Skype in the Classroom: Group Video Calls

A couple of weeks ago, Skype announced they are now allowing educators free access to their group video calling. This would mean that in a call with multiple users, you would be able to see the video feed of all the participants. Previously, this feature had been restricted to premium users who pay for the service. (From Powerful Learning Press)

Learn more…  Free group video calling good for 12 months from the time you sign up.  Sign up and get access to lesson plans and other ideas for using Skype in the Classroom.

NFB Education: CAMPUS

The new online media solution for today’s classroom

Many of you already view our high-quality, award-winning productions in the classroom on DVD (or even VHS!).

Now, with an educational subscription to CAMPUS, you can access a large collection of NFB films and interactive titles via computer—along with new, super easy-to-use educational tools designed just for you.

Films for Action: Wall of Films

It Starts with Independent Media.

Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. It offers a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media ourselves. We don’t need to wait for anyone or anything.

Just imagine what could become possible if an entire city had seen just one of the documentaries above. Just imagine what would be possible if everyone in the country was aware of how unhealthy the mainstream media was for our future and started turning to independent sources in droves.

Creating a better world really does start with an informed citizenry, and there’s lots of subject matter to cover. Our country has to come to terms with the true history of Western civilization. It has to learn about basic ecology. It needs to understand some basic truths about peak oil and the monetary system, the truth about capitalism and governments.

Our society needs a new story to belong to. The old story of empire and dominion over the earth has to be looked at in the full light of day – all of our ambient cultural stories and values that we take for granted and which remain invisible must become visible.

But most of all, we need to see the promise of the alternatives – we need to be able to imagine new exciting ways that people could live, better than anything that the old paradigm could ever dream of providing.

And all of this knowledge and introspection, dreaming, questioning, and discovery is essential for a cultural transformation that addresses root causes. This knowledge is vitally necessary. Taken together, this knowledge, which is documented throughout the 350+ documentaries we’ve featured above, will lay the foundation on which the next paradigm will be built, post empire.

So take this library of films and use it. Host film screenings, share these films with friends, buy and give copies to your elected officials and school faculty. Get this information out in to your community and you will be laying the foundation for a local movement for mass societal, environmental and economic change.

For this and  more, go to the Wall of Films.

Bullfrog Films: We Are Not Ghosts

We Are Not Ghosts

“This film is a testament to the human spirit. It’s a narrative of perseverance, creativity and innovation as Detroiters build sustainable and healthy communities in the face of long-term deindustrialization and the acute shock of the foreclosure crisis. WE ARE NOT GHOSTS has important lessons for scholars, policy makers and practitioners interested in rebuilding our distressed urban landscape.”
Dr. Derek Hyra, Associate Professor of Urban Affairs, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

“A vision of hope and sustainability, and highly recommended for public and classroom viewing as well as for library documentary collections.”
Midwest Book Review

Learn more…  Watch the trailer.

NFB: Remembrance Day

Consider the NFB’s Virtual Classroom this Remembrance Day.

To mark Remembrance Day 2012, in partnership with the Canadian War Museum, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is offering students the rare opportunity to meet Royal 22e Régiment soldiers, in person or virtually, and to learn about their time in Afghanistan. These military men and women were the focus of the recent documentary The Van Doos in Afghanistan.

Booklist Video Reviews

This fifteenth issue of Booklist Online Video Review, containing 19 new video reviews…

This issue’s starred reviews are two adult titles, Million Calorie March and Semper Fi: Always Faithful. The first film follows Gary Marino on a 1,200-mile walk from Jacksonville, Florida, to Boston, Massachusetts, to raise awareness about obesity. Despite injuries and other obstacles, Marino, who once weighed 397 pounds, never loses his sense of humor, making his journey both inspiring and lighthearted. On the other hand, there’s nothing lighthearted about Semper Fi: Always Faithful, a gripping documentary focusing on a retired U.S. Marine’s successful efforts to expose the extreme cover-up of one of the worst cases of water contamination in U.S. history, at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Always faithful, indeed…

Young filmmakers may be interested in a new literary video contest for kids, presented by children’s authors Jon Scieszka and Kate DiCamillo. The finalist videos will be featured at the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at Symphony Space in New York City on December 2, 2012. See www.90secondnewbery.com for more details about this exciting competition.