Technologies for Creating Content
My research into technologies was two pronged: finding technologies that cover the range of content teachers might want to create and finding tools that are freeware, open source, and cross platform to make content more accessible to educators and students.
Documents
Office suites include basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Several freeware choices include: Open Office, Google Docs, and Zoho but often lack the high end features of commercial applications like Microsoft Office. Office suites allow saving documents in PDF format; which prevents documents from being altered by the recipient and overcomes translation issues between different computing platforms. PDF readers are necessary for reading the files but also offer ways to annotate the document being viewed. The best overall summary of PDF tools that I found was in Wikipedia.
Video
Video can be used in any number of ways to capture teacher or student presentations or demonstrations. Educators will be especially interested in “20+ Ways to Use Flip Cameras in the Classroom” and “Forty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom”. There are a wide variety of options for capturing video, from built-in cameras, to inexpensive Flip cameras, to high end video cameras. Technical manuals come with cameras or can be downloaded online from camera manufacturer sites. Searching YouTube and TeacherTube yields lots of tutorials on video hardware, shooting techniques, and editing options. Video content can be posted to YouTube, TeacherTube, embedded in websites and online learning systems, or e-mailed to students.
Screen capture/screencasting
Screencasting is used to record what is occurring on a computer monitor. WebResourcesDepot’s “10 Free Screen Recording Softwares for Creating Attractive Screencasts” offers screencasting applications for the Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems. It is worth reading the followup posts by users of the various applications to determine which system is right for you. Jing is the only option listed for both Mac and PC operating systems.
Podcasting
Podcasting can be used to post audio content as well as images in a format suitable for MP3 players. TopTenReviews summarizes the features and costs of the most popular commercial and freeware podcasting applications like Audacity and Lame. text to speech conversion
Speech conversion is useful for students who benefit from having content read to them. This is an area that currently lacks applications that are cross platform, free, or flexible enough to accommodate a variety of document types. You can get a free demonstration of this technology at iSpeech but continued use is fee based. Additional resources and information on this evolving technology are available at: thefreecountry.com and Wikipedia.
Documents
Office suites include basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Several freeware choices include: Open Office, Google Docs, and Zoho but often lack the high end features of commercial applications like Microsoft Office. Office suites allow saving documents in PDF format; which prevents documents from being altered by the recipient and overcomes translation issues between different computing platforms. PDF readers are necessary for reading the files but also offer ways to annotate the document being viewed. The best overall summary of PDF tools that I found was in Wikipedia.
Video
Video can be used in any number of ways to capture teacher or student presentations or demonstrations. Educators will be especially interested in “20+ Ways to Use Flip Cameras in the Classroom” and “Forty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom”. There are a wide variety of options for capturing video, from built-in cameras, to inexpensive Flip cameras, to high end video cameras. Technical manuals come with cameras or can be downloaded online from camera manufacturer sites. Searching YouTube and TeacherTube yields lots of tutorials on video hardware, shooting techniques, and editing options. Video content can be posted to YouTube, TeacherTube, embedded in websites and online learning systems, or e-mailed to students.
Screen capture/screencasting
Screencasting is used to record what is occurring on a computer monitor. WebResourcesDepot’s “10 Free Screen Recording Softwares for Creating Attractive Screencasts” offers screencasting applications for the Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems. It is worth reading the followup posts by users of the various applications to determine which system is right for you. Jing is the only option listed for both Mac and PC operating systems.
Podcasting
Podcasting can be used to post audio content as well as images in a format suitable for MP3 players. TopTenReviews summarizes the features and costs of the most popular commercial and freeware podcasting applications like Audacity and Lame. text to speech conversion
Speech conversion is useful for students who benefit from having content read to them. This is an area that currently lacks applications that are cross platform, free, or flexible enough to accommodate a variety of document types. You can get a free demonstration of this technology at iSpeech but continued use is fee based. Additional resources and information on this evolving technology are available at: thefreecountry.com and Wikipedia.
