October 3, 2008
After reading through Jen’s post on lecture capture from a staff perspective, I’ve been hit with it from a student perspective. There is a class that is required for my doctoral program and it is only taught once every two years. It’s coming in Spring.
It’s at 1:30 pm. I’m at work until 2:45pm. I’d get to class at 3:15pm and it ends at 4:15pm. Needless to say, I’d miss nearly two hours of lecture which I simply cannot afford to do.
Please don’t rag on lecture, this is not what this is about. It’s not up to us to decide how she wants to teach. The professor is a wonderful lady but is a bit older and she does things a certain way. Truth is, I like her classes, and I enjoy the lecture.
I’d like to capture video of the lecture but am not sure how to do it without it being a huge pain in the neck.
If the class were shorter I’d just give my Flip camera to someone, but it only holds an hour of footage.
If I’ll get there at 3:15, that’s an hour and 45 minutes. The other solution is a second Flip? I suppose that’s possible.
I have a few friends in the class so I could easily get them to set up cameras for me.
Anything better? Something simpler than two cameras?
Posted in General 
3 Comments »Tagged with: flip • highered • lecture capture • mino
September 23, 2008
Hi faithful readers!
I need some creative help. My kids and I want a new idea for TeachJeffSpanish.com. He knows about it, and will be watching this year. Last year’s idea of a Scavenger Hunt was so great it’s hard to top. The ideas kids have come up with they admit to not really wanting to even do. Our goal is to come up with an overarching idea that could carry us through the year.
A few caveats…
1. I want something that is fun, new, and fresh. I want something explicity not “schooly” to borrow a term from Clay.
2. I want something that my kids would watch if they happened upon it on YouTube. That’s sort of my litmus test. If it’s not interesting enough to get you to watch it, why bother?
3. I want something not cheesy. Kids come up with ideas that seem to fit the school mold but are unable (seemingly) to come up with something more creative. Granted, my kids are 11-12 years old so developmentally they’re just not there yet.
That said, I want something that folks can learn along with us. Something fun, interesting, and that also teaches Spanish. I think teaching Jeff is a fun gimmick that folks might want to learn along with Jeff.
Ideas?
Thanks..
Chris
Posted in teachjeffspanish 2 Comments »Tagged with: teachjeffspanish
September 13, 2008
Update: The problem was resolved by installing the Perian plugin. This answer was provided by a commenter. I am forever in her debt.
Now, I heard back from Pure Digital support just this morning. This means they violated their 4 hour turnaround time that they promised. Sad. Even more troubling is there response. In my note to them, listed below, I mentioned that I run Leopard and have the latest version of quicktime, right? Here’s a screenshot to prove it..
So, what do you think there response was? Here it is…
Dear Chris,
Thank you for contacting us.
We have recently become aware of an audio compatibility issue revolving around Flip Video and the QuickTime 7.4.5 update running on the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.
This issue should not affect customers running the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system.
Apple has released an updated version of QuickTime which resolves this issue. Please upgrade to QuickTime 7.5 to regain your audio.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
Thank you,
Flip Video Support
Obviously they did not read my original message, and that’s incredibly irritating. Shame on Pure Digital!
Original Post begins after this line…
So I just bought a Flip Mino camera. The trouble I am having is that when I import the video I get no sound. I emailed their tech support with this message.
Hello!
I purchased a Flip Mino yesterday and when I import videos onto my Mac, I get no sound. I hear sound if I play the video in the Flip for Mac application, but when I view the AVI in Quicktime, there is no sound. I tried importing into iMovie and there is still no sound. I tried playing the AVI in VLC Player and no sound either.
I saw the Q&A on this but I am running the very latest version of OS X Leopard (10.5.4) and have all the updates. I recently updated to iTunes 8 and Quicktime’s latest version, so it does not fit the mold of the question previously answered. Please don’t just copy and paste that Q&A to me.
Thanks for your help..
Chris
I am posting it here in the hopes that one of you has seen or heard of this and might offer a suggestion? I know this was an issue with Tiger at one point, but that doesn’t fit me. I tried the usual searches for answers and nothing. Any thoughts?
I’ll update this when they get back to me, supposedly within four hours. I emailed this around 10:00am EST on Saturday, Sept 13, 2008. Let’s see if they stand up to their promise…
Posted in General 2 Comments »Tagged with: flip mino • mino • pure digital • theflip
August 31, 2008
Hey iPhone owners,
I’m curious about something.
I have an iPod Touch and it is driving me crazy. It may be the reason I do not get an iPhone. Here’s my issue…
How do you keep the darned screen clean?
It’s more than cosmetic, it keeps me from typing. There are times I want to type a letter t and cannot because I have been navigating, playing, or what have you, and there are enough built up fingerprints there that it blocks the letter. I can roll right over it and it never registers. I rub it on my jeans, shirt, hot breath cleaning technique and nothing. I power it down, all the way, and still nothing.
I end up having to use some sort of cleaner (approved for the device, thank you) and let it sit a while.
How in the world do you prevent this from happening? It would be detrimental if I wanted to send an email and could not. It’s kept me from twittering many times, and I’m not sure that’s all bad.
Ok so help me out here, eh?
