Great Unexpectations - Day one of Title IX videotaping

Today we started the video portion of the Title IX project that I’m working on with Deb Jacobson. She is documenting the history of women’s sports at Northland College where she taught for 34 years. She has been tracing the team history and electronically converting old photos for over a year. Seeing as she was the one who pioneered all women’s athletics for the school I felt it was important that her story be told as well. That’s where I come in. I get to be the one to interview her. So I created a set of interview questions and a basic story board and came up to Thief River Falls to get started on it. I learned that I needed to both plan for the unexpected as well as not assume all things unexpected would be negative. In fact some unexpected events can turn into something really good. See Blog titled “The Unexpected” under the blog “From Reality Shows to Showing Reality”. Just like in the classroom, I need some organization and yet some flexibility.

What else I learned today:
Many kids today do not know what Title IX is or why it was needed.
Many kids today do not have a concept how recent Title IX legislation was passed it terms of who it affected (parents, coaches, adults living today)
Plan more time than what you thing for video taping in order to account for some of the unexpected.
It will take longer than expected to save the video clips from the Flip video cam to the computer.
Pat Summit, one of the Pioneers of women’s progress in athletics and women’s basketball coach of the Tennessee Tarhills, was offered the coaching job of the men’s team, but declined it because she felt that would be degrading to women (giving the impression its more impressive to coach the men’s team than her champion women’s team).

Other ideas for class:
Survey my students on history/influence of title nine
Have my students survey other students and/or community members on the history/influence of title nine
Title IX link and short quiz for Intercultural class

PHOTO NOTE: This is a still that we captured from the streaming video.  The flip ultra seems to have pretty decent quality for a very small camera.  

Flip Ultra Directions/Mino Mac warning

Directions from Gina on using the Flip Ulra:

I'm a computer artist and animator and I haven't been happy with a lot of cameras. I was drawn to the Ultra Flip because of the lack of wires, I like the idea of the USB stick. They include a set of batteries with the package so you can start recording right away (as well as a little velvet drawstring bag). It was very easy to use, it's just as promised, click the red button to record (and to stop) then flip (ha-ha) the USB stick out and put it in your computer's USB slot.

I read a reviewer of another model of the Flip saying he needed an extra part to hook up his USB, I don't know what he was using but you don't need any middleman if you have a current USB port. Of course it might have been that he didn't feel comfortable with the camera sort of weighing itself down a bit when you have the USB attached to a tower. I'm using mine with a laptop which is on a table so the camera can rest comfortably on it. He might have gotten a USB extension so that he could set his down if he was using a desktop computer. I did try the flip out in my desktop and I did have to make sure that the dog didn't jump around it as it does feel sort of vulnerable, but I will mainly use it in my laptop.

After you have it in your USB port, you will then go to "my computer" and see a new blue icon (unless you're Mac, you'll see a folder for you instead), click it and it installs the program - which seems to run on the stick alone, not taking up any space on your system, although it does put a small encoder on your system. (Side note: - I did try to click "explore" before I installed the program to see if I could just drag the videos directly to my desktop by passing the program, and while you can save them, you can't see the videos). You have to go through the program to save them to your computer and be viewed properly.

So after you have installed the program, click "flipvideo" from your "my computer", then click "Flip Video for PC.exe" to open the program. It's very simple, you will see your videos and on the left you'll see a "save video" tab, here you can select what video(s) you want to move to your hard drive and then click the save button - they call it saving to your library, they will ask you to name a library, which will end up being a folder that holds your videos, which you will find in your documents as "My Flip Video Library".

After you have done this, you can then open them normally (outside of the program using just a player). They will be saved as AVIs.

They also have a "share video" section where you can upload your movies straight to Youtube, AOL or any video sharing website. Sounds good, but I haven't tried it yet. Now you can make a "movie mix" which is basically adding an effect to your video (slowed down in black and white or cartoon fish floating about etc. - no editing). It's very (very) simple, but it's cute.

They include a little plug that connects your Flip straight to your TV. Use your remote to find your 'line', 'input' or 'source' button to find it, click a few times, you'll see the first still of your video when you've got it right. Then hit play, now it wasn't clear in the instructions, but you want to hit play on your Flip (not the TV), to watch your video on your television and it looks great!

