Creating a video and uploading to LiveText

We are just beginning to roll out LiveTetx here at UW/CC, and with that comes the need to create and upload videos. We have a number of older Flip HD cameras and several newer Bloggies to be used for this purpose. It made sense to create a simple tutorial on uploading video to a Windows computer, load it into Windows Live Movie Maker, and then upload the completed video into LiveText. Of course these instructions are only of use on Windows computers. I will try to develop one for the Mac as soon as I can.

I 'd like to stress that this is not completely restricted to Bloggies and Flips. Just about any modern smart phone can be used for this purpose as well, along with most digital cameras that have the ability to shoot movies. Just follow the instructions in the tutorial and you will have a video that can be uploaded to Facebook, LiveText, TeacherTube, and many other services of this type.

You can find the instructions in PDF format here.

openSUSE Edu Li-f-e 12.2 Linux Distro

The open SUSE Edu Li-f-e 12.2 Linux has been released. I confess that I have not heard of this distributino before, and I am a long time user (back to 7.0) of this operating system. Given what I have read and experimented with in the past, this distribution looks to be an almost ideal option for schools wishing to create low cost computer labs without the overhead and expense of separate client and server software. Edu Li-f-e includes the Linux LTSP server, which makes it possible to use older computer hardware as thin clients for use in the classroom. This means no licensing fees or upkeep for the software on the individual machines as the operating system is delivered acros the network from the server. That means that every client (individual machine) has a copy of SUSE remotely running on it. That reduces the maintenance needs for the client computers to hardware and network maintenance. That is a significant saving over time.


In addition to the large selection of K-12 software included in the distribution, there is also a copy of both Moodle and aTutor to create hybrid and web assisted courses with.

Given the state of the economy in many states right now, this potentially represents an excellent opportunity to update older computer labs with modern software, without having to invest in newer infrastructure in order to do so. The minimum client requirements for this distro (knowing of course that a more powerful machine will be needed for the server) is "Any PC or a Virtual Machine with 1G RAM. PC should have a DVD drive or should be USB boot capable. For installation minimum 15GB partition is required. " That should not be difficult for just about any computer lab with machines less than ten years old to meet.

For more information, check out the wiki for the distribution here: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Education-Li-f-e

I bought an iPad, Now What?

Here is the presentation for the course at Casper College on Saturday the 15th. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzePI4lBjEKzdGxSNDkyWFdnVFU

WebP, a JPEG replacement begins to gain traciton

I'll be the first to admit that this development has gotten by me for the last however long that Google has been working on it. There is a new graphic format that is being developed at Google with the aim of replacing the JPEG standard for images. According to what I have read, the WebP format is supposed to be more size efficient than JPEG and PNG (over 20% smaller in both cases) at the same resolution, supports transparency like the PNG and GIF formats, and is capable of both lossy and lossless compression using two very different compression methods.

Why is it important? The WebP format will be able to provide smaller file sizes for graphics used on the web, and also smaller email attachments when sending images.

As of this time the format is supported natively by the Chrome browser, and plug-ins are available for some other browsers. You can find out more about the format from Google here: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/ . For those interested in being able to use WebP on Windows, the codec is available here: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webp_codec?hl=hu-HU

Considering the period that the PNG format was available before becoming a de facto alternative to GIF and JPEG, WebP probably has a couple of years left before becoming ubiquitous. It is good to see that there is continuing development on better image compression standards, especially given the continued adoption of wireless connected devices, where file size and transmission time is a real consideration.

iPad Security presentation link

Here is the link to the presentation from the Sept. 8th iPad security course.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zU03K2fXwMBE_RnV0FBozNaynvwAoNrE1WjgUUYsOlA/edit

Windows 8 RTM: Retro under the hood?

Not much to say here in detail, since I have not yet had an opportunity to play with Windows 8 with the exception of the developer's preview last year, but I have read a few article with screen captures. I still have hopes that the OS will be a success. I do however have some reservations about the GUI design choices. When reading the Ars Technica hands on of the Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturers), I was struck by the similarity of some of the settings windows (in this article, the taskbar properties) to some of the older X Windows shells form the early 90s or even Windows 3.1.  I realize that the push toward simplification of operation, and by extension the simplification of the visual metaphor, is what this new Windows is supposed to achieve, but when I am immediately reminded of a windowing system that dates back 20 years, I do begin to wonder. Or is it possible that MS and the Unix shell developers got it right way back then and this is simply a return to the classic form?

