Great new classroom resource - Infuselearning

I'm neck deep in professional development prep this weekend, but I had to take a moment to point out Infuselearning.  I went to a superintendents conference yesterday and Leslie Fisher showed us this great tool for connecting with students.  It's been out at some level for a while, I guess, but it was very new to me.  It's like Socrative, but has some amazing advantages.

It's essentially a classroom response system for any device.  But what caught my attention was the number of question types the teacher can send to the class.  You can even have student submit pictures!

And pre-made quizzes can be read aloud to students...in multiple languages.

Here's their mission:  "We will promote educational change through empowering teachers and bringing students to the center of the learning conversation through simple, easy to use technology."

I like it.

I also love what it could do for the creativity class presentation games and systems I've been working on.  Finally I have some tools I've been waiting for.  I'll have an account and be testing this as soon as I finish the presentation for the district PD day.  

My Favorite Video Editing Software for the Classroom

Update on 2/21/2012: I still love this software and I use it regularly, but I had a poor experience with ordering a copy directly from the company. I received email about a one-day sale for 70% off the regular price of about $100. I ordered a copy for home and I checked the price at every stage during the order process to be sure the sale price was accurate. When the email receipt came through I noticed my credit card had been billed for $50 instead. I could not reach the company after attempting to by phone and email. Eventually my credit card company paid me the difference in prices just to resolve the dispute.

A couple years ago a fellow student in a college course recommended Corel's VideoStudio software for editing videos. I downloaded the trial and fell in love with many of the features. Now that they've upgraded to x4 and I have used it with many of my own students I appreciate it even more.

With multiple movie tracks and effects, the advanced editing features can be less than intuitive. But I've seen high school students use it to quickly edit a simple video as easily as they did in MoveMaker. I'm working with a group of middle schoolers now. We're taking it slow, but I have no doubt they'll be able to edit without me in time.

I have created some videos on my own at home that used multiple video tracks, transitions and titles. I only had it freeze up once. Considering my experience with Pinnacle software over the years, only one lock-up seems almost miraculous.

On top of the excellent visual effects that can be achieved, I'm very pleased with the audio editing as well. Audio can be split from the video in a variety of formats and effects can be added.

If you edit video with students, I strongly suggest downloading the fully functional 30-day trial. I see right now they're selling the full version for $50 per license, so it could be an excellent time to buy.

Free Music and Audio Tools for the Classroom

I have played and written a lot of music in my life that would not have been possible without technology. I'm not a great musician, but technology can fill in the gaps and make a rewarding experience for me and others.

Here are a few free tools I've been using lately that could be used for fun classroom activities. For one, imagine students turning short poems into songs or raps and then using them as their favorite ringtones. They can also make for great background music in videos and podcasts.

Audacity - I'm sure almost everyone has heard of this free audio recording tool. It's not perfect, but excellent for almost all recording needs in the classroom.

Gsnap - This is my best find of the summer. It offers many of the benefits of the famous (and pricey) Auto-Tune pitch correction software, but Gsnap is free. I'm not a vocalist, but this helps me make sketches of my songs that I'm not embarrassed to play for the people who can perform them correctly. It works with Audacity 1.3, so you have to download that version if you want to use the two together. Supposedly you can get it to do the robotic voice effects popular in many songs, but so far I have only achieved a more natural correction, which is all I need anyway.

And this one is unfortunately dead now...
Roc - This is the music creation tool at Aviary. It can be used to easily make basic beats and loops. Check out all of Aviary's tools for great graphics tools too. I didn't have much luck with Myna, the audio recording tool.