A colleague dropped by and bragged that he’d heard from a student in college. “Yeah, she made an ‘A’ in her project because she could create a web page!” I laughed and said, “Didn’t you teach her using Notepad on Windows?” “You bet, that’s all we had!” he laughed back, his blue eyes open wide. “And one of your people just told me about NVU!” Isn’t it amazing how, as budgets are slashed, people are naturally turning to free alternatives on the Web? Now, more than ever, there is an abundance of tools available to work with audio, video, as well as how to create screencasts (useful for giving folks a tour of a certain program on your computer or how to accomplish a specific task)!

Free Tools Live On

Since I’m participating in an online course, and wanted to develop nicely formatted discussion forum posts (no, they’re not using Moodle), I went looking for KompoZer. I stumbled across this entry at Wikipedia:

Although NVU is no longer supported, KompoZer is a free, open source alternative to expensive HTML editors. While many of us are now embracing blogs and wikis as easy web publishing platforms, there is an occasional need to teach HTML. Tools that are free, open source endure because the programming code is out there for a global community to improve. What other great software is available at no-cost for you to use?

Key Questions

The focus of this article is to explore what other great tools are available at no charge on the Web. Come join me as we explore the answers to key questions, such as:

1. What free, Windows backup software is there for my computer?
2. What are some of the free screencasting tools available?
3. How can I create narrated presentations to share with others?
4. Where can I locate those hard to find multimedia codecs needed to play some videos off the Web?
5. How do I record YouTube music videos to MP3?
6. How do I extract movies from non-commercial DVDs, convert from one video format to another using the free VLC Media Player?

1 – What free, Windows backup software is there for my computer?

Backing up your computer can be tough work. Although 500 gigabyte USB external drives are now available for purchase, you can still get stuck. I still remember a frantic email from a colleague at 9:00 PM, “How can I backup my hard drive?” At the time, I didn’t have an answer and had to research it.

Four no-cost solutions you can rely on include the following:

• AceBackup – http://www.acebackup.com/
• Backup Easy – http://tinyurl.com/5njqsp
• Comodo Backup – http://backup.comodo.com/
• SyncBack Freeware – http://tinyurl.com/3qty5

Each of these solutions includes different features. Some of the ones that are must-haves include automated/scheduled backups, ability to backup to multiple media types (e.g. DVD, multi-session DVD, CD, to an FTP server), and compression of backup files as ZIP files to save space. One feature I look for especially is incremental backup that only saves what has changed, rather than making a complete backup (time-consuming).

Although Comodo Backup and SyncBack are both excellent choices, Backup Easy presents a neat alternative—it is cross-platform because it runs as a Java application. One final feature to look for is encryption of backup files, in case you’re working with confidential data.

2 – What are some of the free screencasting tools available?

Over the last year, I’ve found myself collecting screencasting tools. These tools essentially allow you to record what is going on your computer and then share that with others. When working with screen recording software, it’s easy to end up with a ponderous, slow-moving application. My criteria for on screen recording includes fast-moving, snappy applications, whether that is on Mac or Windows.

On the Mac, I have had success with the $20 iShowU (http://tinyurl.com/62auly) and the $100 ScreenFlow (http://tinyurl.com/6aeyfw), and cast glances at the $30 ScreenFlick (http://tinyurl.com/6lfwvl). GNU/Linux users can find a round-up of screen-recording tools online (http://tinyurl.com/649gle). However, here are three, free, client and/or web-based alternatives you can use without spending a dime:

• Jing.com – http://jing.com
• Screencast-o-Matic – http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
• uTipU – http://utipu.com

At the moment, Jing.com continues to win hands-down as the easiest to use and cross-platform. The only caveat is it’s proprietary video encoding format (SWF), which while providing great quality is difficult to embed in traditional slideshow programs or on web pages. uTipU, in contrast, provides encoding in FLV—the same format used on YouTube—but requires the installation of a Windows-only client. And, for the brave of heart, you can try using VLC Media Player to record your screen (view this tutorial at http://tinyurl.com/6mjfze).

Of all the solutions, the beta Screencast-o-Matic was the most intriguing, offering Java-based application that enabled me to record my screen at different resolutions and audio! It worked quite well for recording a simple tutorial or walkthrough on the screen!

