If you want to check out other options for your browser, then click on “Tools – Add-ons”. Click the “Extensions” tab at the top, if it is not already selected (you will see a list of all the extensions you currently have). Then click the “Get Extensions” hyperlink at the bottom right of the window to go to the menu.

There are a lot of cool things for Firefox here, but what you are looking for is “Video DownloadHelper 3.03. You can do a search for it, or you can just click here and I will send you directly to the link.

Click the “Download” button and follow the instructions. When you are done, read through the directions on the webpage that pops up when Firefox restarts. It will help you.

You should notice three colorful balls rotating on your toolbar. When there is nothing to “capture” the orbs are grey. When something on the page can be captured (Pictures, videos, etc.) you click on the object you want, click the menu arrow next to the orbs, and choose your option of what you want to save. Then you will choose where to save it and click “Save”.

Now you have downloaded the file. But when you try to view it, nothing happens. Stay tuned for Step 3 in the next article.

Step One – Install Firefox

Firefox is a free web browser, like Internet Explorer. But Firefox has several advantages over IE.

• It is designed to show web pages exactly the way people designed them. Sometimes IE has the text scattered in strange places, because the dimensions the web designer used don’t match what IE thinks they should be. Firefox manages to keep everything where it is supposed to be
• It is faster, and much less susceptible to hacking and viruses. IE is the big boy on the block, and that’s who the hackers attack.
• Most Important – Firefox has some wonderful attachments not available on IE. One of them is a program to download Flash video (the main medium in youtube type sites).

So to download Firefox, click here, or go to www.mozilla.com/firefox. Follow the directions for download and installing (although in some cases you may need your site tech or administrator to do the install for you).

For Tulsa teachers there is one more step. Any web browser has to detect the proxy settings for the system. Go to “Tools – Options”. Click on the “Advanced” button. Click the “Network” tab. Click the “Settings” button. Then select the option “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network”. Click “Ok” for everything. Then the browser will work on the TPS network.

I think you’ll like Firefox. Next time we’ll talk about the video download attachment.

But there is a new skill I think you might want to have, particularly if you are working with interactive whiteboards.

Have you ever found this great video on the internet, but found that you had to be connected to the internet to play it?  And dealt with the problems of bad connections, buffering, and high volume use that makes your video play like a car with one sparkplug working?  Don’t you wish you could play the video from a file on your computer, without the internet?

It is a four-step process.  I will go over it with you in the next few posts.  Stay tuned…