Article about CMS and the reinvention of Instruction
16 years ago
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Video Sharing
Video Sharing Assignment
I used Animoto to post a video of still pictures as I have already posted videos previously using screencast. Animoto is a very user friendly system that gives a basic user a free account. To create the video you just select to upload pictures to a basic picture board. From there you can move, rotate, or add text to them.
It is very easy to them select music (your own or free from file) and add it to the clip. Clips are only 30 seconds in length for the free version. you may also post longer videos that you have created elsewhere, but you may need a premium account.
It is simple to then copy the HTML code and drop it into the blog page.
the transitions look great but i'm not sure how to customize them or otherwise edit the completed clip- it seems a lot is reserved for premium accounts.
This technology could be used to post a nice simple clip on how to do something (e.g tool use) and its nice and quick. The video function looked great too. I could see this on a webpage with a longer tutorial clip or this quick clip set up embedded into the page. Super easy to use and post, students could take clips themselves and post them - best known methods, code help etc - fast and easy.
I would stick with camtasia studio and screencast for more formal, longer clips as it gives me more options.
Screencast video:(click on link below)
intranet
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Week Six: Photo Sharing
Week Six: Photo Sharing
Sorry for the late post. I am recovering from being smacked in the head with a flying golf ball a few several days ago.
I chose to use the photosharing service Flickr, which turns out to be fairly easy to use. I set up a Flickr account just by signing in with my yahoo mail account (it prompted me to do so); I then followed the steps (3 in all) to set up the account with a username and profile. My account is listed below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slockie/
I chose to just pick some work demo photos for pulling wire with specialty tools, in this case "Wiresnagger pulling fingers." This service prompted me to think that I could easily use this for work as foremen are always asking if I can send them pictures of how processes should look. Now they could go online and get their own. The foremen want to print them to pass around at a meeting or drop into their own PPT presentation or handout. This is a good platform for this.
The service also allowed my to create groups of photos and make them public or private as well as give them tags. Perfect.
Sorry for the late post. I am recovering from being smacked in the head with a flying golf ball a few several days ago.
I chose to use the photosharing service Flickr, which turns out to be fairly easy to use. I set up a Flickr account just by signing in with my yahoo mail account (it prompted me to do so); I then followed the steps (3 in all) to set up the account with a username and profile. My account is listed below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slockie/
I chose to just pick some work demo photos for pulling wire with specialty tools, in this case "Wiresnagger pulling fingers." This service prompted me to think that I could easily use this for work as foremen are always asking if I can send them pictures of how processes should look. Now they could go online and get their own. The foremen want to print them to pass around at a meeting or drop into their own PPT presentation or handout. This is a good platform for this.
The service also allowed my to create groups of photos and make them public or private as well as give them tags. Perfect.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Podcasting Assignment- from Los Angeles International Airport!
Or go to http://slockie.podOmatic.com to see podcast.
http://slockie.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml
Podcasting Assignment
http://slockie.podOmatic.com
This week I went to Kimberley's podcast and listened to it. It was very clear and concise, nice job. I wanted to create something similar so I also went to www.podcast.com, but my computer had a really hard time with the site. Every link I clicked on was a broken link. I believe it is not the website but more likely the computer itself. I have a new Dell minibook - which runs RED HOT. I was using it on a cradle and the machine got to the point where it may burn your hand when picking it up. Something is wrong with the situation.
Once I got around the issues, I listened to some podcasts on PodOmatic and they were great. I created an account and posted one myself from LAX. Please let me know if you hear background noise. I used "WavePad Sound Editor" software as the Audacity site wanted me to pay them for a subscription- maybe something new?. Wavepad is free.
I then went to CCmixter.org and downloaded some music from a reggae artist from Malawi, Africa. He is quite the guitarist. The nice thing about CCMixter.org is the have individual teracks from multitrack recordings (you can seperate out drums, guitar, voice etc- I'm a big fan of that as I love guitar and drums).
