Add Video Tutorials to Google Sites

Add Video Tutorials to Google Sites

Although I am very excited about using Google Apps for Education for school communication and collaboration I can honestly say that I am not at all happy that I can’t just simply copy embed code over to a Google Document or paste it directly into Google Sites and expect to see results. Well, I think that I have figured out a pretty good work around for at least creating video tutorials. The reason why this is so important is because I have to convince a whole bunch of people to start collaborating very quickly. I’m not sure that I know a better way of doing that other than creating specific tutorials and then putting them into a collaborative space that begs for feedback (i.e., Google Sites).

So, here is what I did:

Step 1: Record your tutorial using ScreenToaster and then upload it directly to Screentoaster. Once this is completed, you will be taken to the video with the correct URL.

Step 2: Copy the video ID, which looks something like this:

Step 3: Head on over to your google site and edit a page you want to put the video into.

Step 4: Insert a Gadget (click on insert and then “more”)

Step 5: Search for the embed flash gadget, or simply use this URL to access it directly.

Step 6: Input the following information into the fields you are presented with:

(The URL of the flash is http://www.screentoaster.com/swf/STPlayer.swf and the Flash Vars is “video=paste_your_video_id_here” (without quotations))

Step 7: Click okay and save

This will allow you to create very quick tutorials on any subject and then embed them into your Google Site. I would say that this is much harder to do than simply copy and pasting some embed code, but I think that I will go through a little bit of greif in order to make sure that teachers and students can collaborate easily without having to worry about yet another login to access a wiki tool that allows for a simple embed.

5 Comments

  1. ScreenToaster is about to add even more features : http://blog.screentoaster.com/

    Coming (really) soon:
    API (Beta tested)
    New video player with tons of new gadgets
    Download your screencast in .mov file format (with audio)
    Faster uploads to YouTube (with audio)

    Already added in February – March:
    New categories and subcategories
    Four levels of privacy
    “In the press” and “Partners” sections
    Upload your screencast to Youtube
    Direct upload to Google Video for featured videos
    Download in .avi and .swf file formats
    Record from external VNC servers
    Accelerated or slow-motion playback / Pauses during recording
    Spread on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Digg
    Bookmark it on Delicious, Stumble Upon, Yahoo Buzz and Google Bookmark
    Send your video by mail
    Suggested videos on the video pages
    Branded profiles
    Filters of search: by “most commented”, by “language”…
    Custom RSS feeds
    Follow ScreenToaster developments in real-time on Twitter (@screentoaster)

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