elearning: Bryan Alexander

LinkedIn
Le Monde for social networking applications (world populations using)
Use a “facebook status line” to summarize piece like Hamlet
Tim O’Reilly 2005 “What is Web 2.0” “social software” “draws on Web history”
*Microcontent, rather than sites or large documents http:/b2e.nite….
*Multiply authored documents
*Open content and/or serices and/or standards
*leading to networked conversations
*Lego bricks that can be connected together Platform for development
*Collaborative writing platforms: the wiki way (“wiki” came from Hawaiian language?)
*Wikis are (often) textually productive
*blogosphere is enormous
*uploading audio files to Youtube vs itunes as podcasts easier, larger audience, is social (itunes is not)
Godcasting,nanocasting, podfading, podsafe, podspamming, podavertising,
*social object: “the person” (use in third person on facebook)
*social organization of information, new forms: “folksonomy” search, retrieval, self-awareness
Tagclouds wordle.net (tas.library.upenn.edu?)
*XKCD april 2007 for map of online communities
*flickr and storytelling “Tell a story in 5 frames group”
DIGITAL STORYTELLING MEDIUM-approach storytelling “Gender Miscommunication” nightingail1e 2006
Or social photo stories : Or remix social media into narratives
Creative Commons free use photos from museums (or from archives)
“Farm to Food” Libray of congress photos
*In the Tell a story in 5 frames group “Alone With The Sand
Despair.com
Edublogging
“The googlization of Everything” ebook by_______________
Book “The Victorian Internet”?
Clearwater free program that automatically tags ???
Web 3.0
*3-d Web (Web 3D) virtual world as browser (Second Life) (Open Croquet?)
Google Earth,
*Semantic Web (use metadata)
*Web on mobile devices (Android, crunchnet, iphone)
*The social Web
*”Web 2.0 on steroids”
Ayiti (Haiti family of 4) Left Behind: Eternal Forces
RED VS BLUE
3D looking game to shoot a movie “Machinima”) http://www.machichinama.org/ ?
Habbo Hotel (2d-3d world) from Scandinavia
Media studies, Cultural Studies
Social software: “Emotional Bandwidth” social presence, self-expression

elearning: Web 2.0 Barry's 2nd Session

I went to Barry Dahl's second session which was held as a pre-conference session Saturday. To access his presentation materials can be found at http://barrydahl.com (click on resources tab)

site: www.lsc.edu/connect username citguest2

Great resources can be found there. Other notes from his session:
Yahoo pipes connects 2 topics in search format?

Bliptv is the format he recommends for uploading/hosting videos as he believes the quality is slightly better than youtube

Ted.com is supposed to be a good site to check out. Quite a few participants in the session seemed familiar with this.

Wiki's can be used for group project contributions.
MY IDEA: set up wikis with continent names for small groups and small group contributions for applying/researching class concepts specific to a geographical area

Some fun quotes "it's not really a web search, what it really is that you want is a web FIND"
"linkrot" deadend links that don't result in desired outcome due to address changes or deletions

Diigo--slideshow of webiste

Toonbook--application for making cartoons
MY IDEA: IP Have students introduce themselves to the class using a cartoon or demonstrating an interpersonal appropriate vs innappropriate example to a specific context

Pixton.com another application program similiar to toonbook but doesn't have "questionable material"

Delicious (I created an account) to for bookmarks

Zoho notebook -- I need to check this one out!!!! It was brought up quickly at the end but looks like a great and easy way to create a webpage or multi-media page

The Challenge of Putting Together a Portfolio

I received the honor of becoming CLC's Oustanding Educator for the MnSCU state Board of Trustees. This is a nice recognition, but as part of being nominated for the state level I had to put together a portfolio as evidence of my teaching philosophy, pedogical strategies, assessment techniques and service to students and campus community. As part of this portfolio I was required to write a 15-20 page narrative to introduce my portfolio. All in all this doesn't sound like so bad, except that I found out I was the school's nominee on Tuesday morning and the portfolio was due down at the Office of the Chancellor by Sunday. Again, doesn't sound too horrible, except that administration was supposed to do a portion of the nominee packet (which includes my portfolio) and our President was off campus and I was leaving for Portland on a 7 am flight.