I have not looked into the system requirements for Windows 8 yet, but if the graphics, and so the load on the processor to render them is reduced, does this means that lower spec machines will be supported?

Sony Bloggie Touch: Replacement for Flip Mino HD?

I finally got around to comparing the old Flip video cam to the unit we are replacing it with, the Sony Bloggie Touch. While this is not an "official" review on my part, I thought that I might throw out some first impressions.

The Touch is much more of a modern smart phone shape than the Flip, which reminds me of the older designs for such cams, a great deal of my now antique RCA. With this come some positives and negatives. The case on the Bloggie is very smooth and reflective. This is attractive, as it looks in many ways like my Sony Ericsson phone. Since it is much thinner than the flip, it would seem to be easier to hold were it not for the slick surface. I am finding that I am taking more time to make certain that I do not drop the Bloggie than I did with the Flip. In addition to this, the finish shows fingerprints very well, so it does not take long to look as though one were eating a sandwich while using it. So even though the appearance id more modern and attractive, it requires more cleaning than the Flip.

Holding the Bloggie without covering the lens while filming is also a bit less intuitive. The Flip lens protrudes from the case, and so it is much easier to have some tactile feedback in avoiding placing your fingers over the lens while filming. In contrast, the Bloggie has  a recessed lens like that of a cell phone, so one must be much more aware of of where their fingers are while shooting in landscape.

Another huge difference is in the operation. The Bloggie is a touchscreen and the Flip is not. This is a mixed bag. On the Bloggie it is very easy to set the timer for timed shots using the intuitive touch screen. Likewise the settings are easily available. One potential problem is that the zoom is also on the touchscreen instead of being separate physical buttons on the unit itself. This results in having to move a slider on the screen to zoom. Since it is on the screen, there is no tactile feedback, and so you must be watching the screen while operating the zoom.

Not only is this harder to accomplish while filming, without shaking the camera, but the slider frequently does not move the zoom in a continuous fashion. The best way that I can describe the result is as if the zoom were "catching" frequently. This means that the final  product will not have the same smooth zoom into and away from an object that you will see on a  camcorder or even a cell phone. I'm not sure what to attribute this problem too. Perhaps the microprocessor in the Bloggie isn't capable of keeping up with the zoom itself. Perhaps it is a problem with the software itself. The problem is further magnified (pun intended) by the focus during zoom. When zooming in,  it sometimes takes up to a second for the focus to catch up with the zoom, sometimes giving one a jerky and out of focus image. Hopefully there will be an update at some point that will address this.

In terms of final video quality, the Bloggie is on par with the Flip. This seems to be totally dependent on how still the camera is held.

In summation the Sony Bloggie Touch seems a good device for shooting video in the classroom, or in other situations where zoom and stabilization are not an issue. The camera is in many ways easier to use than the Flip, especially if you already have experience with touch screen phones or tablets. The overall build quality, LCD, and feel is much like a mid range cell phone. That said, the Bloggie does have some differences in terms of use and particularly the zoom and focus.

Is it a replacement for the Flip? It is close. I like the screen, the simple timer, and the video quality in general. The zoom and focus on the camera that I am using are poor. However the Bloggie does have  a tripod mount, and as long as zoom is not needed, it would make a good choice movies that do not contain a great deal of movement.

As with everything, you mileage will vary. The Flip is a hard act to follow.

Microsoft zaps Hotmail in favor of Gmailesque Outlook.com

It looks like Hotmail will very soon be a thing of the past. MS has decided to rename the service Outlook, and at the same time give it a facelift and do away with the most annoying feature; the picture ads on the right edge of the interface. It is yet another innovation for MS this year, where SkyDrive (becoming a personal favorite of mine) gets better Web App equivalents to MS Office, and incorporates a slicker Google Drive style approach to free storage and document sharing.

I have had the sneaking suspicion over the last few months (starting with Windows Phone 7.5) that Microsoft has finally discovered the movement to mobile and apps-based computing. This is just another step in the company creating a series of online applications that are becoming increasingly consistent and unified with the MS desktop presence. Will they out-Google Google in this area? It remains to be seen, with a lot riding on the acceptance of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, both of which will be released this Fall.

