Terry Calhoun's recent piece in Campus Technology, "Is"Campus IT Ready for Rita?" reminded me of a session I attended several years ago at EduTex 2002 in Austin. This was an Educause regional conference and I remember that a closing plenary was given by three IT survivors of tropical storm Allison. Allison caused enormous flooding and, consequently, enormous damage throughout Houston. IT facilities were hard hit and the speakers told of their experiences and the lessons they learned. One lesson I recall is not to place your computer operations unit on the ground floor or below ground level where floodwaters can reak havoc. The session's title was: "Computers Don't Float: Disaster Recovery after Tropical Storm Allison," and I have a little blurb you can read from my trip report that gives the speakers names and their affiliations. I checked on the Educause website but the proceedings to this session are not available.
September 2005 Archives
Educause Learning Initiative has a resource entitled 7 Things You Should Know About ... . Each of the 7 Things has a two page PDF that focuses on What is it? Who's Doing it? How does it work? Why is it significant? What are the downsides? Where is it going? and What are the implications for teaching and learning.
The topics covered are Blogs, Video Blogging, Wikis, Podcasting, Clickers and Social Bookmarking. It is a handy, timely resource that many of us can use when trying to explain any of these to colleagues.
ELI explains its purpose for 7 Things as:
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) "7 Things You Should Know About..." series provides concise information on emerging learning practices and technologies. Each brief focuses on a single practice or technology and describes what it is, how it works, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use ELI's "7 Things You Should Know About..." briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview, either for yourself or for colleagues who are pressed for time.
I've been looking at video blogs and thinking about vlogcasting -- that is, wrapping video in an RSS feed. It is not difficult at all. But first, a little explanation.
I think the idea of vlogcasting is that one does the sort of discourse one sees on a blog but records video. So if someone has a personal blog and takes a trip from Newark, Delaware, to Baltimore, the blogger writes about the experience. Getting the car gassed up, stopping at a convenience store for H2O and a box of TastyKakes, driving down I-95, stopping at the Ikea at White Marsh, arriving at the Inner Harbor, and so on. With a videoblog, or vlog, it is an a-v experience instead of text and images.
The "casting" part comes in with the RSS feed. Let's say the video is recorded in a format that iTunes can read, such as QuickTime or MPEG-4. [read what Apple says about MPEG-4] Merely by putting the video on a webserver, editing an XML file for the RSS 2.0 feed -- this means putting the URL to the video in the enclosures element -- you can set it up as if it is a podcast. In iTunes just do the usual Advanced < Subscribe to Podcast and paste in the URL to the XML file. You can then click its listing in iTunes and it will play in a little window in the lower lefthand corner of the iTunes window. Very cool!I was remarking to someone last night how these technologies are merging. She had said, "sounds like a podcast." Well, it is in a way, only it's video so my iPod isn't going to play it like a podcast MP3. Still it encompasses the features of a blog, video, and podcast. Now, what to do with it at the U?
I am teaching Introduction to Information Technology Fall Semester 2005 for the School of Information Resources. Last week's module was on Mobile Computing and the students' assignment was to create a MP3 audio file and then an RSS feed to it so that one can subscribe to it in iTunes (or another podcatcher). I have a page with links to the students' RSS feeds. Check them out, set them up in your podcatcher and listen. They are very interesting.
Wayne Brent, the LTC's Breeze Guy, sent this alert out. Sounds very interesting. If you can hook up in time for it on Thursday check afterwards to see if it has been archived. Lots of times these Breeze webinars are archived.
Title: Narrowcasting 101: Using Blogs, Podcasts, and Videoblogs in Higher Education
Presenter: Cyprien Lomas, UBC and Nick Noakes, HKUST
The practices involved in "narrowcasting," including Web logs (blogs), podcasts, and videoblogs, have become significant elements of the new Web. These practices are emerging on our campuses, employing RSS feeds and aggregators to distribute increasingly rich "amateur" content.
Join Cyprien Lomas and Nick Noakes to explore the vibrant and rapidly evolving world of narrowcasting and the impact it can have on teaching and learning. They will explore several facets of narrowcasting and the new Web, including:
- What is narrowcasting? Where did it come from and where is it going?
- How might narrowcasting fit into a campus e-portfolio or content management system?
- What are the implications of having increasingly media-rich (and resource-intensive) content on campus?
- How can we filter and focus all of this new content?
When: Thu Sep 8, 9:00 AM (Arizona Time)
Where: Using Breeze [http://breeze.ltc.arizona.edu/r31522178/ ] and phone conference +1 877 944 2300 [ enter 99200# when requested after dialup ].
This is an open session to Horizon VCOP members and non- members alike. All welcome!
