As part of the MCast Project, I am creating tutorials that will help people learn how to use audio, video, and screencasts in their courses.  I have chosen to start with audio and the purpose of this first series of tutorials will be to assist instructors, tutors, and others to learn how to use the free software program, Audacity, to create a podcasts.

First, I should mention a few issues that I have experienced:

·         Don’t use version 1.2.6 of Audacity on Vista.  It’s prone to crashing.  Audacity 1.3.9 (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) seems much more stable;

·         Playback of sound within a screencast is a headache.  When recording a screencast about using Audacity, I could not get the sound to work when playing an audio inside the screencast. In the screencast you will hear a muffled sound when I play an audio track in the screencast. I’m still looking into it and I know a workaround but I have not found a solution I like yet;

·         I’m not getting into the PC vs Mac debate.  I have heard how easy it is to use Garageband on the Mac to record audio. Great! If you got it then I encourage you to play around with it and judge for yourself.  Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is a free, open source, software program that anyone can download and use.  By the way, they have a Mac and Linux version (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/);

·         Recording screencasts takes longer than you think.  No matter how much I planned, scripted, and setup the hardware, I had to record the screencasts about 3 times before I was happy with it and even then there were a few mistakes. I tend to ramble too much;

·         Expect a few unforeseen glitches to show up when trying to create screencasts.  I started with the free software called CamStudio (http://camstudio.org/) because it permitted me to save my video files in the avi format.  I ran into a problem when drawing the area I wanted to capture the box started drifting around the screen.  I decided to use Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/) and I paid for Jing Pro (http://www.jingproject.com/pro/), which included an upload button for YouTube and the ability to save files as MPEG-4/H.264.  Be prepared to adapt and change when the tool you select does not turn out to do what you expected;

·         Despite what the Rolling Stones sing time is not on your side.  There is never enough time to make things perfect.  I work as a full-time junior high teacher, part-time LEGO robotics instructor, and help organize two provincial LEGO robotics competitions annually.  September to December is my busiest time of year. I’ve taught my students how to use Audacity to create a podcast and despite that experience these tutorials were more time-consuming then I originally thought.  Teaching in a f2f environment is less time-consuming than creating content for online tutorials and creating screencasts can be even more demanding on your time.  With this experience, I hope to provide some tutorials in the future that can help others create multimedia content efficiently and effectively;

Now on with the show!  In this first Audacity tutorial, I provide an overview of the Audacity interface, explain various features, and create an audio track.

In the next tutorial, I will be showing you how to setup audio hardware for use in Audacity.

I reviewed the Instant Video Presenter software and despite some negatives, I would recommend getting it for anyone who wants to create video presentations using a green screen.  For DE I like the idea of increasing teacher presence by allowing students to see and hear the prof or tutor.  Here is my summary:

Positives(http://www.instantvideopresenter.com/t-features.aspx):

• Easy to use and comprehensive tutorials walk a person through setup to the recording process(http://www.instantvideopresenter.com/t-trainingvideos.aspx);
• Easy to adjust a video camera to the green screen.  Program includes a wizard feature that is very convenient;
• Does not require an investment in a lot of expensive, video gear;
• The web site has picture galleries and high quality PowerPoint templates for download that are adjusted for including a person on the screen in the left or right positions (http://www.instantvideopresenter.com/t-templates.aspx);
• System requirements for the software are reasonable (http://www.instantvideopresenter.com/t-requirements.aspx);
  

Negatives:

• Although it does not require an expensive video camera, it does not work well with the built-in web cams in laptops.  I recorded a couple videos but it was of poor quality.  The green screen did not always work with the laptop's web cam;
• The software did crash a couple times when I was recording but I'm not sure if this was due to the laptop webcam;
• Lighting is a concern and there are a few tricks to setting up a properly lit area to record quality video (There are some excellent lighting tips are given in a video tutorial);
• You need some type of hand-held device to operate a PowerPoint slide show or to switch the screens while recording the video (like a weatherman has when doing the weather report);
• Need to be close to computer to record using sound. You need a clip-on mic to record sound if standing far away from the computer. Otherwise a mic hanging overhead (boom mic) off-screen will have to be used.

This is the simplest program I have ever seen for recording and producing a high quality video.

The University of Saskatchewan has launched an iPod/iPhone app called iUSask.  Another example of how universities are using mobile applications to appeal to students.