They also have an option to 'save for email' - if you do this it will save the videos into a folder "Flip videos for emailing" on your desktop that you can then send as attachments. When I did this it sped up the sound (think Mickey and Minnie) while the footage remained at normal speed (now don't worry, this doesn't happen when you save the videos to your computer as discussed above). This is probably a compression problem, but we can't fix it in their program, so I won't be using that option again - I'll stick to the 'save to library' option. It also does this for the ecard videos. There is an option to send the video as an ecard with cute little borders around them, recipients are sent a link to see the card, but again when played the sound is sped up.

In spite of that (cuz it's worth it), I have found my video camera, it's so small and light, there are no plugs or cords, it takes great videos, no tracers, no little pixel smudges and the lighting is great. I took one outside at dusk and it looks nice. This thing records twice as long as my bulky handycam and I don't have to format any disks or plug in a bunch of stuff. The picture quality of the Ultra Flip videos is really amazing, my other cameras (handycam, Creative labs, the onboard Vaio and VIJE) do not hold a candle to the Flips quality. I'll be using it for video projects. I am very happy with the Ultra Flip and will be bringing it along with me for a family visit. I recommend it! Yes, I flipped for it!

NEW UPDATE ADDITION (11/15/07): Just an update for you here, after I wrote this review I did run the flip on some other systems and it did not have the problem. I only had the problem on my custom Hypersonic PC laptop which runs windows XP. The computers that had no problems were: A Boxx desktop running Windows XP pro, and a Sony Vaio laptop running Vista, and just today I tested the flip on a Dell desktop running XP home which also had no problems. -And, a big AND here, after I ran the flip on the first two working machines (the Sony and the Boxx) a few times (using the export and email functions), suddenly it worked on the "bad" Hypersonic laptop. It seemed to have jolted it to work? I don't know why. Since that time I have had continued success on the Hypersonic. -An engineer from Pure Digital (the makers of the Flip) emailed me after reading my review and we had an extensive exchange working on trying to figure out why this happened and he was very serious about resolving the issue. Another thing that flip does is create updates, so with these two things in mind I feel confident that they have or are taking care of any problems. But again, right now I do not have any problems. -Also, someone asked if you can take stills. This camera is only a video camera, you can't snap pictures with it, however you can pull stills from your movies inside of their program.

From Amazon.com reviews

ON THE FLIP MINO:

MAC USERS BEWARE..., June 12, 2008
By
I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere and I thought it was important for Mac users to be filled in on the following.... 1. The software that comes with the Flip Video Mino does NOT allow you to stitch multiple clips together to make one movie. Only Windows users can do this. 2. I was able to get the Flip Video Mino AVI videos to play in iMovie '08, but not export. When you export the video you get a blank screen with only audio. I had better luck exporting the video from Final Cut Pro. 3. In case you are interested, the codec that Flip Video Mino uses is the 3ivx codec. There are workarounds for the above issues, but it would have been nice if there was a way to combine clips into one movie right out of the box. Hopefully this will be possible in the future with a software update. Other then those concerns, its a great product so far and the video quality from the raw AVI file is really impressive. I found a site called motionbox that will let you upload the raw AVI files that the Flip Video Mino creates and once uploaded you can do some basic editing and combine multiple movies into one. Doing it this way gives you a much higher quality video then what you get on sites like YouTube.

Fact-Inference Confusion Exercise

I was leaving a grocery store today with a friend when we spotted this man with his arms in one of the bins of the large recycle station in the back of the parking lot. My friend and I watched him for awhile trying to figure out what he was doing. I saw him take out some paper products from the bin and place them in the blue cart in front of him. Why was he going through the recycle bin? Even though my mind wanted answers, I guess we'll never know the real reason for sure.

What I did figure out is that this photo would be a great exercise in fact-inference confusion. I could easily use it in the chapter on perception. There could be several possibilities for the man's behavior. Why did I think the worst? What did I know for sure as a fact and what did I just infer? What biases and stereotypes came into play leading me to make that first quick judgment? What did you think when you first saw the picture?

