Ingredients

- Computer with access to the Internet

- Instructor access to a Blackboard course (the screencast features BB Enterprise 8 )

- The website at http://feed2js.org

- A website with an active RSS feed to be used in Blackboard

Directions

1. Navigate to the website that has an RSS feed.
2. Look for an icon on the page that looks like this:
3. If you don’t see that icon, look for some text that mentions “subscribe to feed” or “RSS“. Linked text that reads “Entries (RSS)” is a common way the feed for a WordPress blog is encountered, usually near the bottom of the screen.
4. You can right-click on the icon or text link and choose either Copy Link Location (Firefox), or Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
5. Alternatively, you can click on the icon or the text and it should lead you to a page with a few options to subscribe to the RSS feed. What’s important is that the feed URL is now in the web browser’s address bar. Copy the URL so that you can paste it into the appropriate field in the Feed2JS website.
6. Navigate to the Feed2JS website.
7. Click on the tab labeled “Build” and paste the RSS feed URL into the box labeled URL.
8. Optionally, you can change the options for how the feed is displayed.
9. Click on the button labeled “Generate Javascript”
10. This will display code in the field labeled “Get Your Code Here”
11. Copy the entire contents of this field. This is the code we’ll place in Blackboard.
12. Navigate to the area in your Blackboard course where you would like to place the RSS information.
13. Click on the Add (+) Item button to create a new content item.
14. Provide a name for the content item (required)
15. In the Text editor click on the “Toggle HTML Source Mode” button
16. Paste the code generated from the Feed2JS website into the text field (overwrite any existing text that’s in that field to start)
17. Click on the Submit button

Information derived from the Digital Media Cookbook Website

LectureTools started as a framework to investigate new methods for adding to class discourse by engaging students in text-based, image-based and simulation based responder questions. It was tested in a few classes last semester according to the university and it will soon be made available to their faculty at large. Developed by a professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences named Arthur F. Thurnau for use in a large lecture class, the tool is designed to create greater student engagement with lecture materials and discourse.

In a statement put out by Samson on behalf of the university at large, “Students learn better by being actively engaged in the lecture, offering their own feedback and discussing with their peers, as LectureTools allows them to do. We’re utilizing all the students’ propensities and abilities to multitask.”

In your experience, can you speak to either the validity of this statement or its unsoundness?

Effort is a Good Start

Blackboard is trying.  Let’s start with that.  They are making an effort to stay up with the times.  We’ll review the new Blackboard 9 next month.  Great effort.  And because they are basically buying up their competition, they can afford to sit on their laurels.  But we know from Microsoft what happens when the big dog doesn’t innovate.  People get restless.  And look elsewhere.  Blackboard has made a great effort to become more relevant by creating two synapses to some of the most relevant Web 2.0 tools:  Facebook and the iPhone.  Official Wiki for Bb Sync & Bb Learn

Blackboard Learn

I had been waiting for this app ever since I had heard rumblings it was being developed.  Once it was released, I immediately downloaded it and began pleading with our network admin to make the magic happen to enable the service.  Once enabled, I was elated to try it out.

The first sync went through flawlessly.  I connected to Bb on my Mac, punched in the code to authorize the app, and watched it sync pretty quickly.  Upon logging in, I discovered that the app does connect me to my courses, but not really.  I can see announcements posted, which is very convenient.  I can look to see if any forums (DB) posts have been made in my courses.  But that and a few other “Feeds” are all this app can do.  I can read that there are new posts.  But I can’t read the posts.  I can see that grades were posted.  But I can’t actually see the grades.  I can read there were updates to the course.  But I can’t see them.  All of these require me to login to Blackboard and authenticate.  Which I don’t ncessisarily want to do.  Once more, I don’t know if I should.  More on that later.  On the iPhone 3G, the app has crashed a few times for me and sometimes is sluggish in the sync.  Eventually, it does get there.

Blackboard Sync

Blackboard Sync for Facebook is another great attempt at connecting students where they are most comfortable and familiar.  Facebook.  It’s a good app.  Again, once things were configured on the server side, the connection to Bb Sync was fairly easy.  The GUI is straight-forward.  It mirrors Bb Learn for the iPhone.  You get the same tabs to access and feed information and links to the actual authenticated Bb content.  The same princples hold true for Bb Sync as for Bb Learn.  Same tools and accessibility.

