Berman Blog

CAC Streaming Video

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:47:00 -0500

The Corporate Advisory Council (CAC) is an alliance of representatives from public and private sectors with the Department of Instructional Technology and Institute for Interactive Technologies.

The CAC endeavors to:

Enrich the experience of Department of Instructional Technology students through active participation with CAC members and corporate partners.
Conduct research to guide future development of interactive technologies.
Share information and resources to improve the Instructional Technology program and the facilities of the IIT.

Each fall and spring semester the CAC meets at Bloomsburg University to attend the CAC Conference. This 3-day conference, hosted by the Institute for Interactive Technologies, provides CAC members the opportunity to get involved in many areas relating to e-learning and training.

Streaming video for some CAC presentations is now available.

Researching Online Education

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:01:00 -0500

I recently received feedback from someone who has read the E-Learning Concepts and Techniques E-Book. Arianne sent the another link that she has found quite useful for her research on online education, AcademicInfo.net, as an additional resource to those listed in Chapter 3.

Thanks, Arianne!

Adobe Presenter Pro PowerPoint Plug-in Issues

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:32:00 -0500

One of my colleagues ran into some problems using Adobe Presenter Pro. First, the application choked when she tried to publish directly to our Adobe Connect Server. Then, Microsoft disabled the plug-in so, no matter how many times she tried to reinstall Presenter, it would not show up as available in PowerPoint.

The following outlines solutions for both problems.

Presenter Chokes When Publishing Directly to Adobe Connect Server

If the total amount of files related to the PowerPoint file are over 100 MB, the application can get hung up when publishing directly to the LMS. One workaround is to publish to the local drive to a zipped file and upload the zipped file to the LMS. This works very well and actually seems to be faster than publishing directly to the LMS.

Microsoft Disables the Presenter Plug-in

Click on the Microsoft Office Button at the top left of the PowerPoint window.
Click on the button called PowerPoint Options located at the bottom of the menu.
Click on Add-Ins.
At the bottom of the window is a Manage: dropdown menu. Select Disabled Items and click the Go... button.
Another window with the list of disabled items will pop up. Choose the disabled item and click the Enable button.

KC3 Kids Creating Community Content

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:53:00 -0500

"If youre looking for ways to engage students in authentic research, presentation skills and use of technology then youll want to be involved in the Kids Creating Community Content (KC3) Contest."

I learned about this awesome challenge at the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Conference this year when Jan Zenetis showed portions from various programs that students had created and shared with other students via teleconferencing. The demos included small sections from this year's second place winner, Fire Ants: The Real Ant Bully and one of the original programs upon which the contest is based, Cotton, The Plant of Many Uses.

The home page of the web site says it all.

The Contest - From east to west, urban or rural, we each live in a unique community. What can we learn from our area, from our varied citizens or natural resources? What can we share with other students that will enhance their view of our country or our world? This standards based project seeks to tap into the creative nature of students as they look at their community with new eyes and explore ways to share their findings with others using videoconferencing and technology as a resource.

The Challenge - Students in grades 7 - 12 create an engaging and dynamic videoconference content program about their community to be offered to classrooms nationally.

For more information visit the KC3 Kids Creating Community Content at http://kc3.cilc.org/

erightsoft SUPER Audio and Video Converter

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:56:00 -0500

We bought a hard drive camcorder to use for events that we would like to vodcast. It is easy to use and we can save the video files right from the camcorder to the computer without having to capture the video. However, I discovered that the audio compression used on the camcorder is Dolby Digital. The audio quality is wonderful. Dolby Digital also is proprietary and I have found that many video editing software programs do not recognize the format. It will not work in the QuickTime Player. So far I have only been able to play it in Windows Media Player. None of the video editing software (iVideo, Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro) on our Mac can open the audio portion of the file. On the Windows side, Audacity does not recognize it and neither does Adobe Audition. I do not currently have video editing software on my laptop so I am not sure about the Windows version of Adobe Premier. Thankfully, a person on the Audacity forum mentioned a free converter tool called SUPER© from erightsoft.com (http://www.erightsoft.com/home.html). I downloaded and installed it. I am very happy to say it works great and it will convert a batch of files. Did I mention it is free?

