I’m not an evangelist of tools.
In my career, I’ve played with dozens of tools and I still test several each year. Just in the past decade or so, I’ve used early DVCPRO video cameras, early video editing on the PC (Avid MC Express anyone?) a series of Palm devices, and a half dozen or so convergence phone/pda cameras.
I am an evangelist for how tools empower learners.
The Flip video camera has been around a while and in continued to attract attention in education. Educause has published one of the “7 Things You Should Know” reports on the Flip. What impresses me is the impact of a quality video camera combined with utility software. These tools make it easy to create, edit and post video to a share site like You Tube or AOL. Mine arrived Tuesday, I’ve had a chance to shoot in three or four “typical amateur situations” — ie: a kid’s concert, a meeting or presentation, and some auto-biographical video blog capture. See various links below.
The Flip MINO HD captures in mp4 format, and the camera attaches to the computer via a fixed USB port. What this also means is no cables needed, no external batteries as it charges via the USB port). The camera has software installed to manage, copy and even do some limited trimming and assembly-edits. Raw clips or the finished compiled video can be copied to your computer, uploaded to web sharing services, or emailed to a friend.
Let me make a point that is easily overlooked. The software is installed on the Flip itself — in both Mac and Windows versions. For the new or experienced user, is there is no longer a gap between shooter and editor. The user can edit on (mostly) any computer without having to install the software on the computer. So they can edit at home, in class, in a shared lab, at Aunt Tillies….the need for dedicated editing platforms becomes a thing of the past.
This is not professional video camera for documentary work, or commercial work. It does not produce “broadcast quality” video. However, I hesitate to use that phrase as a reference point as it is a descriptor of quality that has decreasing relevance in today’s media world. The Flip does deliver very attractive images and reasonable sound that — on first glance — exceeds what we have previously seen in camcorders.
Samples
The email function is probably easiest — in that it sends the video to a Flip server and sends a message to the recipient where they view the video on line as a flash video. This would be an easy way for students to turn in work. A more public display and potential source of peer critique is the built in posting to YouTube.
With limited experimenting over the past couple of days, I’ve been able to import into iMovie ’08, iMovie HD and Final Cut Pro 6. I can’t offer any specific help, but if you do a Google search, ou can locate what others have learned and find sites, tips, as well as limitations. My casual technical observations are it takes a longer time than I expected to import into iMovie HD. FCP is fast, but the audio appears to need rendering, but I may not have my settings refined. When I have more experience, I can offer more insight.
So, here is a video saved in the Flip software to be uploaded to a web site. The software changes it to a .mov format.
This link will take you to a link embedded in an email I sent to myself sharing a video. This is what the recipient sees when they follow the video link.
Link from Flip Email option Looks like the link expired
Finally, this is uploaded directly to YouTube via the Flip software.
For starters, it gives you an idea of the potential of this tool. Imagine giving your class these cameras to do their own assignments.
Sometime soon, I’ll put together a project using iMovie and FCP — and report how it goes.