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Matt’s Media Tips 2-6 What did you say? Closed Captioning on the iPad? The other day I was asked to present to a group of educators and administrators in Fairfax County, VA. This group wanted to know how they could get Discovery Education closed captioned videos to play on their iPads. The night before my presentation I searched every nook and cranny of the internet to find an answer. I went deep into forums, read many different blogs, and even explored iTunes U. But alas all I could find was that iPads will only play “Open Captions,” and not “Closed Captioned videos. It turns out that Closed Captions are an entirely different type of technology and are not supported on iPads. Or at least that’s what “they” said. On a whim I decided to see if there was a VLC media player iPad app. And low and behold there was. But my excitement was soon tempered when I found out that this particular app did not do what I needed it to do. However, just before I threw in the towel, I saw an app that caught my eye. And I am so glad I did. The AvplayerHD app was the answer that I had been searching for. It is $2.99 and well worth the price. I love this app. Not only will it play Discovery Education Closed Captioned videos, it also converts ANY - that’s right I said any - file for you. And it does it with out synching or using iTunes to convert for you. In a manner of seconds you can wirelessly upload .WMV, .ASF, .MOV, .MPEG4, .SMI (Closed Captioned) files. Pretty cool right? That’s not all. You can also swipe your finger and slow down or speed up the speech...and the text! You can change the color of the video to black and white or sepia although I’m not sure why you’d want to do that. Finally you can also change the TV output to 640 x 480, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 720, or 1920 x 1080.
So how do you do it? Here are the simple steps. 1. Download the AvplayerHD app from the iTunes App Store. 2. Log into www.discoveryeducation.com and find a video that has a matching closed captioned file. 3. Download the Windows Media Player version of the video (.ASF) onto your Mac or PC. Follow this step even if you’re on a Mac. Note: if you’re on a Mac the video may download as a (name_of_video.mac.asf). If this happens it could be because you have Flip4Mac installed on your Mac. No worries, simply rename your file so that the “.mac” is deleted (name_of_video.asf). 4. Download the matching closed captioned file onto your Mac or PC Note: for step-by-step instructions on downloading videos and their closed captions (even editing the captions) check out the Opening Up Closed-Captions Matt’s Media Tips edition. 5. Open up the AVplayerHD app on your computer and click on the Wi-Fi Transfer button 6. Choose the HTTP/FTP Server button on the left and then the blue Start button on the right. 7. Enter the top URL into your browser and then navigate to, and select, your video and closed captioned files. Note: You’ll need to navigate and select each file separately. 8. Touch the arrow in the upper left-hand side of your screen on your iPad to go back to the AVplayerHD home screen 9. Click on the Media Explorer button to find your video 10. Choose the file ending in .ASF and touch it to begin playing - it should automatically play with its captions! Note: To change the video’s color click on the rainbow-colored icon on the left-hand side of your screen. It will pull up four boxes. Touch one of those boxes and then the center of your screen and your video will change to the color you’ve chosen. 11. Go back to the AVplayerHD home page and select the Settings button to change the appearance of your captions (top/bottom of screen, size, etc).
Discovery Education Webinar Schedule Dates
Time (EST)
Link
2/6
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education 101 This webinar begins with the basics (logins and passwords) and moves quickly through searches, the Teacher Center and Builders, incorporating digital content with web 2.0 tools, and classroom building through our online organizational tools.
2/7
6pm 7pm
Become a Digital Content Creator featuring DEN Guru Rita Mortenson Learn why ePubs are becoming more and more popular for classroom use and how you and your students can begin creating your own using Discovery Education content.
2/7
7pm 8pm
Shifting Gears in Your Class. ChallengeBased vs Problem Based Learning (Teacher Version) Join us as we discuss the difference and provide you with a program that will allow you to implement this transformative educational design in your class
2/7
8pm 9pm
STAR Techbook Webinar. Learning to Use The Discovery Education Webinar Attendees will learn how to navigate the Discovery Education Science Techbook and integrate a diverse range of digital resources into their existing science lessons.
2/8
4pm 5pm
Engaging Discovery Education Science Techbook Students Through the Student Center. Learn how to provide resources for your students to explore using the Classroom Manager feature in conjunction with Discovery Education?s Builder Tools.
2/8
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education Administrative Tools: Beyond the Classroom Learn how to provide student access, and in no time they will be clicking away through videos, images, and more from home, school, or anywhere they have an internet connection. We will highlight enhancements to the My Admin site including a new Classroom Management feature to extend learning outside of the school day.
It’s all about cool things you can do with your iPad/iPhone/ iTouch today. Hall Davidson shared this app with me and I think that it is simply amazing! Greenscreening is back baby! And this tool makes it oh so easy. Check out GreenScreen FX. At $1.99 it is well worth it. This creative and simple tool will give you the power to put yourself or your kids into a Discovery Education video. Simply load a Discovery Education video onto your iPad and then open up this app and begin recording. In a mere matter of minutes you’ve dropped yourself into a video! And you’re not limited to green either. Its built in chromakey feature let’s you choose any color as an editable background. All you have to do is point, shoot, and slide your finger to make that color disappear! Even cooler is the fact that it saves your edited movies onto your camera role. So if you have iMovie on your iPad you can add music and mash it up with even more content.
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 1/30/2012
1/23/2012
1/18/2012
Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations Whiteboard Apps Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.
1/9/2012
Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students
12/19/2011
Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App
12/12/2011
50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter App - Flash for iPads
11/28/2011
What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps
11/14/2011
Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool you can do with Google. TED and Animoto Apps
11/7/2011
First Six Weeks Aggregated
11/4/2011
Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge
10/24/2011
Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps
10/17/2011
Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps
10/3/2011
Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives
9/26/2011
Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!
9/13/2011
Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE
What is a DEN Star Member?
The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!
Don’t forget to register and participate in the first student media contest of the year! Check out
http://links.discoveryeducation.com/videochallenge