Hallelujah!

After discovering the anti-spam security setting on blogger I decided to spend some time re-arranging the videos that I had alread shared to the blog. They come as being posted on the current day and time. For organizational purposes I would prefer the videos to be alphabetized and to be listed from A-Z. Of course blogs don't carry about the alphabet, they go by date (and newest to oldest). I spent some time researching but couldn't find a way to make the order go by anything else other than the date. So I devised a system where I put the title by date with each letter having it's own day.

A-31
B-30
C-29
D-28
etc

Then I could re-post the blog entries by time within each day so that my overlist was alphabetical. This was more difficult than it sounds because it the time had to go backwards--if I wanted an entry to appear before the current one I had to put the time later.

This took a chunk of time until my 24 hour wait was up for entering the next batch of videos could be transfered from youtube to the blog. After getting the next 50 over, I realized that I could still manually do the videos by using the embedding function from youtube. I had two windows open and would go back and forth between the blog site and youtube putting each video's specific embedding code into the blog post textbox and then having to type the security word before it would allow the post. That way I was able to manually override the 50 post limit.

This took a little more time and a few attempts on some of those security words but I was able to get all the videos in. Then I had to manually change the post date on the new posts (about 140). My goal was to keep pushing pushing pushing so that I could relax and have fun on my approaching birthday. With 3 minutes to spare (11:57 pm) I finished the date on my last blog video post! Hippee!!!! To add frosting on the cake I went in to my youtube videos and added all of the private videos(easily identified because I put a "P" infront of the title) and added them a special "Playlist" I set up in youtube so that I can have my family look at them and grant or not grant permission to move them from youtube private to youtube public. Any they determine can go on public can then be linked to my Egypt blog.

I was very happy to get this video work and blog to this point. It has been TONS more work then I ever realized it would be. But I think it is going to look organized and be very nice to have for both personal and professional use. As I've discussed before the blog can be used by other faculty if they'd like (art, cultural geography, music, religion, nursing, etc.)

I have also been typing up my journal entries and plan to put those on the site (with some direct links). After that I still have to design some quizzes and then the Egypt part of my work will be complete! But like I said, I feel very good to have this part of it DONE!

The Ups and Downs of Video Editing/Publishing

After finding the share function through youtube and being so excited I hit a roadblock around midnight.  I had spent 3 hours going through and sharing each video to my blog.  I couldn't find a group way of doing so the process required:

*clicking on my account's "my videos" 

*then clicking through the pages to the last page (first videos loaded as new ones were coming in from another computer where I was still uploading videos)

*clicking on the individual video

*pressing the pause button so I didn't have to hear the video as I completed the other steps

*clicking "share" 

*It defaults the blog address and puts the video title as the blog entry title but I still had to paste a description ("video from Egypt trip March 2008")

*click "send to post"

*click on my accounts "my videos" and repeat the above steps

I used to go back and check the blog but after seeing about 20 I was feeling overly confident so I just kept going and ended up going through the entire list of videos I had all the way uploaded into youtube.  When I went back to check I only had a approximately 40 of the 150 I had tried to upload.  I couldn't figure out why they weren't loading.  I didn't get any error message.  No email was sent.  They didn't appear to be in draft storage.  They simply were nowhere to be found--cyber heaven I guess.  Since I didn't get any message as to what the cause was I had to spend more time trying to figure it out.  

What I concluded was that I had met my limit on storage space.  I was so bummed.  It seemed to be working so well.  So I spent some time trying to change the posting date on some of the videos thinking that would free up some storage.  However, I still was not able to share the video to my blog.  Crap!  I still had probably 150 some videos.  Now what was the plan?  I went to bed frustrated because I had been on such a role and I would REALLY REALLY like to be done with this project that has taken over so much of my sabbatical time.  My one hope was that I would try again the next day in hopes that the storage limit was per day not per blog.