Conclusion

These tools are a good start.  A few of us have been having conversations lately surrounding mobile learning and what it looks like.  Sure, we could create an iPhone app that would allow us to post on the DB, but should we?  Yes, we could create a mobile version of Bb that would allow us to write on the blog or wiki, but should we?  These apps are a good first blush into connecting our learning to popular devices.  They don’t really do much other than serve as a glorifed RSS feed.  But the bigger and better question is, should they?  Should we really be learning on an iPhone?  Blackberry?  Facebook?  And do we/can we/should we be feeding content to Facebook.  Even if we could feed everything Bb offers to FB and still keep the content authenticated and secure, should we?

Because of what I do, I’m always on the front end of evaluating new things.  I’m a classic early adopter.  I love gadgets.  But as I am growing and learning with these technologies, I’m also learning to ask better questions.  One of the best questions I believe we should ask as educational technologists is not “Can we?”, but “Should we?”  My stance today is we shouln’t really be learning on mobile devices.  Learning in this post today defined as engaging Blackboard on mobile devices like discussion boards, blogs, wikis, etc.  I’m seeing mobile devices really prompting us or keeping us connected to the learning, but not necessarily becoming the primary tool we use to engage.  The same for Web 2.0 tools like FB or any Web 2.0 mash up service that can feed all of our “stuff” into one place.  Yes, we could have our learning mashed into our Google reader, Friend Feed, or whatever tool we choose.  But is that an appropriate place for our learning?

We use iTunes U to deliver rich media content to students, but we know the majority of them do not listen or watch the content on their mobile devices.  They consume the content on their desktop/laptop.  It’s nice to have.  It’s a good “can”.  But not necessarily a “should”.  This principle is definitely something we need to look at as many of us are gatekeepers for these tools.

So, Bb Learn.  Bb Sync.  Good?  Yes.  Great?  TBD.  Keep in mind this is a review with Blackboard 7.3.230.0.  We are currently testing Bb 9.  When we put 9 into production, I’ll revisit the review and post an update then.  Irregarless of the tool, what about the principle?  Where do you side?  Any reserach to back it up?  Would love to hear comments on either your evaluation of these tools and/or your views on how mobile devices and Web 2.0 services should be used in teaching and learning.

There arose a challenge with faculty to be able to share with students more fluid content in their teaching through an online delivery mechanism. Through Blackboard, students collaborate in the discussion boards, faculty teach, but delivering an interactive rich media experience still has a large learning curve.

A few months ago, we had a faculty come in that is teaching a education course. He had a system set up on the face to face side, lectures whiteboard material, and powerpoint presentations to demonstrate to the students. To bring this into an online context, we first listened to what the course is about, learning outcomes, as well as his teaching style. We then experimented and came up with a system to record both the video of the instructor as well as provide them a tool they could draw/write/demonstrate which could be recorded as well. After succeeding in proof of concept, we put it into action.

The Set Up

Set up is pretty simple. We have a standard 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 1 GB RAM and 350 GB HD. For this application we use seven items:

1. Quicktime Pro for the Mac.
2. Snapz Pro
3. M-Audio Microphone connected via USB (the built-in mic will work adequately)
4. Elluminate Live
5. Final Cut (Pro or Express)
6. Adobe Photoshop (CS3 or Express)
7. iTunes

The Process

Set Up Quicktime for Video

We set up the M-Audio mic to connect to Quicktime Pro with the following preferences:

We then test the audio levels to make sure we have appropriate sound.
Choose “File -> New Movie Recording”, and create a sample test movie. Troubleshoot until you have good audio and video. You will also want to make sure you have good lighting on the subject. We have some lights in the studio we use, but augment it with a simple Ikea lamp.

Set Up Elluminate Live

Through Blackboard, we create an Elluminate Live session, add 1 hour on to the beginning and ending of the session for bleed over, and start the Elluminate session. Faculty can then load in pre-made slides or prepare slides from within the application.

Set Up Snapz Pro

Snaps can be configured to record any part or all of your desktop. We tested this extensively, and found that we could give Snapz a specific area on the desktop where we would put the Elluminate application. Knowing we would be importing into Final Cut Pro (FCP) and editing for Web, we used 800×600 for file size.

Record Session

Once both Quicktime and Snapz have tested and are working, simply bring the faculty into the chair, line them up, give them some brief instructions on the tools (they probably should have prior), and let them teach. The goal is to take the technology out of the way and allow them to sit, talk, draw, browse, click “next slide”, and communicate the learning objectives for the session. Once the session is over, stop the Quicktime recording. It should automatically appear on your desktop as “Movie.mov”. Then stop the Snapz capture. When before it processes, it asks for some preferences. Make sure you have audio checked. If you are using the standard built-in Mac mic, make sure the “Include Audio Track” is checked. If you used an external device, make sure “Include Microphone Track” is selected. This makes sure you have two copies of the audio in case one fails or the quality level is off. It also helps in post production lining up the timelines. Snapz will create a file on the desktop with a default name of “FirefoxScreenSnapz001.mov” or “SafariScreenSnapz001.mov”. If it is “InternetExplorerScreenSnapz001.mov”, we would like you to stop reading this blog and head to Microsoft’s Vista Site for “inspiration”.

