Technology Tip Sheet 2.22.13
Embedding Video Links in PowerPoint Presentations
There are an abundance of educational Web sites and other resources available on the Internet that offer video clips which you can use in the classroom to supplement and enhance the classroom experience for your students. Whether you’re looking for a TV news report from RAI-TV in Italy, a short clip from a French movie, or a lesson on the past tense in German, chances are that it’s out there somewhere on the Internet.
The Department Web site—www.duq.edu/modern-languages—has a listing of many such resources listed under “Resources,” organized by language (LangMedia and YouTube are good starting points). The Web site is designed so that you can easily access these sites with a few simple clicks from any classroom with an Internet connection.
You may, however, want to use video clips not accessible through the Department’s site, or perhaps have whatever clips you plan to use organized in advance of your class to save time.
PowerPoint offers a great way to organize and access video clips you would like to use in the classroom. You can simply embed direct links to the videos you would like to use into one or more slides.
There are two ways of doing this:
1. Linking to a URL on the Web
§ First, create a PowerPoint slide.
§ Then, minimize PPT, open Windows Internet Explorer, find the clip you would like to use and play the clip (it may reside on a TV station site, LangMedia, YouTube, etc.). (Note: It is highly recommended that you utilize IE and not FireFox or another browser. IE will automatically display the URL address and also allow you to download the video, if permissible, as explained below.)
§ Then choose a word, phrase, or even a graphic on the slide that you would like to be able to click on to launch the video clip. Capture the word or graphic, then select Insert/Hyperlink, then click “Browsed Pages.” The address should appear in the “Address” window. (If not, you can cut and paste it or type it in.)
§ That’s it. Save your file—and when you open it in Slide Show view, all you need to do is click on the word or graphic and the video will start to play.
NOTE: Most videos are in a Flash Video (.flv) format, and most computers should be able to recognize the video and play it. If your computer, or the classroom computer, does not have the latest version of RealPlayer and/or Windows Media Player, it may not play, but this is rare. These programs can be downloaded for free (if it is a classroom computer, CTS may have to do this).
2. Downloading your own copy and linking to PowerPoint within a file folder
While the Internet is a great resource, one problem with relying upon it for accessing any information is that it is constantly changing. A video you used last month may not be available any more, for a variety of reasons (links get “broken,” sites are not maintained or content changes). Therefore, if there is a video you have discovered that you would like to be able to use over and over again, your best bet is to download a copy, and save it in a folder just as you would a Word.doc. Instead of linking to a URL, you would link directly to the name of the file in the folder, following the same instructions as above, but instead of selecting “Browsed Pages,” locate the file in the folder you placed it in.
With this approach, you can start and maintain your own library of video clips that you can use over and over again.
IMPORTANT:
If you plan to use this method, it is critical that you set up your folder system in advance so that the embedded link is directed to the proper file on your computer (or you could set up your folder system on a Flash USB thumb drive).
Here is one way to do it:
§ Create a folder on your computer or thumb drive with a name such as PPTVideos.
§ Create a second folder UNDER this folder, called Videos.
§ Save all of your downloaded videos in this folder.
§ Create and save as many PowerPoint presentations as you want, but just be sure they are saved under the top folder (PPTVideos).
§ You can then insert direct links to one of the files in the Videos folder.
§ You should be able to copy the entire file to a thumb drive. ALWAYS be sure to check your links on the computer you plan to use. If they are broken, the video won’t play, and you may need to edit the hyperlink, which is one of the options in PPT. You may find that the file is looking for the wrong source directly, such as C:/ or D:/. You may just need to delete the name of the source directory.
How to download a video
Most videos available on the Internet, especially those from YouTube, can be downloaded. Simply begin to play the video, then move your cursor over the top left corner of the video window until you see the pop-up that says “Download This Video.” Click on it, and the video will begin to download to your computer. Depending on what your default video viewer is, the video will be placed in either your RealPlayer, QuickTime or Windows Media Player library. When it has finished downloading, open your library and locate the video. You should be able to move it or copy and paste it to your Videos file.