This is another of those blog posts that may fall under the, “Where has Dave been for the past year!” But I was mildly intrigued by a conversation I had with one of the attendees of yesterday Science Blogging Conference, a science educator. He was telling me about his program’s plans to start helping youngsters learn about science by producing podcasts — and he mentioned The Flip camera, a new inexpensive and small video camera. I’d not heard of it, or if I have, I was obviously worrying over something else at the time.
And then, thumbing through the U.S. Airlines inflight magazine, I found an ad for this very simple yet stylish pocket digital camera-looking device that takes video.
Flip Video Ultra (60 minutes, black) Digital Camcorder reviews – CNET Reviews:
At the time of this writing, the best selling camcorder at Amazon.com isn’t a model from Sony, Canon, or Panasonic. It happens to be the Flip Video Ultra, the third iteration of Pure Digital Technologies’ simple plug-and-play video camera that features a hideaway USB connector and built-in software that makes viewing and sharing your videos incredibly easy.
It comes in colors, and it ranges in price from $149 to $179*. The best thing about it is a retractable USB plug, so you simply plug the camera into your Mac or PC, and you’re moving the video file to your machine for further enhancement.
It’s what I like about a sandbox or technology as platform way of thinking about tech in schools, that students are collecting information, either recorded in book, disk, or net, or from in-front-of-you experiences, and then remixing that information to refine skills and build knowledge. This price could put a pretty interesting information capturing device in most any classroom. Or a box of them in a school.
Ryan, Philip. “Flip Video Ultra (60 minutes, black).” CNET Reviews. 2 Oct 2007. CNET.com. 20 Jan 2008 <http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/flip-video-ultra-60/4505-6500_7-32627442.html?tag=prod.img.1>.
Image Citation:
Werker, Kim Piper. “KPWerker’s Photostream.” Flip Video. We call it Jackson.. 25 Oct 2007. 20 Jan 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/kpwerker/1748387151/>.
http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/testing-flip-video/
I have used one. They are easy to use but not so easy to edit. It works much better (in my opinion) with a PC than a Mac
We have been using them in our training sessions with adults and kids – big hit 🙂
Can you put the downloaded video into iMovie? Your format does it download as?
Whoops, never mind … I found the answer on Will’s post that Gary links to above … yes you can pull it into iMovie … which I would think makes it an even more valuable resource (other video editing software would probably work then too).
Brian
The Flip Video — and its sister device, the RCA Small Wonder — is wonderful! By eliminating cords, cassettes, FireWire cables, fancy buttons, and real-time downloading to the computer, it streamlines video production. It revolutionized our school broadcasts. When we bought a handful over the summer, we went with the Small Wonder over the Flip because it had a screw mount for a tripod (great for our elementary students because it reduces “shake”), expandable memory, and a screen that can flip forward so you can see yourself while you shoot. The built-in mic works best if it’s less than 5 feet from the person speaking, but that’s easily worked around given the low cost.
This camera http://tinyurl.com/2pfybt and the other more expensive models in the same line are a fantastic classroom tool. I can carry it in my pocket while working with kids (or teachers) and instantly capture classroom moments.
it has a tripod mount, still mode, and uses SD RAM.
The staff in my district love the flip. I also like how easy it was to use eyespot.com to edit the video clips. The camera needs to be plugged in to use the internal software, so I have found that students can edit the video using the eyespot web 2.0 tool. It will generate the code to put in my blog or moodle! I love that!
Been using the Flip for about 4 months now and still love it. I requested them for a Web 2.0 Media Communications class I am going to start teaching this week. Here what I had to say about it:
http://teacherbytes.blogspot.com/2007/11/movies-to-flip-out-over-teacher-bytes.html
My media specialist introduced us to the flip several months ago. Her excitement was due to the reasons you stated in your post, but also her ability to buy more than one big camcorder, thereby putting more in the hands of elementary kids…without the worry of them handling expensive equipment. I saw kids making film of class experiment and school programs within the week of purchase.
I bought my own teenager one for Christmas and she keeps it in her purse all the time. You never know when she’ll pull it out and catch the perfect moment for tape…maybe I shouldn’t have gotten one for her after all.
Would LOVE to see these go in mass to schools everywhere.
Been using mine for 3 months and love it – so does my son. Have problems using it with the Mac so use with my PC instead. Let my students use it to.
The files are easily moved to iMovie or movie maker.
I have been using an icam which is like a flip, just an off-brand. It works the same way. Great little cameras for students to use. We are using several with students at our school. The cool thing about the icam is that it is an mp3 player, digital still, camcorder, webcam all in one.(Maybe the flip does all of that too.)The icam is a little less expensive than the flip also.
Blockbuster has been selling this since around Thanksgiving.
In addition to Will’s review… http://bumpontheblog.etowns.net/?p=229
Man, wish I’d heard about that 2 weeks ago! Might have to write another grant!!
A few schools in my district have bought these this year. We love them. The lack of cords, cables and time to capture make them ideal for student video projects.
But more importantly, they are cheap enough that most teachers and administrators feel a little more comfortable putting them in the hands of the students, and that’s where they need to be.
Thanks for posting this. Its all coming together now. I have been wanting to do some podcasting for some time now, but have no video format to use for it. I saw this little device at blockbuster and was very intrigued and just now “flipped” to your page and saw this! Thanks for giving me some reassurance that the flip is a worthwhile investment!
My daughter is about to make me a grandfather for the first time and I bought one of these for my nerdy son in law. No excuses now. And better than a webcam of course! He used it at Christmas to capture our family opening of presents.. and then hooked it immediately to a large screen TV.. we watched our party after the party, which was a real hoot.
It is a great tool and I can imagine myriads of uses for schools and have seen several in our schools.. introduced after Will Richardson showed it off at a session here in Syracuse!
Technology is fun.