Podcast voice

I'm listening to a podcast on voice. I was looking for how to do voice on line. I've picked up these tips from podcasting-unleashed.com

1. Have passion for your topic
2. Leave them wanting more...
3. The maximum length that someone will listen to a podcast is 7-10 minutes
4. Good stories, well placed, help your talk.
5. Introductions are crucial... you need to capture their attention quickly. Attention spans are short. You can use an enrolling question.
6. Make sure that the quality of your voice is pleasurable to listen to.
7. You are an entertainer... Just get over it...

My Head Spins

I've been a subscriber to the Brandon Hall email newsletter for about a year. Last week they announced that they are discontinuing the newsletter and moving to an online group in Facebook. This gave me an opportunity to check out Facebook. I've joined the UAA network(Alaska Anch) and the Anchorage, AK networks as well as the
Brandon Hall Research Innovations in Learning group. I see some interesting potential in Facebook and the potential of an enormous time sink.

Wandering around today, I came across a project from TechSmith entitled Jing that may be the magic application my coworkers need for creating tutorials. WizIQ appears to be a free-version of an Elluminate-style product. Both intrigue me. Jing is still too early for me to suggest that faculty try it.

My husband bought me the book We are Smarter than Me which is a romp through the ways collaborative networks are changing how we do business.

I tried to get us to use twitter at work, but it failed. Several of the staff are IM'ing with the MSN network. The faculty don't use MSN Networking and will occasionally use IChat. We did not find the value- added of twitter. Maybe if I could have gotten it to work in my ichat client, it would have made more sense.

My paradigm hasn't caught up with all of this yet. Or my curmudgeon is acting up.

Blended Elive Meetings

On Monday, Oct. 22, I attended the Elluminati conference as an online participant. I felt like somewhat of a second class citizen as compared to the on site participants. They got lunch and prizes. They exchanged business cards and networked. On the other hand, during the sessions I could IM with the moderators (there were about 4 of them) and get the speaker's attention quickly if I wanted to. I could also slip out to the bathroom or munch an apple or do email on my other computer if the session didn't capture my interest.

Today I was part of the face-to-face presentation for a blended meeting and we did not server our distant participants very well. A couple things I learned:

1. Start setup at least 45 min in advance: sound checks for the room mikes, launching elive, etc.
2. Ask presenters to show up 15 min. early to get their applications open and docs loaded (and so they can grab some lunch).
3. Have a second elive session going on a computer in the room with moderator status so that someone is actively tending the remote crowd.
4. If you're going to application share, share the whole desktop or a region so that when other applications are open (besides Blackboard), the online folks see the Word file, for instance, rather than a black box.

Chris Sturm's Comments on Audio in Elluminate

One of our grad students complained about the quality of his Elluminate Live connection. He's on a Mac and uses a cable modem to connect to the Internet. The sound varies in quality, and he gets dropped from the sessions. Also, his sound does not work through his headphones. Here are Chris's comments:

There are a couple of things to do right away. First is as Jim mentioned, change the connection speed to reflect a lower speed than the student actually has, such as 56K, if necessary. Cable Modem speeds are not constant and flucuate depending on the neighborhood traffic. If the student has a lot of people in his neighborhood with a cable modem and they are all on late in the afternoon, the cable modem speed will slow. Therefore, adjusting the connection speed is very prudent. The connection speed is what affects the sound of the voice – eLive doesn’t want to drop any of the voice information and so speeds it up.

Second is to test the headset outside of eLive. I presume that the student is using a USB headset. If so and he plugs it in before the session, he may need to check his system preferences before entering the eLive session to see if his Mac has accepted the input device as the USB headset and not the built-in microphone.

Third is to clear the Java Cache. This has been helpful from time-to-time as it clears any eLive modules that may have become corrupted. To do this, the student will have to go into the APPLICATIONS folder, then UTILITIES and then JAVA. In this folder is a JAVA 1.4.2 Plugin settings application. The middle tab is CACHE and from there he’ll need to click on the CLEAR button. This will mean reloading the eLive modules the next time that he enters an eLive session, but with his connection, that shouldn’t be a problem.

For the differeing volume levels, that is related to the levels set by individual students. Version 8 has an auto-leveling feature that equalizes all the voices in the session.

Syncing Entourage and ICal

At UAA we use the Exchange calendar server and I have dutifully put my calendar entries into Entourage even though I don't particularly like it. I see the usefulness of sharing calendars online.

I like ICal better. I like Google calendar better. And I want my calendar entries to show up on my IPhone, which syncs with my home computer.