Once back on www.podOmatic.com the account has a lot of great info - how big your audience is, what bandwidth you've used, how many subscriptions etc. Best of all, you get a home page much like a blog page - complete with all your posts, calendar, profile pic etc.
I think I will tie into into training by having it a clip embedded on a webpage to give a quick description of what process is being shown. Could be great for remote site guys (that I work with) where connectivity is an issue.
I also tried Gcast - hopefully it embeds here....very straight forward and easy to use!
Subscribe Free Add to my Page
This week I went to Kimberley's podcast and listened to it. It was very clear and concise, nice job. I wanted to create something similar so I also went to www.podcast.com, but my computer had a really hard time with the site. Every link I clicked on was a broken link. I believe it is not the website but more likely the computer itself. I have a new Dell minibook - which runs RED HOT. I was using it on a cradle and the machine got to the point where it may burn your hand when picking it up. Something is wrong with the situation.
Once I got around the issues, I listened to some podcasts on PodOmatic and they were great. I created an account and posted one myself from LAX. Please let me know if you hear background noise. I used "WavePad Sound Editor" software as the Audacity site wanted me to pay them for a subscription- maybe something new?. Wavepad is free.
I then went to CCmixter.org and downloaded some music from a reggae artist from Malawi, Africa. He is quite the guitarist. The nice thing about CCMixter.org is the have individual teracks from multitrack recordings (you can seperate out drums, guitar, voice etc- I'm a big fan of that as I love guitar and drums).
Once back on www.podOmatic.com the account has a lot of great info - how big your audience is, what bandwidth you've used, how many subscriptions etc. Best of all, you get a home page much like a blog page - complete with all your posts, calendar, profile pic etc.
I think I will tie into into training by having it a clip embedded on a webpage to give a quick description of what process is being shown. Could be great for remote site guys (that I work with) where connectivity is an issue.
I also tried Gcast - hopefully it embeds here....very straight forward and easy to use!
Subscribe Free Add to my Page
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Web Conferencing
Week Four: Web Conferencing
Vyew.com
I chose to use Vyew.com for webconferencing and found that it was very similar to the software used at my company. We use I-Link which has many of the same features: Inviting people, raised hands, uploading content, shared workspaces etc. The thing that is noticeably different is the price! I believe it was around $10 a month for a decent amount of capacity. I believe we paid over $20k for a similar system, that has not worked like it was promoted. So I got a laugh out of that. In fact next Tuesday's meeting with the IBEW FM Development Team is being postponed due to not having enough licenses (moved to Thursday).
The system seemed fairly straight forward, you can set up a classroom format where you meet and present a topic (through your screen), also there is a development section where you can collaboratively work on material. Finally there's a teach and train section where participants can work together or seperately to work on material and you can go back and comment. Awesome stuff.
I uploaded a fairly hefty PPT presentation and it didn't take too long (a little slow). The nice thing was the tutorial for getting started in the beginning which answered a lot of my "how to" questions. I am looking forward to using this in the future to test it out a lot more than this one time. The other person I had log in found it easy to find once I invited them to attend.
I can see the uses for training over large geographical regions - as long as log in is easy - haven't received feedback yet. That's our issue with I-Link; log in can be a real pain and a major obstacle when setting up meetings. I have attended some where we spent 20 minutes of an hour meeting fiddling around, trying to get everyone logged on.
Skype:
The other software I looked into was Skype and my apologies to Ronnie. I said I would meet up with you online Thursday but my flight was delayed three hours, so I missed the meeting. Sorry about that.
Skype is a great tool, which I finally got to install on my work laptop (security block). This has enabled me to drop my work cell bill way down when I work in Canada (was $800+/month). I have been using it for a couple of years on my home computer.
