iSean

i recently came across a web-based word processor. it’s located at writely.com and is currently in beta testing. i fiddled around with it the other day and i was impressed. now, don’t get me wrong, this thing is far, far from MS Word. however, it can open Word files and it can save files to the Word format. but, that’s not what impressed me the most. the most impressive thing is that this is the first application software online that hasn’t felt like it’s online.

writely is quick to respond to commands and tasks. as i play with writely, i am constantly thinking about how web 2.0 is going to differ from web 1.0 that most of us use most of the time. this application, which is online, appears to be a part of the future of the web. writely appears to be a slimmed down version of MS Word that a user can access from anywhere they have internet access. i worked on a document 2 weeks ago, and here i just logged in and there’s my file. exactly as i left it. and, something Word can’t do — save as PDF. Mac users have had this for a long time now, but this is a nice addition to word processing on the PC side of the aisle. this thing has support for RTF and can even do find and replace. you can insert color-coded comments. add table functions . . . and, even use this to write and publish blog entries.

what’s the implication for schools? i know that my own kids do not need to be learning MS Word in elementary school. why not have the school save a lot of money and use something like writely where the kids can get the gist of using a word processor while the schools save tons and tons of money? i don’t know what this will eventually cost, but it’s free right now. my guess is that there will always be a free version and that some users will choose to upgrade to a paid version for increased functionality. in any regard, this is something work keeping an eye on.

This year, I added video tutorials and video segments to my online classes as a way to add extra value to online teaching. These clips are often similar in style to what you might find at atomic learning. Other video clips I made present lecture segments with visual aides, etc. That being said, I want to discuss how I do this in this blog entry since I haven’t addressed this here yet. I am making my tenure portfolio right now and this is actually a little segment I am am working on for the portfolio, which should be more polished than my blog entry (it’s a paperless e-portfolio, btw).

Creating the video clips for my classes is not easy. First, I had to explore many different tools. I even tried taking my miniDV camera and pointing it at my screen, which was less than ideal. Finally, I found a screen capturing with video tool called Snapz Pro X (link to their website). This is a tool that only works on the Macintosh platform, but that’s fine with me. This tool allows me to capture my screen and what I am doing on it (here’s a demo of screen movie-capturing from the Ambrosia website).

I also needed to add audio. I purchased a professional quality microphone. I had to buy a USB adapter so that it would work with my computer. The first time I tried it, the audio was extremely low to the point that I could only hear it muffled if I turned my volume on my computer all the way up. I finally figured out that I needed an amplifier (that’s what professional mics need, I suppose). I bought an amplifier and hooked it all up and my audio woes were over.

When I record myself on film, I am no longer using Snapz Pro X because I am not on my computer screen; I am sitting in front of it. To do this, I use my iSight camera and an application called iMovie. When just recording podcasts, I use an application called GarageBand. For what it’s worth, a podcast is just an audio file (e.g., a recorded lecture, but the link explains much more — from wikipedia) that a person makes — in this case, me.

When I get all of my movies made, they are in a Quicktime format. Quicktime is a common video format, but not everybody has the Quicktime plugins installed. So, I convert my video to Flash using an application called Sorenson Squeeze Pro. Flash allows me to compress the file size and also to compress the image size displayed, which also helps conserve file size. Flash uses less bandwidth and that makes for a better end-user experience. Further, Flash is already installed on every major browser that you will find these days, so students do not have to do anything special in order to view the files.

Your suggestions are welcomed. ;~)

I did try using Tegrity, which is a service offered by my university. I enjoyed the experience, but I had reasons for sticking to my video solution. Mainly, the Tegrity sessions were a bit more formal. By that I mean that I felt that I had to be on my game as I had a audience of IT folks who were there to help me . . . so I really didn’t want to mess up. And, the Tegrity sessions have to be scheduled. I often divide my days up into various tasks and I don’t stick to any one task longer than an hour if I can help it. So, when I hit time for a break from one activity, I like being able to jump into podcasting for a bit and then table things for later. I can’t do this with Tegrity. Anyway, I used PowerPoint slides with my Tegrity session and this worked just swell, but much of what I do with my video is demonstrating various applications and talking about some of the classroom uses of these various technology solutions without touching PowerPoint. And, PP is ideal for Tegrity. But, the bottom line is that it’s just easier for me to sit at home and record when I had time rather than scheduling time to use the university’s equipment. I may have to work a bit harder, but this trade-off is worth it. I know that a few students had trouble viewing the Tegrity sessions, but I just referred them to IT, which is not a luxury I have when students have issues with the videos I create. Then again, the only complaint has come from dial-up users and it wasn’t that the videos didn’t work (Flash video); rather, it was just the download time. I strongly encourage my students to use a campus computer or to find broadband before viewing video segments of any particular session containing them.