I wasn't feeling over confident and got distracted with school email, recording on my other blog all the information and web addresses I learned about from my last meeting with Michael, that I didn't get time to get back onto youtube and the Egypt blog until late afternoon.  When I did I only tried sending one video through and voila!  There it was.  But that was just one.  Would it accept 2?  It did.  So I tentatively sent about 8 more thru.  I didn't want to get overconfident. And they all showed up!  So I kept going checking my blog after ever 3-4.  Luckily they show up rather quickly on the blogsite.  

Eventually they quite going through again.  Humm.  What I didn't know at the time is that blogger has a spam flag (my term) that goes into effect when a blog sees several posts being made in the same day.  If a person was just typing, they could get around this by typing in the sercurity word that displays bellow the text box.  However, since the posts are coming in from youtube, I am not able to get to the post screen in order to type in my keycode.  So I simply have to wait 24 hours and then it will allow me to do another chunk.  

So I guess I'm learning patience on sabbatical ;)

Here's more details about the security block as detailed by blogger:

Why do I have word verification on my posting form?

Word verification on the posting form is meant to be a spam reduction mechanism for BlogSpot in general. There are two potential causes:

Potential Spam

In this case, word verification is applied to certain potential spam blogs by an automated system. Because this is automated there will necessarily be some false positives, though we're continually working on improving our algorithms to avoid these. If your blog is one of the false positives, we apologize. Having the word verification on your posting form does not prevent you from publishing and does not mean that your blog will be deleted or otherwise punished if it is not actually in violation of our policies.

To avoid further inconveniences when publishing, click the "?" (question mark) icon next to the word verification on your posting form:

That will take you to a page where you can request a review for your blog. We'll have someone look at it, verify that it isn't spam, and then whitelist your blog so it no longer has the word verification requirement.

High Posting Rate

If you make a large number of posts in a single day, you will be required to complete a word verification for each one, independent of whether your blog has been cleared as a potential spam or not. If this happens to you, simply complete the word verification for each post, or wait 24 hours, at which point it will be removed automatically.

This restriction is in place as much to control the load on our servers as to prevent explicit spam. Therefore, there is not a whitelisting review process to exempt individual blogs.

Notes:

• In cases where word verification is required, all posts made via email will be saved as drafts, rather than published.
• This is unrelated to the word verification setting for comments.
• If your word verification is continually reported as incorrect, even though you are entering the correct letters, please try logging out, clearing your browser's cache and Blogger.com cookies, then logging in again to post. Remember to copy and paste your post to a text file first, to keep it safe.

Related Articles:

• About Spam Blogs

Wohoo!! An easy way to share youtube videos with my blog

Wohoo!  I found that sharing my videos from Youtube to my blog through blogger.com was much easier and quicker than I expected.  Once the videos are on youtube all one has to do is set up an share account to your blog and then you can directly send it to your blog.  You have the opportunity to put in a blog title (or it defaults to what the video title is) and a description.  Then it's one click shipping!  Yipee!!!!!  Here's the steps on how to set up an account as described by the online youtube help center:

Learn More: Adding a blog to my account

To add a blog to your account, follow the steps below:

1. Click the "Blog Posting Settings" link on your account page.
2. Click the "Add Blog/Site" button.
3. Choose the correct blog service from the drop-down list provided and enter your username and password. Depending on the blog service, your username may be your email address.
4. Wait a moment while we retrieve your blog information. (Note: If you have more than one blog under the email you've entered, you'll be directed to a page where you can select which of your blogs you want to add.)
5. You'll receive a message saying your blog was successfully added!

Once you've added your blog to your YouTube account, you can post videos to it directly from the watch page.

