We have a camcorder at work that records straight to DVD. Of course the price you pay for this convenience is a lack of flexibility. I needed some clips off a handful of old DVDs to use in a presentation. I needed clips off the DVDs in the easiest way possible and in a format I could re-edit easily (using Windows Live Movie Maker for simplicity).
VLC
I managed to grab several clips using VLC following these steps. First of all enable advanced options
Then play back your video/DVD. Click on the red button to start and stop recording. The recorded file is saved in your documents folder. It is possible to change the output video format, however the defaults worked fine with movie maker. [Mac users – I believe you press Shift & Command & R instead]
Unfortunately I had problems with one of the DVDs so I had to use a different method.
Handbrake and K-Lite pack.
I installed the K-Lite pack to give me codecs I would need later on. (Without the codecs from this pack windows movie maker was not able to use the audio on captured files in AAC format).
Handbrake is simple to use, but the files it generates will probably need some editing/trimming unless you need the whole DVD.
(You can also use handbrake to convert DVDs into a format suitable for an iPod/iPhone just by changing the preset at stage 2).
That’s all there is to it. If you are grabbing clips from DVD make sure you own the copyright or else you could get into bother!
Secondary teachers tend to forget what a useful tool video can be in your lessons, even I do sometimes! I’ve a selection of devices that record video but my students’ favourite device is my Flip camera.
In the past week three different groups have made use of video recording in their lessons. Two of the groups videoed themselves – in the format of a news report on climate change, and an anti-drugs video. Unfortunately I’m not able to show these videos outside of school but the third group however decided to video their experiments so that they could watch them again, and show them to pupils who were absent from the lesson.
This is the video they recorded (I just did the editing).
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a thousand pictures. Learners who have special needs respond well to this medium, and it can be a tremendous motivator and confidence booster.
Staff in my school have finally become confident at using digital photography, but we spend a fortune printing out photographs to put in folders that no-body looks at. Staff members who want to keep digital copies of photographs have to pass them to our technician who stores them on an encrypted drive (as per our data protection policy). It’s taken 10 years to get staff members using email and digital photographs, so videos may require a few more years of training before adoption!
I’d be interested to hear from anyone, especially in the special education field, who uses digital media with their classes for any purpose. Contact me or leave a comment below.
It’s our Christmas concert this week. My class wanted to contribute but they fall to pieces when they have to perform. We also lack any kind of musical talent and usually end up doing some kind of acrostic or other verse.
I asked them this year if they would like to record a Christmas tune on Wii music (I was given this for my birthday earlier in the year). The pupils jumped at the chance and between them chose the people who were going to play.
It took an afternoon of serious playing before they were able to play a tune that was recognisable. It was also a lot of fun (you could argue that they were also developing their hand/eye coordination skills). We saved the video in game and captured it later (we used a camcorder since it was quicker than recording to DVD and ripping off the video).
I had recorded footage of the pupils playing Wii music, and selected pupils recorded an introduction to the video. 30 minutes of transfer and editing saw the video completed ready to be played back in church.
Unfortunately this video is a special edit for YouTube with footage of the pupils removed.
I had some cash to spend that I had charged another school for some consultancy work. One of the pieces of technology I bought was a flip video, mostly for evidence recording rather than for the pupils to use. I also bought the little flip tripod. Having used it for a few weeks, the quality of video is excellent when displayed on the IWB, and it is very handy for weaker classes to recap what they have been doing in previous lessons. I used rechargeable batteries in my Flip but it doesn’t seem to drain them as fast as other devices I’ve used them in. The video below is a video I shot with the flip, showing the reaction between potassium chlorate and sugar. The flip was stood on its tripod to give a film with no wobbles.
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