okay, 2 blog posts in one day . . . i think that means i am procrastinating on my other tasks. ;~)

i just wanted to mention that i am once again going to use phpBB forums in my online teaching; however, i am setting up an all new site for the forum and the customization is taking quite a bit of time. and, there’s the little things that i have to problem solve as i get things up and running. for example, i like to add avatars to every account. during the first day of classes, i’ll take photos of every student and then go in and physically attach the photo to their account — this photo is called the avatar. well, i went to add an avatar to my own account and i was unsuccessful. i tried a few different way and checked settings on the new forum versus the old one. nothing worked.

so, i moved on to smilies. i added a smiley (emoticons) package to the site because my students tend to like being able to express emotions easily because words can often leave the wrong impression. well, all 40 emoticons i added failed to show up. i had to delete each smiley individually. i’d click to delete one and be taken to another webpage. i then had to navigate back to the list of smilies and delete the next one that was messed up. this kind of thing takes considerable time. and, i tried it twice because i wanted to make sure i didn’t make an error the first time — and, i did make some adjustments first. same results. i had to delete each one manually. aauuugh!

so, i head off to the phpBB support forums. the first thing they tell you is not to ask a question until you’ve conducted a search of old messages to see if your question/issue has already been addressed. i knew i my issue was not new. i did a search and read through a few of the results and then i noticed one response ask the poster if they had turned on permissions to the appropriate folder where images are stored. i immediately knew that this must be my problem. i opened transmit (my FTP tool — best available, fwiw — on a Mac) and navigated to my site and chose, “Get information” on the Images folder. sure enough, the permissions were not set correctly. i changed them and went back to test things out.

everything worked just swell. whew!

so, here’s how the new forums will look this semester:

well, i find myself up for tenure, with classes starting, and an application for the teaching with technology award that i’ve been nominated for all due in the next week. that doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging, but i did want to discuss blogging.

as i wrote earlier, i used blogsome last semester. it turned out to be decent, but not good. a few too many students had “issues” to the point that i will not be using blogsome again. the thing i really liked about blogsome is that it used WordPress, which is what my blog that you’re viewing uses to power it. and, blogsome make this available for free and no ads. it looked like a pretty good deal going in. oh well.

i am now torn between using blogger.com (google’s blogging tool that is widely used) or trying something new yet again. i just discovered, blogsource, which is free tool that has a better look and feel than blogger.com. here’s what blogsource says about themselves:

a simple, free blogging service for everyone. Our goal is to provide a creative blog community that is powerful yet easy to use, so even our first time bloggers can feel at home. To this end, we continually add and refine features based on your requests.

i set up a sample blog at blogsource . . . here, but as you can see, there appears to be a bug. not a good sign when i am trying to decide on a tool to assign for my students. my gut tells me that i have no choice and that blogger.com is it; however, my heart wants to provide a neater tool for my students. decisions, decisions. hmmm.

just checking in briefly before i get back to enjoying the holidays with my family, but macworld is coming up next month and the speculation is already starting. this is an interesting article that i touched upon many, many months ago and it still appears to be a reputable rumor. i guess we’ll learn more about apple and home entertainment in the next month, eh?

Wired News: Apple, Intel Clam Up on Macworld

Ever since Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store made internet song downloads both legal and easy, pundits and users alike have been asking: Why not movies, too?

