Just some leadership videos I wanted to have somewhere I could get to easily. The last one is just funny more than anything, but the first three have some important principles behind them, although it's far from a comprehensive list.
What are your favorite video clips for teaching leadership?
Showing posts with label Videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Videos. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
IPv6: The Day the Routers Died
I don't know if the mainstream media is ignoring this problem hoping it will go away, not aware of it, or perhaps the network techs have us prepared and don't want another "overreaction" like Y2K, but I still don't hear a lot about IPv6.
If you're not familiar with the problem, think about what happens when a state or city runs out of phone numbers and has to add a new area code. But what happens when we run out of area codes? Or what will happen when we run out of Social Security Numbers?
We have been talking about it for awhile.
There's this video from 4 or 5 years ago (long but funny).
And this video from just a couple years ago (long, not so funny, but informative).
It goes back further than that, but suffice it to say it's not taking anybody by surprise. It's now been a year since all the IPv4 address blocks ran out (No more IPv4 addresses, Internet Runs Out Of IP Addresses), although it will be awhile before individual addresses are all completely allocated. There are plenty of techniques to run multiple devices behind one IP address, and there may be some ways to recover some previously unused or unusable addresses. These workaround can cause as many problems as making the IPv6 jump might make, so it makes sense to get moving. As Randy Bush explains in the second video, those people and companies who get it figured out now will be leaps and bounds ahead of those who wait until crunch time.
If you're not familiar with the problem, think about what happens when a state or city runs out of phone numbers and has to add a new area code. But what happens when we run out of area codes? Or what will happen when we run out of Social Security Numbers?
We have been talking about it for awhile.
There's this video from 4 or 5 years ago (long but funny).
And this video from just a couple years ago (long, not so funny, but informative).
It goes back further than that, but suffice it to say it's not taking anybody by surprise. It's now been a year since all the IPv4 address blocks ran out (No more IPv4 addresses, Internet Runs Out Of IP Addresses), although it will be awhile before individual addresses are all completely allocated. There are plenty of techniques to run multiple devices behind one IP address, and there may be some ways to recover some previously unused or unusable addresses. These workaround can cause as many problems as making the IPv6 jump might make, so it makes sense to get moving. As Randy Bush explains in the second video, those people and companies who get it figured out now will be leaps and bounds ahead of those who wait until crunch time.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Psychology
The Psychology course I took as part of general education was a bit strange grading-wise. The content of the course was great. We learned a lot of things about how the brain works, about memorization, careers in psychology, historical figures, and various other theoretical foundations of the field. I remember talking about Bernie Goetz, the Subway Vigilante, as I recall as an example of things people will do under extremely stressful circumstances.
One of the best parts of the course was watching The Mask. Part of the point was observing Ben Stein's role as a clinical psychologist analyzing Stanley's problems that the mask represented (which I unfortunately can't find a video for, but this is a great scene).
Where the course went a little weird, like I mentioned, was in the grading. As we would study each day's material, he would give us a couple related multiple choice questions (but not the answers). By the time of the midterm, we had a bank of questions (but not the answers) that he had given us, from which he wrote the test. In the study session before the midterm, we could ask questions about anything we wanted, so if there were multiple choice questions he had given us that were a little tricky, you could ask some questions about it and know pretty much what the right answer was. Basically, everyone aced the test.
His plan was to follow the same process for the final, and he did, but he let us know that a few people complained that the test was too easy, since he had given us all the possible questions. It was way more questions than would be on the test, and we did have to figure out the answers ourselves, but we had them nonetheless. Some people were apparently frustrated with the fact that you could just look up and memorize all the questions and answers and were worried that other students would pass without really learning anything about psychology. His response was that psychology is largely about the brain and memorization is a big part of that, so there was more psychology in how he gave us the questions than we might have thought. That was the flippant response anyway. The more serious response was that if anyone thought the process was too easy for them, they could get with him to write a paper on an approved topic related to the course content.
