RadioJames

One of the things that I used to use a lot, and that I wish was part of the Flash authoring environment, is the code Snippets feature that’s available in Dreamweaver. Code Snippets is a feature that allows you to name and save snippets of HTML, javascript, or anyother type of code, to a central library so that it can be re used at a later time ( Clicking on a Snippet will insert the code into the page ). Aside from saving a lot of time, it makes it easy to share code with others, as snippets can be imported into Dreamweaver.

Now that I spend more of my time programming in Flash, I wish there was a code snippet library for saving actionscript. This would allow me to build a library of the common functions and classes I use over and over: an XML load and parse snippet, a NetConnection snippet, one for mic and cam settings - shared objects - sound objects - component styles etc,.

Since that day hasn’t come, I decided to build a simple database to serve the puropse.

(click image for larger view)

The database is very basic, but allows me to:

• paste code into a text field
• provide a description of the code
• add URL to the project (if relevant),
• add info related to the author of the code (if from a book or online community)
• add the date
• include the path to the file (if there is one)
• select a checkbox to help identify the code as being for Flash or Flash Server projects
• and best of all, search for and retrieve the code so that I can reuse it in other projects

The nice thing about having code in a datbase is that it will allow me to organize code centrally. This will keep me from having to search through flash projects to find that bit of code I need, or to type it - again - from scratch. I figure I’ll put the database on my thumb drive so that I can access it at work and at home.

Better idea? While I was developing the database it dawned on me that an action script wiki might be a lot more valuable. A wiki would allow the world wide flash developer community to share code and best practices for Flash and Flash server. Maybe Adobe should consider hosting something like this. Currently they have a wiki for AS 3 development, and to some extent their online integrated help system is “wiki like” in that it provides good code examples that users can comment and add their own code to, but a wiki may get more input from the community at large?

One of the things that some new instructors that I work with struggle with, is writing traditional performance-based course and lesson objectives. I know that for myself it wasn’t until I entered my MA in education that I even became aware of their purpose in instruction, so when you consider that many adjunct and even full time College level teachers/professors have not been exposed to teaching education it’s no surprise (and certainly no fault ).

http://www.radiojames.com/work/ObjectivesBuilder/StartPage.html

Since I work with online teachers to design instruction for their online courses, and since most of the instructors I support are remote from campus, I decided to develop an online tool for writing objectives so that when we work together remotely the tool could serve as an interactive example for writing objectives that the instructor could then use independently after words.

What it does:
The tool and allows an instructor to select a level of student performance (Bloom’s level of intellectual performance) via a drop down menu. When a selection is made, info related to the choice is pulled into the interface from an external XML document which includes:

• An overview of the knowledge level selected
• A List of corresponding verbs that when selected populate a text editor so that the instructor can write objectives directly
• A set of example objectives to get ideas on how to structure an objective
• A text editor for writing/printing objectivesWhy?
  My hope is that the tool will act as a useful resource for instructors writing or revising course materials. There are a lot of excellent websites and resources for learning to write objectives, but I haven’t seen alot of interactive web-based tools for creating them. I’m not sure if it has value for the larger .edu community, but if so that’d be great.

I am always on the look out for easy to use apps that students can use to create and publish narrated presentations/slideshows to use in online courses. I recently come across a good one. It’s called Bubbleshare and though it wasn’t designed with this in mind, turns out to be a very powerful online slideshow (presentation) builder.

Currently online students have been developing narrated powerpoints using the built in narration feature that is part of PowerPoint. The problem with this is that the resulting file size is huge, and without students being able to compress and publish to the web themseleves, the whole process becomes burdensome: Student A has to upload to the course and then download student B’s,C’sD’s etc,.so that they can review and comment. Even with broadband it’s a pain..

What CyberCampus has been doing to help alleviate this for students is to have them send their presentation to us using “Yousendit.com.” We then use Impaticato to publish the file to their course (it encodes it to a java player file). You can imagine how this will not scale, even at our sized University.

The nice thing about Bubbleshare is that it will allow students to do everything themself. Bubbleshare allows a student to upload (in batch) images. This means that a student can export their PowerPoint and then upload them to Bubbleshare. After they are uploaded a student can add narration and captions, and then publish and share the presentation as a slideshow. What’s also nice is that you can rearrange the order that the slides play by dragging the slide to a new position within the sequence (yes through the wonders of AJAX).

It’s in beta (no suprise there) and, it’s free (also no suprise ), but it’s definately worth checking out especially if you have students in online courses that you want to be able to produce presentations.
About it being free: The hesitation I always have with free services is that I’m never too sure if I should build interest with students and faculty in using the service. Will it be around for long? Will the URL persist (if it’s a a graded presentation this becomes important). For the most part, I tend to express to the instructors I support that apps and tools will come and go, and the more you accept this as the norm, the less you will be dissapointed.

If interested, here’s an example of a Bubbleshare presentation I made from a PowerPoint. An upcoming Workshop

All that I did was to export the PowerPoint slides as .jpg’s - uploaded the directory of images and then add the narration and a few balloons. Online Audio recording is powered by Flash Server. Of course I am happy about this since I have been waiting for Flash COm to catch on in this way for years. It works well and fits the online application model.

I had planned on doing a post on Verosee, but came across another free skype enabled app or plugin mentioned on skype journal that has really impressed me. It’s called Unyte, and it’s developed by Web Dialogs - a company that offers web conferencing solutions in tow with WebEx, Live Meeting and Breeze.

About:
Unyte is a skype enabled plugin that allows anyone to share their computer screen, or open application, with up to four guests. What makes it unique is that guests don’t have to install it, nor download any plugin to participate. Infact, they don’t even have to have skype installed. You just send guest(s) a URL and password (these are automatically generated). They use these to initiate the session via a secure website, provided by WebDialogs.

Why I was drawn to it:
When I first read about it, two services at work came to mind immediately that might benefit from it; The online writing owl (OWL), and The Math Online Tutoring Help (MOTH). These online tutoring services are currently asynchronous, but this may partly be as a result of there not being aware of free synchronous solutions that can augment the current model; a scheduled time where online students can meet with a tutor “live” to get help. The fact that it’s free and that participants just need Explorer, Firefox, and Safari and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes it open to almost everyone.

Other features that makes it cool is that the “presenter” can yield control of their desktop, or application to guests so that they can interact with what’s being shared. In this way it could be used by students as a way to collaboratively edit Word documents or build group presentations. Since it ties into skype the process is further enabled by being able to send files during the share. In a team work scenario, one student could send an image using file sharing that gets placed into a PowerPoint. At the same time, the PowerPoint could be edited by a third person in real-time. The final file could then be emailed to the team member who couldn’t join because they were at work whose responsible for performing final edits and posting to the course website.

For a good overview look at the help pages:

Thanks again to Version Tracker, I’ve come across a great online slideshow presentation builder for OS X called SlidesNow. The application allows you to build voice and/or video driven online presentation (Synchronous or asynchronous) using PowerPoint or Key Note. It also includes a note taking feature, chat (optional) and integrates with iCal. Best of all it’s very easy to use and affordable ($50 for the full version) making it attractive for personal and use for use in student and teacher computer labs. It is worth looking into if you are looking for something to develop on demand or live web presentations.

How does it work:
The application integrates with QuickTime broadcaster (free) as a way to record the audio and video used to narrate the presentation. If you want to use SlidesNow for synchronous presentations you need to use QT server. Slides Now provides an interface that allows you to record your audio or video and advance the presentation slides. Once the presentation is completed, you run a script that that builds out the presentation ( adds the slideshow timing and outputs the required HTML files used for viewing the presentation). After that you just load the files to an HTTP server and your done

Features:

1. Slides: Slides can be from Power Point or Keynote. In either case you export them as .jpg files into a directory and then run a script that renames them (Orders them) so that they can be used for the presentation.
2. Notes: Personal notes feature allows viewers to type and save notes during presentation.
3. Chat: You can add a chat area
4. Thumbnails. Viewers can select to view all slides as thumbnails for visual navigation.

Final Comments:
It’s very easy to use, and very affordable ($50 for the full version). If you use it for synchronous presentations you can elect to add chat. I haven’t tested its synchronous capabilities but know from comments provided by the developer that it’s not intended as a large scale solution for webcasts (it’s not a replacement to breeze).

Website:
www.slidesnow.com

Finals ended today, and so other than a few calls and emails it’s been dead quiet. So much so, that I can hear things that I otherwise don’t notice - the sound of the heating system, the soft buzz from the fluorescent light balast over head and everynow and then the sound of the front door opening and closing on the far side of the office. It’s nice having things quiet, but I have to admit I’m not used to it, so it has sort of caught me off guard.

First thoughts on the new year:

• Do less scanning (blogs) and more actual reading and reflecting
• Spend time test developing portable streaming audio and flash content for cell phones
• Teach
• Set aside time to develop more on demand training content so I don’t have to explain the same process’ over and over to different instructors (Not a complaint - just feels silly to explain a set of simple procedures by phone or email when a “how to” would provide the same)
• Start using Go To Meeting as a way for instructors and designers to share /demonstrate different technologies useful to online learning.
• Continue running
• Be amazed at how life will change when our son is born
• log off of services that I no longer use, and only sign up for services that I know I will use
• and all things that just happen that make life interesting

It’s been a little over a year since I last created a podcast.. I’ve been thinking about doing one, but thinking was the problem. The only way I can get myself to actually sit down in front of a mic - is if I remember that the whole reason I chose to work in .edu is because, at it’s foundation, there’s the notion of shared experience and collaboration as being an important part of what we do. with that in mind I have recently started blogging again - (last year I think I had a total of three entries) - so this year with a few more (all within the last few weeks), I feel like there’s a chance I’ll continue..

