Posts made in December 8th, 2008

Tooble Video Downloader

Posted on Dec 8, 2008 in Interactive Whiteboards | 1 comment

I’m indebted to Tom Barrett for making me aware of a fantastic little application called Tooble. Tooble may very wel be the ultimate YouTube video downloader.

Tooble runs on your computer and lets you search YouTube for keywords (or you can give it the direct URL to the video you want). All you need to do is check the box next to the videos you want to download, and Tooble gets to work downloading them onto your computer.

I gave it a test run with one of my favourite clips from Brainiac; the Walking on Custard clip. Tooble quickly downloaded it as an MPEG file with little fuss. By default it puts it into your Music folder and even imports it into your iTunes library but you can change these settings if you wish. You can change the file quality to best suit playing on an iPod too!

This could be the ultimate tool for any teacher who cannot get YouTube in their school because of filtering, or who wants to snag a clip to make sure they don’t lose it if it’s removed or net access is not working when they give their lesson.

Go download Tooble now!

Simple Science Videos

Posted on Dec 8, 2008 in Science Resources | 0 comments

Here’s a great site for using songs to help the teaching of Science in the classroom. Simple Science has videos for many KS2 topics with songs, and also explanations of some of the concepts; http://www.simplescience.net/

Videos are hosted on Vimeo, which means they are higher quality than YouTube, and also means they are accessible in schools that have blocked YouTube.

The videos are free on the website, but if you like them, you might want to buy a DVD of the high quality versions.

4F Electricity Song from Simple Science on Vimeo.

New Flyer

Posted on Dec 8, 2008 in Interactive Whiteboards | 0 comments

Over the last few weeks I’ve been involved in producing a new flyer to advertise my services as an IT trainer. I have just had them back from the printers and I am very pleased with them. I’ve just uploaded an electronic version to the Think Bank website, and I’d like to share it here as well.

Think Bank Flyer

If you do want any kind of IT training in your school (or elsewhere) then get in touch and we can discuss your needs. I think it really helps to be trained on your site, on your kit. Alternatively, look on the sidebar for the courses I deliver at venues around the UK.