Finishing Up

Upon saving and organizing both video files, you will now be ready for post-production. The beauty is that the faculty only had to show up to your studio, sit down, and teach. The rest is up to you. I will document the post-production process next week as well as show you a finished product. Feel free to post comments or contact me if you have questions. We’re feeling like we have a great workflow to accommodate these requests. But more importantly, we’re getting feedback from students that this type of teaching is enhancing their learning.

Tunes or No Tunes?

We have Blackboard as our LMS and needed to create a way for rich media to feed into each course while being authenticated. We looked at Quicktime Streaming Server, Flash, even an enterprise type Youtube. None had a workflow that would really accommodate something that needed to scale as big as we wanted it to. Our university had been using iTunes U since its infancy with limited success. If a faculty needed a video clip in a Blackboard course, someone from IT would have to convert it and upload it using some scripts we had augmented from friends at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. In the four years we had used iTunes U, there were about 800 podcasts created. None of which were integrated with Blackboard. We needed to bring this all together. iTunes U has been a serviceable tool, but nothing earth shattering. There are many other tools that work with Blackboard. We just needed to find the right fit.

The Rumor Mill

Apple had not provided much support for iTunes U, which was a problem for us. As the buildup for WWDC ‘07 began to grow, we were hearing reports from Apple that there were going to be some significant upgrades in iTunes U and podcasting in the form of a podcasting tool that Apple was going to release to integrate with iTunes U. They unveiled Podcast Producer in conjunction with Leopard Server. The iPhone got tons of press, but the true gem of the conference was Leopard Server. Coming back from WWDC, we knew this was going to be one of two options for podcast capture and lecture capture.

Building Blocks

We worked with some other institutions and plodded through the iTunes U discussion boards to find some building blocks for Blackboard. The Baker building block and the Vanderbuilt building block. We tried implementing the Baker block first with some issues. I contacted Cindy Franco from Vandy for help in implementing their building block. She was great to work with, responsive, and helpful. Our network admin got the help he needed and we got the building block connected to our iTunes U site successfully. With the building block working, the next step was to cast vision to faculty on what iTunes U was and how it can work. Their experience with podcasting was by using the built in Blackboard podcasting tool. This bogged down our servers with tons of large files. Especially when a course was copied.

Final Verdict

iTunes U allowed us to serve up content in the cloud in an authenticated environment, with tools students are familiar with. Has it been successful? Kind of. I’ll review iTunes U in another post. Are we glad we decided to use iTunes U? Yes. But I’m not jumping for joy yet. However, Leopard Server and Podcast Producer could put me over the edge. The jury is still out.

Listen to the latest Educational Technology Podcast which features the teaching technology called LAMS. LAMS stands for Learning Activity Management System.   Allan Carrington, Learning Designer from University of Adelaide in Australia, introduces a cutting-edge concept for taking Blackboard or online learning to the next level. The basic principle is from moving online learning from simply content to activity. Let’s lay aside content and start with activity to allow the teacher to sequence a series of activities of which one is content-driven and one is activity driven. For example, instead of starting out with content or lecture, the LAMS model would ask a question or provide a place for students to wrestle with a concept or question before the content is delivered. It is a concept that is being embraced many places and making its way to the west. To find out more, listen to the podcast with Allan Carrington and Randy Meredith, Director of Academic Technology at Spring Arbor University.

Learn more about LAMS:

• LAMS International
• LAMS Community
• LAMS Foundation
• Allan Carrington’s Web site

Blackboard

We currently are running the latest version of Blackboard (7.3). Every course in our university, whether it be on main campus, a regional site, or online, gets a Blackboard course shell. We needed to find a way to deliver rich media through Blackboard. This aids in adoption by faculty who are already familiar with Blackboard. It also aids in adoption by students for the same reason.

iTunes U

After researching other alternatives to rich media delivery, we settled on iTunes U. This will be the first profile on our discovery and decision to use this platform. Having these two non-negotiables, we needed to figure out a way to make iTunes U work with Blackboard, and create a workflow with equipment that would make sense and be easy on budget. We think we’ve found it. And the next few weeks we’re going to show you.