Clean Up YouTube Videos

I hate it when I show a YouTube video and I stress over all the extraneous videos and links around the main video. I am always in a hurry to make the video full screen so the students can't see the extra stuff.

I heard about A Cleaner Internet and just added it as an extension to my Chrome Extension Page. This is how you do it, because it is not an intuitive way of adding the usual extension.

First of all, make sure you are using the Chrome Web Browser. 

Go to        http://clea.nr/

Click extension at the top and click CHROME to download the extension.
After it is downloaded...

Go to        chrome://extensions/chrom

             (Just paste the above into the URL bar)   Your chrome extensions page should open up.

DRAG THE DOWNLOADED EXTENSION, FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR BROWSER, TO THE CHROME EXTENSIONS PAGE AND DROP IT.  (sorry I yelled)

It should show that it was added to your extensions. Now go watch a YouTube video and never be concerned about the surrounding, distracting videos again!   *Alas, one caveat. After your video is over I think it will still show all of the related videos inside the box where your video was just viewed.

Be careful because there could still be some inappropriate and distracting videos there. At least that is after your video has been viewed!

Spreaker is Great for Podcasts!

This short blog post will be about Spreaker which is a web based platform for creating and storing your own audio podcasts.

My computer class created a short podcast by opening up Spreaker on a laptop and clicking broadcast. We plugged in a microphone into a laptop and the student interviewer asked military related questions to our custodian David Isabel. Creating the podcast and storing it on the Spreaker website was very quick and easy.

When I first tested this out I used the iPad app for Spreaker and the sound was amazing. The built in microphone made it easy to record yet just a little awkward because the iPad was the microphone. Regardless, recording a podcast was easy both ways and I highly recommend Spreaker for audio podcasts.

One way to improve the podcast is to have two microphones and to add a personalized jingle. But these are minor points if you compare this method to the old way of recording a podcast with Audacity and then loading that to Podbean.

I also recommend the Spreaker iPad app. Although it froze a couple of times, the sound quality and ease of use compares well with the website version. Spreak away!

Aspen Posting Grades Instructions

I did not write the piece below. I pasted this from our shared resources. 

If you use Aspen to grade items, you would have to click gradebook, then scores on the right hand side of your screen. After that, pick Post Columns - (either term or progress) 

Then follow the directions below. Good luck!   

PART 1:  AVERAGE TO DATE
4.  To drive in your average from your gradebook into the grade column, perform the following actions:

• Go to the Options tab
• Select “Update Post Columns”
• A pop-up will appear.  Select Q1 and Progress grades Term.  Then hit “Next” at the bottom of the pop-up window

5.  The next screen will be titled “Update Post Columns: Choose Update Values” (all of your assignments should then appear in the list when you click on it), select the first choice “Average Q1”, then hit “Next”

[MICHAEL - THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE POPS UP THERE: Note: this operation will not update manually adjusted (  ) scores.
WHAT IS A “MANUALLY ADJUSTED SCORE?”

ANSWER- It is when you manually put in grades (such as making a 79 a B- instead of an C+), performing this action will override any manually inputted grades

6.  On the next screen- “Update Post Columns: Confirmation”, select Finish.  Your grade column of “ProgTerm_Q1_GRD” should now contain the Q1 average to date.

7.  Please note, you can also manually put in a score for each student if you so wish.

PART TWO: COMMENTS

Step 1- Put the cursor into the one of the cells for comments.
Step 2- Press “Control L” and a Pop-up list of Comments will appear

-OR-

Step 2- Go to “Options” and select “Look up”

PART THREE: UPLOAD
IMPORTANT- Once upload is completed you cannot not undo without significant work.  Please make sure everything is as it should be before proceeding with this step.  DO NOT UPLOAD UNTIL BOTH GRADES AND COMMENTS HAVE BEEN ENTERED AND FINALIZED. [YOUR WORK PRIOR TO THIS STEP WILL STILL BE SAVED, SO YOU CAN ENTER SOME COMMENTS AND THEN SIGN IN AT A LATER TIME TO FINISH.]