Small Changes; BIG RETURNS

Some questions are coming up about how to download materials from the bigreturns group collection of educational resources in myFreepath so I thought I'd write up some instructions to help clarify matters.  In Freepath, foldersof resources are known as 'playlists' and the individual frames in any playlist are called 'cues'.

First you have to register with Freepath and download the program from the website. If you're using XP, you'll need to also install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or higher. There is a link on the FP site. If you're a Mac person, you'll have to work on the Windows side to use Freepath and access these files.

Once you have done that and have this Freepath 2.0 Beta icon on your desktop (the sea anemone is part of my new desktop background!),

you will have to register with myFreepath. Please try to use an easily identifiable screen name. At last count there were several Patricia's, Julie's, Bob's, and John's in the members list. Take a moment to put a little information into your profile --eg. city and country, what you teach and which grades, what you might be using Freepath for. It will help me know who has joined the group and what your particular interests are.

You can now join the the bigreturns group in myFreepath.

There you will find 5 playlists: 2 with Ocean Resources from NOAA loaded by Lou at FP, and 3 provided by my workshop partner, Debra, and me.

Click this box 

  beside the playlsit that most interests you. They don't have online viewing yet, so you will have to download the file. A download notice of some sort will appear

When prompted to either 'Open' or 'Save' the playlist, select OPEN. When the download has finished, the playlist title should appear in your Library list after you open FP. When you close FP, the all the playlists in the Library are maintained. If you want to save a copy of any individual playlist to an external hard drive or thumbdrive, use the Export function in the File menu.

If you happened to use 'Save' instead of 'Open' at the beginning of this process, a copy of the individual playlist will come up on your desktop. If you click that, it will open FP and should add the list to your Library.

To view a playlist, single click on the one you want in the Library list and the cues will fill with the files that have been stored there. The cues take up the middle window, and there is a small prep screen on the far right. Double click on any of the cues and that screen will fill. If you want to view all the cues in order, use the arrows at the top of the prep screen.

If you click a PowerPoint an additional panel comes up to show you all the slides in that presentation. (Your screen may go to gray for a moment.) Use the arrows at the top of that panel to click your way through the slides. 

There are 3 ways to view FP playlists:

(1) prep screen (shown above) which is where you are taken automatically

(2) full screen with control arrows and screen options at the bottom

(3) dual display if you have your projector hooked up or have 2 monitors on your computer like I do.

If you have any technical issues or questions, I'll be happy to try to help. You can reach me through the email link shown in my blog, or by leaving messages for me at myFreepath.  However, your best bet might be to contact Lou and Dave, the FP people directly. Both are members of the bigreturns group so you can send them messages by clicking their names in the group list. This will bring up their profile page and you can use the 'Send Message' link.

Please tell them "Sue sent you" and where you saw our presentation or heard about Freepath (which will help me a bit). They are very good at getting back to people quickly, where it might take me a few days to respond. I work a 1.25 contract each week, so my school days are packed, and it can take me a while to get to myFreepath business.

Enjoy the files we've posted, and try one of your own. My suggestion is to keep your playlists on the short side (1 or 2 lessons rather than a whole unit) if you're going to upload to my FP. Bulky playlists can take a while to upload.

You get 100MB of your own space free, but if you are willing to share with others in the bigreturns group, we have loads more. You don't have to save online, but it's a nice way to share with colleagues and students who have Freepath on their computers.

I look forward to seeing new members in the bigreturns group. My hope is that it will turn into a learning community of people interested in incorporating new tools and resources into old lessons as a way to give them a makeover and then will share their ideas and experiences with this group.

QUESTION:  I want to upload the Peace video I made of the students' Powerpoint for Peace projects to YouTube, but I'm afraid that when I compress it, the quality will suffer. Their images already took a hit when I had to convert twice so I could get a format that Adobe Premier Elements would 'read'. Any suggestions? Please help!