2008 USDLA Award List in USA Today June 13

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0500

The 2008 United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Award list appears in the USA Today on June 13. Sam Slike and I are listed on page 14 of the Distance Learning insert. June 13th DL Today Insert: http://www.dltoday.net/_pdf/issue06.pdf

Temporary Removal of Comment Form

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:26:00 -0500

Due to an influx of spam comments for one of my articles, I have temporarily removed the comment form from all the articles. Once I have had a chance to implement a more permanent fix, the comment will become available again. Sorry for any inconvenience. Pam

NASA Digital Learning Network

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:51:00 -0500

I just returned from the United States Distance Learning Association conference where Sam Slike (Education of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program) and I received an award. We had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people. One of them was Greg Pitzer, NASA Digital Learning Network, Ames Research Center. The NASA Digital Learning Network provides free interactive programs to teachers and students. These programs are numerous. The catalog can be found on the DLN web site (http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/).

Experience out-of-this-world interactive learning with NASA's Digital Learning Network"!

Free, interactive programs allow you and your students to learn more about our home planet and to journey into space using video-conferencing and Web casts. Students of all ages are able to speak directly with NASA personnel including scientists, engineers, astronauts, and education specialists. Placing an emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the DLN offers a wide variety of distance learning events designed to educate through demonstrations and real time interactions with experts. All programs are aligned to national standards with pre- and post-activities to enhance your video conference and Web cast experiences. Join NASA's DLN as we go back to the Moon, onto Mars, and beyond.

The programs are delivered from any one of the ten NASA centers across the country.

Styling Headings

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:52:00 -0500

Mike Cherim has posted a very nice article, A Command of Headings: Usage and Styling, on Accessites.org. The article demonstrates numerous ways to style heading elements using CSS.

My favorite is the decorative floated heading.

Embeded Google Calendar

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:28:00 -0500

Here is our Google test calendar embedded on this site.

Google Calendar Subscription Test

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:22:00 -0500

Google has a calendar tool. This button allows you to subscribe to our test calendar.

SCoPE Seminar on Serious Games and Virtual Worlds and Learning

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:39:00 -0500

SCoPE brings together individuals who share an interest in education, research and practice.

SCoPE's current seminar is Serious Games and Virtual Worlds: April 4-24, 2007. There is a lot of discussion about Second Life and Ron Edwards, CEO of Ambient Performance is a guest at an event on Nick Noakes' Borocay Island in Second Life on Tuesday, April 11 at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (8:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time).

In addition, one person shared an interesting link to an article about virtual worlds design, The Feng Shui of Virtual Reality by Michael Heim, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

LinkedIn Companion for Firefox

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:10:00 -0500

Jerry Luk has created a wonderful LinkedIn companion for Firefox.

Article on Choosing an Accessible CMS

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:34:00 -0500

Juicy Studio has an excellent article on Choosing an Accessible CMS by Joshue O Connor Senior Accessibility Consultant CFIT. Several content management systems including Drupal, Joomla, and Mambo were tested.

Transcript of November 2006 IIT Podcast

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:03:00 -0500

Summary: Beyond iPoding

The following is the transcript of the November 2006 E-Learning Classes podcast for the Institute for Interactive Technology (IIT) Podcast Series. The IIT is a consortium of faculty, staff and graduate students in the Master of Science in Instructional Technology program at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Pam Berman: Introduction

Institute for Interactive Technologies, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, November 2006.

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Karl Kapp: Introduction

Welcome to the Institute for Interactive Technologies instructional design podcast. These monthly podcasts will focus on the convergence of learning, technology and business.

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Pam Berman: Introduction to the Podcast

This pod cast is an excerpt from Dr. Kapp's upcoming book Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning: Tools for Transferring Know-How from the Boomers to the Gamers published by Pfeiffer. Look for it in April of 2007.

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Beyond iPodding

As with any new technology, at first there is unbridled enthusiasm or irrational exuberance quickly followed by fear and loathing and then the technology settles down into an every day tool. One example is podcasting for learning. It was first thought of as great way to train but now some pundits are warning that "telling ain't training" and that podcasting isn't all that it is cracked up to be.

The answer is that podcasting needs to be thought of differently than just recorded training. Podcasting can be used for far more than just listening to a lecture. Podcasts are appropriate for a variety of purposes.

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Use of Audio

Often a short audio narration provides the information and coaching needed to help an employee solve a problem or deal with a customer issue. The wide spread adoption of MP3 Players like Apple's iPod products has lead to an entire ecosystem of tools, accessories and content providers. You can literally subscribe to a podcast on any topic via iTunes or other subscription services. A podcast (for those few who may not know) is a web-based audio file distributed over the web. The file can be downloaded onto a handheld device that plays audio files. The most popular of which is Apple's iPod family.

The concept is just getting started and has room to move in exciting directions. One appealing concept in this area is the creation of of corporate Napster-type software for the exchange of audio files among experts and members of an organization.