Now the next question is when MS will introduce apps for iPad, OSX, and Android devices that are consistent with the functionality of the browser-based experience. This would create a complete package that could be the best available.

Dealing with students who are still using MS Works.

I guess Works still comes on some computers. I had a student call earlier saying that they needed to submit a paper to an instructor in Word format. All they had to work with was Works, which never has had Word support for some strange reason (perhaps to differentiate it from Word?) or any common format but RTF. My first thought was to have them download Abiword or LibreOffice, or perhaps log into Google Drive, but then something else occurred to me. This is only one of many possible solutions obviously, but it did save having to download and install software, or navigating Google Drive.


If you have a Hotmail or Live.com account, then you already have a copy of Word, albeit a bit stripped down, available online. Logging into one of these gives you access to SkyDrive. While I am not going to extoll the features of this platform in detail here, it does have the advantage of hosting Office Web Apps.  Since this student already had a Hotmail account, I walked her through logging in, starting the Word Office Web App, and then copying and pasting her document from Works into the App. After this it was a simple matter of saving the document from the Word App and then downloading it. It saves in Word format.

There is absolutely no reason not ot expect students to submit items in specific formats anymore. With programs like AbiWord, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, and cloud platforms like Google Drive and MS Skydrive, everyone can have access to software that writes in mainstream formats. What is above is only one possible solution.

The true advantage to these options (other than being freely available), is that students can continue to work in MS Works at home if they are more comfortable doing so, and still be able to give you the format that you request when it comes time to submit the final product.

SkyDrive is interesting, but will it come together?

From what I have been reading, SkyDrive and LiveMesh are going to be tightly integrated into Windows 8. SkyDrive under different names has been around for several years. I have been playing around with the newest iteration of SkyDrive, Office Web Apps, desktop integration for Mac and Windows 7 boxes, and sharing.

There are some gotchas: you can't edit docs using Office Web Apps on an iPad, the Mac client only supports Lion, and the sharing via email addresses on the desktop clients does not seem to work for me. However if they get this better integrated with the release of Windows 8, then they will have a real competitor for Google Drive. Definitely worth checking out if you have Office, Windows, and need to access and edit files across multiple devices. My understanding is that MS may do away with Livemesh, or possibly incorporate it into SkyDrive.

There is a real opportunity here for MS to get this right, if all parties involved are speaking the same language and can come together to create a coherent product.

The real key to being able to present this as a viable alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive is to make all of the parts of SkyDrive work the same, provide a unified visual metaphor and uniform functionality across all platforms. If Office Web Apps worked on Android and iOS, or at least were available via web browser for instance, then the likelihood of the public adopting the platform would be greater. Further integration with the Windows Live Apps, such as Movie Maker would also help create the impression of a single integrated platform, something that Google has been struggling to do as well.

It will be very interesting to see how Windows 8 integrates with SkyDrive, and how the OS drives Skydrive to evolve.

Google Nexus Tablet

I hope that Apple and Amazon are paying attention. Quad core Tegra with a 12 core GPU, Near Field Communication out of the box, and a 1280x800 screen. Those are the specs of a $500 tablet right now. Is it aimed at the Kindle or at the iPad Mini? Wow. The only real drawback is the 7" screen. I have found from having used a Kindle and an iPad for some time that more real estate, especially with such a high resolution screen, is important.


Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406363,00.asp

More evidence that privacy settings are important in social media

I just finished reading an article on Mashable about a site that aggregates publicly shared messages from Facebook that contain specific keywords relating to hating one's boss, hangovers, and phone numbers. The author of the article equates this to eavesdropping on a private conversation. The plain truth however is that through a lack of understand of the privacy settings on Facebook, people are broadcasting potentially damaging messages that can be picked up by anyone who has access to the the Facebook API.

These posts are out there to be culled from the public messages through the use of a simple url, the structure of which can be seen, along with the public posts at http://weknowwhatyouredoing.com/. 

