Capturing Digital Media for the IWB 2. Video Clips

Having problems with not being able to access YouTube in school? Or do inappropriate comments on the YouTube page put you off using an otherwise useful educational clip in school? Or would you like to be able to download the video so that you can annotate key points using SMART notebook functions? There are a number of ways in which you can capture digital video from sites such as You Tube, Teacher Tube, Video Jug etc.. in order to capture useful content which you can use in the classroom (bearing in mind of course any copyright restrictions).

One of the simplest ways of downloading videos from the web is using a versatile, free and simple to use tools called zamzar. This is a free online file conversion tool which means you do not need to download any software to your computer in order to run it.

Downloading a YouTube video (or similar) using Zamzar couldn’t be easier:

1. Simply copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to download – go to zamar, under Step 1, click on url (you must do this if downloading from a website) and then paste in the URL of the YouTube video you want.

2. Under Step 2, select the file format you want to convert it to, if you intend to import it into SMART notebook you will need to use a file format such as .flv (a flash video file). If you download / convert the video into Flash Video format, other than watching it in SMART notebook you will need a Flash Video player to view it (a free one can be downloaded here)

3. Finally you will need to enter your email address and once you have agreed to the terms and conditions select convert. A link will then be sent to your email address for you to download the converted file to your computer. Depending on usage this can take anything from 5 minutes to up to an hour to come through! I have often had very quick responses however on one or two occassions at high usage times I have experienced some delays.

Although there are tools other than zamzar which can be quicker in downloading video clips, it is definitely worth be aware of zamzar – for example, if you just want the soundtrack to a video from YouTube but you don’t want the video itself, you can strip off the soundtrack using Zamzar – simply follow the instructions above, but instead of selecting .flv as the conversion format, choose one of the audio file options, e.g. .wav, ..wma etc.

You can also convert files from one type to another, including document formats such as .rtf and .doc.

Other Download Tools:

If you use Firefox – the SoThink Web Video Downloader (freeware) for Firefox is well worth downloading. Instructions for how to use this tool to download videos from firefox can be found here.

Tooble is a new online tool enabling the downloading of YouTube videos directly to your PC in a format which can then be downloaded to video ipods – this could be useful for making available revision videos which students can then download to watch on their ipods!

There are many other free options available – see this post on 18 free ways to download any video off of the internet, by Aseem Kishore.