Second Life Interview

When I read this week's lesson on Second Life, I sent off 5 questions to a co-worker who does a job similar to mine. We both support academic technology faculty at a university, but he works with artists, musicians, actors, and dancers, and I work with scientists, psychologists, philosophers and writers. In addition to being a stand up guy, he is or at least was a Second Life nut going on 2 years.

Erik: What is your history with SL? When did you start using it, what were your habits, etc.?

Ryan: I created a Second Life account in February of 2005 to evaluate the software. Initially my interests were in building structures and owning land, but soon found that the social interactivity was an attractive arena for creative expression. I spend a lot of time creating scripted dialogue that pokes fun at the environment and the way people behave (social commentary).


Erik: What do you like most about SL?

Ryan: Expressing individuality - in what ever form I choose to take.


Erik: Do you think SL or something like it will play a bigger role in the future? Will most people have a second life?

Ryan: I would imagine that the VR environment will become more prevalent as the interface becomes more immersive. As a professional tool, as an educational environment, as a recreational destination. Where Second Life is currently lacking is interoperability with the internet. At some point when these two environments merge and you're able to interact with your other web services (email/myspace/facebook/browsers/ftp space) it will have a broader appeal.

Erik: Have you ever helped anyone use SL in teaching, seen someone else do so, or observe things that you thought would be good for some of the teachers you work with?

Ryan: I haven't convinced any faculty that it's more than just a social environment. But I see many possibilities for Second Life as an instructional as well as a design tool. Virtual art galleries, theatrical set design, costume design, conference calling. I've even witnessed live music performances in-world.


Erik: What is the craziest thing you have ever seen or done in SL that would be rated PG-13 or lower?

Ryan: I've been 4 "people" at once and swayed conversation by speaking from multiple perspectives. And also I've been in 4 separate locations having conversations and experiences at the same time.

Project Management Lessons

I’ve learned some valuable lessons this semester while working on my IMU. One that stands out is the concept of project management. Erik touched on this in an earlier post. I found myself at the mercy of several issues beyond my control. A particularly unexpected one was when the two instructors that were in charge of supplying the IMU’s content informed me, weeks after I had given them the projected timeline and schedule, “Oh by the way, we’re both going to be gone next week for the such and such conference. I guess we should have mentioned that earlier?” I’m rarely at a loss for words, so I’m pretty sure my full minute of silence confused them. LOL! It all managed to work out, but I’m pretty sure they found themselves hustling a little more during the last 3 weeks to get the remaining content to me. Their absence during that week was also a factor in the video scheduling issues, and they really did go out of their way to “make it right.” Although I did build some wiggle-room into the project’s schedule, I realize now that it wasn’t enough for the scope of this particular project. So, lessons learned include:

• Create timeline with major input from team members (insist that they consult their calendars! Full disclosure!)
• Secure professional videographer if at all possible (this was major content and the end result just wasn’t what I had hoped for)
• Realize that “stuff” happens. It did with my personal life – husband’s surgery this semester - so just roll with it and do the best you can with what you’ve got. And it’s okay to ask for help!
  
• Beware when someone starts a sentence with “Oh, by the way” or my most un-favorite of all time “Just so you know…” I think "Brace yourself" would work equally well in these instances. ;)
  

All things considered, I’m pleased with the end result of the IMU and so are the instructors. We all have ideas on some things we can improve, so we’ll be working on that during the summer.

On a personal note:
As the semester ends, I find myself in a semi-confused and slightly sad state wondering what in the world I’m going to do with myself next week when I have no lectures to read, assignments due, papers to write, APA styling to check or blog entries to post. Oh, right, there’s my day job, but hey, I’ve been doing that all along anyway, so that’s nothing new. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ll miss you all. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s blog entries and learning about your specialty areas in instruction and technology. Congrats to all the soon-to-be graduates and I hope to see the rest of you in some other ETL courses! Have a great summer, everyone. –Joy

Review and Evaluation

I just finished my peer review and was thinking that this process was worthy of a blog post itself. We are winding down the semester and everyone is feeling busy and there is pressure to get thing done. These factors would, I admit prevent me from getting feedback about materials if it weren't a requirement for the course. Evaluation is something that I firmly believe is important to the process. It is something I've learned through experience and education.

But admittedly, it is the first thing to go as far as time lines are concerned.