All that you need to do in order to monitor specific terms in public messages via the url is to modify  the query. For instance, to get public messages that contain the word Wyoming, all that is needed is to change the "q=" value to Wyoming, and making sure that the locale is "en_US" (obviously US English). Here is an example of what that query returns: https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=wyoming&type=post&locale=en_US .

Wow. That is powerful and potentially scary.

Have a look at the About This Tool page on the site for more on the rationale. I believe that this site serves the purpose of reminding us how easily our private posts in any social networking site can be monitored if we do not take steps to protect our privacy.

Microsoft Surface enters the tablet market

MS introduced the Surface tablet yesterday at an event in LA. From what I have gathered so far, this announcement, and the product has garnered a great deal of interest in the blogosphere. It suddenly puts MS into the tablet market producing their own hardware with an OS that they produce. This mirrors what Apple does with the iPad, and what Google is doing with the Chromebooks.

I suppose the important part of this is that now there is a real third choice. Rather than having an operating system housed on third party hardware, we now have the equivalent of the iPad from Microsoft. Given my experience in the past with both Windows Phone 7.5 and Android, this is a good position to be in. Having the hardware optimized to the operating system in the way we would expect it to be with a Windows tablet running a Windows, there should be fewer compromises made due to differences in hardware specifications. Hopefully this will result in a device that is both more stable and more functional than Windows running on third party hardware.

It also addresses a few of the deficiencies of other tablets. Currently tablets seem to have a problem with simply opening documents between apps, and even in some cases dealing with cut and paste. Surface will (according to the sources that I have read) handle documents and interoperability between applications better. It also will have an integrated keyboard/cover that will eliminate the need for a separate Bluetooth device.

It waits to been seen what Surface will mean for educators. If the price point is right, and the tablet is backwardly compatible with most of the educational software available for Windows, then this could be an excellent alternative to the iPad in education. Time will tell.

MS Surface tablet

There is no doubt that the event yesterday on the Surface tablet garnered a great deal of positive feedback from the media. It seems to address a number of of my pet peeves about other tablets, such as communication between applications, document handling, and easy file access. And then of course there is the integrated keyboard/cover that IMHO Apple should have had. 

It will be interesting to see what MS does with this. Are they creating their own proprietary ecosystem similar to Apple? I doubt if Windows will go the way of the Apple OS when it was licensed to hardware makers back in the 90s, but it seems to me that MS is finally beginning to integrate all of their major OS products into a single integrated series of offerings. Will it ever have the same cache as Apple? I doubt it. But a best case scenario would be to create the same sort of desirability that the IBM Thinkpad did for business many years ago.

Will the Surface series be positioned as a premium set of products apart from what Lenovo and others are producing? MS seems to have created a great deal of interest prior to launch using a similar approach to an Apple announcement. I suppose price and subsequent demand will tell where it ends up residing relative to the other Windows 8 hardware offerings.

Interesting too that so many of the blogs that I was reading yesterday were halfway expecting something less than this major announcement. It couldn't hurt for MS to build more street cred and anticipation when announcing a new product.

iPad the future of education instead of the Macbook?

A very interesting blog post from Hacking Education today. Is the iPad soon to be the darling device for education and specifically for standardized testing? With the entry price of a thousand dollars for any portable device with a keyboard from Apple, this seems a good direction financially with the iPad coming in at $400. A couple of questions for thought: First, is an app a capable alternative to software with high functionality? Do we dumb down the computing experience that students have, or simplify it? What does that mean for computer literacy in schools? Apps don't interact normally, nor do they contain much depth (look at any iPad office suite and compare it to MS Office for instance).

Microsoft is adopting a very similar approach with its unified GUI in Windows 8 and RT. Ultimately I wonder if the app-based paradigm can teach our students to build highly functional creations, or if more depth is needed.

Learnist looks intriguing

Here is an article from hacked education on Learnist, which appears to be a Pinterest type site with a definite educational bent. Since I am currently waiting for an invitation, I can't evaluate this site yet, but I do have a wish list based upon my experience with Pinterest.

I like that it allows connections of information/media to form lessons, and the ability to check off things learned. A couple of items that I would love to see (again having no idea of what it actually does offer yet) is some sort of assessment that allows for branching outcomes based on the results of the previous learning. It would also be great to have some sort of API for creating custom assessment.