I don't know if anyone took him up on the offer. I didn't. I still wonder who was so uptight about a Psych 101 course being too easy. At work we've actually been working on a similar online course, and it's funny because some of the recommendations I made for the course would have turned it into something much more difficult (and I still maintain more rewarding). Thinking back on it, I should perhaps recommend students watch and write a paper on The Mask instead. I wonder how that will go over.
One of the best parts of the course was watching The Mask. Part of the point was observing Ben Stein's role as a clinical psychologist analyzing Stanley's problems that the mask represented (which I unfortunately can't find a video for, but this is a great scene).
Where the course went a little weird, like I mentioned, was in the grading. As we would study each day's material, he would give us a couple related multiple choice questions (but not the answers). By the time of the midterm, we had a bank of questions (but not the answers) that he had given us, from which he wrote the test. In the study session before the midterm, we could ask questions about anything we wanted, so if there were multiple choice questions he had given us that were a little tricky, you could ask some questions about it and know pretty much what the right answer was. Basically, everyone aced the test.
His plan was to follow the same process for the final, and he did, but he let us know that a few people complained that the test was too easy, since he had given us all the possible questions. It was way more questions than would be on the test, and we did have to figure out the answers ourselves, but we had them nonetheless. Some people were apparently frustrated with the fact that you could just look up and memorize all the questions and answers and were worried that other students would pass without really learning anything about psychology. His response was that psychology is largely about the brain and memorization is a big part of that, so there was more psychology in how he gave us the questions than we might have thought. That was the flippant response anyway. The more serious response was that if anyone thought the process was too easy for them, they could get with him to write a paper on an approved topic related to the course content.
I don't know if anyone took him up on the offer. I didn't. I still wonder who was so uptight about a Psych 101 course being too easy. At work we've actually been working on a similar online course, and it's funny because some of the recommendations I made for the course would have turned it into something much more difficult (and I still maintain more rewarding). Thinking back on it, I should perhaps recommend students watch and write a paper on The Mask instead. I wonder how that will go over.
Order
I had mentioned that my daughter has to memorize the Gettysburg Address. What I didn't mention is that she is also memorizing the Pledge of Allegiance, Star Spangled Banner, Preamble to the Constitution, all the states and their capitals, and all the US presidents.
She has until the end of the school year and already has the three short ones down.
I thought I'd be helpful and suggest an entertaining resource to help her memorize the states and their capitals:
It's a great song from a great TV show. The only issue is that the states are not in any particular order other than what makes sense for the song. So Louisiana and Indiana are near each other, as are Alaska and Nebraska and some stretches like Hawaii is a joy and Illinois. It becomes a dealbreaker only for the project they're doing, since the rule is that they have to recite the states and capitals in alphabetical order by state, which is a totally arbitrary measure. (You heard about the patient who came home and announced to his wife the shrink's diagnosis that he had CDO? She asked what that was and he replied that it's OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, like they're supposed to be.)
I wrote a couple years ago about a book I had read, Everything is Miscellaneous where the author David Weinberger draws attention to the fact that unnatural ordering systems can actually be detrimental. For example, what if every time the federal budget was being decided, money was allocated to states in alphabetical order? Alabama and Alaska might really like that, because they might get more with full coffers at that point. Chances are, by the time we get to lowly Wyoming, there's not much cash left to go around so every year they would get hosed.
The list of presidents to memorize is in an order that makes sense, the order they served as president, which happens to match the order the Animaniacs' presidents song is in (not to mention learning a few additional things like Ulysses S. Grant's supposed drinking problem):
It seems that there might be another order that would make more sense to list the states in, though. The order they joined the union would give them a general sense of history that could be helpful. Population might make sense, although physical size would be less prone to change. Location might work, but could be a little confusing as you try to figure out how to snake across the country, so simply filling in a blank map rather than reciting might be a useful workaround. The point is that there are state orders that are more natural and provide meaningful context so that you gain something additional with the same amount of work as memorizing in alphabetical order.
