Using Open-Source Blogs

Using Open-Source Blogs (and other Low-Cost Tools) to Create

Video-Based eLearning Modules.

Stephen Mau Website & eNewsletter Communications The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Download this presentation at: http://devcon.etfo.net

Have you got some video from a conference or workshop that you'd like

to turn into online learning modules? Have you got little or no budget to accomplish this? In this workshop you will see how easy it is to install Wordpress and/or Simple PHP Blog with a low-cost hosting provider, and then use these to create interactive online learning modules. This session also demonstrates the use of low-cost tools for creating and displaying web-standard FLV videos on your blog site.

Workshop Description

Workshop Agenda

About ETFO & Me ETFO Microsites – examples Tools Used Installing Wordpress Favourite WP plug-ins & software

Simple PHP Blog Converting & posting FLV videos Questions

About ETFO

The professional and protective organization representing 73,000 public elementary teachers and education workers (K -8) in the province of Ontario Provides the following services: Collective Bargaining Professional Counselling Equity & Women’s Services Professional Development

About Me

Professional teacher Began teaching online 10 years ago Learned some web design Love wizards & WYSIWYG interfaces Why code if you don’t have to? Eclectic use of simple tools to create nice products Became an e-Learning consultant, then web content person Not a developer, a content person with power-user skills.

Past Limiters

Moving beyond HTML-based sites Complicated install process for CMS No knowledge of setting up a MySQL database with tables, etc. Wordpress Limited knowledge of CSS and PHP Made it difficult to find the right theme for a site. The planets have aligned!

ETFO Microsites

Main website: www.etfo.ca Have begun releasing microsites on Wordpress platform: http://workingconditions.net http://1000moments.net http://innoteach.net Plan to release more.

CMS Tools

Wordpress: http://wordpress.org Highly extensible blog and publishing platform Many plugins Requires MySQL database Artisteer for Wordpress http://www.artisteer.com Approx. $150 Create custom themes without knowing PHP or CSS!!!

CMS Tools (2)

Simple PHP Blog http://www.simplephpblog.com Fewer plugins MySQL not required – flat file database WS-FTP LE download FTP software to move files to server http://freeware.intrastar.net/ftp.htm

Inexpensive Hosting

http://1and1.com 1&1 Business Package $9.99 per month 250 GB space Monthly transfer volume: 2500 GB Unlimited domains (3 included) 50 MySQL databases with admin panel Deploy multiple sites with unique domain names on 1 hosting package!

Video Applications

Adobe Premiere Elements About $100 JW Player http://www.longtailvideo.com Free for non-profits Includes a setup wizard for flashvars – outputs to swfobject 1.5 or embed code Need to use another app to create FLVs

Video Applications (2)

CoffeeCup Web Video Player http://coffeecup.com $39, updates for life Converts videos to FLVs Player displays directory of different FLVs Different skins included Easy FFmpeg: http://ffmpeg.org ‘Swiss army knife of video converters’ Open-source Not GUI-based

Wordpress Install

Steps: Create MySQL database in 1&1 admin panel Purchase domain name, attach to folder on site, or create sub-domain Download WP, modify one file with db info FTP WP files to website folder Configure admin settings Add plug-ins, create custom template

Slide 23

WordPress Famous 5 Minute Install

Unzip the package in an empty directory. Open up wp-config-sample.php with a text editor like WordPad or similar and fill in your database connection details. Save the file as wp-config.php Upload everything. Open /wp-admin/install.php in your browser. This should setup the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again. If it fails again, please go to the support forums with as much data as you can gather. Note the password given to you. The install script should then send you to the login page. Sign in with the username admin and the password generated during the installation. You can then click on 'Profile' to change the password.

1&1 MySQL Set Up Information

Database name: db288604240 Hostname: db1907.perfora.net Port: 3306 Username: dbo288604240 Password: ******* Description: Devcon Version: MySQL 5.0 Status: setup started

wp-config-sample

php File

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere'); /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere'); /** MySQL hostname */ define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); /** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */ define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8'); /** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */ define('DB_COLLATE', ''); SAVE AS: wp-config.php

Favourite Plug-ins

Plug-in

Description

Events Calendar

Dynamic calendar

Cforms II

Form to mail builder

NextGen Gallery

Flash photo albums

Si Captcha

Captcha codes to avoid spam

WP-dTree

Multi-level collapsible menuing

StatPress

Website statistics

Plug-in Installation

Download plug-in from WP site Unzip file to create plug-in folder Upload folder to /wp-content/plugins/ Login to admin panel, turn on under Plugins Configure

Slide 28

Changing Themes

Download themes, modify Contract out Artisteer software ***

Artisteer Themes - Steps

Generate theme in Artisteer Export theme in WordPress format Upload to /wp-content/themes/ Select theme in admin panel

Slide 33

Simple PHP Blog - Install

Download and unzip the .zip file FTP files to your web server Visit the index.php page Follow on screen instructions Example: http://leadershipdevelopment.ca

Slide 37

FLV Video - Method 1

Export MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV to FLV using: Adobe Premiere Elements (if editing required) Easy FFmpeg CoffeeCup Web Video Player Use JW Player to display FLV in page or blog post Uses a SWF file to display player for FLV file Online wizard to generate flashvars & embed HTML code

FLV Video - Demo

Convert an AVI using CoffeeCup Upload FLV to http://etfo.net/devconmovie/ JW Player Wizard: http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player-setup-wizard Embed code in blog page/post

FLV Video – Method 2

Use CoffeeCup Web Video Player Converts video formats to FLV Creates a SWF package to display in page Includes SWF, FLV, images, HTML file in output Use inline tag to display html file in a blog page or post Or use FLV file with JW Player to display Can create an index with many videos

Questions/Comments

Thanks for attending! Contact me if you have questions: http://devcon.etfo.net > Contact