I'm very much looking forward to giving it a test drive. Hope the invite comes soon.

http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/05/24/grockit-learnist-pinterest-for-education/

Xibo for digital signage

I finally had an opportunity to produce a layout for the new LCD monitor hanging in the hallway here. I've played around with Xibo for a while, and while not without its quirks, it is an excellent program for creating and managing digital signage. It includes the ability to embed just about any kind of media that you can use on the Internet, and it includes the facility to embed PowerPoint files as well. All in all, I'm very much impressed with this program and what it can do. Another huge advantage is that it is free.  Have a look at http://xibo.org.uk/ for more information.

The hardware and software that we had available for this project was a Dell Optiplex 790 with Windows 7, a VGA to Cat 5 to VGA connection, and an older Samsung 47 inch monitor.

The only issues that I ran into was having to apply a registry fix to allow PowerPoint to load in Xibo without opening the PowerPoint application, and the setup itself. I would recommend a passing understanding of XAMPP, PHPMyAdmin, and web servers and permissions in order to be able to install and implement anything more complex than a single display. If you are only installing a single display (which is my situation), then the installation instructions for the server and for the client will get you through the process. Of course my experience is based upon a Windows 7 install. If you are facile with Linux then the instructions above will certainly be different.

A Plagiarism identification guide with infographic

It had never really occurred to me what the mechanics of plagiarism looked like. When I have used Turnitin before I was more concerned with identifying potential lack of attribution, not what it might represent categorically. This article from Plagiarism Today succeeds in breaking down not only what the major types of plagiarism are, but also what types are considered to be the most worrisome to educators. I don't think that if asked, I would be able to decide the severity of one over the other, as the author states, it all comes down to copy and paste in the end anyway.

This is a very informative article. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did.

Some thoughts on liability of obsolescence

Musing: I'm reading through some interesting articles on organizational ecology.

Age dependence is an interesting concept. Liability of obsolescence and senescence might explain why Best Buy, Research in Motion, and Palm have gone from business juggernauts to what they are now. Also possibly explains why Borders and Circuit City were unable to recover. Internal misalignment and inability to adapt to different customer expectations really do seem to play major factors. 

I'd bet that the same holds true in education. The inability to change and adapt to new ways of thinking about education makes some organizations more prone to fail. The biggest difference is that in public education there is government funding supporting the institutions, so establishments can go on for years being outmoded and increasingly out of touch without it being immediately fatal. So it would seem true innovation as a response to market pressure, and the acceptance of innovation, not only by visionaries but also by the majority of the organization, that resists this sort of decline. In education it is the ability to recognize new trends (not trying to set them necessarily), and then redirecting the organization to embrace these trends that helps keep an educational institution relevant.

Social Media Job Search and Reputation Management for Students

 Below is the full presentation for the Placement Meeting on May 7th, 2012. You may wish to download this presentation to use the included reference links. If you were at the meeting and have further questions, please email me.


https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DARp-O1wnHxMH-AJLJC26j-dCUL8BsjvfoCjgNmrOS4/edit

Before you buy the cloud, read the contract.

I ran across an article on the LA Times this morning that sums up my concerns about cloud computing very succinctly. It is critical that you make certain to read what you are agreeing to in the EULA (end user license agreement) when signing up for a cloud-based service. Particiularly important is what you are agreeing to in terms of intellectual property. Unlike using your local computer, using  a remote service means that your content is being stored by someone else, and is subject to their rules. As the article below indicates, there can be some questions as to ownership of content based upon not only what is clearly stated in the agreement, but also what might not be so clear. Just make certain to read the legalese with an eye toward who  owns what and what your rights are by using the service. It could save you trouble later on.

You can find the LA Times article here.

Are tablets a bridge between machine and human interaction?

I ran into an interesting opinion piece this morning on ZDNet: "Lure of the Tablet: No Intimidation". Depsite the back and forth of whether a tablet such as a Kindle Fire or an iPad is truly a computer or not, there are some interesting ideas brought forth in this article. The tablet is by its very nature a more personal device because it provides a tactile experience for the user. The user interacts with the device directly with their hands in different way than using a mouse or a track pad. I think that may be a key element to why the tablet and associated devices like smart phones are being accepted so readily. The newer capacitive screen tablets provide an even different experience than earlier resistive screens, in that resistive touch screens are most useful when using a stylus, which, much like a mouse, separates the user from the tactile experience of interacting directly with the touchscreen. It may be a small distinction, but in terms of use, it seems to me to be an important one.

Another factor may have to do with cognitive load. Computers provide a very rich environment for creativity and productivity, but there is a price paid in complexity. Thinking about it from the aspect of the user interface, both use programs that are activated via icons. On the computer, bringing up a program by clicking on an icon yields a screen filled with options. Take Word for instance. One is greeted with an array of different possible actions immediately, and the user must navigate this interface in order to find the action that they wish to take with the program. You don't have to look any further than the menuing system in Word to see how daunting that might be for a novice user. The GUI gets in the way of productivity if the user is not familiar with the product already. Compare that to the tablet, where the applications are not as complex and do not require as much learning, or for that matter decision making in order to use. The choices are usually fairly straightforward and few. An editor on the iPad for instance may have the ability to type and to change font characteristics, but formatting is not something that is a main concern, inputting text is.

The tablet also differs from the laptop. The laptop is a computing device with the strengths of the desktop, but even for its portability is not that much different than the experience of the desktop. The interaction is still via a GUI using programs, not apps, and the user is still separated from the device by having to use a trackpad or other mouse-like device.

Finally, there is the ability to use the device at any time, anyplace, and almost instantaneously. There is no real boot time to worry about.

So in many ways the tablet seems to me to be a logical extension of what people desire in a device. You can pick it up and use it immediately, it is easy to load and arrange small programs built for simple tasks, and the apps are very specific in their purpose and offer a low learning curve. Top this off with a new means of interacting with the device and it doesn't matter if it is Android, iOS, or Windows 8. All are readily accessible to even the least experienced computer user.

Android Education Apps.

I have been recently focusing on the iPad and iOS devices for education primarily because this is the platform that is most used here by educators. Looking at it from a student perspective, Android tablets (such as the Kindle Fire) represent a much more cost effective solution for one on a budget. Add to that the plethora of different Android-based smart phones on the market, and this seems to me to be a segment of the education market for technology that cannot be ignored.

I just ordered an Android tablet and an Android-based phone to replace my broken Windows 7 phone. Impressions on the differences and the availability of apps for education will be forthcoming soon.

Here is the list of education apps currently at the Google Play store. More on these soon: https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/EDUCATION?hl=en

Google Apps for ePortfolios

A friend sent along this link. Dr. Helen Barrett has written an amazing amount on ePortfolios. She has been one of the major contributors to this area for many years and continues to explore and add to the body of knowledge on Electronic Portfolios. The link below goes to a site specifically designed to help educators at all levels implement electronic portfolios using Google Apps. There is a great deal of excellent information here. It goes without saying that using Goggle as a platform saves a great deal of money over using a proprietary solution, and the tools are just as robust.

https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/

There are even templates to help get started using Google Apps for ePortfolios. Here is one: https://sites.google.com/site/amslerclassroom/eportfolio-templates

In fact, University of Washington Bothell uses Google for electronic portfolios. You can see their implementation here: http://www.uwb.edu/learningtech/eportfolios/cusp, and also another implementation at Portland State: https://sites.google.com/a/pdx.edu/eportresources/ep-lab-software-tutorials/create-your-eportfolio

MS user interface design cues on web pages?

I saw this format on the local public media web site. I was immediately struck by the similarity to the tiles on Windows Phone 7. I have to wonder if the design inspiration for the tiled appearance might be Windows Phone and Windows 8? Perhaps a harbinger of design decisions to come? The fun part about that is that even the most simple CSS implementations can make use of tiles. After all, they are only colored rectangles and squares.

New Bloom's Taxonomy/cognitive domains

This is a very nice breakdown of the changes to Bloom. For me at least this is a very clear and concise breakdown with examples. Excellent! http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

How Pinterest is being used by educators

Here is an interesting article on how Pinterest is being used for educational curation by several schools. What I am finding most interesting about this is the sheer variety of application. It is easy to see (and to envision) how courses with any sort of visual learning component might be able to leverage Pinterest as either a collection or even student collected artifacts for a more social collaborative.

