Tag Archives: video

creativity, technology, Web 2.0

Web 4.0 thanks to GE

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One thing leads to another. That happened to me today as it happens so often. The pathways within social networks are as mysterious as they are surprising. I was checking my Twitter updates, and I did what I often do – check out who else is interesting through my own network. So I was checking out @art4change who was conversing with @hrheingold, and I followed a link she had tweeted. I was hoping it would be good, because she had promised: ‘Watch this NOW. Dead serious. It will blow your mind. Thanks @JohnStauffer http://tinyurl.com/cydomk’.

This comes from GE. As John Stauffer says in his post ‘Hangin with Mr Cooper’,

Sit back and prepare to be amazed. No video editing was done to create this, just a flipcam and some Friday afternoon brainstorming with our Creative Director, Robert Cooper….

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkqtklABgGQ&eurl=http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2009/02/hangin-with-mr-cooper/comment-page-1/#comment-35235&feature=player_embedded]

art, creativity, technology

From George Washington to Barack Obama

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It would be remiss of me not to post something about Barack Obama’s inauguration. Not for the first time, I’ve shirked a difficult synopsis of a complex event by opting for a video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYrZZ68zhSs&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-ww-ww-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google+r&feature=player_embedded]

Theresa McGee posted this video in her post on the The Teaching Palette. It’s an interesting visual journey through the line of American presidents.

There is a similar morphing video in one of my earlier posts.

creativity, media, music

The Herd 2020 and Mike Daly – power of creative media

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I found this on Boing Boing, and enjoyed it so much on so many levels that I had to share it with you. Try not to dance to this. Inspirational as political message, visual feast, creative production, political springboard for discussion, power of media.

It’s a music video of the song 2020 by the Australia-based band, The Herd,  and it’s directed by Mike Daly.  Mike recently won the award ‘Australian Music Video of the Year’ at the 2008 J Awards for this video.

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=n65x_cSHSHE]

21st century learning, creativity, Education, film, humour, learning, teachers, teaching, Web 2.0

Just do it – together

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Allanah King  has made a lot of people smile with her collaborative project dance video. See if you can keep a straight face.

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=v3gbOfgzFBI]

Allanah commented:

The project started out as a bit of fun – it ended up that way too. We thought we would make a collaborative video in a similar style to the Where the hell is Matt video that is wildly popular on YouTube. By having a collaborative dance video we were able to transcend cultural and language barriers as everyone loves to move and dance- it is pretty universal.

Allanah collaborated with schools across New Zealand, as well as Canada, Bangkok and the United Kingdom. She talks about her process on the Time 4 Celebration site.

Why does this kind of thing make me stop in my tracks? Allanah said that she did it for a bit of fun. She also said that it transcended cultural and language barriers since dance is universal. I think it’s a simple example of what makes us human – just getting together and enjoying each other. The fact that there are things like dance or music that we can share across cultures gives me a clue about engagement in schools. It just takes a simple thing, a happening, celebration – as long as it brings us together as a group and gives us a sense of belonging. Great things can come from this.

I like Allanah’s blog title: Life is not a race to be first finished.

It shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be aiming for good marks in a test. It shouldn’t be focussing solely on a result. It’s about enjoying the process and sharing it with others. I love the idea of creating online learning spaces to support, connect, share and celebrate. Learning shouldn’t be a lonely road. Not a journey kept to yourself. Never an experience without good fun.

I’ve been privileged to do some collaborative teaching with Maria Toomey in her English classes at school. Maria understands this instinctively. Understands and lives this. What her students learn in class they do with a sense of being valued as part of the group. She teaches the whole person, and gives of herself in the same way. She and the boys come together to think, discuss, review, display and celebrate. She shows them the value of learning beyond academic content, and they will remember her beyond the classroom.

By the way, do yourself a favour and read some of Matt’s dancers’ comments here. You can also get a Google Earth tour of some of Matt’s favourite places around the world. I loved this.

creativity, Education, media, Web 2.0

Capzles: time captured in a story

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Capzles is a new way to combine videos, photos and mp3s into rich, multimedia storytelling.

capzleobama

Until I’m successful in embedding the widget, here’s the link to a capzle on Obama. 

Capzles promises to ‘claim your memories; tell your stories; travel through time’, and they do that eloquently. The Obama capzle traces Obama’s life sequentially, and includes photos, and video and transcripts of speeches. I can definitely see the value of capzles for teaching subject matter, but more than that, kids would enjoy creating capzles to present research. This application really does have the potential to capture what’s essential and interesting, and package it neatly for viewing.

It’s free and simple to join. You can browse capzles created in popular categories, eg. history, art and design, film and movies, people and life, vacation and travel, etc. Under history, for example, you’ll find ‘history of Apple computer’ and ’75 years of the popemobile’. It’s a great way to share travel experiences, or present biographies in an engaging format. Or encapzlate your old photographs. Oh, and of course, it’s another great sharing tool. Although there isn’t a huge amount there at the moment, I expect it will expand its archive very quickly.

Thanks to @grosseck for this.

creativity, Education, film, humour, language, learning, play, teachers, teaching, Web 2.0

Words come to life in Wordia

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oscarpuppet

I love the idea of a dictionary created by many people, but Wordia is more than that. It’s a media dictionary created by people sharing their own videos. It’s people talking on video about a word that they’ve chosen. So it’s much more than a definition. Watch Oscar Puppet’s video defining the word ‘buncombe’ and you’ll see that it’s just as much about the person (or character) behind the chosen word – it’s a word definition with personality.

What else is Wordia?

It’s a community of people who, for one reason or another, care about a word enough to spend time making a short film to explain their chosen word.

wordiacommunity

You, too, could join this collection of people who make this media dictionary. This is what you have to do:

wordiainstructions

 Wordia is in beta and is far from comprehensive. There’s something good about a brilliant, new idea in the making, especially when anyone is invited to contribute.

I got sick of searching for words that weren’t there so I browsed using the ‘words’ tab. There’s a list of ‘best words’ and that’s how I came across the definition for ‘fermata’. Very entertaining.

Wordia has it all. Aside from the obligatory dictionary definitions on the page, the list of synonyms, you also get comments from people, making Wordia not so much a dictionary as a linguistic peopleonary.

There are many ideas for the English classroom here. Apart from the kids watching or making their own Wordia clip, you could discuss which videos work best and why, or how the video presentations could be improved, or you could get the kids to choose 5 words they didn’t previously know, or 5 words that sound the most ridiculous, or 5 legal words, 5 words associated with emotions, etc. You get my drift.

Have a look for yourselves and tell me what you think.

 

creativity, Education, film, language, learning, Remarkable

A different language

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I’m still thinking in an expansive way about different ways of seeing, learning, living. I found this on Twitter thanks to @ggrosseck

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc]

Sometimes I feel my vision of people and the way things work is so tunnel-narrow. I really need to open up my understanding. It’s frightening to admit that foreigness can cause such a defensive reaction.

Here is the blog of this passionate autistic woman. This is how she describes herself and the purpose of her blog: 

This is a blog by a self-advocate who has participated in several aspects of the disability rights movement including autistic liberation, psychiatric survivor, mainstream disability rights, and developmental disability self-advocacy.

What do you think of the video or the blog?

art, play, Remarkable

Optical illusion – inside the painting

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw-IB9GpmY4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

I found this on Futility Closet – Dick Termes paints murals on spheres with a special 6-point perspective. The idea is that, as you watch the scene rotating, you imagine it to be painted on a concave interior. Two things happen: the spin reverses direction and suddenly you’re inside the painting.