To set up a group call (conference meeting):
1. Click on the new button inside of your Skype account (above contacts list)
2. Drag the contacts you want to group call into the box above "call group" button.
3. Click on call group button - it's that easy.
The features I like using on Skype:
-You can have an online phone number which is just like a regular landline number (say 408 area code which is a local call for San Jose, even if you're in Tokyo)
-My online number is 702.430.**** (Las Vegas area - it calls my computer at home)
-If I'm offline it leaves an email on my Blackberry with the number that called, or I can have the call forwarded to another number (say cell phone)
-Voice Mail is easy to set up (you can check it when you get online)
-There's tons of phone options (duel regular phone and skype)
-Some phones work in any WIFI zone that is not browser based
-You can call someone on Skype and have their caller ID show your personal cell number
-$12.95/month unlimited calling around the world
Items i'm not sure about:
-The online phone number can be any area code of your choosing - from 20 diferent countries
-That can be a little scary (where is the person really calling from?)
-Could be a blessing for those who have family in another country (kid studying overseas) they can call you toll free from any landline and it comes to your skype phone or computer
I really like the webcam feature but if one party has a slow connection it can make the call drop out. A regular call then usually works out fine. You definitely need high speed internet connectivity. Forget dial up.
Vyew.com
I chose to use Vyew.com for webconferencing and found that it was very similar to the software used at my company. We use I-Link which has many of the same features: Inviting people, raised hands, uploading content, shared workspaces etc. The thing that is noticeably different is the price! I believe it was around $10 a month for a decent amount of capacity. I believe we paid over $20k for a similar system, that has not worked like it was promoted. So I got a laugh out of that. In fact next Tuesday's meeting with the IBEW FM Development Team is being postponed due to not having enough licenses (moved to Thursday).
The system seemed fairly straight forward, you can set up a classroom format where you meet and present a topic (through your screen), also there is a development section where you can collaboratively work on material. Finally there's a teach and train section where participants can work together or seperately to work on material and you can go back and comment. Awesome stuff.
I uploaded a fairly hefty PPT presentation and it didn't take too long (a little slow). The nice thing was the tutorial for getting started in the beginning which answered a lot of my "how to" questions. I am looking forward to using this in the future to test it out a lot more than this one time. The other person I had log in found it easy to find once I invited them to attend.
I can see the uses for training over large geographical regions - as long as log in is easy - haven't received feedback yet. That's our issue with I-Link; log in can be a real pain and a major obstacle when setting up meetings. I have attended some where we spent 20 minutes of an hour meeting fiddling around, trying to get everyone logged on.
Skype:
The other software I looked into was Skype and my apologies to Ronnie. I said I would meet up with you online Thursday but my flight was delayed three hours, so I missed the meeting. Sorry about that.
Skype is a great tool, which I finally got to install on my work laptop (security block). This has enabled me to drop my work cell bill way down when I work in Canada (was $800+/month). I have been using it for a couple of years on my home computer.
To set up a group call (conference meeting):
1. Click on the new button inside of your Skype account (above contacts list)
2. Drag the contacts you want to group call into the box above "call group" button.
3. Click on call group button - it's that easy.
The features I like using on Skype:
-You can have an online phone number which is just like a regular landline number (say 408 area code which is a local call for San Jose, even if you're in Tokyo)
-My online number is 702.430.**** (Las Vegas area - it calls my computer at home)
-If I'm offline it leaves an email on my Blackberry with the number that called, or I can have the call forwarded to another number (say cell phone)
-Voice Mail is easy to set up (you can check it when you get online)
-There's tons of phone options (duel regular phone and skype)
-Some phones work in any WIFI zone that is not browser based
-You can call someone on Skype and have their caller ID show your personal cell number
-$12.95/month unlimited calling around the world
Items i'm not sure about:
-The online phone number can be any area code of your choosing - from 20 diferent countries
-That can be a little scary (where is the person really calling from?)
-Could be a blessing for those who have family in another country (kid studying overseas) they can call you toll free from any landline and it comes to your skype phone or computer
I really like the webcam feature but if one party has a slow connection it can make the call drop out. A regular call then usually works out fine. You definitely need high speed internet connectivity. Forget dial up.
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