about how the college can better serve students.
The Service Learning coordinator, Jennifer Drake-Deese created a form to efficiently gather evaluations from students and professors of service learning placements. The survey was posted in each class’s Blackboard course.

Have an idea how you could use Google Docs forms? Contact us at CELT or  jbrophy@keene.edu

You will notice from the video that Jing also captures still images, but it is the video that is really powerful.

Jing videos have several advantages:

• It’s very easy to use.
• You can store your videos on the Jing server and just paste the url where you want it.
• It’s free and downloadable by anyone.
• You don’t need any special programs to view a Jing video.

You can download the program for free at  http://www.jingproject.com/ All you need to use it is a microphone or headset attached to your computer. (Available at Radio Shack for around $10.)

While it is most useful in an online course, it can fill a need in a classroom course as well. You can post the urls in your BlackBoard course site. You might use it to:

• Show how to do something on screen (for example a computer application, how to export your BlackBoard course: http://screencast.com/t/YjRiMDQy)

• Show how to do something on the internet (get to a site or right click to save a picture)

• Tour a great website – For example: 

• Explain project directions – You don’t have to get fancy on the graphics, just display the written instructions that you already have and talk your way through them. It’s a fact that some students just get it better by hearing. Example at http://screencast.com/t/GPiHjq70Aet

• Create a talking powerpoint – Display the show and do a voice over. Example at  

If you are already a Camtasia or a Macromedia Captivate user you will want to know the differences between them and Jing:

• There is a time limit of about 5 minutes on the Jing videos
• You can not edit a Jing video.
• Jing videos are produced in only one format: flash files.

However,  for “quick and dirty” audio visual broadcasts, you can’t beat Jing.

Create an Embed button in your Jing account

Click on the Jing sun and choose the third button labeled MORE.

On the round menu that appears, choose Preferences. It looks like gears.

From the Preferences menu, choose Customize:

On the Customize Jing Buttons menu, click NEW.

On the Button Settings:

Click Close.

On the next screen, click Finish.

Now when you create a video you will have a second screencast button. The second one is labeled EMBED when you cursor over it.

Use the Embed Button

Create your screencast and click the Stop button. Choose the Embed button by clicking on it.

Your screencast will upload and you will receive a message telling you that the embed code is ready on your clipboard. You can insert it in your blog or webpage.

Put it in BlackBoard

Log on to BlackBoard.
Note to Mac users: in order see the Toggle HTML button you must use FireFox as your browser when you log on to BlackBoard. If you use Safari, you won’t have this functionality available.

In a Content Item:

· Click Add Item

· Give your item a name

·
Click the Toggle HTML Source Mode icon

· Paste the embed code that you have on your clipboard using either the paste icon or Control/V. Here’s how it will look in BlackBoard.

About.com has a good step-by-step procedure for creating the questions here.

After you have created the questions and clicked the Save button you may want to change the thank you screen before distributing the survey.

Changing the Thank You screen

The default message that is displayed to a survey-taker when they have completed the survey is:

Thanks!  Your response will now appear in my spreadsheet.

To change that message, edit the form and select More Actions/Edit Confirmation

Distributing the survey

You can distribute the survey by emailing it, either from within the Google form or from your own email client.  If you send it from Google anything you have written in the Description field will be included in the text of the email.  If you send it from your own email you can customize the invitation text.  Either way you must enter the email addresses of the people you want to receive the form.

You can also embed the survey in a web or blog page.

To make the survey available via email from within Google:
Edit the form. Click the Email this form menu option at the top of the form.

To send the survey from your email client:
Obtain the url for the survey. It is listed at the bottom of the form when you are editing the form.

Include this url in the body of your email.

To embed the survey in a web page:
Get the embed code by clicking More Actions / Embed

Press Control-V to copy the code that is displayed.

Insert this code into your web page in html mode.

View the results

The survey form creates a spreadsheet that collects the data. You can view the results on the spreadsheet by clicking on the spreadsheet in your google docs listing. You can also export the spreadsheet to an excel document.

You can view a graphical summary of the data by clicking Form / Show summary of responses

It creates output like this:

Closing a Survey form

When you want to stop accepting responses to your survey you can turn it off.

In the spreadsheet, click on the Form menu option. Then click Accepting responses.

The checkmark is removed showing that the form is no longer accepting response.

Anyone accessing the form will get this generic message:

See some examples of how people have used Google surveys here.

If your course is one in which you would like students to keep an eye on the news, you can embed a newsfeed from Google News in the Announcements of  your BlackBoard course.

Directions

Go to the google News Widget page http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/newsshow/wizard.html

To put it in Blackboard:

Open your course and go to the Control Panel.

Click Announcements or another Content folder if you want to put the feed somewhere else.

On the Announcments screen, click Add Announcements.

Type a name like Latest News from Google in the Subject field.

Important!! Click the Toggle HTML Source Mode icon.

Paste the embed code that you copied

To keep the news feed on your announcements page, click Yes after Permanent Announcement.

Click Submit.

Your news feed appears on your announcement page.

One way to achieve that outcome is to have students practice interpreting data. Possible assignments include:

• Giving students a good graph or a poor graph and ask them to tell its good points and bad points

• Giving students a graph and ask them to tell one thing you can tell from the graph and/or one thing they can’t tell. (This would be good for a VoiceThread because many students can comment on one graph.)

• Giving students a graph and ask them to measure it against a checklist/rubric that you and they have created.

You can use one of the following technologies to have students do the assignment orally.

• Jing – a free screen capture program
• VoiceThreads – a free group discussion program

There are many excellent resources for things like choosing which type of graph to use at the National Center for Educational Statistics website:  http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/pdf/graph_tutorial.pdf

This website provides what you need to decide which technology best fits your need, see what your role would be as an instructor in the process and what are some resources for both instructors and students.

It’s free and easy to use.

Download the converter at http://www.ispringfree.com/download.html.

ISpring Free adds a tab to your PowerPoint menus.

When you want to add a video, click on the ISpring Free menu tab.

Then click the YouTube  icon.

Paste the You-Tube url into the Video link field.

Note that in you author’s view of PowerPoint the slide will look like this:

However, when you play the Powerpoint, it will look like this: