The iPad officially became available for pre-order earlier today and while plenty of you are still debating about whether or not to pre-order, it appears as if the device might already sold 51,000 units in just two hours via pre-order. Wow.

If you’ve ever doubted how insane dedicated Apple fans are, the background on how these figures were determined will assuage any doubts. A group of particularly prudent Apple fans from the APPL Sanity Board at Investor Village decided to put together a spreadsheet of order numbers, times that orders were placed and contents of those order. As someone who has been known to obsess over Apple details myself (tracking a freightliner from China to the US with 27″ iMacs on-board in order to better guestimate delivery time), my hat is off to these folks!

Using this information, they were able to come up with a baseline for the number of items being sold through the Apple Online Store.

Fortune’s Phillip Elmer-DeWitt reports:

“51,000 orders in two hours,” announced Victor Castroll shortly after noon. He’s an analyst with Valcent Financial Group and an AAPL Sanity member who, with the blogger-analyst who calls himself deagol, has been monitoring the spreadsheet.

This matches other estimates from blogger Andrew Erlichson who wrote:

“We just bought two iPads, about 30 minutes apart. Our order IDs are 10,000 apart. Assuming those order IDs are sequential, and they appear to be, then Apple is selling 20,000 iPads per hour.”

Now as with anything unofficial, there are caveats — major ones — assuming that the order number system has been identified and “cracked” so to speak, this would really be more accurate for all orders placed through the Apple Store, not just iPad orders.

Additionally, these figures wouldn’t account for orders with multiple iPads (you can only pre-order two at a time). This also doesn’t include any reservations to pick up an iPad at a local store (no payment information is required for that and you aren’t given an order number).

Still, it’s safe to say that the majority of orders placed through the Apple Online Store are for the iPad.

I’ve reached out to Victor Castroll for a more recent update and will update the post if I’m able to get any more information.

Update: Victor Castroll from the Valcent Financial Group and AAPL Sanity got back to us with some numbers that account for approximately the first 6 hours of sales. Here’s what he tells us:

“We’re at 90k in 6 hours. Keep in mind, this doesn’t include multiple orders but we have some dirty data from regular Apple business which now is about 4k orders out of the 88k orders. So, we estimate Apple has already sold about 90k today, not including in-store reserves.

“$54 million in revenue in a quarter of a day is a great opening. Looks like contrary to much speculation about who would actually want one of these, like the iPhone, people are voting with their wallets. Considering these are just pre-orders for a product still three weeks out, iPad is home run.”

Indeed, 90,000 pre-orders in just one day is extremely impressive!

Tags: apple, ipad, ipad preorder, trending

We’re big fans of Animoto, a website that lets you easily create photo and video slideshows matched to music. The site is constantly innovating its nifty product, most recently adding an iPhone app and the ability to incorporate video. For those not familiar with Animoto, the startup basically allows you to take your images, video and your music and mash them together to create cool videos. What makes the videos cool is the company’s technology that renders the pictures so they’re in-step with the music you’ve chosen, adding nice transition effects. This morning, Animoto is opening up its API, allowing partners to now incorporate Animoto’s compelling technologies into independent sites

The first API that being rolled out for the Animoto Partner Platform is Animoto Quickstart.  The API essentially allows any website to tap into Animoto’s video creation flow.  The aim is to make Animoto one click away from any website that has photos, videos or music.  Quickstart allows websites to connect their own content, including photos, video clips and music to Animoto as the first step in creating an Animoto video. So partners can integrate Animoto’s video slideshow creation tool into their sites. And the startup promises that Quickstart takes only hours to a partner to set up on a site.

For example, SmugMug, a photo sharing site that caters to professional photographers, uses Quickstart so users can ‘pass’ their photo albums into Animoto’s video creation flow. So the user now has the option of making a slideshow from their hosted photos and simply needs to pick a song to complete their Animoto video. Once a user clicks to make the slideshow, he or she will be taken to Animoto’s site, where their video and photos will automatically be placed into Animoto’s site.

Another use case is a promotion Animoto is launching with iconic musician John Bon Jovi where fans of Bon Jovi can go to Bonjovi’s site to create an Animoto music video with Bon Jovi’s latest single and footage from his music video.  Pepsi also used the Quickstart API to help users create video slideshows in a contest involving its ShareTheJoy campaign.

With the launch of this API at SXSW, Animoto is partnering with music publication SPIN magazine to allow fans to promote their favorite South by Southwest bands for a chance to win prizes.
From now until March 31, 2010, fans can create and submit Animoto videos featuring songs from top South by Southwest bands for a chance to win $1000 and a spot on Spin.com, and other prizes.
 
Currently Animoto has 1.4 million users and makes money off of its paid subscriptions. On its site its free to create 30 second videos, but you need to pay $3 per video to make an lengthier slideshow. The site sells a year long subscription to users for $30. A large part of Animoto’s subscription business is composed of professional videographers and photographers who pay $250 per year to create their own branded videos that they can download, and burn to a CD (and the slideshow doesn’t bear the “Animoto” logo). Animoto’s CEO Brad Jefferson tells me that 10 percent of users, so 140,000 people, are have paid for at least one product on the site.The company is already cash-flow positive, which isn’t bad for a startup that’s less than three years old.

In terms of monetizing the API, Animoto isn’t charging any of its partners. In fact, it’s actually paying its partners in terms of affiliate fees. So if any partners lead new users to the site who end up buying a subscription, Animoto will give the partner a 40 percent cut of the first year’s consumer subscription fee or $50 of the first years pro subscription fee.

The Quickstart API seems to be the first of a few sets of APIs that will extend Animoto’s technology onto the other sites. It’s a smart move. While many photo sharing sites have the ability to make slideshows, the technology is not nearly as fun and easy to use as Animoto’s. And Animoto is undoubtedly a compelling tool for an brand marketer to use for a campaign. Frankly, the possibilities are endless because Animoto is such an easy tool to use.

This is probably one of those posts where not everyone is going to agree with what I say or why I say it

But it’s one of the most common traps for new people — so we do need to discuss our views!

Here’s what I say:

It’s really great to love someone else work!

But you can’t copy and paste large sections or complete articles from other bloggers posts directly into posts on your blog or website.

You don’t do it for a few reasons.

Firstly if a blogger doesn’t include a Creative Commons license it means every thing that is written on their blog or website is automatically copyright.  Direct copying  of large sections or their complete article is only allowed with permission from that blogger.

Secondly most people consider it breaking blogging etiquette and a form of plagiarism.

Yes, publishing content online is about sharing and collaborating but it’s important to remember it can take considerable time for the original person to create that content.  Copy and pasting their content takes you seconds.

It might be harsh words but think of it as no different than copy and pasting a school assignment.

The whole idea of sharing is you build on their original work and input your own ideas/thoughts.

Attributing Another Person’s Content

Appropriate blogging etiquette is you can use a few paragraphs of their work and attribute them as the original source by including a link to their post.

Ideally you would also write a few of your own paragraphs expand on the topic.

For example, I’ve taken a paragraph from Larry Ferlazzo’s post and used it in my own post.

Here’s how I’ve attributed his words:

Please note:

• It’s common practice to indent if you are quoting other people’s content.

Posting Content With Permission

It’s not fine to copy an entire post written by another person, even if they use a Creative commons license, and even if you have attributed them as the original source, unless they have given you permission.

Key aspects when someone gives you permission is to acknowledge the original author, the website, their permission and link to the location where the content is from.

For example, Kathleen McGeady gave me permission to republish her post on Teaching Commenting Skills on this blog.

Here’s how I acknowledged her work:

What To Do If Someone Copy/Paste Your Content

It’s generally a new person that gets caught out copy/pasting content because they aren’t aware that it isn’t appropriate.

Your best approach is to contact them privately, by email if possible,  to request them to remove your content and explain the reasons why.  Remember they are new and they didn’t realise.

Final Thoughts

So there’s my thoughts!

Feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts:

• Do you agree?
• Disagree?
• What other important advice would you give new people?

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

If you were to look at Social Media the United States and many other parts of the world, you would believe that the world of Social Media was flat, dominated by social continents including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and Flickr. As we zoom in, we visualize other established and emerging social services that depict provinces and outlying settlements of our social atlas.

Upon publishing the original Conversation Prism, which was the culmination of a year’s work documenting and organizing the social web by usage and conversational patterns, the world responded by creating Conversation Prisms specific to each country. I shared several new social maps in “The Landscape for International Social Networking.”

Over the years, other maps emerged that documented leading social networks around the world as well as the social behavior associated within each country. As Social Media is truly global and relationships are truly without borders, I too have spent a great deal of time researching the networks that host conversations relevant to my projects regardless of geographic location.

Italian blogger Vincenzo Cosenza has for the second time, published a visual map that portrays the most popular social networks around the world based on the most recent traffic data (December 2009) as measured by Alexa & Google Trends for Websites.

Upon review, it’s clear that Facebook, at 400 million, is truly earning a global audience, which naturally burrows its social roots with every new connection and the connections of connections forged within the network. According to research, Facebook dominates in 100 out of 127 countries measured.

If we were to analyze the top three social networks by what many argue are the top 10 markets for social networking, our view comes into focus and allows us to see where our attention and participation is required in our global efforts.

Australia

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Twitter

Canada

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Flickr

China

1. QQ – 300 million active accounts
2. Xiaonei
3. 51

France

1. Facebook
2. Skyrock
3. MySpace

Germany

1. Facebook
2. StudiVZ
3. MySpace

Italy

1. Facebook
2. Netlog
3. Badoo

Russia

1. V Kontakte
2. Odnoklassniki
3. LiveJournal

Spain

1. Facebook
2. Tuenti
3. Fotolog

United Kingdom

1. Facebook
2. Bebo
3. MySpace

United States

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Twitter

In other parts of the world, social networks that might not have registered previously among leading experts, emerge as candidates when location and society prove paramount in highly targeted, culturally-aware programs.

For example, Google’s Orkut is Brazil’s top social network.

Hi5 is leading in Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Thailand and Mongolia.

In the Czech Republic, Lide is the network of choice.

Maktoob is the social hub in Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.

South Korea is focusing its dialogue and connections in Cyworld.

Social networking in Guadeloupe and Martinque is concentrated at Skyrock.

Mixi is the leading central station for social activity in Japan.

The leaderboard of those countries not yet friended by or fans of Facebook include:

Hungary – Iwiw

Poland – Nasza-klasa

Philippines – Friendster

Netherlands – Hyves

Lithuania – One

Latvia – Draugiem

Taiwan – Wretch

Zing – Vietnam

The Global Web Index

The race for supremacy in social networking is only part of the story.  As in any race, we typically expect a winner to reach an end. However, this competition is absent of finish line and as a result, a true overall winner is beside the point. Many networks will enjoy time in the spotlight until their luster ages and a new framework for engagement lures our friends of friends, our friends, and finally our attention and participation. As consumers, we go where we are not only wanted, but also where we can make an impact.

While we’ve reviewed the top social networks across the social Web, ranked by countries spanning the globe, the balance of the story is represented in the actions that define social media engagement within each network and influenced by the culture of each country of prevalence.

TrendStream analyzed social media activity around the world and captured the results in a stunning infographic.

This graph essentially unravels the ties that bind us and peels back the layers of social networking technologies and platforms to reveal how real people are adopting and engaging in the social web.

The map demystifies how social media is embraced around the world, demonstrating that social computing and collaboration is far from ubiquitous. And, in many countries, how we use social media is much different than how we will use it over time. We’re still in the very early stages of the social (r)evolution..

TrendStream in partnership with Lightspeed Research interviewed 32,000 Web users in 16 countries. As such, the Global Web Index analyzes active social web involvement and then organizes and presents behavior by volume (in millions). Reviewing the Global Web Index and fusing the information with the data included in the World Map of Social Networks, we can get a clear indication of how social behavior defines social networks and to what extent. It’s a goldmine of data for any brand or government agency seeking a more influential form of propaganda (2.0).

Social Web Involvement is categorized as:

Pink – Uploading photos online

Purple – Uploading videos

Blue – Managing a social network profile

Orange – Blogging

Pink – Micro-blogging

Grey – Percentage of population with access to social tools

Presenting the Data

Australia

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access= 40% | Users = 5m
Photos: Access = 39.1% | Users = 4.9m
Videos: Access  = 11.9% | Users = 1.5m
Blogging: Access = 11.4% | Users = 1.4m
Micro Blogging: Access = 5.6% | Users = .7m

Brazil

Leading Network: Orkut

Social Network Profiles: Access= 59.6% | Users = 17.9m
Photos: Access = 54.9% | Users = 16.2m
Videos: Access  = 34% | Users = 10.2m
Blogging: Access = 20.7% | Users = 6.2m
Micro Blogging: Access = 14.2% | Users = 4.3m

Canada

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access = 46.2% | Users = 10.2m
Photos: Access = 40.9% | Users = 9m
Videos:  Access = 14.9% | Users = 3.3m
Blogging: Access = 10.6% | Users = 2.3m
Micro Blogging: Access = 5.1% | Users = 1.1m

China

Leading Network: QQ

Photos: Access = 60.3% | Users = 117.7m
Blogging: Access = 46% | Users = 89.7m
Videos:  Access = 28.7% | Users = 55.9m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 27.3% | Users = 53.2m
Micro Blogging: Access = 21.3% | Users = 41.5m

France

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access = 29.3% | Users = 11.2m
Photos: Access = 27.5% | Users = 10.5m
Blogging: Access = 9.5% | Users = 3.6m
Videos: Access = 9.5% | Users = 3.6m
Micro Blogging: Access = 3.8% | Users = 1.4m

Germany

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access = 32.7% | Users = 13.9m
Photos: Access = 31.6% | Users = 13.4m
Blogging: Access = 10% | Users = 4.3m
Videos: Access = 8.5% | Users = 3.6m
Micro Blogging: Access = 5.7% | Users = 2.4m

India

Leading Network: Facebook

Photos: Access = 63.9% | Users = 22.4m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 57.5% | Users = 20.1m
Videos: Access = 36.2% | Users = 12.7m
Blogging: Access = 34% | Users = 11.9m
Micro Blogging: Access = 24% | Users = 8.4m

Italy

Leading Network: Facebook

Photos: Access = 43.3% | Users = 9.1m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 35.8% | Users = 7.6m
Videos: Access = 20.9% | Users = 4.4m
Blogging: Access = 19.4% | Users = 4.1m
Micro Blogging: Access = 12.3% | Users = 2.6m

Japan

Leading Network: Mixi

Blogging: Access = 24.5% | Users = 15.9m
Photos: Access = 19.5% | Users = 12.7m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 14.9% | Users = 9.7m
Micro Blogging: Access = 8% | Users = 5.2m
Videos: Access = 5.7% | Users = 3.7m

Mexico

Leading Network: Facebook

Photos: Access = 52.9% | Users = 6.4m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 40.2% | Users = 4.8m
Blogging: Access = 25.6% | Users = 3.1m
Videos: Access = 22.1% | Users = 2.7m
Micro Blogging: Access = 13.7% | Users = 1.6m

The Netherlands

Leading Network: Hyves

Photos: Access = 37% | Users = 4.8m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 36.2% | Users = 4.7m
Blogging: Access = 10.1% | Users = 1.3m
Videos: Access = 10% | Users = 1.3m
Micro Blogging: Access = 3.5% | Users = .45m

Russia

Leading Network: V Kontakte

Photos: Access = 59.9% | Users = 18.8m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 48% | Users = 15.3m
Videos: Access = 39.6% | Users = 12.6m
Blogging: Access = 18.3% | Users = 5.8m
Micro Blogging: Access = 12% | Users = 3.8m

South Korea

Leading Network: Facebook

Photos: Access = 53.1% | Users = 14.9m
Blogging: Access = 39.9% | Users = 11.2m
Videos: Access = 19.5% | Users = 5.5m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 15.6% | Users = 4.4m
Micro Blogging: Access = 14% | Users = 4m

Spain

Leading Network: Facebook

Photos: Access = 39.4% | Users = 7.4m
Social Network Profiles: Access = 35.8% | Users = 6.7m
Blogging: Access = 17.2% | Users = 3.2m
Videos: Access = 16.2% | Users = 3.1m
Micro Blogging: Access = 7.5% | Users = 1.4m

UK

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access = 42.6% | Users = 15.9m
Photos: Access = 38.2% | Users = 15.7m
Videos: Access = 11.5% | Users = 2.4m
Blogging: Access = 8.4% | Users = 5.5m
Micro Blogging: Access = 5.3% | Users = 4.6m

USA

Leading Network: Facebook

Social Network Profiles: Access = 44.2% | Users = 92.1m
Photos: Access = 42.6% | Users = 79.2m
Videos: Access = 15.3% | Users = 23.5m
Blogging: Access = 12.8% | Users = 17.6m
Micro Blogging: Access = 7% | Users = 10.7m

Observations

In 50% of the countries included in this study, online photo sharing dominated the list of social media applications. It is also among the oldest of social services within the included mix.

44% of the countries in this survey embrace online profiles in social networks suggesting that their personal brand, whether for engaging in personal or professional interactions, is becoming increasingly important.

81% shared photos and online profiles as the top 1 and 2 activities with the exception of Japan, China, and South Korea where blogging displaced social profiles as a top application.

94% of countries reported that micro-blogging (think Twitter) were among the least pervasive with the exception of Japan, where it ranked fourth – just below social network profiles and above video.

China’s digital footprint is massive, defined by the incredible volume of content creators and the contribution of their social objects. As the study reports, “due to the inward looking nature of China’s internet economy combined with the language mean that this volume of content does not impact the broader Internet.”

TechCrunch also observed a tremendous opportunity for Facebook in Russia. Leading network Vkontakte.ru is in many regards, a Facebook clone. However, its facsimile of a growing global network is also indicative of a potential deal. Vkontakte is owned in large part by Digital Sky Technologies, a company which also owns a noteworthy stake in Facebook. A deal of this magnitude would further socialize Russian and other worldwide users under one truly global social network.

As we examine opportunities for global social networking, we are reminded that anthropology and sociology play critical roles in observing and documenting behavior, supporting cultures, and established governances for dictating how content, information, and relationships forge and flourish. In order to ensure relevance and earn significance within networks, we must think locally when examining opportunities globally. In addition, as culture and behavior shifts across countries, they also establish a new dynamic within each Social Networks creating a universal population that adapts what they know to what they learn and experience.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Facebook
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The social studies changes approved by the Texas Board of Education will have a broad influence because the state is one of the nation's largest buyers of textbooks.

1) What if we eliminated public schools as we know them?
What if parents were provide with smaller, more personalized community schooling options in lieu of our current “mass production” schooling campuses. Think of it as a revival of the one-room school house, except maybe a two story multi-bedroom house instead. Instead of building  new schools, we could occupy houses that already exist. We could virtually eliminate the need for busing by establishing small schools within the neighborhoods of the students they serve.  Could this option be more cost effective, more ready to meet the needs of our diverse student populations?

2) What if we eliminated textbooks?
What if we spent more time at the university level teaching our preservice teachers about the human brain, psychology, and about the way we learn. What if we spent more time developing the skill of questioning and based all of our instruction on questions about the world around us – what is current to our life? What if teachers spent the entire day in the teachable moment rather than just the stolen minutes of a given period? What if schools funneled education dollars into experiences rather than workbooks?

3) What if we eliminated grades and other external motivators?
What if we focused on developing the child internally: raising their social awareness, their sense of responsibility to themselves and others. What if we assessed their academic progress with rubrics rather than percents? Would universities and employers have a greater understanding of their applicants skills and traits?

4) What if we eliminated grade levels?
What if we eliminated the beginning and end of a school year, the school year with one teacher. What if schools were one fluid, floating experience where your developmental readiness guided your path rather than a calendar. You might have students of various ages learning the same concepts as you. You would be free to move forward or slow down when necessary. Would you feel confident and competent when moving to the new subject because you were allowed to reach your potential in your own time?

Perhaps these are radical questions when we think about education in its current state today. Education reform is particularly slow and painful. Perhaps the reason reform has been so slow is that we don’t have enough radical thinkers out there speaking their minds about their passion for education.

What do you guys think about these questions? Do you have any radical what ifs of your own?

Image: Audiences London’s Blog Share/Save

Related posts:

1. Equality for Students or Undermining of Public Education?
2. How can a spoon drop kid succeed in a cookie cutter school system?
3. IG Cheney to Head All US Colleges of Education

Note: This is a Guiding Tech Feature post.

YouTube, since its inception, has been growing in popularity by leaps and bounds every year. From a relatively small startup, it grew to the ultimate destination on the web for watching videos and was finally acquired by Google.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that YouTube has caused a video revolution. The term ‘viral videos’ was almost unknown until YouTube came into existence. And like all popular sites, YouTube has also spawned upon an eco-system of third party tools, add-ons and apps that enhance the experience of using it.

This article, which is HUGE by the way, aims to be a one-stop destination for all things YouTube. It covers numerous tricks, hacks, tools and apps for YouTube fans. The guide is long, detailed and informative. At least that is what I have attempted it to make. Hope you like it.

Contents of the post

Since this is a big article, I thought breaking it down to different sections would be a good move. Following are the content headings. If you want to jump to a particular section, just click on the corresponding link.

• Downloading
• Watching( the biggest section with a huge number of tips )
• Sharing
• Uploading
• iPod & Mobile Phones
• Music & Playlists
• Embedding
• Other Interesting YouTube Tools, Features & Tricks

Downloading

Following are some tips and tools related to downloading videos from YouTube.

Q. How to download videos from YouTube?

Right, so lets start with the most basic question. How to get YouTube videos on your computer ? Well, there are plenty of tools available to help you do that. You can check our article on downloading videos from YouTube where we talked about 2 tools – 1 Click YouTube Video Download and YouTube Video Downloader HD.

Two of the quickest ways to download them are by prefixing the youtube video url with kiss or using the number 3 in the url ( 3outube ).

There are some nice desktop tools too that help you download videos directly from YouTube. These include Orbit Downloader, VDownloader and VideoSlurp for Windows and Free YouTube Downloader For Mac.

Q. Is there a command line tool to download YouTube videos?

There is, and Linux users could make use of that along with others. It is called Cclive and can also be used to view videos with tools like mplayer.

Q. How to download YouTube Videos as Mp3, Mp4, AVI, WMV and other audio formats?

If you want to quickly download a YouTube video as an Mp3 audio file then Video2mp3 is the solution. It is a web based tool that converts videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, MySpace etc to mp3 files. Firefox users can use the YouTube to Mp3 addon to accomplish the same.

For downloading videos in more formats like Mp4, AVI, WMV etc, tools like Gazzump and Vixy work well. Both of them can convert FLV files to various audio formats directly.

Q. How to download YouTube vides in High Definition (HD) format?

Check out the article on downloading HD videos from YouTube to know more about the process.

Q. How to download YouTube videos for iPod & Mobile Phones?

Most of the above mentioned tools would do that. Also check out the iPod & Mobile Phones section for more on this.

Watching

Image Credit – greencandy8888

So we come to watching YouTube videos now. While watching a video is pretty simple – click on the play button and it starts playing, there are certain annoyances (like auto-play) to deal with, and some tips & tricks that could further enhance the video viewing experience.

Following is a detailed guide to tips, hacks and tools that could make your YouTube video watching experience a bliss. From stopping auto-play to watching videos on browser sidebars, playing videos non-stop to joining two of them and watching adult videos quickly to enabling kid safety, this guide has it all. Check it out.

Q. How to watch the YouTube video of a song along with its lyrics?

If you are also interested to dive into the lyrics while watching a music video then YouLyrics is a nice tool that shows them along with the video on the side.

Q. How to auto-replay YouTube videos?

Sometimes you just can’t get enough of a video (or a song). And manually playing it again and again doesn’t add to the fun. It should be automatic, right? TubeReplay does that effortlessly.

Q. How do I watch a YouTube video without all the clutter on the page?

If you want to watch a video in a clean and distraction-free environment then check out Quietube. It’s actually a browser bookmarklet which you can click while you are on the video page, to clear out the background and remove the distractions.

Q. How to start watching a video on YouTube from a specific point?

This can be achieved using a simple url trick – just add “#t=XmYs” where X is the minute and Y is the second from where you want the video to start.

The trick is simple but still it’s easy to forget. Hence a tool called YouTubeTime (Cut To The Chase) is worth bookmarking.

Q. How do I link to a specific point in a YouTube video?

It’s same as the above solution. You just need to get the url which says that the video should start at X mins and Y seconds.

Q. How to set YouTube to always play HQ videos?

If you want YouTube to always play videos in high quality then that can be done by logging in to your YouTube account and going here – http://www.youtube.com/account#playback/quality

Q. How to watch YouTube videos in browser in a sidebar while working on other tasks?

If you are addicted to watching videos and wanna do it without leaving your current browser page, then there are some nice browser add-ons available for that purpose.

• For Firefox: The YouPlayer add-on for Firefox creates a Winamp-like playlist of videos right inside the browser.
• For Google Chrome: For Chrome, we have the YouSearch browser extension to help you.

I couldn’t find a similar browser extension for Internet Explorer. If you know about one, please do inform in the comments.

Q. How to stop YouTube videos from auto-playing?

Auto-playing could be annoying sometimes, especially when the net speed is slow and you want the video to buffer completely first. To stop a video from auto-playing, you could use the Youtube Buffer Video greasemonkey script.
If you don’t know what Greasemonkey is and how to use it, then check out this ReadWriteWeb article on Greasemonkey scripts. We got to write a guide on that too.

Q. How to play FLV videos on your desktop?

The default format for flash videos like the ones hosted on YouTube is .FLV. And it isn’t difficult to play them on your system. VLC media player, a popular cross-platform player, plays them with ease. There are a number of other free stand-alone FLV players too. Just do a Google search for FLV player and you’ll find a lot of them.

Q. How to break or join YouTube videos?

We talked about FLV Joiner few days back, a tool that joins flash videos. For splitting FLV videos and merging multiple FLVs, there is a nice Adobe AIR app called RichFLV. It is a feature-rich tool, described elaborately by Freewaregenius here.

Q. How to watch YouTube videos on TV?

Just visit elaborately youtube.com/xl and you find YouTube’s default interface optimized for your large screen LCDs. Of course you got to connect your computer to your TV for that which is a different topic altogether.

Q. How to play YouTube videos non-stop automatically in the background?

If you prefer to listen your music at YouTube, or are interested in listening to some videos (like a speech may be) instead of watching them then you could have them play one after the other in the background using Infinitube.

Q. How to ditch flash and watch YouTube videos in HTML5?

If you have had enough with flash and want to switch to the advanced HTML5 format for watching videos then you could join this beta feature of YouTube here.

Q. How to watch adult videos on YouTube without logging in?

YouTube doesn’t host porn but it does have videos which are NSFW and need a sign-in plus age verification for viewing. If you want to bypass these steps then you could do it by adding “nsfw” in the video url, just after “www.” So if a NSFW video url is http://www.youtube.com/xyz then you could watch it quickly by typing http://www.nsfwyoutube.com/xyz in the address bar.

Q. How to make YouTube safe for kids?

Right, so you want to watch NSFW stuff but don’t want your kids to come across them when they are browsing YouTube. Fair enough. YouTube has a safety mode just for that. See it in action in the video below.

Q. How to watch two YouTube videos side by side?

YouTube Doubler lets you do that.

Q. Can’t play YouTube videos because the internet is slow?

If you’ve got a really slow internet connection then playing YouTube videos the regular way might not work because they consume a lot of bandwidth. You can try out Feather Beta, a new experimental feature of YouTube which eliminates a lot of things that eat up speed and helps you play videos on slow connections. See if it works.

Q. Are there any movies on YouTube that I can watch online?

Absolutely. It has a good number of full movies well categorized into different sections which you can watch online. Check out youtube.com/movies.

Q. How to add subtitles to YouTube videos?

Check out Subyo, a service that helps you do that.

Q. How to dub YouTube videos?

If you want to dub a YouTube video by adding audio in the background from another source then that isn’t difficult either. A tool known as YtDub would help you do that.

Sharing

Sharing a YouTube video is pretty simple. You just need to get hold of its url and send it across. However, when it comes to hacks, there are some for sharing videos too.

Sharing specific portions of a YouTube video

If you come across interesting few moments in an otherwise boring clip and want to share only that portion of the video then we’ve got two tools – Splicd and Tubechop for that purpose. Both do a pretty good job as YouTube video cutter.

Sharing a YouTube video in real-time with friends

Remember Synchtube, a tool we talked about, that facilitates real-time YouTube video sharing and chit-chat? Well, it certainly deserves a mention in this post.

Sharing private YouTube videos

Did you know you could set your YouTube videos to private and share them with selected friends? Check out this YouTube help article on sharing private videos.

Uploading

Image credit – TenSafeFrogs

Here are 3 YouTube upload related questions answered.

Q. How to batch upload and download videos from YouTube?

A nice tool to upload and download YouTube videos in bulk is a Firefox add-on called Firefox Universal Uploader

Q. How to upload videos through email?

If you log in to your YouTube account and go to www.youtube.com/account#mobile you will find that it gives a special email address to upload from cellphones. You could use the same address to send your uploaded video attached via email, provided it is .AVI, .MPG or .MOV format and not larger than 2GB or longer than 10 minutes in length.

Q. Can I upload Mp3 to YouTube?

Yes, you can upload a mp3 song to YouTube. MP32Tube helps you do that by hiding your Mp3 file in an image.

iPod & Mobile Phones

Google provides YouTube for mobile along with apps for iPhone, Android & Windows mobile that let you watch videos, search, browse and upload right from your cellphone.

Q. How to download YouTube videos in iPod and other cellphone formats?

We’ve already discussed various ways to download YouTube videos in various formats, including iPod and mobile phone formats, in the Download section. There’s another tool called All2Convert that helps you with that task.

Q. How to stream YouTube videos on iPod Touch or iPhone?

Right, so you’ve downloaded the videos and now want to stream them from your computer to your iPod touch/iPhone. The best tool to do that is an app called Air Video. And it’s absolutely brilliant! Check out this detailed article by Gizmodo on this app.

Q. How to convert YouTube videos to ringtones?

Two web based tools that can help you convert YouTube videos to mobile ringtones easily are Tube2tune and MadRingtones.

Music & Playlists

Here are some cool third-party services for YouTube in the music and playlists category.

1. Tuberadio.fm – A superb web based music organizer and playlist that finds the best YouTube videos for you and plays them in a desktop music player like interface.

2. YouScrobble – YouScrobble combines Last.fm with YouTube to pull out top quality music videos and other related information.

3. Plistube – Plistube lets you create video playlists from YouTube videos that are customized according to your choice of music and artists.

4. Mixtube – While Plistube does video, Mixtube takes charge of audio. Yes, it lets you generate audio playlists from YouTube videos.

5. Turntubelist – This is an awesome DJ music mixing tool which lets you mix YouTube videos like a DJ.

Embedding

Embedding YouTube videos is pretty straightforward. Just copy the embed code, apply some HTML & CSS if required and your site proudly shows the video.

Here are two more embed related hacks for YouTube videos.

1. Embedding High Quality YouTube Videos

If you want to embed high quality YouTube videos in your articles then check out this detailed guide that explains you how to do that.

2. Embed YouTube Videos In Powerpoint Presentations

YouTube videos can be embedded in powerpoint presentations too and this article on Lifehacker informs how can go about it.

Other Interesting YouTube Tools, Features & Tricks

Here are some more interesting tools, tricks and features related to YouTube videos which you might find useful.

TestTube

TestTube is to YouTube what Labs is to Gmail. It houses experimental YouTube features, some of which (like HTML5 viewing, Feather Beta) we’ve discussed above. There some cool options available and you should definitely check them out.

Creator’s Corner

The creator’s corner in YouTube has some great tools, tips and advice for aspiring videographers. What I particularly liked is the icons download section which boasts of some attractive YouTube icons.

YouTube Speed History

YouTube Video Download Speed History shows you exactly how your ISP compares with those in the cities nearby and around the world when it comes to download speeds.

URL Tricks

A lot can be done by tweaking the YouTube video urls. MakeUseOf blog shows us how in this article.

Cooliris

Cooliris is an awesome tool that can display pictures and YouTube videos in a visually attractive interface. You have to use it to believe it.

Timetube

TimeTube by Dipity is cool service that creates a YouTube video timeline based on keywords you enter.

So that was the guide. I could go on and on, because, honestly there’s just unending list of YouTube tools and tips. I have tried to cherry-pick the best and the most useful among them and I hope you’ve found it informative.

If you like this guide, please bookmark it on delicious and share on stumbleupon. I’d appreciate it.

YouTube Guide: Best YouTube Tips, Hacks & Resources is a post from: Guiding Tech

A new study finds that scientists' initial interest in their subject is often sparked before they enter middle school, a conclusion the researchers suggest has implications for rethinking policy efforts aimed at getting more young people to become scientists.

The federally funded study examines the experiences reported by 116 scientists and graduate students that first engaged them in science. Sixty-five percent said their interest began before middle school. Women were more likely to report that their interest was ignited by school-related activities, while most men recounted self-initiated activities, such as conducting home experiments or reading science fiction.

The early interest in science "runs counter to many initiatives ... where the focus is on improving science education at the secondary level by simply improving student achievement or increasing enrollments in advanced science courses," write the co-authors, Robert H. Tai, an associate professor of science education at the University of Virginia, and Adam V. Maltese, an assistant professor of science education at Indiana University. "With a high percentage of both genders reporting interest in science prior to entering high school or even middle school, it may be important to instead center efforts on engaging young children in science."

It adds: "A common theme in science education is concerned with how to improve the training of science students; however, if one of the goals of science education is student persistence in STEM, it seems that teachers should focus on initiating interest and fostering engagement rather than on preparing for standardized examinations."

Titled "Eyeballs in the Fridge: Sources of Early Interest in Science," the study appears in the International Journal of Science Education.

The study's unusual title is a reference to the tale of how one Ph.D. student in chemistry recalls first getting excited by science. In her 3rd grade classroom, students were dissecting cow eyes, the study explains. She brought some "leftover" eyes home in a brown paper bag and put them in her refrigerator. The only problem was that she forget to tell her mother, who screamed when she discovered what she expected to be lunch leftovers.

"From that point," she recalls, "I started to really love science."

Post submitted by Educational Leadership editor, Amy Azzam. In his special feature titled "Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change," Gerard Puccio showed the audience a sketch of a wheelbarrow that looked a little off. (Think of it as a "new...

The 10-year plan would reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network.

One of my absolute favorite things about ISB is the regular availability of excellent professional development (can you tell?). Not only do I have the opportunity to attend lots of great conferences and workshops, but our embedded, school-based PD is always learning-focused and practical. This year I’ve had the opportunity to go through Looking for Learning training with our regular “critical friends” Fieldwork Education.

