YouTube EDU

Quite some time ago I had blogged about Greek instructional videos posted on iTunes U. Now Google has responded with a subcategory of YouTube designated as YouTube EDU featuring "videos and channels from our college and university partners." It certainly isn't pretending to provide a comprehensive curriculum of instruction, but it does already have an extensive collection of videos that would be of interest to biblical studies persons. E.g., a search for "Bible" returns 42 videos by such noted scholars and authors as Robert Alter, Bart Ehrman, Jon Levenson, Harold Attridge, Eugene Peterson, Elaine Pagels, David Noel Freedman, Richard Elliott Friedman, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, E. P. Sanders, Craig Blomberg, and others. Search for "new testament" adds additional ones by John P. Meier and Amy-Jill Levine and others. You can also check the Directory to see which instititutions are participating in this project. Hit and miss on topics (try "dead sea scrolls"), but worth checking.
[HT: Stephen's Web and note his critique]

Sites for Art, Pictures, Music, and Video related to the Bible / Christianity

I seem to have been asked enough about online resources for art, music, and videos related to the Bible, especially from a Christian perspective for use in churches. I collected some of the better sites with which I am familiar and have posted them online:

Sites for Art, Pictures, Music, and Video related to the Bible / Christianity

Leave comments if I'm missing some good stuff...

Premier Issue: Christian Video Magazine

Somewhat off my main focus here, but the publishers of the online Christian Computing Magazine have just launched a new online project, Christian Video Magazine. Mostly deals with use of video in church settings, but there are some technical articles that relate more directly to the technological tools aspect of doing biblical studies.

Great, FREE (or great value) resources...

Somewhat off topic in this posting, but there are a bunch of fine resources that may help you as you look for tools to present your biblical insights. Did I mention that they are FREE or quite good values?

• Don't have PowerPoint but wanting to do presentations, maybe even collaboratively? Check out this post linking to thirteen free online presentation apps.
  
• I have posted before about resources for video or screencasting. Here is a post linking to 12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials. Some are free and some commercial. (Strangely, they neglect to mention TechSmith's Camtasia Studio which is a commercial program but quite nice.)
• Here is a link to a FREE PDF download of Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive: A digital literacy guide for the information age by Mark Briggs. 132 pages that covers the basics for writing online including perspectives on tools and resources, how to report and blog, using audio, podcasting, digital photos, video, and more. It's an easy to read reference.
• I have found Microsoft's FREE (at least for now in beta) FolderShare to be a very useful program. I've mentioned the FREE LogMeIn program before as a good way to work with other computers across the Internet (including using a PDA to run Logos or BibleWorks off your home computer), but FolderShare works a bit differently. It synchronizes your files across the Internet. I use it between home and school. I work on a file at school on my own system, but it is automatically synchronized on the FolderShare system. When I go to work on that file at home, it is automatically synched with the Internet version, so I always have a single up-to-date file. Where this can also help is that you can grant permission to others you specify to see designated files/folders, so it becomes a way of sharing pics and such. It takes a little bit of setup, but if you are using Logos or BibleWorks on two different systems, it provides a way for you to keep your programs in synch at both locations.
• If you are a student and able to provide verification of student status (including having an .edu email), Microsoft's The Ultimate Steal is an incredible value. For $59.95, you can purchase Microsoft Ultimate Office 2007 which includes Access™ 2007, Accounting Express 2007, Excel® 2007, InfoPath® 2007, Groove 2007, OneNote® 2007, Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint® 2007, Publisher 2007, and Word 2007. The offer expires April 30, 2008. This is entirely legitimate and quite a deal.
  (My wife who is finishing a DMin at Drew was able to get one. Do make sure you are a student. If they check on you, and you aren't a verified student, you will have to pay the $679 retail price. BTW, my link to the page is an affiliate link, and if you buy, I get $1! Thanks!)
• Big finish with the best for last: Again, if you are a student and can provide verification, you are eligible to take advantage of Microsoft's DreamSpark promotion. You can get, for FREE, Visual Studio 2008 or Windows Server Standard 2003 or xna Game Studio 2.0 or Expression Studio. These are professional developer and designer tools, so they might be more than you want to learn how to use, but if you have a web site, getting the Expression Studio might be quite valuable to you. There are a limited number of universities in the USA, UK, Canada, and 8 other countries directly connected to the program for now, but you are able to get the programs by following the directions and going through JourneyEd. (BTW, Expression Studio downloads as an ISO file. What's that? It's a format you need to burn to a CD as an image file. How to do that? Either use the FREE ISORecorder utility that adds right-click functionality in Windows Explorer or get the FREE CDBurnerXP program or the FREE BurnAwareFree Edition program.)

So, that's the truth, and it is FREE!