She has until the end of the school year and already has the three short ones down.
I thought I'd be helpful and suggest an entertaining resource to help her memorize the states and their capitals:
It's a great song from a great TV show. The only issue is that the states are not in any particular order other than what makes sense for the song. So Louisiana and Indiana are near each other, as are Alaska and Nebraska and some stretches like Hawaii is a joy and Illinois. It becomes a dealbreaker only for the project they're doing, since the rule is that they have to recite the states and capitals in alphabetical order by state, which is a totally arbitrary measure. (You heard about the patient who came home and announced to his wife the shrink's diagnosis that he had CDO? She asked what that was and he replied that it's OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, like they're supposed to be.)
I wrote a couple years ago about a book I had read, Everything is Miscellaneous where the author David Weinberger draws attention to the fact that unnatural ordering systems can actually be detrimental. For example, what if every time the federal budget was being decided, money was allocated to states in alphabetical order? Alabama and Alaska might really like that, because they might get more with full coffers at that point. Chances are, by the time we get to lowly Wyoming, there's not much cash left to go around so every year they would get hosed.
The list of presidents to memorize is in an order that makes sense, the order they served as president, which happens to match the order the Animaniacs' presidents song is in (not to mention learning a few additional things like Ulysses S. Grant's supposed drinking problem):
It seems that there might be another order that would make more sense to list the states in, though. The order they joined the union would give them a general sense of history that could be helpful. Population might make sense, although physical size would be less prone to change. Location might work, but could be a little confusing as you try to figure out how to snake across the country, so simply filling in a blank map rather than reciting might be a useful workaround. The point is that there are state orders that are more natural and provide meaningful context so that you gain something additional with the same amount of work as memorizing in alphabetical order.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Fundamentals of Acting
I took an acting class my sophomore year of high school and really enjoyed it. There were no desks, just a random collection of chairs and couches with a small stage and props strewn about. The teacher appeared in random commercials and low budget movies, including the following public service announcement:
We learned to do monologues, mime, acting for both live and video audiences, lip sync (we chose the song Tequila, and yes I think it actually worked rather well), movie scenes, TV commercials, stage slapping (I'm still sorry about that, Lawrence), and more. It was great.
When I got to college and saw the option to do an acting class, I thought it would be more of the same fun, laid back atmosphere. It wasn't. Almost everything in college is bigger and more intense than high school, and acting was no different. About half the class was going into some type of theater-related major, and the other half of us seemed to be there because we thought it would be fun. It was fun but in a serious kind of way. It was a small class, well under 20 students, one of the smallest classes I've taken at the university. I stuck it out even though we were warned that the class was the third in a three class series that had been going all school year, but the computer didn't enforce the prerequisite, so you could register without having the other two classes first.
We learned all kinds of things from how to project your voice to standing up straighter (those actually went together well) to memorizing lines. I remember getting my wisdom teeth taken out over spring break and after returning having the TA for the class try to get me to open my mouth wider during some of the vocal drills we were doing. Sorry, man, not gonna happen.
There are many memorization techniques out there. For the particular one we happened to learn in that class, you used a partner. The partner had the script and would read the first word. The person memorizing would repeat it. The partner would then read two words, and the person memorizing would repeat both words. This would go on like a kind of non-electronic game of Simon. If you messed up, the partner would stop you and back you up to the last phrase you could repeat without mistakes. I found it to be quite an effective technique, at least for relatively short passages. I may use it to help my daughter memorize the Gettysburg Address, which she has to do for school.
One memorable event was when a girl doing a monologue accidentally lit for real the prop cigarette she was just supposed to pretend light. Between the Clean Air Act and the fire marshal, lit cigarettes inside the building are a no-no. But she was in character doing her act, and she handled it quite well. She didn't really react to it but just sort of flippantly waved it around a little like her character might have done and crushed the burning corner in the ashtray without missing a step. It was one of those things where you knew what she was doing, but if you didn't know, you would have never known.