Thanks…
Chris
Posted in my life / my world 3 Comments »Tagged with: iphone
August 21, 2008
Take a look at this video by Professor Dan Willingham.
Then tell me what you think. Is he right? I pretty much happen to think so.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk[/youtube]
Posted in Academics 7 Comments »
August 3, 2008
This was a comment on a post over at Dangerously Irrelevant. Read his post and then read my comment.
Hi Scott,
I must take issue with your comments on Vygtosky. I can say most emphatically that Vygtosky would not support video games as the more knowledgeable other. In fact, video games don’t speak to the ZPD at all. I realize that Dr. Gee (et al) often use this terminology but it is not typically used in concordance with Vygtosky’s intentions.
It’s worth noting that Vygotsky spent little time (6 pages out of thousands) on the ZPD and for the record, the ZPD requires assessment to determine.
To clarify, Vygotsky supports the ZPD to be used by an educator to determine the exact gap between what a child cannot do, and what a child can do with a little help. You’re right in calling that a growth area, but Vygotsky would not support interaction with video games as a form of this growth. In fact, he advocated interaction between a child and the Ideal Form of Behavior, which he meant as an adult.
As an aside, Vygotsky would not support peer groups as a form of the ZPD either. I often hear educators use the ZPD as a reason to have students work together on something, but it simply isn’t the case.
Let me direct you to some resources on the matter.
Gredler, M. E. & Shields, C. (2008). Vygotsky’s legacy: A foundation for research and practice. New York: Guilford.
Gredler, M. E. (2005). Learning and instruction: Theory into practice (5th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.
Gredler, M. E. & Shields, C. (2004). Does no one read Vygotsky’s words? Commentary on Glassman (201). Educational Researcher, 33(2), 21-25.
I study under Dr. Gredler, a tenured professor who studied under Robert Gagne (can’t figure out how to put the accent on the e, yikes) and who has spent years researching Vygotsky and has read his entire works many times. She is considered a leading authority on the matter.
I invite you to revisit Vygotsky and I think your understanding will change a bit, especially in terms of video games.
I am well familiar with the Schaffer (sp?), Gee, Steinkeuhler (oh gosh what is her husband’s name? drawing a blank, his thesis was Civilization in a high school history class and he’s also at the U of Wisconsin-Madison), Dede, etc etc.
For an alternate perspective, let me point you to such folks as Feldon at Washington State, Clark, Yates, others at the U of Southern Califorina (his book Learning and Media is excellent, 2001) and others.
Point is this, there is an alternative viewpoint to the whole debate of video games in education, but many do not accept valid counter arguments due to the “fun” nature of video games.
To sum it up, after having read much in this area and after having completed a lengthy lit review concerning MUVE’s in K-12, I just don’t see the evidence for video games having a direct effect on learning content matter.
Notice, I’m looking for researched evidence, not anecdote. In fact, I’d say that video games in education can be harmful to learning content matter.
Notice I’m talking about content matter, not learning how to design prims in Second Life. I’m talking about learning the basics that we all need to know, the 3 R’s.
Sorry for the long comment, but I think much clarification is needed here.
Chris
Posted in Academics No Comments »Tagged with: video games education gredler
July 29, 2008
A while back I mentioned that I was chosen for Day 6 of Slideshare’s presentation design tennis.
Here is the final slide deck.
What do you think of their design techniques?
Posted in Educational Technology 1 Comment »
July 26, 2008
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to design a course for undergraduate students. I’ve never taught at the higher education level before, but I’ve been teaching 6th graders for a few years now, how different can it be?
I mean that partly tongue-in-cheek and partly not. Here’s how my course design is shaping up. I’d welcome your thoughts and input.
1. My University offers Blackboard access, which I’ll surely use for a couple of quizzes and the like, but mostly our home will be on a Wordpress Multi-User installation on my server, so it’s outside of official university servers. I’m going to use it as a replacement for the locked-down Blackboard discussion forum. Often profs will have students post and respond. I’d rather open it up for outside comments, too.
2. My slides are coming together nicely, with little text and a lot in the notes field. My daily plan looks a bit like this…
Greet them at the door.
Begin with attendance done by CPS IR Remotes (that I bring from my middle school)
Move into the lecture, taking into account both my own thought on avoiding cognitive overload and dan’s next gen lecturer techniques. Lecture is good, and in fact useful when used appropriately with novices. Lecture will be full of good content and good conversation.
After lecture we talk about homework, assignments, etc.
Then we move into our “educational” content arena. This is when we’ll view and discuss some of the more popular educational videos out there and discuss their value (I’m looking at you, Did You Know, Pay Attention, a Ninja video, and a few others).
This will lead to some blog posts from them, and surely some feedback from you. We’ll then use those comments and feedback as fodder for class discussion.
I think it will be a good class. It’s two days a week for a 1 hour and 45 minutes. I think the time will fly by.
I might even ask a few of you to Skype in and talk to them for a few minutes. Interested? I’ll be in touch with you.
So what do you think?
Chris
Posted in Academics 12 Comments »
July 22, 2008
This is a test from the iPod touch to see how well the blogging goes. It all seems well!
Posted in Fun No Comments »
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