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Month: March 2008

Timelines.tv points the way to the future of learning History

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Timelines.tvIn an average week I probably receive 2-3 emails asking me to review websites, products or software. One random person this week even asked if they could guest blog solely so they could advance their career! Most of these go straight in GMail’s trash folder, but one I received earlier this week was different.

I received an email from Andrew Chater, Bafta award-winning producer of seminal documentaries and History-related programmes. He’s recently launched timelines.tv, which, he believes:

…is a new and exciting on-line history resource provided free for the user…. It offers a wealth of quality TV documentary, arranged on interactive historical timelines that put you in control of your journey through the past. The content covers all aspects of British history from 1066 to the present day, arranged on three parallel timelines: social, political and national/imperial.

I have to say that I’m rather impressed by it. Not only does it help visitors gain a handle on chronology, but introduces themes to enable them to get a grip on how concepts such as ‘leadership’ have changed through time.

Perhaps the best way to use this resource is in a 1:1 laptop situation. In fact, it would be ideal with each learner having an Asus eee each! (are you getting sick of me talking about these little marvels yet?) 😉

The size of the digital video is probably (just) big enough for viewing on an Interactive Whiteboard/projector, but I think the bitesize nature of them means that setting the watching of them for homework along with an activity is a real possibility.

I’m really looking forward to more sites like this springing up. Very well done, Andrew – and kudos for making it free to all! 😀

New Asus eee user? Read this!

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

This is my first blog post using the powerful combination of my new (replacement) Asus eee and the Scribefire plugin for Firefox. 🙂

The purpose of this post is to demonstrate how I have setup my eee for better productivity (i.e. made it more powerful whilst retaining ease-of-use). I think you’ll agree that my setup at least looks good:

There’s two programs/scripts I used to get to the above. I was made aware of these by the excellent Eeeuser.com wiki, which should definitely be your first port of call! In particular, the following are very useful:

  • pimpmyeee (a script that turns on and turns off features – includes themes, icons, ‘Advanced Mode’, etc.)
  • TweakEEE (a program that is installed to the Settings tab and allows you to modify the Easy Mode user interface)

By using these two programs/scripts I now have the advantage of being able to use the fantastic Easy Mode whilst having the power and flexibility of accessing the Start Menu. This means I can install and access programs such as Frostwire and the GIMP quickly and easily using Synaptic Package Manager:

How have YOU modified your eee? Are you pleased with the results?:p

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A DVD-ripping guide for educators: Part 2

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

DVDIn Part 1 of this DVD-ripping guide for educators we learned how to use a program called Handbrake to rip a DVD to digital video. In this part, Part 2, we’re going to look at how to divide the outputted video into ‘chunks’, ready for use in lessons.

The program we are going to use to do this is called Avidemux, which is free, Open-Source, and available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. 🙂

 

Step 1

Avidemux 01 (click to enlarge)

Once you have installed Avidemux, open the program. It should look something like the screenshot above.

Step 2

Avidemux 03 (click to enlarge)

We need to choose MP4 under the Format menu.

Avidemux 04

Once this has been done, click on the folder icon at the top left-hand corner to locate the file with which you want to work.

Step 3

Avidemux 05

Locate the file you encoded in Part 1 of this guide and then press Open. An error similar to the one above may appear. Apart from the program author’s terrible grammar and spelling, don’t worry about it and simply press Yes. 😉

Step 4

Avidemux 06

Using the controls at the bottom of Avidemux, select the part of the digital video you want to take as a clip.

Avidemux 07 Play and Stop the video

Avidemux 08 Forward and Back one frame

Avidemux 09 Forward and Back one keyframe (i.e. takes you to the point where the scene changes)

Avidemux 10 Set Start and End of section to include in clip

The easiest and quickest way of finding the section you want to include in your clip is to use the Slider to get to roughly where the section is. Then use the Keyframe buttons to fine-tune this a bit more. Then for frame-perfect positioning, use the forward and back Individual frame buttons. Click the A button to set the start of the section for your clip and the B button to set the end of the section for your clip.

Step 5

Avidemux 11

Once you have found the section you want to include in your clip, press the disk button next to the folder icon. It should say Save Video if you put your cursor over it. You will then be prompted where to save the clip. Choose the location and filename then press Save. You should see something similar to the screenshot below:

Avidemux 12

The process should not take very long as it is not actually encoding the video, merely taking a section out of an existing one and copying it to a new file. 🙂

Step 6

Avidemux 13
Go to the location you chose to save your clip and open it in a program such as Quicktime (free of charge with iTunes) or VLC. Repeat the above steps for as many clips as you want to take from your original ripped video.

Comments? Questions? Add them below!

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