The World Wide Web

1
The World Wide Web

• Some Ideas for Teaching and Learning

2
Internet The Old Way

• Content produced by companies
• Content was text-based
• Connections were slow and expensive
• User interaction was limited to reading or
  filling in forms (for banking or shopping)
• If you wanted to do anything useful with your
  computer, you needed expensive software bought
  from a shop.

3
Internet The New Way

• Democratization of publishing. We can all be web
  publishers.
• Cheap, fast broadband connections make it
  possible to create and use multimedia content.
• Cheap hosting means we can upload and share our
  content.
• Open-Source Software to do almost anything can be
  downloaded free from the web.
• New programming approaches give us new ways to
  link to and interact with content.

4
What will we cover today?

• How to publish, store and share on the Web
• - Blogging
• - Web Site Creation
• Some useful free open-source applications
• - Google Docs - Audacity - NVU
• - Flickr - VLC Mediaplayer - CamStudio -
  OpenOffice - GIMP
• Beating Firewalls and Digital Rights Management

5
Why Publish on the Web?

• Permanent, organized and reliable storage of
  teaching materials
• Accessible from anywhere with an internet
  connection
• A web browser is a very simple and accessible
  interface for students. They can access and use
  your materials at any time.

6
Web Publishing - Choices

• Blogging
• Simple and easy to set up
• Free
• Easy to upload your files
• But...
• Can be slow at busy times
• Little control over design and layout

• Web Site Creation
• Complete freedom over layout, design and
  organization
• ISP web servers tend to be faster more reliable
• But...
• Requires some technical knowledge

7
Blogging Some Options

• Google Blogger

• Edublogs

• Very easy to set up and maintain
• Reasonable server response times
• Doesnt offer multi-user feature
• Limited security for uploaded documents

• Multi-user capability
• Ability to password protect your posts
• Slow server response
• Controls are sometimes annoying and
  counterintuitive

8
Building a Website is Easy

• Use a templates package
• Use a WYSIWYG web design program
• Write the code yourself!

• You probably have some free web space with your
  ISP
• Designing and publishing web content does not
  have to be too technical.
• Opposite are three different approaches to web
  publishing, increasing in technical difficulty.

9
Using Templates

• Templates are pre-designed web pages. You just
  change the text to your own and upload it to your
  server.
• Search web templates and you will find hundreds
  of sites offering free templates.
• They are an easy way to get good-looking web
  pages quickly
• BUT the design is someone elses, plus your
  website will look like everyone elses!
• freewebtemplates.com

10
WYSIWYG Web Design Software

• Adobe Dreamweaver
• The industry standard, but expensive.
• Microsoft Expression Web
• Microsoft. Yuck. Powerful tool, but expensive.
• N-VU
• Does everything the above packages do, but less
  pretty to look at. Its free!

11
Do It Yourself!

• You will need...

• Why bother?

• You have full control over your content
• Your code will be simple, elegant and easy to
  modify
• The joy of having done it all yourself!

• Windows notepad (or another text editor)
• An internet browser

12
The Open Source Movement

• A global community of developers and programmers
  who produce software not for profit, but because
  they enjoy it!
• For the casual user, this means that there is a
  stack of excellent quality, free software
  available to be downloaded.

13
Audacity

• What does it do?
• A very powerful audio editor
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//audacity.sourceforge.ne
  t/

• What can I use it for?
• Recording yours or your students voices
• Encoding cassette tapes/vinyl into digital
• Recording audio from radio, TV or film
• Editing any aspect of any audio recording
• Producing podcasts

14
GIMP

• What does it do?
• An image editor to rival
• Photoshop
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//www.gimp.org/

• What can I use it for?
• Creating graphics including web graphics
• Doing absolutely anything to your own photos or
  to images acquired via scanner or the Web.

15
OpenOffice

• What does it do?
• A complete office suite
• with word processor, spreadsheet and
  presentation program
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//www.openoffice.org

• What can I use it for?
• Everything youd do with Microsoft Office,
  without the hundreds-of-pounds price tag.

16
NVU

• What does it do?
• A WYSIWYG webpage
• creator and editor
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//www.nvu.com/

• What can I use it for?
• A gentle way to learn
• and teach web authoring.
• Change the code and see the design change, or
  vice versa.

17
VLC Media Player

• What does it do?
• Plays almost any audio or video format
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//www.videolan.org/vlc/

• What can I use it for?
• Playing stuff that the school software refuses
  to play, such as
• .flv files (YouTube videos)
• .ogg files (open-source music format)

18
CamStudio

• What does it do?
• Records any video
• outputted to your screen,
• plus sound
• Where can I get it?
• Free download from http//camstudio.org/

• What can I use it for?
• Recording restricted content that you are unable
  to download.
• Making films of your computer activity.
• Recording content that you cannot access in
  school, ie YouTube.

19
Online Applications

• Useful applications that you dont have to
  download to your computer you can use them
  online from wherever you are.

20
Google Docs

• An online word processor, presentation creator
  and spreadsheet, compatible with Microsoft
  versions.
• Whys it so great?
• You can save your files on Googles web space,
  saving space on your own computer and making them
  accessible anywhere. No more memory sticks!

21
Flickr

• A photo hosting site with a lively community and
  an emphasis on quality.
• How can this help with my teaching?
• Bye bye memory sticks!
• All of your images available anywhere, any time.

22
Getting Youtube Content into School

• The authoritys firewall blocks some of the Webs
  most useful sites, such as Youtube.
• You can still download videos from Youtube to
  play to your class.
• Heres how you do it...

23

• Download the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
• In Firefox, go to
• Tools ? Add-ons ? Get Extensions
• Find and download the extension
• Fast Video Download
• Using Firefox as your browser, go to the Youtube
  video you want to save, and while it is playing,
  save it by clicking on the FVD button in the
  bottom right corner of the Firefox window.

24

• Give the video a filename ending in .flv and save
  it to your machine.
• You can now play the video at any time using VLC
  Media Player.

25
Demonstration
26
How to record streaming video

• The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all now make
  programming available to watch on demand, online.
  This content is protected by Digital Rights
  Management (DRM), to prevent you from downloading
  it.
• You can record this content for use in school
  easily using CamStudio. Simply draw the CamStudio
  box around the screen, make sure the audio is set
  to record speakers, and go!

27
A Hidden Gem

• In Our Time, the Radio 4 factual programme, has a
  large archive of previously-aired episodes.
• You can listen to these at leisure, and record
  them using Audacity to be used in school.
• They will not be available on the BBC website for
  ever record the ones you want!