There are a few course offerings at other universities that open their courses for non-credit. Dr. Alex Couros at the University of Regina is offering the follow ing course in the Fall:

• Open Access Course: Social Media & Open Education (Fall 2009) (http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1673)
• EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education(course wiki)

The Youtube trailer for the course is fantastic.

 

 

 

This book is in wiki form and looks like a good place to review some of the learning theories, strategies, and tools of teaching:

 Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology (Wiki...

I just had to change the permissions on one of my files in Me2U from public to logged in users. Spammers have been making comments on some of my blog postings, presentations, and now a file linked to with blog posting. I hope this does not continue, since I do make my stuff in Me2U publicly available.

The opencast project (opencast project) is a Berkeley led initiative to create open resources for podcasting in education.  Their mission statement explains it better:

I chose the course route for my Masters of Distance Eduation and I have finished all my courses since April. I have be mulling over how to do the eportfolio ever since. I know about the competencies but I am unsure about how to illustrate these?

I'm a geek, so the technical part is not a problem. I am going to use audio and video (podcasts and video clips) to build the portfolio. I am already going through an online webcast training with the Webcast Academy, to bone-up on some of the more advanced skills of podcasting.  Deciding on the organization of the e-portfolio is causing me headaches.

I don't want to summarize what I have learned from all the courses I have completed.  That would take a long time and I'm pretty sure evaluators don't want to sift through mounds of information. The point to is be as breif as possible and still fulfill the requirements and expectations of the e-portfolio option.

I'm wondering if anybody else is working on this e-portfolio option and how they are approaching it? It would be great to have a look at some completed e-portfolios to get a clearer picture of what it should look like and include.

I have been active on Twitter (@tomshepp) for a while now and I find it a useful way to stay updated on education and technology news, as well as sharing resources with others. There have been a few times that I have asked questions on Twitter, or tweeted (messages sent on Twitter are called tweets), and received some valuable advice from some of the people I follow and who follow me.

I receieved a bit of a surprise a while back when I tried to follow someone on Twitter and I recieved a message informing me I could no longer follow anyone and to look at this web page for more info: I can't follow people: follow limits

I had hit the 2000 following limit. Apparently, last year Twitter decided to include a limit on the number of people that you could follow.  It seemed like a anti-spamming move but I was surprised to read the that, "...Twitter does not use follow limiting to monitor spammers. Though follow limits do help with spam control, the limit itself improves site performance by ensuring that when we send a person's message to all of their followers, the sending of that message is meaningful.  We believe that following 2000 people is a reasonable limit for the number of people an average person can follow" (http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/14959).

Another interesting comment is "Twitter may facilitate social networking, but it's not a social networking website"(http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/14959). Apparently Twitter believes that 2000 is the upper limit that anybody can reasonably follow. Should this not be up to the user? 

If you are using Twitter I encourage you to have a look at the Twitter limits. It is an interesting approach to social collaboration.

 

I came across a twitter posting (called a tweet) by Dave Cormier (@davecormier) about the University of PEI's progress in creating a mobile site (Theming and going Mobile: drupal@upei) using Drupal. Here is a link to an image of what the site looks like on an iPhone: http://www.upei.ca/misc/doart/fpmobv2.png.

I know AU has been researching and testing the use of mobile learning, but I have been wondering lately where all this is leading? I purchased an iPod Touch recently and I am quite surprised at just how good it is for using email, Twitter, and Facebook apps. I keep wondering how it is being used to support teaching and learning? How do we move beyond the stage of merely capturing lectures (podcast lectures) and provide a  learning experience that is collaborative, interactive, and meaningful?

How can this technology best support teaching and learning? In some of the podcast studies I have read the conclusion has been that podcast lectures are great for supporting the f2f environment, but there are doubts as to the effectiveness of it as a primary method of delivering teaching and learning (I have an online presentation about this but it is temporarily not accessible to the public due to spammers using the comment section).

How effectively can it be utilized for distance education? I am currently involved in the mcast research project with Dr. Terry Anderson. We are trying to setup the hardware and software necessary to create podcasts (audio and video) and screencasts for distance learning at AU's Center for Distance Education.The plan is to research the effectiveness of mcasting once the planning and implementation stages are complete. I can envision this as a great resource, but I am wondering how it will be used?

Finally, I am interested in examples of the effective use of mcasting (podcasting, video, screencasting) in education and distance learning. There are a lot of examples of how universities and other post-secondary institutions are using iTunesU and YouTubeEDU, but how do you determine which are effective at using these technologies? I think more work research needs to be done in this area.