Basically, in my understanding, Looking for Learning is the practice of working together with colleagues to see what learning is happening in your classroom. Teachers visit each others’ classroom and spend around 10 – 20 minutes speaking with students about their learning. There is a specific protocol for the type of questions to be asked along with the order you ask them, and student feedback is recorded for later sharing with the teacher. I’ve only done it a few times (and I’m not really sure what I’m doing yet), but I have found the experience to be extremely powerful in every instance for a few key reasons:

1. It is simply amazing to hear what students can say about their learning. Not only is it an eye-opener about what they’re actually learning (regardless of what you think you might be teaching), but the way they can articulate it, and the way they can connect it to their personal growth is just fascinating.
2. It’s real. I try to write down everything students say – not an impression of the lesson or their perspective, but the actual words they say. You really can’t beat quotes.
3. It’s easy to start a conversation about learning once you have the evidence. Hearing what students actually think is a great way to prompt deep reflection about what’s actually happening in the classroom.
4. It’s fun. I like talking to students, that’s why I’m a teacher. I come back from every session grinning from ear to ear no matter what the students said. It’s just wonderful.

Looking for learning is not intended to be a method for evaluating teachers, simply as a process to really uncover exactly what learning is going on in your own classroom, whether it’s appropriate (interesting) to your students, if it’s sufficient (have they had enough time), and if it’s engaging to them. Because I’m just starting out (and because I have absolutely no supervisory capacity at the school), I’m also using it to guide my conversations with our CoETaIL teachers as they begin to implement their projects for our fifth and final course: Alive in the Classroom: Applied Web 2.0 Technology for Learning.

One aspect of this course is an in-class observation by the course instructors (me, Jeff and Dennis), preceded by a pre-observation meeting and followed by a post-observation meeting. Based on the 4 previous certificate courses, we (Dennis, Jeff and I) created a specific rubric to assess our teachers and give them feedback about how they are progressing along the path to transformational learning experiences in the classroom.

Combining this rubric with Looking for Learning conversations has been absolutely fantastic. For starters, the rubric clearly highlights exactly what we’re looking for in the classroom, based on Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR Model of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle:

which makes it very easy to see where each classroom experience falls: substitution, augmentation, modification, or redefinition. In addition to the rubric, the Looking for Learning conversations with the students give an authentic voice for their experiences and a longer-term perspective than the one-off classroom visit.

A few weeks ago, I observed one of our middle school Modern Language teachers’ lesson on planning for a digital story telling project. It was absolutely fantastic to see how much Gaby has been able to implement after just a year of our CoETaIL classes. With her permission, I’m sharing a few things I was excited to see during the lesson:

• Gaby utilized class “experts” to help those students that missed the lesson (or needed a refresher) on finding Creative Commons images. (Along those lines, it was pretty awesome just to see the kids using Creative Commons images in the first place!)
• The applicable Technology and Information Literacy (TaIL) standards were clearly stated and embedded into the assessment rubric. Love this!
• During technical difficulties, Gaby didn’t break a sweat, she just used an alternate method to get her point across without letting her frustration show. (Often a challenge for anyone working with technology).
• In the sample completed project, all images and resourced were cited (sounds simple, but how often do you actually see teachers citing their sources?).
• Students were engaged and actively working on their project the entire lesson, but when Gaby needed their attention she asked them to lower their lids to pay attention. A project-based learning experience with a direction and purpose!

Here are a few comments from students when I spoke to them during the lesson:

• “We are working on our project today to practice using the imperative tense. A natural next learning for me would be the past tense because now we know the present, future and commands. We have most of the basics down so we’ll be ready for High School Spanish next year.”
• “We’ve done a project like this before and now I’m doing it even better, easier and faster because I’ve learned from my mistakes. When we build on what we learned before it makes projects like this easier.”
• “I like what we’re learning and doing because you can be creative and show your own perspective.”
• “I’m using my skills from Humanities to peer-edit my friends’ storyboard. Peer editing is helpful because I know that if I make a mistake my friends will catch it. They’re like my back-up.”

Final Thoughts

Combining the power of authentic student voices with a clearly defined rubric for expectations really helped me get the most out of this visit. When it was time for me to have my post-observation conference with Gaby, it was so great to be able to share with her what students actually said about their experiences during the lesson. I could see that she was pleased that they were learning what she wanted them to learn and were able to articulate it. There really is nothing better than knowing that students are really understanding what you’re teaching.

Our post-observation meeting really solidified the power of the Looking for Learning concept for me and was a great intro to going through the observation rubric because our conversation started with the students. When we discussed the rubric, our conversation was richer, because rather than just reflecting the “tunnel vision” of one outside observer, I felt I had a more well-rounded perspective after speaking with the students.

Do you use Looking for Learning in your school? What do you think of the process? When you observe or visit other teachers’ classrooms, what kinds of questions do you ask students?

Related posts:

1. Conversation Starter
2. Tips for Managing Tech Tools in the Classroom
3. Professor Cofino?

Earlier today I Tweeted that I got a Flip video camera to record my presentations. Adam Truitt replied with this message "now waiting on your post - "100 classroom ideas for the flip camera" :-)" Adam's message reminded me of Tom Barrett's Interesting Ways series. I put the two ideas together and started a Google Docs presentation of ways that Flip video cameras can be used in the classroom. I've already invited Adam to add his thoughts and I'd like to open it up to as many people as possible. If you have something to add to this presentation just send me your email address in the form below and I'll send you an invite to collaborate.

Project-based learning or Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is one of the best teaching strategies for engaging students in realistic learning activities. Students are not only interested, they are also learning math in the process. Why? Because their minds are engaged, critical thinking is taking place! This is often referred to as critical thinking, minds-on, or inquiry-based teaching and [...]

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