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Slidecast Competition

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About the Contest

Submission period: 18 September - 15 November 2009
Results announced: December 2009
Prizes: $1000 First, $300 Second, $200 Third (CAD)

NiCHE is sponsoring a slidecast competition to increase awareness of interesting topics in the study of history and environment. Each presentation is a video containing a five-minute speech accompanied by fifteen slides, three per minute. The subject matter is up to you as long has it has something to do with history and environment---although we reserve the right to decide which slidecasts are eligible. Submissions will appear both on the NiCHE website and on the "NiCHE Canada" YouTube channel. They can be in English or French. The deadline for submissions is 15 November 2009. All entrants must be 18 years of age or older.

Void where prohibited.
Any questions can be sent via our Contact Form.

Enter Now

Sign in with your Free NiCHE membership and submit a video using the Submission form.

 

Sample Video

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To give you an idea of what we're after, Alan MacEachern (University of Western Ontario) has put together a sample slidecast.

Video Abstract
This is a biography of Mabel -- MB -- Williams, who as a civil servant and author of guidebooks for Parks Canada, was instrumental in shaping and promoting ideas about national parks early in the century. A special thanks to Williams' niece, Frances Girling, for sharing with me her aunt's papers, which are now at Library and Archives Canada.

 

Who Should Enter?

Here's a contest where you get to leave your rank at the door. Professors, students and members of the community at large are all encouraged to enter and help spread their knowledge of environmental history and historical geography. You don't have to be a world-class expert on your subject to put together a video. Just do your best, be creative and have fun.

Contest Rules

To submit a slidecast, follow the instructions below

  1. Contestants must have a NiCHE membership (registration is free and open to all)
  2. Contestants must be at least 18 years of age
  3. Videos must not contain copyright materials without permission
  4. Videos should be 4:3 width to height ratio (not widescreen or mobile formats)
  5. Videos must be an original work by you and to the best of your knowledge contain true information
  6. Videos must be submitted in one of .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, MPEG, or .FLV file formats.
  7. The audio and video are released under a Creative Commons "by" license and can be used by NiCHE for promotional purposes or appear on other video websites. This does not mean that you can no longer use the video or claim authorship of it.
  8. Proper citations, including a link where applicable, are required for all images borrowed from other artists.

You are free to submit as many videos as you wish, but each must be on a different topic (no multi-part series, no making reference to your other videos). Not all prizes will necessarily be awarded.

Submission Checklist
  • 1 video
  • Your full name, address, telephone number, email address
  • 2 sentence bio of yourself
  • 100 word abstract of your video
  • References for borrowed images and relevant links to originals

To submit a video you must be a registered NiCHE member and must be signed in. You can then use our Slidecast Competition form to enter. Contest closes November 15, 2009.

Maximum file size is 100mb. If your video is larger than this limit, please try to convert it to a different file format, such as flv. Use our Contact Form if you are having difficulties.

Getting Started

If your computer is relatively new, you might already have all the tools needed to create a slidecast. Below are some videos, websites and tutorials that will help you create your video.

Mac

Mac users are lucky, since iMovie and GarageBand include everything you need to create a video and record and edit audio. The newer iMacs even have built in microphones.

iMovie video
Garage Band video

PC

You might have seen the Microsoft commercials advertising 8 year olds creating videos using their PC. That's exactly what you're going to do here. If you're using Windows XP, you've probably got a program called Windows Movie Maker; Vista and Windows 7 users likely have Windows Live Video Maker. Both programs can get the trick done. You can also use Windows Live Photo Gallery if you're more comfortable with that option. If you don't have a microphone, there may still be hope. Headphones can act as a microphone in a pinch; see the General links below for more information.

Windows Live Movie Maker
Windows Live Photo & Video Blog
Windows Movie Maker: How to Use
Windows Live Photo Gallery
I'm 8 years old, and I'm a PC

General

Helpful tips on creating slidecasts, converting file formats, finding images and getting your hands on a microphone - are you sure you don't already have one?

Slidecasting 101
Any Video Converter (Convert file formats - PC only)
Creative Commons (find images)
Open Clip Art Library - Drawing Together (find images)
Record Audio on Your Computer
Turn Headphones into a microphone
iPod Hack: Use the iPod headphones as a microphone

Image Credits

The introductory video wishes to credit the following artists for images used to create the slidecast: