KerryJ's blog

Immersion - Second Life’s edge

KerryJ — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:44:34 +0000

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a 60-second video that demonstrates one of the major strengths of vritual worlds -the sense of immersion and shared experience.

Last night edna workshop participants from Canada, New Zealand and the US got the chance to jam out and create music together and then share some virtual sushi and champagne. Here is a look at the drumming session:

edna online conference archives

KerryJ — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:44:01 +0000

If you missed out on the online conferences yesterday and missed out on Tuesday the 24th, you can now access archives of the Live Classroom sessions in the online conference group - http://sandpit.edna.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=1247

For the time being, you need to be registered with edna services in order to access the archives page. There are plans to make the page publicly available at a later date.

If you missed out and want to attend — register your interest in future workshops http://sandpit.edna.edu.au/mod/feedback/view.php?id=1224 We also welcome any and all suggestions for future topics.

As well, if you have an area of expertise you’d like to share with other educators via a free online conference, please let us know that as well. Please refer to the edna content standards policies and then submit your proposal via the register your interest in future workshops form.

Thanks again to the 83 some odd people who attended the online events starting at 8am Eastern — especially those hardy souls from Western Australia who were there bright and shiny throughout the day and night! If you haven’t provided feedback yet — please do. It will help us to deliver the sorts of content and experiences you want and need.

edna workshops 08 online

KerryJ — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:11:32 +0000

Yesterday was the first run of edna workshops conducted online using Live Classroom during the day and Second Life in the evening.

It was a long day for those who signed up for the full menu. Breakfast with Kerrie Smith and Gemma Mayfield at 730am Adelaide Time covered the me.edu.au service and discussed social networking. I presented on Creative Commons licensing and searching at the more reasonable hour of 930am (Kerrie is definitely a morning person). Lynley Clark and Kerrie were on hand to help out.
The next session in the afternoon from Belinda Spry and aided by Pru Mitchell and Gemma delved into digital literacies. What a great discussion everyone had!

The last Live Classroom session of the day on Learning Without Borders from Cecily Wright aided by Pru Mitchell is already getting rave reviews.

The text chat that can go on as the presenter is talking is really valuable. It’s like having back channel conversations going on within the session, rather than on other sites like Twitter.

There were some technical snags — firewall issues, proxy settings and headsets deciding not to cooperate at the last minute. Some we’ll be able to learn from, some will help in our evaluation of the tool itself and some were just Murphy’s Law.

The final session of the day was in Second Life on my home island of jokaydia.

Konrad March of March studios (for whom this event was in the wee hours of the morning) selflessly volunteered as our in-world machinima camera man and hung in there for the entire event.

Joanna McKay - owner of the islands of jokaydia took everyone on a tour of the island she has developed for Swinburne University of Technology, then a virtual hair dressing salon for TAFE students and a tour of the Kangan Batman TAFE building.

Then Dean Groom and Judy O’Connell of the Second Classroom project presented on their work with secondary school students in virtual worlds.

I rigged up my mobile phone to stream live video from my computer monitor to the qik.com web service - you can view the video and see the “behind the scenes” image of the geekery behind it on my kerryj.com blog - http://kerryj.com/2008/06/18/geeking-out/

OECD video submission

KerryJ — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:54:54 +0000

Organisers of the OECD conference on the future of the internet to be held in Seoul, Korea 17-18 June 2008 have invited people to submit videos via YouTube to pose questions, share their thoughts or offer challenges.

Videos must be submitted before midnight, 16 June 2008 Korea time.

I produced one for our CEO Greg Black this week. Here is a link to it on YouTube: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Mqj3m_GBM

If you think the question is one worth posing to the OECD and you can access YouTube - please go to the http://www.youtube.com/futureinternet page, log in, click on the Vote tab and find the video, then vote.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Mqj3m_GBM
TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=77dd10e20cfc5d140221
blip.tv http://educationau.blip.tv/#991831

Participate in the National e-Portfolio Symposium HERE

KerryJ — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:25:26 +0000

On Wednesday, 11 June at 9:30am Adelaide, South Australia time (click here to find your time) - I will be live blogging the National e-Portfiolio Symposium presentations in real time and you will be able to comment and discuss the presentations here as they happen. You don’t need to register.

I’ll be live blogging until noon and then popping back to the office to get the audio files up and available for both the education.au seminar podcast feed and the edna Group set up for the Symposium http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=1811

I’ll look forward to your company on the day!

If you’ll be blogging, flickring or otherwise communicating via the web on the day, the tag is edaunep.

Sharing events - lessons learned

KerryJ — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:02:41 +0000

I’ve posted a long-form post on the before, during and aftermath of the day’s production on my personal learning journey blog.

Here is the executive summary:

When considering how and what to share with people not at the event, use a combination of tried and true and the shiny and new.

Prioritise what you want to achieve based on what will be most useful to people unable to attend the event or who wish to access archives in the future.

Eliminate lesser priorities that will distract or that use tools you need for the more important objectives.

My order of priority was:

Audio. De ensured the AV people were able to record in at least one of the venue rooms. I brought along a back-up system.

Live blogging. I used a new, free tool fromcoveritlive.com that includes the ability to interact with people commenting on a live blog in real time as well as the ability to import and add in multimedia. I was prepared to abandon it in favour of a more traditional method if it faltered in any way.

Photos. Images add a layer of richness to events and can capture emotion and energy. I had a Flickr application installed to my mobile that allows me to take photos and upload them with one click. However, in the event the internet connection went down, my phone would be used as a modem for my laptop to support the live blogging. I brought my digital still camera to use in place of my mobile phone still camera, which was to be used for streaming video.

Streaming video. This was something to try and an option available thanks to a web site called quik.com and my mobile phone. However, if the phone was needed to connect to the net for live blogging, I was willing to give this the chop.

Interviews. If the opportunity presented itself, doing a video or audio interview at the breaks was covered via my mobile phone and some bits that allowed me to connect up a powered external microphone.

Traditional video to be edited after the event. This was an 11^th hour addition. In hindsight, I wished I’d added it higher up the chain and brought plenty of tape.

How it all went:

Audio: So far, so good. I’ll post links later today.

Live blogging: This went really well. I’ve found a valuable tool and want to try it out for training and web conferencing too. Participants really liked it.

Photos: When the phone wasn’t in use streaming video, taking photos and publishing to Flickr on the fly was easy and fun.

Streaming video: This didn’t work for long, but was great while it lasted. My 3 connection just wasn’t fast or stable enough to keep the stream moving along. I’ll keep trying it as long as I can get the screens with the presentations in the shot and readable. I won’t bother for talking heads that last more than a few minutes.

Interviews: They never happened. But it was nice to know we were prepared.

Traditional video: I caught bits and pieces which may be useful for mashups. In future, this gets moved up the chain provided I can get presentations in advance to edit into the mix. Talking heads are a waste of video as a medium.

What I’m glad I did:

Used a foldable market shopping cart to haul all my gear around. It is made of wire so everything was visible – eliminating panics about what might have been left behind. It saved my back and was a place to store extras.

Mounted the phone on a tripod during the streaming video capture. The consultation with my semi-retired, carpenter father and resultant legwork in coming up with a hack to mount my phone on a tripod was worth it for the video. In future, I now have the option of using my mobile as a video production studio – especially since it has built-in editing software.

Brought bottled water and non-sticky snacks. Things get hectic. Morning and afternoon teas are about stretching and comfort breaks, then getting back to set up for the next session.

What I will do next time:

Establish the tag for the day well in advance

Publish the notification for the live blogging well in advance

Bring my traditional video camera with an external mic hooked up to it and on the lectern.

Request all the presentations in advance to load up resources in the coveritlive.com resources section and convert the slides to images ready to go

Invite live bloggers at the event to help me facilitate the comments coming in on the live blog tool

Set up a web conference site to stream audio into.

Bring cable ties – cables get messy quickly

Produce and bring the introduction and exit audio files for all the audio. Even if I don’t want to turn the audio around the same day – I could do a quick interview with the conference organisers at lunch or just after the event ended and then produce a quick audio file foreshadowing what was to come in order to “prime” the podcast stream.

Digital Education Revolution symposium - come talk to me

KerryJ — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:54:58 +0000

I will be at the Stamford Plaza on North Terrace, Adelaide overseeing the audio recording of the South Australian leg of the Digital Education Revolution Symposium on Monday, 2 June 2008 from about 830am Adelaide, South Australia time.

I’m also trying my hand at using a live blogging site called coveritlive.com that allows me to have a conversation with the people monitoring my live feed.

If you’re reading this right now and can see that the box below is updating, feel free to ask a question or make a comment. I’ll be able to see it in real time and have a conversation with you.

I’m also going to try some live video streaming via qik.com — but we’ll see how that goes on the day.

Hope you’ll drop by –

Launching me

KerryJ — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:58:19 +0000

It’s hard to concentrate on an event when you’re trying to share it.

This morning education.au officially launched the me.edu.au service and those of use “covering” it for the greater internet were videoing, tweeting and flickring our little hearts out.

The flickr photo stream is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edna-photos

My qik video application had been wiped from my phone (unbeknownst to me) or I would have tried my hand at live streaming video too. Hopefully I can get it re-loaded over the weekend.

And hopefully if we’re going to hold launches in our little common area again — we can petition for a few more lights…

Congratulations to everyone who beta tested me.edu.au and who worked so hard to make it a reality!

Do we have a right to complain about free services?

KerryJ — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:31:54 +0000

As my fellow Twitterati can attest, the Twitter service seems to be going down fairly frequently as of late. If you use Twitter for a conference back channel or have come to rely on it for collaboration – this can have a big impact on your professional life.

Another free tool that aggregated as many of the online activities I’m involved in as I wish to disclose seemed like a great addition to my blog – and others were using it and saying it was great. It was, until the day it stopped working and most of my blog wouldn’t display.

Free services from private providers are often beta tests for future products. The creators and companies allow us all to be their testers in exchange for new services.

So we’re invited to use tools in ways that are meaningful to us professionally or even personally. It’s the only way to really put a service through its paces. Yet when we do that we can come to rely on the service. Then, when it can’t handle it – users are left high and dry.

So - when free services (private, non-taxpayer funded) go down, buckle under the strain of unforeseen user volume or a new facet of the service is tested and makes it all fall apart – do we have a right to complain? And do the providers have any obligation to their user base?

Can’t afford an interactive white board? Make your own!

KerryJ — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:50:46 +0000

Oh the things you come across on Sunday mornings! Using a Wii remote, a tripod, bluetooth adaptor and home-made LED pens, the videos on this blog post will show you how to make your own interactive whiteboard for around $100.

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-interactive-whiteboard-for-under.html