Originally, Napster allowed for the free exchange of audio files among a virtually limitless group of internet users, now imagine a corporate Napster where you upload audio files of information about competitors, new product launches, corporate directions and other valuable information all easily searchable and downloadable by members of your organization. Once loaded onto a portable MP3 device, the information can be listened to anywhere at the exact the time of need. Creating files could be easily done with a handheld digital recorder.

Imagine a scenario where a pharmaceutical sales representative, waiting in a doctor's office, accesses a corporate audio server and downloads the necessary information and listens to the drug detail recording just prior to meeting with the doctor. Or imagine a doctor downloading an audio file of a patients' medical history. The doctor listens to the file while preparing for the patient to arrive or fast forwards through the audio file to learn key patient information.

A strong advantage of audio is that it provides the proper tone of voice, inflection and other information necessary to assist sales representatives, doctors or others. Audio can provide information with relatively little bandwidth requirements as opposed to video.

Drexel's Universitys LeBow College of Business has 150 online students all over the world enrolled in its MBA program. LeBow College is using podcasting for both presenting class information and distribution of administrative information.

Students can view a slide presentation of an economics lesson along with the audio or download just the slides or just download just the audio. This gives the learners the flexibility of how they would prefer to receive the information. The podcasting allows the MBA students to learn at lunch, after work or when they are exercising. It provides an opportunity for them to multitask.

LeBow College officials like the podcasting of administrative information. It helps to ensure that the students get the right information and are able to navigate requirements, scheduling and other tasks critical to their successful completion of the program. At least every two weeks, the college issues a podcast explaining everything from course schedules, to scholarship rules and regulations to upcoming events.

The students can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or listen to the information online via a Flash player interface. Erik Poole, associate director Online MBA Programs, explains. "The students are receiving the administrative information they need. They are responding to the podcasts and are incorporating both the administrative podcasts information and the lectures into their MBA experience here at Drexel."

Not only is sound important for lectures or giving administrative instruction, sometimes sound itself contains important information. An experienced production employee may be able to hear when a machine is running out of spec. They can hear the abnormal vibrations of the equipment or the sound the die makes when it is hitting the raw material. A newer employee hearing the same sound or change in sound may not know what it means or even be aware of a sound change. If the various sounds of the machinery can be recorded and placed onto an iPod or other MP3 player, a newer employee could learn, through repetition, the different sounds of the machinery and what each sound means.

A similar process is being used to teach young doctors how to distinguish between the different sounds of a heart. After hearing a recording of different heart sounds about 500 times, young doctors reliably discriminate between different sounds made by various heart problems. Before listening to the recordings, the young doctors only correctly identified 50% of the heart sounds; after the test they could identify 80% of the sounds correctly.

Nike, the athletic footwear, equipment and accessory company, has even created an iPod enabled shoe. The shoe has a built in sensor that "talks" to the runner through an iPod receiver. The runner can receive real-time audio feedback about his or her time, distance traveled, calories burned and pace. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO states that "the result is like having a personal coach or training partner motivating you every step of your workout." It even has a feature that plays your favorite running tune when you are near the end of your workoutso download the Rolling Stone's Start Me Up or Survivor's Eye of the Tiger and run off those boomer pounds.

Another innovative use of an iPod or MP3 player is a game called iGAMEZ. Each player plugs their iPod into a hub and gets ready to "face the music". The hub selects the first DJ who, in turn, chooses a song from their library for everyone to hear. Then the players have to buzz in&and name the artist and song title. Could this be adaptive to the sounds of machinery or failing harddrives or any other sound that is important in a manufacturing or business process. What a great learning opportunity, in a class, a person listens to the sounds of a machine running and describes if it is in spec or out of spec.

Another application would be to listen to competitor's web sites or any web site for that matter. A company called Textic has a product called Talklets that actually allow you to download an entire web site or certain web pages as audio files. Imagine asking your assistant to download a competitor's web site and then you could listen to the information while driving or exercising or on a plane. It gives you the ability to shift-time to listen to something that you normally need to read. This can be a tremendous time saver.

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Summary

So in summary...

Podcasting has the potential to provide audio-based instruction anywhere. A mechanic can play the sound of well tuned engine vs a not-so-well-tuned engine. A sales representative can listen for the proper enunciation of the name of a complicated medical procedure, a novice trial attorney can listen to the proper inflection of questions during a cross-examination by a seasoned attorney.

These are the types of applications we need to envision for iPods, not simply automating a lecture but using the ability to have sounds, any sounds in a simple, portable format that can be listened to anywhere. We need to think outside of the lecture and expand the use of this new tool instead of being stuck with our old paradigms.

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