The Bible and Visual Media

Okay, this is a bit off-topic, but part of my interest in biblical studies and technology is the ability that is now within the reach of just about anyone to create visual representations of biblical texts. I am not thinking of 'literal' representations of the text. Rather, I am intrigued by ways that the text is recast so that it re-performs its original impact.
The American Bible Society (ABS) did some fascinating work in this regard in the early-mid 1990s--Out of the Tombs based on Mark 5.1-20, A Father and Two Sons based on Luke 5.11-32, and The Visit based on Luke 1.39-56--but these projects were technological ahead of their time. (And 5-10 years later when the personal technology finally caught up, sadly, they looked a bit dated.) There are some interesting remnants of this work on the web at The New Media Bible which include a video 'representation' of John 20 (starring Jim Caviezal long before his "The Passion of Christ" fame) and an incredibly rich site on The Good Samaritan with video and much more. Others have continued to pursue this line of biblical 'performance.' Check out The Work of the People: Visual Media for Ministry and 36 Parables for some interesting approaches. All of these projects which I have cited are professionally done, but you can see how, in this YouTube-ization of everything period, it is quite possible for anyone to create a video performance of a text. (Whether it is a good performance...)
These new performances are also available in a variety of non-video graphic formats and have been the subject of considerable study. (Check out the articles posted under the "In Popular Culture" heading at the online Society of Biblical Literature Forum. Especially check the article by Dan Clanton on "The Bible and Graphic Novels.") Here is where the personal technology that is available really becomes effective.
I teach a class on "Experiencing the Gospel of Mark" where we look at variety of critical approaches, but the goal of the class is to create some kind of 'performance' of a passage. Some of the examples I use are Marked by Steve Ross or Manga Messiah. Using software like Comic Book Creator, students can create their own graphic representation. (HERE is a great example Seth Novak did on Luke 7.11-17. It is more fun, of course, that the people are all members of the class.) And this finally brings me to web post at Jane's E-Learning that got me started on this topic. She identifies three free, online comic strip creators:

• MakeBeliefsComix.com
• Comiqs
• Pixton

Take a look and see if you get inspired!

Parable in PowerPoint and Publishing to the Web

I have recently been doing some work on the 10 Bridesmaids parable in Matthew 25.1-13. To tell the story, I wanted to use PowerPoint and some simple illustration, but I also wanted to do so free of any copyright issues. So, in addition to using my own translation, I created all the graphics from scratch using an old Serif DrawPlus program. (More info here.) After creating the PPT with all the animations, I wanted to share this on the web. Here are a few examples . (Please forgive the lousy narration and background audio. I was doing this quickly and I threw together the audio using a free music program that is designed to generate copyright free midis. With more time, I would probably use something like "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying" or "Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers." They are available with clear copyright from a site like the CyberHymnal. Since they come in MIDI, and the programs I will use require WMA or MP3, one then has to convert them using a program like JetAudio.) I tried four [

• HERE is a version using Camtasia Studio. Its a FLV file with narration. What's nice about this one is how fast it loads. Since I basically just ran my PPT, the timings are pretty good. (A little trick: in PowerPoint, if you click on the little slideshow icon at the lower right while you are holding down the CTRL key, it will open a mini version of the slide show and allow you to still see your slides and edit them. I recorded the mini version.)
• HERE is a version done using the free Microsoft Producer program. This is really easy to use. You import your finished slideshow and add any audio if you want it. I used music but no narration for this one, but you can do both. (BTW, you will need IE to view this, not Firefox. This one takes a while to fully load.) I didn't bother to set the timings on the slides, but that would be possible to fix, and I also didn't bother to properly name all the slides. Do note that it does preserve the animations. The program does allow for the addition of narration and video to the PPT.
  
• Check out this birth of Jesus video from Zondervan which uses audio from their "The Bible Experience." Note that it is really only a bunch of pictures with the 'Ken Burns' pan/zoom effect used. This effect is accomplished using the free Microsoft PhotoStory program. As an example, HERE is one I did using my PPT slides and adding audio and narration.(5Mb) No animations, but it could work well for some PPTs.
• Another really easy way to publish PowerPoints to the web is by using . Here it is embedded. (Note that it doesn't preserve animations.)

• BTW: Want to save one of those little videos from Google or YouTube or such? (I have had occasion to need to do so when I've been presenting somewhere without web access.) I've tried a bunch of browser plugins for video downloads, but the best way I have found is to use KeepVid. Simply enter the URL of a page with a video, and it downloads it to your computer. As always, observe proper copyright restrictions.

My point? Each of these options is basically free to do. You do have to learn a bit about how they work, but they really are geared for a popular market so that anyone can do them. With the slideshare one, it is simply a matter of uploading the PPT. No doubt there are other ways to accomplish getting PPT to the web (e.g., Impatica for PowerPoint, but it costs $500), but for the educator who only does something like this on a very occasional basis, these are viable alternatives. If you have other or better options, I'd love to hear from you.

Still more web and media tools for educators

I have posted previously (here and here and here) about a variety of tools I use for working with graphics and video for educational stuff. Here are some updates and great free offers!
Screen Capture:

• I had previously recommended the FastStone Capture program. Since that posting, the latest version (5.7) has become Shareware instead of Freeware. The clever web surfer will find the last free version (5.3). It is the first tool I use.
• TechSmith's SnagIt is an outstanding screen capture program with lots of extra features. It is able to capture scrolling windows.

Video Capture:

• I had previously looked at a variety of lowcost screen/video capture programs. (WME, Wink, Zentation, VCASMO, etc.) It really can't get too much easier than Jing, however, and it is free. Download the program, set up a free account, and record in a variety of ways. You can even store the video online. HERE is an example of a Jing video of a BibleWorks procedure I had demonstrated in class using Parallel Windows and the Text Comparison tool.
• TechSmith's Camtasia Studio screen recording program is another fine product. The first time I tried it, I had no problem capturing a region of the screen along with microphone audio and a webcam feed. Very impressive...
  

UPDATE1: Read the comments to this post, especially if you are a Logos user and need to capture views of long windows.
UPDATE2: Here is a post on "Further Investigations into Free Screencast Software." It is noted there that the latest SnagIt is greatly improved. It also provides a comparison of Jing, Camtasia, and CamStudio. Also on that blog are "Quick Tips for Improving Screencasts."
UPDATE3: "Learning to Use Camtasia" online tutorial.
UPDATE4: (2008.02.11) Yet another nice, free screencasting tool: FreeScreenCast