Why students and graduates need LinkedIn as part of their career strategy

Social networking is becoming an important tool in finding a professional position after graduating from college. Among the potential social networking sites for finding recruiters and posting resumes, the most rapidly growing site is now LinkedIn. LinkedIn is beginning to matter a great deal in the social networking environment as it is gaining popularity faster than any of its competition. In an article a few days ago in the Business Insider, it was reported that recruiters are quickly moving to LinkedIn over competitors like Monster.com and Indeed.com. Given that LinkedIn now has over 150 million users, it is important to include LinkedIn in any employment search strategy, not to mention for professional networking purposes.

The article  Why Every College Student Needs a LinkedIn Page from last year in EmergingEdTech.com becomes even more important now that LinkedIn is becoming one of the go-to places for employers. It details reasons why students should set up their profiles through LinkedIn.

The Savvy Intern has some great tips on what to put into the LinkedIn profile once that it is set up.

Based on a recent Jobvite study, 1 in 6 find their next position through social networking. LinkIn and other social networks have become an important part of the career search, too important to not be a part of.

Scanning Apps for the iPad

Intro to iPad Security

FileApp for iPad

LinkedIn for professional networking.

WebQuest Introduction Presentation

This is the WebQuest presentation for students from Tuesday in an embedded form.

Below is an example of a Google form embedded in a blog post using an iframe. The idea that I am exploring, is the possibility of including assessment for courses in a blog using Google forms.Thanks to Kent Brooks at Casper College for the idea!

Comprehensive guide to Google free tools for Teachers and Students

What an excellent presentation. Here is an overview of all of the tools that Google provides for teachers and students in one place. Google Documents, especially documents and forms are of a great deal of interest in putting together lessons, assessments, and content in a universal format that can be read in any browser. Check out the presentation: http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/2012/03/comprehensive-guide-to-google-free.html

101 Web 2.0 tools for teachers and another 100 just for good measure!

I'm just starting to wade through this list. Most I have heard of, but  there are many here that I have not actually explored. Good list with descriptions. http://www.goedonline.com/101-web-tools-for-teachers

And if that isn't enough to go through,  C4LP (The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies) has its list of top 100 tools for learning: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools-for-learning-2011/

Creating educational videos for Youtube (cheaply)

This post is from Wes Fryer's blog. It details a presentation by Marty Brandl on producing inexpensive and yet meaningful math lessons on Youtube. One of the things that was most intriguing to me about this was how little technology went into producing these lessons. Some of the text here is a little difficult to read, but it is easy enough to get the important part of the presentation, that these lessons were produced with a cheap microphone and a $35 Wacom pad. Check it out here: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/03/09/creating-educational-videos-for-youtube-by-marty-brandl-swwc2012/ and then have a look at what Marty Brandl has posted on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mbrandl11&view=videos

One of the things that struck me the most about this approach is that it does not rely on any elaborate graphics or animation. From the standpoint of reducing cognitive load through distraction, this is a marvelous approach!

Google Documents and BYOD

It really does seem like a no-brainer, but over the last two days I discovered the joy of Google Documents and presenting in a course using BYOD. The participants in the classroom had access to my PowerPoint (complete with links), and the assignment that I would normally hand out on paper through two links from Google Docs posted to my other blog. They could access my PowerPoint instantly and so have access to the items that I was discussing, including the very links that I was using in the presentation!

A simple thing perhaps, but it did make the experience much more seamless. The added benefit was in not having to be concerned about the device that they were using. Since the files were available in Google Documents, they were device independent. No more worrying about whether or not everyone in the classroom had the proper software (or version of the software).

Universally accessible documents AND no support issues, what's not to like?

BYOD?

Increasingly, what I have been reading lately has revolved around the concept of BYOD (bring your own device) in the classroom. Basically the idea is to allow students to bring in their own smart phones, tablets, notebooks, etc. and use these as a means of engagement and feedback using web pages, as polling devices, and for viewing and interacting with other web based material. This is as opposed to having a computer lab or other formal structured computer experience. One school of thought advocates that the device is an extension of the individual, and that allowing the use of these devices in the classroom increases student engagement and also allows the instructor to spend less time overseeing devices. The argument goes that since these are personal devices, learners already know how to use them, and so the amount of time supporting the device is reduced.

