Creating Brainbuffet

I’m getting LOTS more questions on how to create a site like brainbuffet. It’s time consuming, but very rewarding and I’ll never go back to the traditional ways of teaching. As you may have read here, I’ve been doing the site online for a long time- and it was pretty innovative at the time… but I never imagined I’d have something like what brainbuffet.com is now for the kids.

A lot of the thanks and recognition goes to my primary educational inspiration for the site in it’s current state, Mike Skocko from the Maclab. I’m constantly challenged by what he does, and I often start by imitating Mike’s way of doing things before I move to my own workflow or system. He was the first teacher I saw using the video tutorials, and his blog for assignments, challenges, and inspiration for his students. Bookmark his site and read it often.

So, How do you create your own site like Brainbuffet?

Easy. You only need a few things. Let’s get the equipment list out of the way:

• Computer- Make sure it meets at least the minimum specs of the machines listed in the equipment list. Then double the RAM to record the movies well.
• Web Hosting plan- Right now the best bang for the buck is BLUEHOST.COM – $6.95 a month- unlimited space/bandwidth, Free domain. Unlimited domains in the account (so you can have more websites on the same account!!! One of my referrals has over 10 sites running, all for the same cost!) You can get started with wordpress.com for free, but you can’t FTP up your videos and eventually you’ll outgrow it. I have other recommendations on the FAQ page, and Brainbuffet.com gets a little love if you use our links (and it won’t cost you anything extra!) Bluehost seems to be working great for most of my customers.
• WORDPRESS!!!- I LOVE WORDPRESS. Before WordPress I used Drupal, Post-nuke, Maxdev CMS, and a few other CMS/Blogs. Nothing compares in terms of balancing power and ease of use. It’s amazing. Tons of support. Almost every host in the universe installs it for free with Fantastico.
• Screen recording Software- I use Camtasia. For Macs, I recommend Screenflow. But for everyone, you can get Jing for cheap or free. (I recommend spending at least the $15 for Jing Pro. The smaller file sizes alone are worth the cash.) I also have heard good things from other teachers in workshops, (but have never used) Screenr, CamStudio, AviScreen, Screencast-o-Matic, and Copernicus (Copernicus is for mac).
• Decent USB Microphone- I LOVE my at2020!!! Expensive, but worth it.  Second place I’d have to say the micflex that Mike Skocko recommended to me when I started. I also have a Samson Go mic for recording on the road.  Beyond that, I have heard good things about the blue mics. Don’t use the crappy mic that came in the box with your computer. It’s impossible to have the video come across professionally if you sound like you are speaking over a walkie talkie. Trust me. Headset mics that say they’re amazing quality aren’t.

That’s it on the equipment side. Most you already have, most likely. After you have all that stuff.. then comes the time in your schedule, inspiration, and desire to do it. That’s often harder to come by… But for me, it’s all way worth not repeating myself 7 times a day for each class, and then again for every absent student, again for the kid that didn’t get it, etc… I record them once, share with the world, and do my part to rid the world of ugly.