Getting Access to online videos for class presentation

Video download sites like youtube or teachertube are blocked, on the USD 418 network, because if even a few people download video simultaniously, it can bring our network almost to a standstill.

Earlier in the spring, I acquiesced to the “begging” of a teacher to allow access to a few important videos on youtube for a short amount of time. In less than 60 minutes I was getting email complaints, from across the district, about the slowness of the network and finally I had to block youtube again to get the network back up to speed.

If you want to use appropriate videos from the web, in your classroom, you can capture them to your computer and then show them directly off your computer, causing no slowness to our network.

CAPTURE VIDEO AT HOME

You can capture the video at home, where these sites are not blocked, using highspeed internet access. If you don’t have broadband access, you can go to the public library with your laptop and get on their network, for free, to capture video.

I use Snapz Pro software to capture video. This software can be downloaded from Ambrosia Software at http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

You can download and use it in demo mode for free for 15 days. After that a watermark is placed on the movie as it is saved until you Register the software and pay the fee.

I paid the $70.00 license fee because I have found it very useful in a number of ways. You might consider buying one license for your department, etc.

CAPTURING VIDEO

To capture a video from youtube, from home, for instance, you begin by locating the video you wish to capture with your web browser.

Then start Snapz Pro if it is not already running. Press Apple-Shift-3 on your keyboard and the Snapz Pro window comes open.

Make sure Choose file name is checked so you have an opportunity to choose a name for the saved movie on your desktop.

Make sure the Send to: popup says desktop. You can file the movie later.

Press the Movie button.

A selection area box appears and the Movie settings box. Move and resize the selection box to include all the portions of the screen you want to record.

When I record on-screen instructions on how to do tech procedures, I use a frame rate of about 5 frames per second. Full motion video is 30 frames per second. If you have a good quality movie you are recording, you might want to set the rate to 30. (BTW-this is how you can capture a portion of a DVD for use in class.)

A 1 minute 30 second movie at 30 fps takes about 250 megs of space on your hard drive. You can only get about 2 of this size video on a single CD. The more fps you use the larger the file.

Make sure Mac audio track is selected. This records the audio of the movie from inside the computer so you don’t have to worry about people talking or making noise while the video is recording.

Press return and give the file a name.

Press return and you will hear the command “Action.” Snapz Pro is now recording. Quickly press the play button on the movie in your web browser so it starts playing back.

As soon as the movie is done, press Apple-shift-3 again to stop Snapz Pro recording and bring up the save dialog. Press the stop button on the video if you need to stop the video playing. Save the movie to your desktop.

Now you can play the movie anytime, from your hard drive, without affecting the speed of our school network. You can save these movies to CDs and share them with other teachers. Try this on a small segment of a movie, 15 seconds or so until you get the best settings and understand the process.