Allness Exercise

When I was writing a blog entry for my "reality shows to showing reality", I wrote one particular entry with a class exercise in mind. I decided to demonstrate the frequency in which we sometimes use allness terms (always, never, no one, everyone, everywhere, nowhere, etc .) So I specifically used them in the entry titled, "We Sell Amish". I then can have a matching quiz for them to take in D2L.

I love how the blogging has developed into so much more than I had originally intended.

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you?

I used to do an in-class activity in my Interpersonal Communication class that had students describe themselves as an animal. For some the answer came easy and for others, not. Today my friend and I decided to go to the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. What a great idea for converting an in class activity to an online learning object.

The goal is to take pictures of various animals that can be shown. Students will first be asked to identify what traits they as assign to each animal. Once they've done this individually, they can compare their answers to their groupmates. Finally, they will be asked to pick an animal (one pictured or another of their choice) that they think best fits them (justifying their answer of course).

So we're going to the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you?

Conference Time - CTAM

I'm at information overload. I've spent the last 3 days at a CTAM conference. CTAM stands for Communication and Theatre Across Minnesota. Friday was over 13 hours of sessions! That's alot of information. I learned alot. I came home with a plethora of ideas. However, unlike most years, I might actually get a chance to explore some of these references a little more since I'm on sabbatical. So since I learned more than I'm able to document here, I'll have to just do a couple of highlights:

1) Definitely need to get the flip camera (the batttery recharges when you're plugging it in for downloading--other brands use disposable batteries too quickly)
2) Windows movie maker now has "narrator" function which makes it easier to give oral feedback to speeches that get turned in to digital videos.
3) "When the wind blows it blows for those that..." an icebreaker that get's people moving and learning about each other
4) Thesaraus.com polarizes terms in a manner ripe for discussion (masculine and feminine)
5) Lori Halvorson Wente has stored public speaking resources on her efolio site
6) Public speaking concept/theory video clips will be released on Minnesota Online repository sometime very soon
7) MnSCU global education conference is coming up in November and CLC needs to be there. Bring an administrator
8) postsecret.blogspot.com
9) interactive listening quiz wisc-online.com
10) notes saved as word document "CTAM Notes 08" on faculty 1's site

Misc morning and mid-day mentoring

Today I came into work because I agreed to be a mentor to our new speech adjunct at the college and today was the mentor kick-offf session. I actually started my correspondence with them before school started. Typically this is the time when there are alot of questions and a new instructor can be easily overwhelmed. We talked about textbook choices, I shared my syllabus, and walked them over to tech support when their computer passwords were not working (this happened to both of them). I sat with them during duty days and introduced them to Matt, our Division chair, to Darin are media specialist/equipment organizer, to Deb the faculty secretary. I made sure they had the copy code for the speech department and informed them of the blanket purchase order in the bookstore for supplies. We walked to their office (they're not only sharing an office but even the desk) so we knew what items were there--then helped them find what they're phone number would be and when they'd get a computer. I felt bad for other new instructors who did not have a mentor before school started. As it was, I felt the speech adjuncts were rushed, and I was happy to help in whatever ways I could because afterall, we've all been there.

Since I had to come into town for the mentoring meeting scheduled for the afternoon I ended up coming into school for the whole day. This allowed me to work on some miscellaneous items in my office. First on the agenda was to try and clean out some of the misc email I had accumulated over the last year. Each year it seems there are more and more messages coming my way electronically. Some are for meetings, some are from students, some from my concurrent partner, others from colleagues, some from the textbook companies, and some are regarding school news which I always think I'll eventually have time to read but never do. Some of them need to be filed, some need a response and many can be deleted. I'm embarrased to say at the start of this school year I had over 850 email. I've slowly tried to deal with some of them, but it takes alot ot time. So this morning I picked away at the email and got it down to 430. One more morning like that and I'll be in good shape.

I also created a new quiz for my interpersonal class titled "Direct vs Indirect Blog Language" and it is tied to my blog entry for September 15, 2008 "A Day in the Life of Cycles". It's all set to go in D2L. My blogging is becoming more beneficial than I first realized--so that's fun.

So it was another day of working over 8 hours--am I really on sabbatical?