The wait might end next month as Intel rolls out Viiv, its plan to make computers the reliable centers of home entertainment. More than that, some feel Viiv, which rhymes with “five,” might signal the true calling of Apple’s Mac mini.

i hope to post next week a reflection on the e-tools i used this past semester and what i’ll continue to use and what i definitely won’t use.

link to ny times

The Fly is so fat because it contains an AAA battery, a computer chip, a speaker and, mounted half an inch from the ballpoint tip, a tiny camera. For all of its educational, interactive tricks, the Fly pen requires special paper whose surface is imprinted with nearly invisible micro-dots. As you write, the pen always knows where it is on the page, thanks to those dot patterns and the camera that watches them go by
. . .

STAGGERING possibilities await a pen that can read software right off the page as it moves, and the Fly package comes with a sparkling sampler. For example, as you tap countries on a world map, the pen pronounces their capitals or plays their national anthems. On a glossy, fold-out mini-poster of a disc jockey’s setup, you can tap buttons to get music samples, or tap turntables to produce record-scratching sounds; then you can record your own compositions or compete, memory-game style, against other players. There’s even a sheet of stickers that, when tapped, produce appropriate sound effects. (For my two elementary-schoolers, the belching mouth alone was good for 20 minutes of hilarity.)

wow, color me impressed. not that i think this thing will take off for $100, but here i have been talking about paperless classrooms for many years now and i’ve personally made it a goal to have a paperless classroom. now, i read this . . . a new pen that is a computer. sure, it needs special paper, but future versions of this thing could become very viable in the classroom. imagine a pen that recognizes your handwriting and is able to transcribe what is being written. later, students could use what they handwrite on the computer for the editing and revision stage of writing. or, the computer pen could work with students to help them perfect their handwriting (or even cursive writing) skills. 

the potential is vast. i am just surprised that this arrived without even appearing on my radar. hmph! heh heh.

technorati tags: the fly, computer pen

warhol sean

Originally uploaded by atticmooses.

so, i just figured out that apple’s new application called photobooth is available for regular Mac computers and not just the iMac. i downloaded it and just installed it. it works right with my iSight camera (or any web camera, i’d think). it comes with about 20 special effects if you’re in the mood for that.

i am not sure how this applies to ed tech at the moment, but i thought it was pretty nifty none-the-less.

Web 2.0 Cracks Start to Show

Spam, scams and scatterbrains — the same problems that plagued the old internet are cropping up again in a new wave of technologies known collectively as Web 2.0.

But this time around, proponents say Web 2.0 has been better engineered to withstand the troubles that wrecked Usenet, BBSes and free e-mail.

The cycle is so predictable, it’s almost a natural law: Every new internet movement popular enough to generate buzz also generates a backlash.

This time, the debate revolves around the cracks that are starting to appear in Web 2.0, a term coined by O’Reilly Media Vice President Dale Dougherty to describe a post-dot-com generation of sites and services that use the web as a platform — things like Flickr, BitTorrent, tagging and RSS syndication.

so, i mentioned web 2.0 in a previous entry, but i didn’t take the time to describe what it is. this article talks about it briefly, but i like that this article is less about describing what it is and much more about describing the issues and barriers that web 2.0 is encountering. if you want to better understand web 2.0 then i’d recommend this article.

i am using the Flock browser more and more and liking it more and more. i felt like adding a blog entry and i am doing this without visiting my site. i just took a screenshot so i’ll add it to my flickr account and see if i can add it to the post after doing so.

i don’t have much new to add except that i miss having the spell check built into the browser, but this is a .4 release, so there is MUCH time before we even see 1.0.

here’s the image from my browser (flock):

Flock Founder Hopes New Browser Will Fly - Yahoo! News

Startup Flock has released a Firefox-based browser meant to enhance the user experience by incorporating some of the Web’s most social features, such as file sharing, RSS feeds, and Web logging, according to the company’s co-founder.

well, this new browser appears to be *the* browser for web 2.0.

not sure what web 2.0 is? try a google search.

if you have an inkling into web 2.0 and you are already into the whole user designed approach to the web and user interactivity, then this is the browser for you. in fact, you can download a preview release of this browser now at this address: http://www.flock.com/developer/ (i am doing so in the background as i type). i’ll provide a review after trying it out. stay tuned.