I guess what I'd like to learn more about is not why evaluation is important or even how to conduct them. I would like to learn strategies for making them an inherent part of the process rather then something that is perceived as a detachment in some way, particularly in projects such as something like this. In this class we are lucky to get feedback form an instructor and a peer, but in real life it doesn't seem so easy. Does anyone have a good system, such those pages that asked to be ranked or whether or not they were helpful. Do these types of strategies make things easier, or do deadlines do a number on these efforts as well?

Edgar's IMU

Edgar's Instructional Module Unit
http://elearning.exelglobaltech.com/etl/educ266/IMU/index.htm

Fun with Camtasia’s Quiz Maker

I’ve used Camtasia over the years, but I’ve never had a chance or occasion to play with its quiz and survey feature. Well, thanks to Don (of the DJV blog) for introducing me to this feature. Don posted a Camtasia Quiz for his “other” competency a month or so ago and when I saw it I was impressed and inspired. Naturally, I had to try this out for myself. ☺ It turned out to be much easier than I expected. I’m not even sure if there was a learning curve – everything was right there and all I had to do was enter the quiz content, make some rendering choices, and there it was!

Initially, I was unsure how I was going to create the quizzes for the IMU. My client was leaning toward using our learning management system since it has built-in assessment tools. This would have been fine, but I needed to be able to link to it and have it accessible to be viewed for grading purposes. So when I saw the Camtasia example, I was thrilled that it seemed so do-able. Even if I end up using our LMS once the IMU is actually implemented, I’ve learned a new Camtasia skill.

My efforts with these quizzes were very simple, so I plan to play around with the features to learn what else it can do. One thing I really like is the flash output of the end product. It looks very slick, plus it actually works the way it’s supposed to. It looks like it took some programming know-how to make it happen, but I know differently. Therefore, I give it 2 thumbs up for ease of use and rapid creation of online quizzes.

Graciela's Beta IMU

Hello All,

This is the link to my IMU:

http://www.kundalini-yoga.us/beta/website

It is very basic but complete. Comments are welcome.

Joy’s Beta IMU

Still a work in progress. Missing some resources and few assessments that I will complete once I’ve received the content.

http://www.joygayler.com/gw/266/index.html

Erik's Beta IMU

Here is my beta IMU.

I think that it is more of an alpha really. I am happy with where I am at with it, but I know that I won't have time to get it to perfection within the confines of the class. Some of the individual components were ore difficult than I thought, so I sort of consider them mock ups of what I would do if I was a Javascript and/or Flash guru.

In case you don't recall my proposal, I am not my own client for this project. That is I am dealing with a subject matter that I am not really that close to. I have done so many projects in this program using my realm of knowledge as the basis, I am really looking forward to this feedback process, since I don't have a lot of experience being detached in this way.

Video Compression Issues

My IMU contains a fair amount of video. In a perfect world and given perfect conditions, this would not be a problem to implement. Here’s the short version of what has gone right and wrong during video production.

WHAT WENT RIGHT:
Human subjects were agreeable to being filmed. Human subjects include 1) instructor 2) semi-willing student. Some very interesting and humorous outtakes resulted from filming. Those are being reserved for the Director’s Cut Version, available exclusively from me. :)
Rendering of video mostly completed. Video portion of project remains on schedule!

WHAT WENT WRONG:
Filming occurred under less than perfect conditions. Due to scheduling conflicts, the original videographer (who is experienced and acutely aware of lighting and sound issues) was unavailable. Instructor/client, in a good faith attempt to keep project on schedule, arranged for filming by third party in order to have video to me in time for editing. Unfortunately, the third party was inexperienced, resulting in poor lighting and volume as well as camera experience.
No access to raw video footage (raw = the actual digital video tape). Although I asked for the raw footage of the tapes, I was given a windows media (.wmv) version to edit. Upon investigation, it was determined that the raw footage was no longer available!!
Less than stellar end result. Converting the video into a working version further compromised the quality. Then I determined that uploading .swf files to my server wasn’t going to work (files were huge, uploading kept timing out), I went back and converted the edited versions to flash (.flv). This greatly reduced the file sizes and uploaded with no problem. However, the sacrifice was apparent in the quality of the video.

Conclusions: Due to time constraints and scheduling conflicts, this outcome was unavoidable. In the future, I will make every effort to ensure that quality is not sacrificed. If time and budget permit, I would like to re-record these videos at a later date with the professional videographer.

Who listens to podcasts? Which ones?

The sun may be setting on the podcast discussions, but there is one more thought I wanted to put out there. I have always felt it it is a medium that predicts by its very nature its own demise. That is, in a perfect situation, content would be able to be accessible from any producer anywhere (that independent spirit) on portable devices (the "pod") without the formal creation of a relationship between the two in a piece of middleware. Youtube isn't podcasting, but give me Youtube on my ipod anywhere and you have a customer. Will we still call this podcasting?

So in all my thoughts on the subject, I come back to one point, and would love to get feedback from others on this. As impressed as we are with the technology, and as fun as it is to dabble with, does anyone consider themselves an active consumer of podcast content, AND, if so, what podcasts do you consume?

Podcasts in Higher Ed, Part 2

In my last podcast post, I mentioned that I’ve utilized podcasts in the classroom for instructional purposes, but that I’ve also used them for public relations purposes. I’ve worked a bit with my college’s admissions office producing podcasts for announcements as well as for interview purposes. We’ve posted these podcasts on admission blogs and web pages, so that’s a little different usage of podcasts than what faculty members typically do – using podcasts for lecture purposes. However, the rendering process for creating podcasts, in my experience, has been the same.

I like to use Apple’s GarageBand (mac platform) for rendering podcasts. If I’m creating a solo podcast of myself, for example, I’ll record directly into GarageBand via a microphone or headseat. This gives me the luxury of keeping or deleting multiple versions of my recordings on the fly. Typically, I’ll keep the best 2 or 3 takes, and if needed, slice and dice between them to create one acceptable recording.

Things get a little more interesting when I’m recording other people. Most folks become somewhat nervous with a microphone in their face or worse, having to wear a headset and told to speak normally. So, I use a third party little voice recorder to capture the interview or speech. If this is a rehearsed effort, I’ll record at least 3 takes that I can use for editing purposes. I import the mp3 files into GarageBand and then just edit them from there to create the podcast.

On the few occasions that I’ve recorded with a digital camcorder for a vid/vodcast, I’ve imported the movie into Apple’s iMovie, edited it, saved it, and imported that into GarageBand for further editing. When you save a podcast or vodcast in GarageBand, it’s automatically encoded for submission to iTunes, if you so desire. Otherwise, you can just upload the mp3/mp4 file directly to your web server for visitor download.

I enjoy creating podcasts, and I think the main reason why is that GarageBand makes it so easy. There was a short software learning curve, but like anything, the more you do it, the more familiar it becomes and consequently for me, a little faster to produce! Ideally, I’d like to have a small mac computer lab on my campus so that I could teach interested faculty how to create their own podcasts. And iMovies, and iDVDs, and… ::insert more mac goodness here:: ☺

Interesting, I seem to prefer a PC for creating web sites. Hmm.

More Web 2.0 Fun

Over the last week, I have seen a drastic increase in the number of technophile friends dropping me messages with links to hip new Web 2.0 services. I cannot decide if this is a fluke thing, that with the warm spring air comes not only blossoms on trees but also the flurry of new pristine, suave web based applications (as if the programmers spent all winter locked indoors coding away). In any case, it is apparent to me, now more than ever, that this is where things are headed. I thought I would share a couple of these cool things with my fellow classmates for your enjoyment as well. Perhaps one of these new applications is your very own missing link to internet perfection.

The first service was shown to me by offering me as an unwilling participant. Jott lets you make contact groups of email and cellphone addresses (for text messaging), and upon calling the service, your voice recorded message will be distributed to your group in text. The implications for my realm of education seem few, but I can envision some pretty cool field uses of sharing experiences with others. I might try to write my next paper this way (kidding).

More relevant to learning is Quizlet which appears to be Myspace meets the common flash card. Social networking tools applied specifically to reinforcing study groups is such a great idea and a service that I very needed. In my time in the ETL program, I have used a number of tools ranging from simply email to wikis to supplement the course environment to allow me and my fellow students to easily collaborate. And while Quizlet itself is more geared towards learning in a drill and practice manner, it certainly got me thinking about the possibilities such tools.

And one last to share. Actually, this isn't an application, but the best resource for information on applications, if, like me, you are a bit of a junkie for them. eHub claims to be "a constantly updated resource of web applications, services or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing." It kept me busy for hours, and by sharing this link, I force myself to find new things to blog about other than sharing the cool tools I tested this week.