Naturally, the final in the class was a scene. It was supposed to be more polished and a little longer than anything we had done yet up to that point in the class. Somehow I ended up doing a The Chalky White Substance, a short two-person one-act play, one of the last written by Tennessee Williams who would have turned 100 earlier this year. Other well-known works of his include A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I played a young boy watched over by an abusive older protector in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where water and women were scarce. My character lets slip the secret that there was an underground stream running under his house providing unlimited access to water, a precious enough commodity that I got to do a dramatic death scene. Sebastian Shaw would have been proud.
We learned to do monologues, mime, acting for both live and video audiences, lip sync (we chose the song Tequila, and yes I think it actually worked rather well), movie scenes, TV commercials, stage slapping (I'm still sorry about that, Lawrence), and more. It was great.
When I got to college and saw the option to do an acting class, I thought it would be more of the same fun, laid back atmosphere. It wasn't. Almost everything in college is bigger and more intense than high school, and acting was no different. About half the class was going into some type of theater-related major, and the other half of us seemed to be there because we thought it would be fun. It was fun but in a serious kind of way. It was a small class, well under 20 students, one of the smallest classes I've taken at the university. I stuck it out even though we were warned that the class was the third in a three class series that had been going all school year, but the computer didn't enforce the prerequisite, so you could register without having the other two classes first.
We learned all kinds of things from how to project your voice to standing up straighter (those actually went together well) to memorizing lines. I remember getting my wisdom teeth taken out over spring break and after returning having the TA for the class try to get me to open my mouth wider during some of the vocal drills we were doing. Sorry, man, not gonna happen.
There are many memorization techniques out there. For the particular one we happened to learn in that class, you used a partner. The partner had the script and would read the first word. The person memorizing would repeat it. The partner would then read two words, and the person memorizing would repeat both words. This would go on like a kind of non-electronic game of Simon. If you messed up, the partner would stop you and back you up to the last phrase you could repeat without mistakes. I found it to be quite an effective technique, at least for relatively short passages. I may use it to help my daughter memorize the Gettysburg Address, which she has to do for school.
One memorable event was when a girl doing a monologue accidentally lit for real the prop cigarette she was just supposed to pretend light. Between the Clean Air Act and the fire marshal, lit cigarettes inside the building are a no-no. But she was in character doing her act, and she handled it quite well. She didn't really react to it but just sort of flippantly waved it around a little like her character might have done and crushed the burning corner in the ashtray without missing a step. It was one of those things where you knew what she was doing, but if you didn't know, you would have never known.
Naturally, the final in the class was a scene. It was supposed to be more polished and a little longer than anything we had done yet up to that point in the class. Somehow I ended up doing a The Chalky White Substance, a short two-person one-act play, one of the last written by Tennessee Williams who would have turned 100 earlier this year. Other well-known works of his include A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I played a young boy watched over by an abusive older protector in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where water and women were scarce. My character lets slip the secret that there was an underground stream running under his house providing unlimited access to water, a precious enough commodity that I got to do a dramatic death scene. Sebastian Shaw would have been proud.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Calculus II
Having scored a 5 on AP Calculus, I was eligible to jump right into more advanced Calculus when I officially enrolled at the university. No one told me this would be a bad idea on many levels. I guess it's one of those things that advisors could tell you but don't, because they believe deep down that you'll learn better by figuring it out on your own than if they just told you everything up front.
Perhaps if I had been destined for engineering greatness, advanced Calculus would have been more natural for me. Perhaps if I'd worked harder, I would have done better than barely pass.
My professor was actually really good. He was engaging and knew his stuff. Whenever he talked about planes, you know the math kinds, he would switch over to this funny accent and start saying "de plane, boss, de plane!" I don't know if anyone else in the class knew what he was talking about, but I never did.
