Free Expression screen video capture software from Microsoft

I have tested various screen capture products in the past, always looking for the free version. It's a request I often get where an academic requires some form of screen capture in order to incorporate a vodcast as part of their repertoire of teaching materials for the VLE,  a virtual learning environment or simply as a video tutorial. 

I have used Adobe Captivate, TechSmith Camtasia Studio (very good) but these are all pay versions. What about free ones? There are those in various guises, some very basic like CamStudio which works well, however, as a user you have to know your video codecs to get the best out of most, and other ones are typically locked down with limitations. One of the better free versions I have come across is kindly provided by Microsoft, called 'Expression 4'.

N.B. those of you running to grab the free software, ensure you go to this download page (avoid the trial versions unless you want the pro version trials...). Please check the system requirements before installing. During installation the free version may ask you for a key, just click past that without entering anything.  For Windows 7 PCs, this should work as above, however 

Windows XP users 'may also' be promoted to install the .NET Framework 4 in addition to expression (a lengthy task).  Ensure that the .NET install file is renamed to include .exe at the end to ensure it runs.  .NET takes  a while to install, so leave plenty of time. Then reinstall Expression 

Capture interface

Personally I think Microsoft have been very generous, it comes in two parts, the screen capture encoder allows audio and video to be captured simultaneously (and even allows you to choose which microphones or audio output you require within the settings menu - shown below). The editor also provides some very useful  options with the ability to output in a range of formats (I would recommend leaving it as default, which is WMV format - make a note of where you are saving your files!) 

The main limitation for the free version appears to be the 10min capture limit.  Personally I don't think that is bad at all, as it gives most people time to take a breath and record a new section, each segment can be assembled together later.  The Capture interface provides: microphone on/off, main volume control, webcam (if you have one), settings, your previous capture list, and of course the record (as shown above).  When selecting the record option you are presented with an area to capture, either full screen or custom.

Choose the audio you want to capture!

I tend to encourage users to adopt PowerPoint 2010 for it's excellent tools (familiarity) and providing an all round lecture experience for their students outside of the classroom, it's also an approach being used to good effect in distance learning projects such as the Hydrographic Academy. Video compatibility if often an issue, fortunately, Expression 4 (free version) outputs in WMV, which allows them to be embedded straight into a slide with ease. WMV is also rather good for YouTube uploads too ;) 
Fortunately  the encoder also works on Windows XP (at the time of writing this post) However - I'm not sure how good it will fair on older systems? ...You may wish to try it and see...

To add to this arsenal of tools, I must not forget the excellent free Windows Live Movie Maker (Windows 7 and greater), which all adds up to some pretty powerful tools for editing an creating professional teaching and learning videos. Output your screen videos from Expression as WMV, you can then easily drop them straight into Movie Maker timeline, add titles, streamline and then upload straight to your YouTube. Of course it also has options to create stand alone WMV or even produce your own DVD if you want to go the whole hog.  

Happy editing :)

Sharepoint 2010 and Communicator 2007 are coming to Plymouth

I attended the SharePoint 2010 briefing where Mandy Goss outlined plans about the implimentation of SharePoint 2010 across the University.

What's happening with SharePoint?... These are the key points to remember:

• tulip 2010/11 sites will be created using SharePoint 2010 these should be available for around the end of May 2010.


• The new sites will be built without content using a new template


• existing tulip 2009/10 sites will be retained until Christmas and then removed


• The 3 year archive of tulip sites will no longer be available.


• Student Portal front page and Mysites (including all staff MySites) will migrate to SP2010 around July 2010

What else?

• Development is underway to create single-sign-on software (SSO), which means that from mid-May 2010, there will be SSO for all portal areas including Outlook Web Access no more typing in your passwords in different areas...


• Office Communicator 2007 will roll out at the end of June, the Learning Technologists have been testing this software and there are some useful additional features.


• Microsoft Office 2010 is still being evaluated so no plans for implementation just yet.

More information please!

Further details on Sharepoint and Office 2010 can be found on the Web Team Community. The actual PowerPoint that Mandy showed us can be found on the Web Team Community (Basic overview of Summer 2010 changes and developments) - username and password required to access these slides.

Are there any benefits to the new SharePoint?

• In-page editing with WYSIWYG interface with an editing ribbon similar to the format in the existing Office products.