The truth is that this is the first time that I’ve enjoyed writing in my blog. Before I wasn’t sure what to share, or again, put to much thought into it. I think this was partly because I was somewhat new to working in higher ed, and so was still uncertain about what I “should” or shouldn’t say, when it came to talking about work, which is a thread through almost everything I talk about.

Podcast info

• Title of Podcast: Use of voice in online learning
• Intro music: Victims Family “Apocalicios”
• Outro music: Puya
• duration: 27 minutes
• file size: 12 megs
• link to mp3 file: tech and learning ep3

Stuff I mentioned in the podcast:

The flash com project that I talked about:

• Demo for devlearn 05 conference

Link to sites that I talked about or mentioned:

• The BBC Annotatable Audio project - Plasticbag.org
• The David Lynch Foundation

List of free downloadable audio recording software mentioned:

• Waxmail (records mp3’s from with Outlook & Outlook Express)
• Cast Blaster (podcasting production app)
• Freecorder (free mp3 recorder)
• Audacity (Free wave editor/recorder - cross platform)

List of web-based audio and video recording sites mentioned:

• Odeo (audio recording)
• VideoEgg (video recording)

After months of trying to get Flash Communication Server 1.5 up and running on one of our Linux video servers, I finally jumped ship, if only temporarily, and installed the new version Flash Server 2. I think the difficulties I was having had less to do with an incompatibility with the Linux server, as it did with firewall issues, but in any event after instantiating the first Flash app and connecting to the server, the light on my web cam lit up - and when I waved my hand and mumbled (the everyman’s latency test) - my recorded hand waved back and the sound of my voice came through.

So now the fun starts. A) Enticing instructors to join the pilot and begin to use video and voice as an adjunct to their online text lessons. and B) to allow students access to the same tools so that they can join the process.

Background: Two weeks ago I presented at an eLearning developer conference here in SF on the subject of using Flash and Flash Com server to develop audio and video apps for use in Higher Ed online learning, and so had to use external servers for the demonstration. I know it doesn’t really matter where the server lives, but I always feel better when a server’s in house rather than at a remote location. When I know the server’s at the bottom of a set of stairs, rather than at the end of a phone call, I feel like I have more control over how the apps themselves will perform. Does it make sense? Not really, but I accept it as the superstitious end of app development, and a measure of comfort..

Flash Com, the poor man’s breeze: I refer to Flash Com as the poor man’s Breeze, because it is, but more important is the fact that it allows anyone interested in Flash, to develop really powerful apps at an affordable price. When you combine the fact that Flash Server is what drives breeze, and breeze runs at a cost of $10,000 dollars, it’s nice to know that you can build your own breeze like app for a lot less. Yeah, maybe it doesn’t end up as full featured as the real thing, but then againyou may not need a full set of features. The great thing about Flash Com, is that you can build exactly what you need, a set of small powerful apps that perform different services and can be dropped into an online course as easy as dropping in an image.

Some other Universities that are using Flash Com:

• Ryerson University, Canada
• University of Aberdeen, New Zealand
  FCS takes the users from interacting with an application to interacting with each other - including lecturers presenting, while students simultaneously ask questions and having the whole thing recorded for later replay (e.g. for revision).

I have been a recluse for the last four months, so you can expect that this will be a ramble. Besides spending my time at and away from work, finishing up a whole series of small web-based communication applications that I will (finally) begin to pilot in some online courses, the only other thing I’ve been doing is reading; books-blogs and journals, and these activities, though welcomed by my wife, in that I would otherwise be interrupting her studies, are, after a time, just way too insular.

So yes, I can say that I am done with my communicator app, but as a result have felt the emptiness that always follows completing a big project. Not emptiness in an emotional sense, but in the sense that I feel the lull that makes itself known when you look at your computer screen and realize that you’re organizing folders, backing up data and otherwise performing the restless movements of looking for something interesting to do. On the other hand, I know that this is just the feeling of decompression, and when I pull back from the screen and decide for once to eat at the lunch table, or across the street in the park instead of at my desk, that I’ll appreciate being out of my self made loop, if only for a short time.

example of the web app I’ve been working on. It can be added to an instructor’s course allowing the instructor and/or students to post audio and video clips using a webcam or headset mic. the player (not shown) can be embedded into a discussion or as an adjunct to a lesson etc,.