Until I just looked it up on YouTube and Wikipedia, I had a totally different picture of what he might be talking about. I pictured a deserted island with Tattoo as a humpback, and they were trying to be rescued. It turns out it's a fancy island with nice amenities and guests fly in, paying $50,000 to have their fantasies come true, and Tattoo is a midget. Who knew?
Perhaps if I had been destined for engineering greatness, advanced Calculus would have been more natural for me. Perhaps if I'd worked harder, I would have done better than barely pass.
My professor was actually really good. He was engaging and knew his stuff. Whenever he talked about planes, you know the math kinds, he would switch over to this funny accent and start saying "de plane, boss, de plane!" I don't know if anyone else in the class knew what he was talking about, but I never did.
Until I just looked it up on YouTube and Wikipedia, I had a totally different picture of what he might be talking about. I pictured a deserted island with Tattoo as a humpback, and they were trying to be rescued. It turns out it's a fancy island with nice amenities and guests fly in, paying $50,000 to have their fantasies come true, and Tattoo is a midget. Who knew?
Friday, June 17, 2011
16 Free Tools to Create Media in eLearning
From a presentation at eLearning DevCon 2011 by Jeff Batt, a trainer with Rapid Intake.- Video
- JayCut - Online video editor
- Video Spin - Desktop video editor
- JayCut - Online video editor
- Video Converter
- Any Video Converter - Desktop video converter (batch convert, resize, etc.)
- Any Video Converter - Desktop video converter (batch convert, resize, etc.)
- Audio
- Audacity - Desktop audio editor (don't forget the LAME mp3 encoder so you can export to mp3)
- Aviary Myna - Online audio editor
- Aviary Roc - Online music creator
- Audacity - Desktop audio editor (don't forget the LAME mp3 encoder so you can export to mp3)
- Images
- GIMP - Desktop image editor
- Aviary Phoenix - Online image editor
- Sumo Paint - Online image editor (my addition, which actually bumps the list up to 17)
- GIMP - Desktop image editor
- Image Capture
- Jing - Desktop image/video capture
- Aviary Talon - Online image capture
- Jing - Desktop image/video capture
- Animation
- Vectorian - Desktop animation (Flash) editor
- Vectorian - Desktop animation (Flash) editor
- Vector Images
- Inkscape - Desktop vector image editor
- Aviary Raven - Online vector image editor
- Inkscape - Desktop vector image editor
- Color Schemes
- Kuler - Online or desktop color theme picker
- Aviary Toucan - Online color theme picker
- Kuler - Online or desktop color theme picker
- Course Analytics
- enspark enfuse - Web analytics tool
Now start creating!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Travel Dichotomy
I traveled to a conference in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. It was interesting to reflect on the atmosphere in my hometown vs. that of the conference venue. Isn't it great how even though it's annoying to stand in security lines at the airport, modern technology lets us go to such extremes as these within the course of one day:
Leaving in this morning, this was the view.
This was the view mid-afternoon.
And then that evening.
This guy was pretty good with the spray paint.
Above Fremont Street, just outside the hotel I was staying at, they have a TV that spans four blocks, with music videos and other stuff playing throughout the night. (Fast forward to 1:40 for Break on Through.)
Leaving in this morning, this was the view.
This was the view mid-afternoon.
And then that evening.
This guy was pretty good with the spray paint.
Above Fremont Street, just outside the hotel I was staying at, they have a TV that spans four blocks, with music videos and other stuff playing throughout the night. (Fast forward to 1:40 for Break on Through.)
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Energy Independency
We are an unstoppable oil dependency breaking machine. Unfortunately the machine runs on oil.
Thank you Jon Stewart.
Thank you Jon Stewart.
Friday, May 28, 2010
786,432 points of light
A great video from a couple years ago that points out some of the disconnect between teachers and students:
See further discussion of the video by the professor involved in its creation.
I wonder how some of these statistics have changed since the original video was made. The point is just as valid.
See further discussion of the video by the professor involved in its creation.
I wonder how some of these statistics have changed since the original video was made. The point is just as valid.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Friday, December 19, 2008
Codec
I recorded some digital video recently. When playing the resulting mpg files on my computer, the video was fine, but there was no sound. I could hear the sound when I played it back on the camera but nothing when it was copied to the computer.
I installed the XP Codec Pack and the sound worked fine. So cheers to you and some link love, too.
The file wouldn't play at all in Quicktime for some reason - only in Windows Media Player. I didn't install the XP Codec Pack media player, just the codecs.
I installed the XP Codec Pack and the sound worked fine. So cheers to you and some link love, too.
The file wouldn't play at all in Quicktime for some reason - only in Windows Media Player. I didn't install the XP Codec Pack media player, just the codecs.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
And now for something completely different
My faithful reader(s) will remember my Scouts' anti-drinking video last year. Fast forward a year, bringing in almost all new kids, and we end up with something similar, yet a little better than the last group did.
One of the differences is that we spent a week or two planning the video. It's two weeks if you count the first week that was about 5 minutes of selecting the video's director and 55 minutes of playing indoor soccer. The second night, we wrote out something that approximated a mutated combination of a storyboard and a script. That is, we actually had an idea of what we were going to do, whereas the group last year refused to plan anything.
Again, my ASM and I tried to give helpful hints and suggestions about directions to take the video, without taking it over completely. We started with listing out what resources we had available, with the main item we wanted to include being the drums. Once someone mentioned IBC root beer, we were pretty much stuck on having to do something with beer, so we would have an excuse to have root beer. Next year, if we do this again, I'll probably insist they choose a different topic.
One thing I learned from another scout leader is to keep the camera recording as much as possible. Some of the best moments are often when people think the camera is off or when they're messing around, thinking you won't actually use the clip of them doing something weird.
So here it is:
One of the differences is that we spent a week or two planning the video. It's two weeks if you count the first week that was about 5 minutes of selecting the video's director and 55 minutes of playing indoor soccer. The second night, we wrote out something that approximated a mutated combination of a storyboard and a script. That is, we actually had an idea of what we were going to do, whereas the group last year refused to plan anything.
Again, my ASM and I tried to give helpful hints and suggestions about directions to take the video, without taking it over completely. We started with listing out what resources we had available, with the main item we wanted to include being the drums. Once someone mentioned IBC root beer, we were pretty much stuck on having to do something with beer, so we would have an excuse to have root beer. Next year, if we do this again, I'll probably insist they choose a different topic.
One thing I learned from another scout leader is to keep the camera recording as much as possible. Some of the best moments are often when people think the camera is off or when they're messing around, thinking you won't actually use the clip of them doing something weird.
So here it is:
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Sweet Advertising
To follow up my last post complaining about the sad state of the advertising industry, a commercial that tells a clever story and keeps you guessing until the end:
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Imagine there's no fair use
"It is a pity that this decision weakens the rights of all copyright owners."
What was the decision? A judge denied a preliminary injunction against release of the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" which features 15 seconds of the song Imagine by John Lennon. The judge ruled that Yoko Ono and family were unlikely to succeed in their claim that fair use did not protect their inclusion of a small portion of the song in the movie. Of course, the decision will be appealed, and the real winners in the end will be the lawyers on both sides, but at least temporarily the correct decision has been made, regardless of the claim that copyright has been weakened for everyone because the well-established doctrine of fair use has been upheld. The lawsuit actually goes into some trademark infringement as well, since the song is supposedly a de facto trademark of Lennon.