3 – How can I create narrated presentations to share with others?

In a conversation with a central office administrator, the question came up as to how to easily share a slideshow presentation with campus staff. The presentation had to include the speaker’s voice.

I quickly shared 3 tools with the central office administrator, including the following:

1. VoiceThread.com – This is my favorite, free tool to share. VoiceThread enables your viewers to add audio, video and text of their own. What a fantastic way to recognize the work that is being done, and invite recognition of that work done by your staff by others! When working with campus administrators, be sure to share the VoiceThreads4Education.wikispaces.com web site with them. There are a few examples of administrators at the district and campus level sharing their presentations.
2. MyPlick.com – This is a wonderful tool that allows you to upload your Powerpoint presentation, then, if you have it, send in audio you have recorded. When working with the presentation, you listen to your audio and advance the slide show at the appropriate moment. When you are done, MyPlick actually remembers and when played by a visitor, plays the audio in sync with your presentation slides. Amazing! (Thanks to Steve Dembo at http://teach42.com for this tip!).
3. Slideshare.net – This is another slideshow sharing tool that I use with great frequency. You can also add audio to Slideshare so that it works in a similar way to MyPlick.com.

Of the 3 tools, VoiceThread.com is the easiest, but both MyPlick.com and Slideshare.net can be used in different ways. For example, MyPlick.com can be used as a podcasting tool that allows you to upload your presentation and then your separately recorded audio file. Give these tools a try and find the one that best matches your presentation style!

4 – Where can I locate those hard to find multimedia codecs needed to play some videos off the Web?

In working with PBS TeacherLine’s Peer Connection product earlier this school year, I became aware that much of their video content was in RealPlayer format, rather than the more standard FLV popularized by YouTube and other video hosting/sharing sites. Although PBS TeacherLine has since converted their content from RealPlayer to FLV to ensure greater compatibility, the question this raised in my mind sent me on a last minute search for video codecs.

Though I’m not a video expert, I know that video codecs allow me to play certain video formats on my computer. Without the right codec, my computer will not be able to play certain videos. As such, more video codecs is better! Chances are, you may not need to have a variety of video codecs installed on your computer. Often, videos will play just fine on the no-cost, cross-platform VLC Media Player. But, just in case, be aware that you can find a wide variety of video and audio codecs online at http://free-codecs.com .

5 – How do I record YouTube music videos to MP3?

Although it is easy to get YouTube videos using popular conversion web sites like Keepvid.com, ZamZar.com, Vixy.net, or MediaConverter, one of the desires of many teens and adults is how to strip the audio out of music videos appearing in FLV format.

There are several ways to accomplish this on Windows; here are some of my favorites:

1. Use Freez FLV to MP3 Converter – http://tinyurl.com/5jhjhh
2. Use VLC Media Player – http://videolan.org – Record online video stream to a file.
3. FormatFactory – http://www.formatoz.com/

6- How do I extract movies from non-commercial DVDs, convert from one video format to another using the free VLC Media Player?

“The Communications Department made me a DVD of the presentation.” shared a district teacher specialist. Then, she asked, “How do I save it as a movie that I can play on my computer? I want to put into my Powerpoint.”

While you can use VLC Media Player to convert YouTube videos to other formats, you can also do a lot more with VLC Media Player. Take advantage of these free tutorials I have created:

• Convert FLV to MOV Using VLC Media Player – http://tinyurl.com/6ndsm2
• Save Video to MP3/OGG Using VLC Media Player – http://tinyurl.com/59ntj9
• Convert from FLV to MOV via MP4 – http://tinyurl.com/6ndsm2
• Save MP4 video file from a DVD using VLC – http://tinyurl.com/69u764

and, one of the most popular tutorials:

• Convert from PhotoStory WMVs to MP4 – http://tinyurl.com/6s8lvx

This last tutorial enables you to use free tools to convert proprietary PhotoStory WMVs to web-friendly MP4 files that can be shared via video-sharing sites like education-centric Edublogs.tv and/or TeacherTube.com. Of course, be sure to use FormatFactory on Windows!

Conclusion

Now, more than ever before, there are a wide variety of free, web-based tools you can use to accomplish a variety of tasks. However, you can take advantage of these downloadable software programs to accomplish many of the jobs you have to work through on a daily basis.

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