Instant Messaging with Meebo--Bringing it Together

Today I got jiggy with it. OK maybe that's not the right phrase, but I feel like I accomplished my goal of setting up and getting my meebo organized. Meebo is an instant messaging system that allows you to pull together your IM accounts into one large umbrella system. So instead of just seeing the people who are "online" through yahoo and then logging off and entering a gmail account to IM another contact, I can see all my contacts on one screen. To me that is defintely a plus. This could be a beneficial tool for online office hours.

Granted this took a little bit of time on the front end. I had one friend who uses aim (the america online version of messaging) and I had to create a aim account so that I could get her on my list there and then I could import my account there into meebo. I found AIM a bit more confusing than the other message programs.

The other confusing part is that I have to sign into my meebo account and at that site you sign into all the other networks. Because my default is to automatically be signed into yahoo when I start my computer, and because I don't have any friends that are only using the MSN network, I only have to sign on to the AIM and Google (gmail) accounts. Again, meebo pulls in all the logins into one screen, but I still have to remember passwords and login names for each account. But I'm sure once I do this a few times it will be second nature and much easier to remember.

Other pluses to meebo that I've discovered:
* I can send files to people through the IM function (at least to a yahoo account buddy).
* The receiver can stay in whatever program they are using and it interfaces well.
* It appears that video/audio chatting is a capability (I will have to get a camera and microphone soon to check it out)
* With yahoo buddy, I could still see the "typing" function which tells me that the other person is in the process of typing a message back to me. Personally, I like that feature. I don't think the same message appeared though with the person I experiemented with who was typing through AIM


Overall, I've found that I like the yahoo system best. There are alot of options (tools and toys) available there that make IM'ing more interactive and fun. I'll never forget one of my first experiences chatting with Kirsten Hofmann (Paul Hofmann's wife). We explored all sorts of features (tic tac toe, dual drawing, emoticons, games and chat backgrounds). It was a blast and I was literally in tears from laughter a few times. As an interpersonal teacher, that "immediacy" between communicators was much higher through that program then just typing back and forth as is the case with other im services.

* Note: Which IM service/network gives students the greatest sense of immediacy would make a great small group discussion for Interpersonal Communication. In Intercultural we could talk about the cultural influences and factors for what would be "most appropriate" for different cultural values.

So I guess I learned alot today on my sabbatical.

That's what manuals are for

In my other blog ("From Reality Shows to Showing Reality") I commented that I was having problems with songlists and the itouch.  But today I looked up the manual online and was able to figure it out.  I'm a visual person and I have to say one of the most helpful items was that they included pictures in their online version.  So not only was I more easily able to solve my personal problem with my itouch, I re-learned the importance of visual aids.  I'll have to remember this as I add content to my D2L classes and resources.

Blog Links

Today on sabbatical I finally found out how to get my photo album linked on my blog page.  After all the frustrations from yesterday's attempts, what I learned I was missing was one simple step.  I had successfully how to create a photo album on picassa and find the embedding URL address for copying.  I thought all I had to do was paste that somehow into the blog.  This is partly true.  What I was missing was to write a title for the link and connect it to that.  You apparently can't link it to something that is not visually there. So I typed in "Here is the link to..." then highlighted it and then clicked the link icon which looks like a chain.  That pops up the URL  box where you can paste the address/link.  Once you publish the post your link is one click away for your viewers.  There are two main benefits I've discovered for doing links in the blog.

1) You show more pictures this way

2) You allotted space through the blog site doesn't increase as fast (photos can eat up alot of memory space)

So there you are.  That's what I learned on sabbatical today!

ERGH!!! and YEAH!!!

OK today started off pretty good. I managed to get some work done, cleaned out some email, did my correspondances, checked my facebook and even created a D2L facebook survey to be used in my interpersonal communication class. I took it one step further and created an assignment that compares facebook communication with efolio communication. Cool stuff.

Then I had a great meeting with a colleaugue of mine, Lori Schroeder who also teaches communication at Metro State. She currently is also serving the Office of the Chancellor in the Academic Innovations department where she manages and promotes efolio training. It was great to touch base with her and catch up. Lori agreed to do a short podcast for my class on the value and potential of student efolios. Very cool! So we're going to do that sometime in the winter or sprign (still have to learn how to do them first).