I looked up Yoko's lawyer, Peter Shukat. In the following video, he explains some of the intricasies and disputes between artists and recording companies:
Peter seems like a nice guy as lawyers go, although that doesn't mean the above quote by him has any merit. Of course, he gets paid a lot of money by artists and their estates to push copyright law in their favor, so I don't hold it against him. Although, reading about the cease and desist letter he sent to an artist who donated a couple of paintings to John Lennon's former elementary school, and then they sent Yoko one of the paintings of John to thank her for a donation to the school (How dare anyone paint a picture of him without my permission!? I broke up the Beatles-I did-John belongs to me!), you kind of have to wonder if he isn't selling out.
I may have to go see the movie if it comes to Logan or Redbox.
What was the decision? A judge denied a preliminary injunction against release of the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" which features 15 seconds of the song Imagine by John Lennon. The judge ruled that Yoko Ono and family were unlikely to succeed in their claim that fair use did not protect their inclusion of a small portion of the song in the movie. Of course, the decision will be appealed, and the real winners in the end will be the lawyers on both sides, but at least temporarily the correct decision has been made, regardless of the claim that copyright has been weakened for everyone because the well-established doctrine of fair use has been upheld. The lawsuit actually goes into some trademark infringement as well, since the song is supposedly a de facto trademark of Lennon.
I looked up Yoko's lawyer, Peter Shukat. In the following video, he explains some of the intricasies and disputes between artists and recording companies:
Peter seems like a nice guy as lawyers go, although that doesn't mean the above quote by him has any merit. Of course, he gets paid a lot of money by artists and their estates to push copyright law in their favor, so I don't hold it against him. Although, reading about the cease and desist letter he sent to an artist who donated a couple of paintings to John Lennon's former elementary school, and then they sent Yoko one of the paintings of John to thank her for a donation to the school (How dare anyone paint a picture of him without my permission!? I broke up the Beatles-I did-John belongs to me!), you kind of have to wonder if he isn't selling out.
I may have to go see the movie if it comes to Logan or Redbox.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Awareness
I don't Stumble that much, but I found this video recently doing so.
It's an amazing awareness test, as part of an ad campaign sponsored by the mayor of London. You can watch it without sound, but it's a little better with sound.
How many did you see? 12, 13, 14? You simply have to watch the video again after you've seen it once.
There's so many possible applications of this video. Of course, their message at the end is a great one, but you could apply it to other situations as well.
I met recently with my employees and we talked about some of the distractions that they face while working, such as computer games, texting, and IM. I hesitate fully banning any kind of diversion for days or times when it is slow, but when there are piles of things to do and people to help, I don't understand at all that they don't see all this stuff they should be doing. How do I make them be aware if they don't want to be?
It's an amazing awareness test, as part of an ad campaign sponsored by the mayor of London. You can watch it without sound, but it's a little better with sound.
How many did you see? 12, 13, 14? You simply have to watch the video again after you've seen it once.
There's so many possible applications of this video. Of course, their message at the end is a great one, but you could apply it to other situations as well.
I met recently with my employees and we talked about some of the distractions that they face while working, such as computer games, texting, and IM. I hesitate fully banning any kind of diversion for days or times when it is slow, but when there are piles of things to do and people to help, I don't understand at all that they don't see all this stuff they should be doing. How do I make them be aware if they don't want to be?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Surf the Channel
While teaching about Information Law & Ethics recently, some students in my class asked about this website, Surf the Channel. I hadn't heard of it before, so I did a little research into it. It looks to be an interesting model. It's an advertising-driven Sweden-based site, and they claim that they exist for fun, not for profit. All they provide is links to embedded videos that are hosted somewhere else on the web. You pick a channel, such as Movies, TV, Sports, etc. and there is a huge list of videos hosted by other people, many of which appear to be tudou.com, which seems to be something along the lines of a Chinese YouTube.
To make sure I fully researched the topic, I watched Evan Almighty. It had Chinese subtitles and was split into three sections. It had a few buffering problems, but that wasn't too difficult to deal with. It was a good show, by the way. I had been planning to watch it with a free Redbox code, but this saved me the trip.
