Embed a YouTube Video into Schoolwires

I wanted to show everyone how to embed a video into your SchoolWires page. 

Here is a new page I created on SchoolWires, but this can work for existing pages as well. At the bottom of the page, there is a button labeled HTML. This is the computer code part of your page. Click on this button. 

Next, go to the YouTube video you want to place on your page. 1: Click on the "Share" button. 2: Click on the Embed button. 3: Copy the code in the box underneath the video. 

Head back to the Page Editor and paste the code into the box. If you already have text and other information there, place the YouTube code in the spot you would like to see the video. Once you have the code in the HTML box, click the normal box in the lower left hand corner. 

You will be taken to the Normal view and you should see the video in the box. You can highlight the video and center adjust it if you would like. When you have finished all of your work, you can click "Save" and your video will be available to all to see. 

Having the videos on your site is a nice way for kids to get the material without having to leave the page. It takes some getting used to, but embedding video is a valuable skill to pick up when running a school website. 

Give it a try!

What Travels with Your Digital Images

When you are viewing back your digital photographs, have you ever wondered about the part of the picture that you don't see? Each time you take a photograph embedded into the file is data related to the date, time and camera settings you were using at the time the picture was taken. This data is call your EXIF. This is a technical term for Exchangeable Image File Format.

Knowing about this data has many benefits: 

1. It embeds the date and time that the photograph was taken. When you go to organize your images, you can use this as a way to break up large folders of files into smaller groupings. However the camera is only as good as the photographer. If the camera's date settings are not set correctly that is what is included in the file.

2. Captions are stored in this data. This is helpful because many programs and services allow you to provide a descriptor of the event. If you email or share the image, that information will travel with the picture.

3. Camera settings are very important, especially to professional photographers. If you had this great picture and wanted to recreate it. knowing the settings and exposure is crucial.

The only real drawback is that more and more cameras have GPS built in as a feature. If you upload, share your pictures or add them to your web page, someone might be smart enough to learn where you live by viewing the GPS information. This is one of the realities of the digital age.

- Steve Geresy 

Tech Tuesday for October 23

Hello everyone! It's been a while since my last Tech Tuesday, but I wanted to reach out and share some nice resources with all of you. If you check out the posts below this one, you will see some great posts on Livescribe, Turnitin.com, Evernote and Blogger. They are filled with tutorial videos to show you how to get the most out of each tool. Check them out and let me know if I can help. 

EdcampOU

There is a great conference this Saturday at Oakland University. Edcamp OU is an unconference similar to the one I host in Detroit (edcamp Detroit). It's a great day of teacher led Professional Development where you can learn many great strategies to enhance classroom instruction. This is NOT a technology conference, this is an education conference that might have some technology sessions. I plan to be there and meet some of the great teachers presenting. If you are free this Saturday, checkout EdcampOU.


Google Apps for Education

For those of you interested in learning how to use the different tools available to you on your Google Account, here is a link that will take you to many different resources on how to use them. It is a great resource that will help you figure out Google Docs, Google Search, Google Maps, etc. Take a minute and see what you can add to your classroom using these tools.

Instructional Technology Team

As part of the School-Wide Initiative, our team has been looking for ways to share technology tips with our building to better support the integration of technology into classrooms. Those posts will be tagged with "South Tech Tip" so they can be easily searchable  for everyone in the building. We will also let you know who is offering the tip so you can ask follow up questions. I also want to say that everyone is always welcome to share a cool tech tip that the rest of the school should look at. This site is a great resources for those types of tips and I want everyone to be involved. Email me a tip and I will add it to the blog for the next Tech Tuesday Update.

Thanks for your time,

Nick