The 11.3.6 version of Entourage 2004 has a sync feature. One can sync with the Mac address book, ICal, and with Entourage notes. You need MacOS 10.4.3 or later. With a .mac account, you can sync across computers. Wow. Looks like my problem is solved.

To turn on the sync services, in Entourage, go to Entourage>Preferences>General Preferences>Sync Services. Select the items to sync. I'm syncing the calendar and the contacts. Choose to merge the data.

In ICal, a new calendar is created named Entourage. When you update this calendar, Entourage updates and vice versa. If you have data in another ICal, export it and then import it into Entourage Ical calendar. The data will migrate to the Entourage calendar. Cool.

This ICal calendar named Entourage is critical. If you delete it, you lose all the calendar entries in the Entourage calendar. I know. I did it.

So, I set up the Entourage syncing on my work computer and set up the .Mac syncing to happen every hour. I set up the .Mac syncing to happen every hour on my home computer. I just plugged the IPhone into the home computer to sync and voila... all the calendar entries showed up. I've jus edited a calendar entry in the Iphone... when will it show up in Entourage on the other computer?

Ok, so the other thing I learned the hard way is if I sync Entourage on two different Macs and then sync the ICals with .mac I get 2 Ical entries named Entourage. Not fun.

More Fun with Del.icio.us at ASTE

This is the outline of the presentation on Feb. 27, 2007

1. Check level of participant experience

a. Using/organizing bookmarks

On computer
Online

2. Check participant goals for being here

a. What would make this a worthwhile hour
b. What had you thought you were going to get by coming

3. Set up del.icio.us account at http://del.icio.us

a. Click on the register link at the right
b. Username can’t contain @ or –
c. Write down your username and password!!
d. Put the subscribe button from the help area in your bookmarks bar

4. Tag websites that you find interesting

a. When at the website, click on your del.icio.us link in the bookmarks bar
b. Develop your own tags and look at what others have used

5. How to share tags

a. Develop a common unusual tag eg: pharm101
b. Subscribe to each other’s bookmarks (network)

i. Can make the network private

c. Send links to someone: For:username eg. For:ak_lee to send me links
d. Examples of how you could use this?

6. Research

a. Have trouble using google –sifting through the chaff? What if 1000’s of others have already don that?
b. Tags- look at http://del.icio.us/tag/<tagname>

i. E.g. http://del.icio.us/tag/mathematics
ii. See the related links list on the right side of the page
iii. If one name pops up a lot, subscribe to the tag and their usename
iv. Or add their usersname to your network

c. Mulitiple tags http://del.icio.us/tag/<tagname>+<tagname>

i. E.g. http://del.icio.us/tag/mathematics+education

d. Subscriptions to tags

7. More info

a. Del.icio.us help

b. http://del.icio.us/tag/delicious

c. http://del.icio.us/tag/del.icio.us

Rebuilding My G5

I lost the hard drive on my IMac G5. It should be back from the MacHaus in Wasilla on Friday and then I start putting everything back. Here is my to do list.

Warning: this is not a stable page. I'll edit it as I add new items -

Software I'll install:
Firefox 2
Quicksilver
ILife06
MS Office
Audacity
Stuffit
Backup
Real Play
Windows Media Player
VPN
Filemaker 8
Filemaker 8 Server Admin
Norton Anti Virus
Calorie King
Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Freehand
Calorie King
bluetooth Wacom tablet drivers
printer drivers
scanner drivers
Quickimage

Widgets:
sudoku
mac tips

Firefox Add-ons:
tiny url
ftp (wait until Firefox 2.0.0.2)
foxmark bookmarks sync.

Recover from backup:
my home folder

Not sure about yet:
applications in my home folder

9/14/07 got a new MacBookPro at work
Also installed:
Remote Desktop
Graphics Converter

Developing a social software class

Ok, so I am starting with the "enduring understandings" or big picture ideas for the 1-credit class that I am developing on del.icio.us. I have too many enduring understandings. Here's the list:
0. Tools evolve and new tools emerge. As engaged educators, we must be aware of these trends and continue to evaluate and incorporate them as appropriate.
1. New technology and software tools provide new ways for teachers to access information, arrange their work, and can provide enriched learning experiences for students.
2. New technology and software tools, when used responsibly, can enhance the learning experience of students.
3. Social software tools provide context for students to think critically about information.
4. Literate persons in the 21st century must have the ability to sort through large volumes of information to find the relevant/valuable pieces
5. Social software capitalizes on students’ needs to work with and learn from peers, their community, and the world.
6. Students, to participate fully in the world and community, must be able to evaluate information and information sources for accuracy and bias.

I know that I'll use 0, 1 and 2 in the class. I may just leave it at that for now. Maybe I'll add 4, too, since del.icio.us provides a way to vet websites.