• Fully customisable menu.


• Social computing: tags, bookmarks, noticeboard (Similar to Facebook wall).


• More themes and layouts (and easier to change layouts).


• MS Office web apps (Similar to Google Docs)


• Improved blogs and wikis


• Collaborative MS Office documents (Similar to Google Docs)


• Ability to work offline

Please also see the word document: What's new in Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010

Bing ...Augmented reality maps

Came across this interesting video....'Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft.' Flickr photos are layered onto the 3D street views provided by Bing, with some very spectacular results. Could have some useful applications in education.

Microsoft Bing maps and you will need the Silverlight plugin for it to work.

I discovered that it currently only works in certain locations that allow street level navigation. Once the Silverlight is installed, try the working examples of this augmentation on Bing maps for San Fransisco etc first.

Augmented reality - according to wikipedia...

Windows 7 Released

Installed the final release of Windows 7 on my laptop this weekend, replacing Vista Home. Windows 7 is pretty slick, so now enjoying speedy start ups and shutdowns. It is a lot faster than Vista and also cured some wifi connection issues I had been experiencing. So far so good :)

Triple boot Windows 7 RC (64bit), Ubuntu and Windows XP

After a relatively successful beta test of Windows 7 and the warning from Microsoft to change to the latest iteration, it was time to try the release candidate...

Ok, how did I do the triple boot?
I already have Windows XP on an old PATA 200Gb Maxtor drive and was reluctant to over write this. The main drive is a SATA 1 Tb Samsung, which I intended to use as a dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 (64bit). To start with Microsoft requested a complete clean install of Windows 7 Release Candidate, and considering that I had Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on a dual boot previously, I thought it was time to upgrade both.

The first step was to back up all the important files you need for later. I then used GParted Live 0.3.4, a really excellent (free) Linux based partition tool. I wanted to split the 1Tb drive into 3 partitions, the 'main' partition for windows 7 at ~500Gb and the the other two approximately 250Gb each for Ubuntu and for 'an other' (I'm always looking to test other operating systems).

Just a note on the GParted bit...to save headaches...I found it was in fact easier to format just 2 partitions to NTFS, Ubuntu will work out the partitions later and you are left with the ability to set your final partition to 250Gb with a simple slider ;) (hey presto - 3 partitions). Why? I know you can format any which way using GParted but I found that Ubuntu airs on the side of caution and tries to add another partition if you have already catered for Linux operating systems, its just nice to keep things tidy. After all, I'm going to try to break the software in testing later.

From previous experiences I prefer using the Grub boot loader, advantageously this installs as standard on Ubuntu. This made for an easy decision on installation order, install Windows 7 first then Ubuntu last. The reality? It worked, Ubuntu 9.04 had no problem recognising the old PATA 200Gb (with XP), plus Windows 7, it then installed itself and quite happily set up grub. All that was needed was a simple tweak in Grub to set which operating system boots first, ...enter the terminal and sudo grub.

Grub tips
There are a lot of useful tips on the ubuntu forums and Grub site when I did the install, but recently I found this handy post that simplifies the process. Remember that if you put one 'section' of code above another, that will shift the order closer to the top of the boot loader window. The first section of code (one at the top) always boots first by default (e.g. just below: ## ## End Default Options ##). If you you want to tweak a little further, rename the 'title' to something more meaningful for your purposes.

Windows 7 Beta, any good?

I finally got around to installing Window 7 Beta (64bit) on my home PC and joined the Microsoft beta testers. In a nutshell I am finding it surprisingly good, and importantly very stable. The only issues I found was that the operating system got a little confused between my two on board LANs, nothing that the on board troubleshooter couldn't work out... But this glitch kept re-occurring... One for the Microsoft people to work out on the driver front.

What about using and installing software?
Well all the Microsoft Office 2007 components work beautifully. There was a slight glitch after putting on Adobe Web Standard CS3 suite, as I later discovered that the control panel was not functioning properly. It was all down to Adobe Cue, however disabling this by renaming a file did the trick!

To be fair on Win7 (it is in Beta) and Adobe (only meant for Vista at most) so I was very surprised that so many applications actually worked. All this aside Win7 is in fact a very stable and fast booting/shutting down operating system. Everything Vista was meant to be. So far so good :)