The Meaning of Food

I watched a video called "The Meaning of Food". It was on my netflix que but it was a PBS show. It was really good. It had different segments that talked about how food was connected to life and culture and personal identity. Only an hour long, it would tie to my food and culture unit for my Intercultural Communication class. Or be a nice small unit for the nonverbal chapter in the Interpersonal Communication class.

When I went to pbs.org to see if the video I also found a whole bunch of additional eductaional resources. There are self quizzes that students can take and there are sample assignments for different grade levels. Two quizzes jumped out at me for class one was on food rituals around the world connected to new born babies. Another resource that would make a great crossword puzzle has to do with unusual food served around the world that people outside of that culture might view as "weird".

But the most powerful insight I gained from watching this video was the introduction to a book called "In Memories Kitchen". It is a collection of recipes gathered from women in one of the concentration camps. The juxtaposition of these starving women dying of malnutrition finding hope in the sharing of their favorite recipes (one many of them would never get to make again) is something that will lingers with me for a long time. From what I learned the original manuscript was sewn together with a needle and thread and passed on to someone after the war who honored their memories by publishing it, not as a cookbook but as a tribute. They talked about how some of the recipes are missing ingrediants, some do not have all the directions, some seem to just end begging the reader to wonder what it was that caused the author to end so abruptly. One entry ends with the directions to "wrap in pink paper" as if the hope of humanity rested in the perfect completion of these simple directions. In a time when those in power where trying to eliminate a whole race, to strip individuals of their identity the sharing of recipes must have given them a sense of uniqueness and at the same time a sense of community. I am requesting this book for Christmas because I feel the need to honor these women and the memory of their kitchens. And that is the most important thing I learned on sabbatical today.

Vimeo

Thanks to my friend Kirsten, I learned about a new video sharing site called vimeo found at, you guessed it, vimeo.com which seems to have alot of functions.

The first category is video sharing. According to their site "Vimeo makes it easy for you to upload any kind of video you make. You get 500 megabytes of storage every week, and we keep the original files so you (or others) can download them at anytime. We really pride ourselves with our video quality so your videos will always look the best on Vimeo. We even support High Definition. Yeah, that's right, HD." It also allows you to share that video or an "album of videos" with whomever you choose. It looks like they have set privacy regulations so that's good too. It also allows you to post directly to other hot spots like facebook, digger, myspace and flickr.

The next category is groups. According to the website, "groups allow you to create mini communities within Vimeo around the things you like. Share and discuss videos, photos, music, and events with other people that enjoy the same stuff. There are currently6135 Groups to view or you can create a new group right now."

Next up...channels. "Vimeo Channels are an easy way for anyone to showcase videos around a common theme. Do you rock-out in a band? Do you have a small production company? Make a Channel for your videos, or videos you find on Vimeo. There are currently 13597 Channels to watch or you can create a new channel "

Projects appears to be an area of vimeo where you can work together or challenge other members to post videos. I only explored it for a few minutes but some of the more recent postings were challenges like "post five 5-second vignettes" and "make it interesting" which encourages people to take one subject (i.e. a mailbox) and by using different camera angles, panning, music and other effects create something visually fun to watch even though it is the same subject. There also appears to be spots where you can post questions or get technical help from each other like camera choices and preferences.

And the last category I'll talk about is vimeos widget creater. Here's what they say, "Widgets make it easy to publish or watch Vimeo videos on other web sites. You can customize a widget for your blog, social network profile or anywhere else that supports embed code. When you upload a new video to Vimeo, your widget will update automatically"

So I think this site has alot of potential. Thanks Kirsten for the tip!

Who Knew?

Who knew my laptop had a built in microphone? Not me. I still have no idea where it is located but it's there somewhere. There's no little icon indicating its presence, but apparently I have one. And that little bugger seems to have been the problem with my conference calling. Since both the laptop and the webcam that I was using had an audio recording function, it was creating static by interferring with each other. Through trial and error, Michael figured out that I have a default setting on my control pannel of my computer that I have to leave on--it's called soundmax hd audio. The other option is USB. Since I currently do not use headphone microphones, my best option is to use the soundmax. But I then need to make sure that I change the webcam setting to soundmax hd as well or I get static. I've discovered that I can not change the setting after the connection has been made--the static will only continue. So I need to make sure that it is on soundmax hd before I initiate a call. My control pannel will stay set at the soundmax default, but the webcam does not appear to have that ability.

As for my analysis of the 4 different platforms for what seems to work best between a PC and a mac:

1) Skype tops the list. The picture seems to be clear for both the PC and the mac user. The sound levels are easily adjustable and seem quite clear. Setting up through skype 1:1 is an easy taks. Once you've put someone in as a contact they are brought up as potential callee's which is nice since I'm getting lost in the wave of usernames with all the different logins we have to live with these days. It's hard enough remembering all of mine let alone someone else's username or address. Finally, the calling features are easily recognizable through familiar icons (at least to me--the old fashioned hand phone receiver is something my students have never had to use which makes me feel really old) The size of the video on the screen is also decent and you can enlarge if you choose. So overall, this seems to work the best under the given circumstances (my pc to a mac computer).

2) Tokvox is a nice program in that it allows you to set up for a video call, copy the url to that connection, and then invite someone to join you by just sending them the url. The other party does not have to register with tokvox in order to join you. So that's a nice feature. However, both of our screens were a little jumpy and pixalated. So we lost some clarity. When Michael and I tried it between our two PC's it seemed to work better. www.tokvox.com

3) Yahoo's messenger. I like this option. For a pc user, the icons are pretty understandable. This is my favorite IMing format as you can do games and draw pictures together. The first time Kirsten and I tried those features I nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard it was so much fun. Unfortunately the webcam features were not as good. The picture I was receiving was a little more grainy although the image being sent out apparently was all right. Sound was good. Process not too bad, although there seems to be more steps involved. You have to accept the image coming through and if your dialogue box doesn't self scroll you may miss it if you're not remembering to look for it. So it looses a few points in the ease category for me.

4) Aim's video calling feature. Seems to work perhaps better between two macs. But is also doable between a pc and mac. There are alot of extra functions and icons and gizmo deals with aim. The star-up screen is a little busy for me. When I first signed up for it I did the streaming music option as well. Found out quickly I did not like that feature. So had to go back to my control panel and delete the program after the fact.

My friend Deb visits with her sister Barb via ichat and that works really well for them. Had to throw that in since I was reviewing and since it really seems to be a good program. However since I have a pc it really isn't an option for me.

Some people at school have used webx.com for conference calling. It has come with mixed reviews. From what I've gathered it is an ok program to use if you are doing more of a presentational style conference. It allows you to talk and show data which is a nice feature. There is a fee to this program but comes with a free trial period.

Last year, when we were working directly with an educational company called lodestar, we discovered an error in their program and ended up working with one of their representatives on a program through "gotomeeting" which seemed to work really well. There's a fee for that one too, but it allows you remote access which was nice because that enabled them to send a patch for their software program without needing the software. Of course, as an instructor I wouldn't need such access, but thought I'd include gotomeeting.com in my reivew anyway.

So that's what I've learned on sabbatical this week in terms of video calling. Perhaps you now know a little more too.

Conference Calling

Yikes! I learned today not to make the assumption that the only thing needed for a conference call was a webcam. Wrong!! I got the webcam but still had trouble on 4 different conference calling sites. First we tried AOL's Aim, then Yahoo's Messenger, then tokbox.com (with a different person even) and finally skype. All I can say is UFF DA! None of them seemed to work. Whether it was my webcam (a logitech), my computer's capabilities, my internet connection (Charter high speed internet) and its ability to live stream video/audio or something else, it was a frustrating struggle. I couldn't see my friend as clearly as I'd like in many of the programs and she couldn't always hear me. Seemed to go into chopped off sentences or worse yet, what Michael (CLC Dean of Tech) experienced as well-nasty static.

So, I learned not to assume it would be easy for me. Therefore, I can't assume it will go smoothly for my students either. I had hoped to do conference calling for office hours if students wanted it, but if my laptop isn't able to process live streaming I'm not sure what there is to do. I'm checking with Michael tomorrow so maybe it will all be OK.

But I didn't want today to be totally unsuccessful, so I completed my first quiz for my Mass Communication class based on the video I created on "A Local Glimpse of Political History" on the '08 Presidentially Election. So yeah!! I also found some cool links and resources which I added to the D2L site. So now I can rest a little easier tonight. And hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to communicate easier as well.

Headaches and Textbooks

Besides dealing with migraine headaches this past week, I was trying to narrow down my choices in new textbooks for my classes. Choosing a textbook in the past has not been easy for me. In fact, in the past I would have described it as a big pain, kind like the headaches I had this week. So I tried not to change textbooks unless I absolutely had to. Unfortunately, I couldn't put if off much longer. Mainly because I will be teaching a brand new class this summer so I didn't have an old one to go off of. So I buckled down and started exploring.

Holy Toledo there are a lot of options out there these days. And wow, textbook publishing companies have come a long way. I was exploring one book's online resources and was just amazed. There were not just powerpoints and textbanks available. These days you can get tailor made textbooks (order the chapters as you'd like them to appear--or add your own content.) Many companies even have their books put online so the students end up paying less than they would for a hard copy. There are also tons of web resources and actictivy sites that come with particular books. This particular site I looked at today even had a job opportunity and internship section. Pretty cool! Add on top of that iclickr questions ready to "cascade" directly into the corresponding powerpoints and I was about hooked! This one company even has content and quizzes that are ready for import directly into Desire2Learn--no respondus needed!!!

I haven't been this excited about a textbook in a very long time. Previously the mere thought of having to choose a new textbook and thinking about having to retype a whole new set of quizzes and chapter resources was enough to give me a headache. Had I known it was going to be this exciting I might not have put it off. In fact, maybe seeing the advances the publishing companies have made maybe helped cure me of my migraines. Ok I guess I won't go that far. But let me just say it has been very exciting to not only be free of headaches today, but to also feel freed by my textbook choice. Wooo Hooo!!!

Out on an Assessment LImb

I finished up the last of the quizzes on the Bhante Sahti interview today. YEAH!!! I ended up doing separate quiz questions for each video clip. I ended up with a total of 59 questions which will be randomized by video clip. Each student will have the same number of questions on each video but they hopefully will not be the same. I then combined the quiz questions into two total quizzes each worth 15 points (one point per question). That way a student will be able to complete the assessment on the Bhante Sahti interview in two different sessions if they'd like.

I like the randomizing feature because I do open book quizzes that aren't timed. This way no two quizzes will look exactly alike because not only are the quiz questions randomized, but the answer options within each question are randomized as well. It's just adding an additional layer of making each quiz unique. If students are working together, they are more than likely having to work through more questions than it first appears they would.

I'm content with this set up although it may not be right for everyone. I have found that I am lessed stressed doing it under this format, and my students for the most part are too. I have heard many students describe the anxiety of working under the little ticking clock on their quiz screen. Again, some instructors may need to have their tests timed. I have found that by doing the quizzes this way, I am able to add in additional assessments and it seems to be a win-win. It was definitely scary and I felt I was putting myself and my course integrity out on a line. But some of that pressure was self-induced because of my enculturation in a Westernized education system and the way I was taught.

Personally, I don't always agree with the way I was taught. I think parts of our education system only encourages short term learning and memorization over life-long learning and true understanding. I was an A student and yet, I bet if I had been given the same tests I aced even a month after I had originally taken them, I don't know if I would have passed too many of them. You see I learned to be a great memorizer and good test taker. I guess this is part of the reason why I was willing to go out on that limb and try an alternative style of assessments for my class. Luckily, I think it's working.

Editing

Ok I've spent the last four days working with video editing. It takes more time than I would have expected. We were experimenting with two different programs--windows movie maker and imovie on the mac. It appears that imovie allows more options and editing features but we had trouble uploading the video clip into this blogspot. We're going to try again today. We also tried uploading it to Youtube. That went more smoothly. I was also able to upload it from a flash drive from my computer into my blog. Not sure why that was. I did have trouble uploading one of my window movie maker videos, but figured that might have been due to the fact that I already had 5 videos in that blog. I was able to upload it to another blog entry. So I maybe had exceeded the space limit. Also note, that the uploading and processing of videos to this particular blog host takes a chunk of time. You are able to continue working with the text within the blog entry but can not close the window or publish until both pr0cesses are done. So that's just a little about what I learned over the last four days trying to edit my videos from the interview with Bhante Sahti.