Then as I was waiting at a local coffee joint for the rush hour to pass before heading out on the highway, I continued my blog work. I've mastered putting one photo into a blog entry but today wanted to link a photo album or powerpoint. Here's where it got frustrating. I've spent over an hour trying to do this and I just can't seem to get it. So I'm calling it quits! I know it must be possible but all I can get is the photo album created in picassa at this address:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kfrischMN/TrailDiscoveries?authkey=9e7nwr_z2FQ#


But so help me, it is not linking or uploading correctly through my other blog. So I guess this is going to have to be for another day.

However, I will end on the positive and at least be grateful for the fact that I did accomplish alot today. New survey, new assignment, new album, and an agreement for a future podcast.

Blogs are more fun with photos

I finally found my disc reader so I was able to load unto my computer all the photos I've been taking for my blogs. Of course there were over 1200 photos on this disc (not all for my blog) many of which needed to be sorted and organized. I need a sabbatical to sort through all the photos I have...wait a minute...

So today I actually took about 3 hours just to sort through some photographs and sort them into appropriate folders on my computer. Then I went into my blog "Reality shows to showing reality" and uploaded photos. I had never done this before but knew it was possible. Of course being a new blogger I wasn't familiar with all the icons so I had to go to the help function in order to figure out where to start. Once I saw the right icon, the rest was pretty easy.

Today's progress is kind of a good analagy for working with technology. I know there's stuff out there that can make my job easier, more interesting, or more fun...it's just a matter of knowing where to start--oh, and having a help button :)

Powerpoint album discovery

OK I haven't used powerpoint recently. I'm sure the last time I made a slideshow had to be before Microsoft xp so when I went to use it today there was a new function that I really enjoy. You can now import an entire album into a powerpoint slideshow automatically placing one photo per page. Maybe this function was there before and I just didn't know it, but boy do I like it!! It is so much easier to now import photos than what I remember that I might actually start using it more. I placed some photos into a new file and then through the "insert; album" function was able to create a new slideshow. The default even includes a title page for your presentation. Once the pictures are added than all I had to do was add my text and play with the fun stuff (color background, slide transitions, font options, etc.)

I was actually able to not only create a full powerpoint presentation but I already have it uploaded into my Interpersonal D2L course shell for next year. Yeah! I like that function alot. Now in my class is "Holding the Sun Series" an experiment in Perception.

Tackling Youtube

Today I tackled youtube. I have to admit that I have relatively little experience with the vastness that is youtube. I've looked at a couple of clips that were sent to me and tried to do a little searching on my own, but didn't even have an account until today (unless I created one last year and forgot I did so because I never used it). So today I attempted to find potential videos I could use in class.

As a speech instructor, I emphasize the importance of citing your sources and giving credit where credit is due. So before I go any further I need to mention that this afternoon's explorations came about because a colleague of mine, Ryan Deblock mentioned a video he thought I might be able to use in my classes. He gave me a couple of the "tags" (key words linked to the video in order to help the search process) and part of the presenter's name. And with just that little bit of information and a few clicks on the computer I was able to find the right video. So thanks Ryan!

From the youtube I was able to play the video without the need of an account with them. Cool! Even better was the fact that youtube pulls up a list of "related videos" which can revolve around similar topics. So from one key word search I was able to connect up to several "layers around a theme". A few of theme were ripe for class modules. But now what? I wanted to be able to compile these good finds but where? That's when I found the value of creating an account with youtube.

Once I created an account I had quite a few options that were readily available as "quick links" (one-click options that removes the need to copy and paste urls or the specific web address). I noticed that one option was to post it on your facebook. This was mighty tempting as I have been using my facebook account alot lately but opted not to link them there now as I thought I would have potentieally alot of video links and didn't want to bother all my facebook friends each time I saved a new video.

Next on the list of possible ways to store my youtube video finds was the quick link to "digg". Digg is another site that compiles a wide range of videos but tabulates the popularity of videos by common viewers. "Yea I dig that video." When you see the thumbnail of the videos listed at the digg.com site you also see how many people "digg it". And there's tabs at the top of the screen that let you pull up the most popular (highest digg scores). It's the who's who of cool videos I guess. The downside of digg.com is that contrary to what I wanted it to do, I don't think it is possible, even with an account (which I signed up for), to have a public space that lists only the videos you dug (can you use past tense with iterms?)

