Integrating Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

In addition to using a digital still camera, a camcorder, or a webcam to capture video, we can create video shots easily with a dedicated digital video camera such as the SONY Bloggie.

An advantage of the Bloggie for making recordings of yourself or having students record themselves is that the camera can point in either direction. This makes it esay to adjust the subject in the video frame. In addition, the Bloggie can be set for a variety of frame sizes (640x480,1280x720, 1920x1080).

Or the the Flip.

The Flip is very simple to use, and the video quality seems to be a bit better than the SONY (see below), but with simplicity come fewer options. Both produce good sound for educational uses. However, you shouldn't expect professional quality video from either.

These cameras are both small, lightweight, and easy to use. Just point and press the red button. Their built-in USP connectors mean that no additional cables are needed, so there's nothing else to carry. Both save their files in MP4 format, but you can use free software such as Freemake Video Converter to switch to another format if needed.

The video can be edited and compressed for Internet use through other free software such as Windows Live Movie Maker. These examples are converted to WMV format, but FLV format for uploading to Youtube is even easier.

The two videos shown were both recorded at 640x480 resolution, then edited and compressed down to 320x240 using Windows Live Movie Maker.

Since they are in WMV format, the code for embedding the video object is:

<object id="MediaPlayer" width="320" height="285" classid="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
standby="Loading Windows Media Player components..." type="application/x-oleobject">
<param name="FileName" value="dig-vid-01.wmv">
<param name="autostart" value="false">
<param name="ShowControls" value="true">
<param name="ShowStatusBar" value="false">
<param name="ShowDisplay" value="false">
<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" src="dig-vid-01.wmv" name="MediaPlayer"
width="320" height="285" showcontrols="1" showstatusbar="0" showdisplay="0" autostart="0"> </embed>
</object>

For other formats, it is easy to search online for the code.

By converting to MP4 format and using a Flash player such as JWPlayer, you can standardize your videos and maximize the compatibility with all Internet devices.