1. Click the "Share" link below the video.
2. Choose your blog from the "Post to..." section.
3. Click the "Post to Blog" button.
4. You'll then receive a message saying "This video will appear on your blog shortly."

THANKS YOUTUBE AND BLOGGER!!!

Growing Pains

OK I suppose I'm growing as an instructor. I'm learning new techniques for working with videos and preparing them for uploading. Again, because we started off with unfriendly hardware (Sony handicam mini dvd) this process has been a PAIN IN THE BUTT!!! Previous blog entries discussed our issues of converting the files to some format that would allow editing within Apple's imovies program. That was fate's Christmas present to me. We found a free conversion program and spent the time between Christmas and New Year's finalizing minidvds, copying to larger dvds, converting the files from vob to mp4 files and transferring the files to the mac and then uploading them into managable imovie files. Then I was able to label and sort and finally start editing these files into imovie projects.

I have spent the last month working on over 14 hours of raw footage. Through imovies I was able to condense and title small projects (still not completed movies) which I tried to keep within the 3-5 minute range. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, student attention span is not very long. Heck, I struggle with videos online that are more than five minutes long. Second, the smaller files also mean smaller file size. The intention there was to help make the upcoming finalizing and uploading process quicker. But first I had to add some transitions, adjust sound and light levels (mostly sound--lighting was still difficult) as well as adding some text and still photos to the projects. Transitions and title pages had to have time allowances set and photos may be had cropping or effects added or deleted (mac automatically uses something called the Ken Burns effect which narrows or widens a picture--sometimes effective and sometimes it cuts out valuable parts of the original still shot). So all of this was time consuming. I figured it took approximately 4 hours for 30 minutes of raw footage. But that doesn't include the uploading time...

Uploading is a beast all it's own. We experimented with several file settings. Compressing and changing standard or widescreen options, keyframes and blah blah blahs...using quicktime and sending right to youtube or converting and saving first to the desktop and then exporting to youtube. We still lost alot of quality (seemingly) which is VERY FRUSTRATING! But it's February and I've been working on these projects for what seems like forever! So I think we have to keep moving forward, there's no more time to move backward. But let me just advise anyone out there looking at creating videos, podcasts or movies for your class or just for personal use--don't use the sony handicam minidvd. The movies I made with flip videos were so much easier and ALOT less time-consuming. You may give up a little sound quality but overall that's the way I will be going in the future.

Other frustrations from this past month:
Decided to go to YOUTUBE because as recommended to me by our Dean of Technology, the mere mass volume of videos almost makes it the most reliable and tech-up-to-date. Youtube is going high definition. I found this function on some of the videos I had watched and even on a couple of our test videos. Of course, now I can't find it--what the heck?

Because I'm limiting my videos to 3-5 minutes, I have ended up with hundreds of videos. I'm trying to keep the titles focused so it will be easy recognition--but that takes a bit of organization as well. Especially since I ended up saving my work on two different mac computers. My friend has graciously allowed me to take her second mac (a laptop) home with me in order to continue my work on the projects. This meant downloading the files a second time onto another machine. This worked great in theory until I filled up all the free space on the laptop. (At least that meant I had a couple of days off!)

I also seemed to have lost a couple of videos in my imovie files. One of the larger temples we visited does not seem to be listed anywhere on either computer. I was pretty sure I remember going through pictures from there so I just don't know where they could be or what I did to lose them. Maybe it had something to do with the full computer. Who knows.

Also, the Norwegian Lutheran is coming out in me and I'm getting concerned about putting the videos out into a public forum like youtube. So I took the responsible route and called Sami (who helped arrange our trip with his sister the Egyptian travel agent/business woman) and ran the idea by him. I explained many of the videos included pictures of the Egyptologists that had been our guides and our company hosts. We had gotten their permission at the time to film for my classes. I explained the situation of where the videos would be going and got the permission to put them on youtube. So I started the uploading process. UFF DA! It is painful--but at least we're moving forward and I must be growing somehow!