What I ended up doing was storing my video finds at the youtube site through a function called "playlist". I decided this was a good solution for where I was at right now. As I am still collecting videos and not really sure how I'm going to use them (have students view them and take a quiz on them, compare one to the other, find others like them, etc.) this seemed to serve my needs well for now. A really helpful tool under the playlist feature is that I can breakdown my playlist into categories I assign. Here's the highlights from what I worked on today:

Playlist one: Ableism
video: "In My Language"

Playlist two: Country videos (as in international countries not as in "Dropkick me Jesus through the goal posts of life" country music)
video: "Presentation about India"

Playlist three: gender
video: "Exploitation of women in ads"
video: "Girls--what not to be"
video: "The negative influences of the media on women"

Playlist four: presentation tips
video: "How NOT to use powerpoint"
video: "Killer presentation skills"

Playlist five: verbal language habits
video: "Like--you know"
video: "The impotence of proofreading"

Playlist six: world religions
video: "the tribe" (tribethefilm.com)

Toilets around the world

I started work on a project I've had in mind for a long time that I just haven't had the time before to truly explore: Toilets around the world. This project was inspired by first hand experience and the shock and confusion I've experienced when traveling out of the United States. From informal survey's I've done in my classes, I don't think most of our students at CLC have much international travel experience. The majority of toilets around the world are not like the ones we might find here. So trying to just do your business outside of your comfort zone can be challenging and in many cases--shocking! So I thought this would be a fun project to make into a multi-media project to let students actually see before they go what they might see before they go! Today I found some pictures that I have temporarily added to a folder titled "toilets" on my faculty desktop. I also have put some information together in a word document titled "resources toilets around the world" also undere faculty1's documents.

I'll share just a few of the interesting facts I discovered today:
1) There is a large non-profit organization called The World Toilet Organziation whose focus is to "improve toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide".
2) From the WTO website I also learned that 40% of the world's population does not have access to personal sanitation (2.6 billion people)
3) Also from WTO I learned that November 19 is "World Toilet Day"
4) Great resource that is a fun and informative way to "discuss the undiscussable" is Winda Benedetti's "No. 1 problem with traveling can be going no. 2" at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/158118_goaway27.html
5) Although I was initially thinking of the more primitive types of toilets I also discovered the "ultra modern Japanese commode" which can only be described as futuristic by our US standards. I saw them mentioned a few times. One site that discussed them was www.darkcreek.com/toilets According to them, these multi-functional toilets come with a contral panel that allows one to play music, light up, play sound effects like harp music or wind chimes, and includes self closing anti-slam lids, automatic deodorizers and heated seats to name just a few of the functions.

So I hope you've learned a little about toilets around the world. Make sure to check out my published website next year to see my multi-media project about them.

Blog Intro/Pre-September

I am on sabbatical for the 2008-2009 school year. This is my blog documenting what I've learned over the year. I hope that this site will serve as a resource for me as well as others. It is also meant to help be a template for my sabbatical report timeline.

Over the summer I started working on my sabbatical plan. Here is a brief summary of the activities/outcomes acheived prior to September 2008:
1) Attended D2L National Convention, July 21-24 in Memphis Tennessee. I was able to acquire a long list of online resources that I need to sort through and explore over my sabbatical. I was also able to network and meet other MNSCU d2l'ers who will be great resources for me as I try and incorporate more IT into both my online and F2F classes.
2) Started facebook account for school networking. (Had a myspace account started as well, but after research decided to put more efforts into facebook as that seems to be used more by our college demographics--both students and instructors)
3) Came in for 2 speech adjunct interviews (Monday, July 28 and Thursday, July 31)
4) Mentored 2 new speech adjunct. Met one to one and corresponded via email to answer questions on syllabus, IP textbook choices, campus information, and D2L. Introduced them to some other key people on campus and walked with them to help get them resources (computer access, figure out phone number, tech id issues, etc.)
5) Attended both duty days, first day with adjuncts and to be available for their further questions on the second day.
6) Requseted shells for Interpersonal Communication and Intercultural Communication so that I can get information added so everything is "course ready" for implementation in D2L
7) Learned how to add a gadget to a widget on homepage of D2L
8) First Day of School I started blog "Reality Shows to Showing Reality"
9) Started this blog to record my sabbatical plan progress.