The other side of the argument is simple. Personal devices allow learners to be more easily distracted and the ability to use them for purposes other than classwork automatically raises the likelihood that they will be abused. A secondary argument is that the use of these devices could pose security risks if unsecured devices have access to personally identifiable information.

Here are a couple of articles that I have read in the last few days that address this issue:  http://plpnetwork.com/2012/03/09/pocket-based-learning-my-cellphone-classroom/ , and an interesting take on Polleverywhere from THE Journal (check out the comments at the bottom of the article) http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/03/07/byod-teachers-talk-classroom-use.aspx?=THEMOB
and finally http://www.ryanbretag.com/blog/?p=2767

What are your thoughts?

WebQuest PPT

This is the Introduction to WebQuests Powerpoint. Download this file if you are in the course and would like the original PowerPoint while you build your WebQuest. Here is the link to the Powerpoint

If you run into problems, your first stop should be Bernie Dodge's webquest.org. Almost any question can be answered there.

The assignment for the WebQuest itself can be found here.

DigitalConnectionsBootCamp

I saw this on Twitter and thought that I might pass it along. Western Nebraska Community College is holding a two day boot camp for $70 in Scottsbluff. It looks like a good overview of Web 2.0 for teachers new to working with these technologies. More information on this here:

https://sites.google.com/site/edtechbootcamp/background

iPad2 screen mirroring.

The first iPad did not allow for the use of a cable to mirror what was on the iPad screen to a monitor, TV, or projector. The iPad2 does support this. That means that any content that you want to show in can be displayed directly from the iPad. All that you need is an iPad to VGA, or iPad to HDMI cable. Both can be had for little cost (30 something) from Apple. Here are links to the products:

Apple VGA Cable
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC552ZM/B
Apple Digital AV Adapter
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC953ZM/A?fnode=MTc0MjU4NjE

Of note, these are only supported fully by the iPad2 and the iPhone 4s.

Some iPad apps for web curation.

In a course that I am taking right now, one of the videos talked about curating web content. The idea is that there is far more information coming in everyday from the web than we can possibly access and make sense of, let alone use. Given that as a baseline, there needs to be some means of controlling the quantity, type, and purpose of what we do have time to read and interact with.

I think we can all relate to this. We visit specific web sites and social networking sites for specific types of information.  Sometimes the sheer quantity of information presented makes it difficult to sort through in order to find what we want specifically. As they say "there's and app for that". Here are some links to applications that might help with this web induces information overload. 


Below are some links to several alternatives that I found this morning. I will be updating from this list and others in the coming days my experience with the best (at least for my purposes).

From the Apps in Education blog
http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/2012/01/10-ipad-apps-for-web-curation.html 

For a little more info on what specifically news aggregators are, have a look at the  Wikipedia definition.

Open Source Digital Signage - Xibo

I have had a chance over the last few weeks to investigate digital signage for the first time. I'm in the process of putting up a digital display in the UW/CC portion of the hallway to display news and student information related.

I did a great deal of research on this topic before deciding on a product. Xibo in the end seemed to meet my requirements, which were open source, not limited or in any way evaluation grade, and easy to learn to operate. Xibo met these criteria for me.

Installation was fairly easy. To be honest, I would have preferred to use the software on an Ubuntu Linux server, but time was fairly limited, and I had difficulty getting all of the dependencies and permissions dealt with. To be fair, a large part of that is how infrequently I work with the command line anymore. So I built the server on Windows Seven. Since this was to be a dedicated machine, I also installed the Xibo client on the same computer.

The major requirements are simply a LAMP or XAMPP server and the software itself. Check the Xibo documentation on the site listed below for more details. There is some minor configuration to do in order to make sure that the software can access directories needed to read and write files. There are also clients (where the content is displayed) for Windows and a Python-based client that purports to have additional functionality.

So far we have not placed the display in the hallway, so this is really simply an introduction. I expect to have the actual display installed in the next few weeks. I will post again once I have the completed design for the screen output and the display is mounted and activated. I should have some more detailed observations then.

Xibo has so far proven to be fairly easy to install, easy to administer, and especially easy to create layouts that allow the designer to designate screen areas to display everything from video to news to RSS, all with little or no previous knowledge. Check it out: http://xibo.org.uk/