Presenters

This page is provided to share information with selected 2007 K12 Online Conference presenters. Please also refer to the main conference frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for additional info. If you are a presenter and have a question not addressed here, please post your question as a comment!

If you are a presenter, be sure to check out the presenter’s wiki for updated information.

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Before the Dawn – Please view our SlideShare about this event!

Friday, September 28, 2:00 AM UTC/GMT

Saturday, September 29, 12:00 PM UTC/GMT

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. When will I be notified if I am selected to present? Everyone who submits a proposal to present for the 2007 K12 Online Conference will receive an email regarding acceptance status by June 30, 2007.
2. How long can my presentation be? There is not a strict minimum or maximum presentation length, but generally presentations should last at least 20 minutes and no longer than 60 minutes.
3. What format should I use to submit my final presentation? We want to encourage our presenters to be creative and utilize different presentation formats, but we also want to promote accessibility and thereby enable the broadest range of people as possible to view presentations and participate in subsequent online interactions about those presentations. In addition, we want to facilitate the use of podcast feeds to permit easy “subscription” to the presentations published for the 2007 K12 Online Conference. Because some versions of Windows Media Player files (WMV files) are not compatible/playable on all computer platforms, the preferred file formats for conference presentations are mp3 and QuickTime mov formats. For Windows OS users creating WMV video files, a free WMV to iPod compatible QuickTime MOV Format converter is available and recommended. Presenters are welcome to experiment with alternative file formats, but A MP3 OR QUICKTIME MOV FILE IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED for final presentations.
4. How will presenters submit final presentation files for posting? Presentations will be sent via email or a web-based file attachment transfer service like Sendspace or youSENDit to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach: snbeach {at} cox {dot} net. The deadline for submitting final presentations has not been announced yet, but will be announced by June 30th.
5. Why can’t presenters just submit a link to a presentation file hosted somewhere else on another server? There are several reasons for this. First of all, school district content filter policies vary widely, and may prohibit some teachers from downloading and viewing presentations hosted on particular website domains. By hosting all presentation files from the William and Mary webservers, many potential content filter “block” issues can be avoided. Secondly, it is the intent of the K12 Online Conference to provide ongoing access to these presentations into the future. If files are hosted on different servers, those files could be moved or deleted and thereby prevent others from accessing them in the future.
6. Why are all presentations licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license? The K12 Online Conference is all about educators sharing best practices with and teaching each other. We want these high quality conference presentation materials to be shared as widely and broadly as possible. To further that end, we are specifying the aforementioned Creative Commons license to encourage others to utilize and remix conference presentation content for educational and noncommercial purposes.

Tools for Presenters

Free Screen Capture Software

You can use SmartBoard software to create screencasts. (The use license requires that you or your organization own a Smartboard. The software itself does not require that you be plugged into a SmartBoard at the time you install or use it, however.) The software will capture your desktop and audio through your microphone. The software is cross-platform and can be downloaded from the Smart website after entering your name and email address. AVI files created on Windows computers need to be converted to a more compatible WMV file. (Check this page for details and links.) For mac users it’s a little easier, just install and go. Files are saved as QuickTime .mov files which you can import into iMovie and edit if you like. There are a slew of little programs included in the bundle. The one you’re looking for is called “Recorder.”
Click on your operating system. (You may have to “sign up.” Also free.) Then click on the [Install Now] button.

Commercial Screen Capture Software

• Camtasia (Windows-only)
• Articulate Presenter (Windows-only)
• iShowU (Macintosh-only)

VoxMedia has a nice collection on their wiki of screencasting tools. If you know of other screen capture software tools, please add a comment here and include a link.

Video conversion and compression

Free iPod Video Converter is a free, Windows-based program that will convert Windows Media (WMV) files into iPod compatible QuickTime movie (.mov) files.

iSquint is a free, Macintosh-based program that will convert Flash movie (.flv) files into iPod compatible QuickTime movie (.mov) files.

FFmpegX is a free, open source program for Linux/Unix and Macs that will convert and compress most video formats, including Flash. If you know of a Windows-based program (open source or commercial) that has similar functionality, please let everyone know by commenting here.