After talking to my class about what I found, the question came up whether it is illegal to watch the movies or TV shows that are posted there. Surf the Channel disclaims responsibility, since they just link to content that other people have hosted, so we have some gray area there, but it is pretty clear that the content hosting sites are in the wrong for providing copyrighted content that they don't own. So what about watching copyrighted content, through streaming video that you don't download and re-share yourself? I basically told my class that the MPAA and RIAA are going to go after the low hanging fruit of people providing illegal content before they start going after the consumers, which will be much more difficult to track or prove anything. But watch at your own risk.
If you want to try a similar site for watching videos, where they have actually licensed the content they are showing, you might try out Joost. I haven't actually tried it myself yet, so I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinion of it. For streaming music, I recommend Pandora.
To make sure I fully researched the topic, I watched Evan Almighty. It had Chinese subtitles and was split into three sections. It had a few buffering problems, but that wasn't too difficult to deal with. It was a good show, by the way. I had been planning to watch it with a free Redbox code, but this saved me the trip.
After talking to my class about what I found, the question came up whether it is illegal to watch the movies or TV shows that are posted there. Surf the Channel disclaims responsibility, since they just link to content that other people have hosted, so we have some gray area there, but it is pretty clear that the content hosting sites are in the wrong for providing copyrighted content that they don't own. So what about watching copyrighted content, through streaming video that you don't download and re-share yourself? I basically told my class that the MPAA and RIAA are going to go after the low hanging fruit of people providing illegal content before they start going after the consumers, which will be much more difficult to track or prove anything. But watch at your own risk.
If you want to try a similar site for watching videos, where they have actually licensed the content they are showing, you might try out Joost. I haven't actually tried it myself yet, so I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinion of it. For streaming music, I recommend Pandora.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Shift Happens
Here are a couple of videos that I've watched lately. The first is designed to get you thinking about globalization and how we are preparing our kids for the changes to come. It's about 8 minutes long.
This second video is about 20 minutes long, but makes a very good point and is very entertaining. Sir Ken Robinson at TED in 2006 discusses the importance of cultivating creativity in our kids rather than educating it out of them.
It's long, but it's worth it.
This second video is about 20 minutes long, but makes a very good point and is very entertaining. Sir Ken Robinson at TED in 2006 discusses the importance of cultivating creativity in our kids rather than educating it out of them.
It's long, but it's worth it.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Cinematography
Last week with the Scouts, we filmed a short video entitled "Be an Example". I left it up to them to pick a topic and once they picked the topic, I tried to give them a little advice without getting into their way too much, letting them control their own project. I ran the camera (since it was mine and I didn't want them breaking it plus we leaders didn't want to be in the video). I also did the video editing afterwards, since there's no way I could have gotten them to sit down and do the editing even on a 1 minute video like this. It took a full hour to actually film two one-minute takes, giving us a 2 minute video, including the outtakes. The idea of the video is to be an example to your friends and not drink alcohol, with one guy declining the beer that others are drinking and a friend decides not to drink anymore either. I tried in my editing to stick closely to how they portrayed it, but to provide a few extra hints in places where the sound got muffled. Given the short amount of time I had for editing, my novice skills using iMovie, and the 12-13 year old actors/directors with ADHD, I think it turned out okay.
Of course, I could have picked a different topic for them or written the script myself and commanded that they read from it or insisted that they follow the Cinematography Merit Badge requirements to the letter, but it wouldn't have turned out nearly as creative or fun or interesting. It also wouldn't have been theirs. Given the Storming stage we are in as a group, and no sign of leaving it anytime soon, conflict and more importantly creativity is high, so we take advantage of what we can.
Of course, I could have picked a different topic for them or written the script myself and commanded that they read from it or insisted that they follow the Cinematography Merit Badge requirements to the letter, but it wouldn't have turned out nearly as creative or fun or interesting. It also wouldn't have been theirs. Given the Storming stage we are in as a group, and no sign of leaving it anytime soon, conflict and more importantly creativity is high, so we take advantage of what we can.
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