Monday, November 10, 2008
AECT 2008 in Blog Order
Below, one man's view of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology convention at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, November 2008. In typical blog fashion, order is reverse chronological. Dates are a bit off because the hotel charged for in room Internet, and I was not going to shell out $55 for five days during which I would only be on line for moments. I scrounged wireless when I could, and posted the last few items the first day back at work. Next year's convention will be at the Galt House in Louisville where they promise us in room Internet at no extra charge. Really, these days, that is more important than comfortable beds.
AECT 2008 - Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, for Tomorrow We Go Home
Joint University Reception (great place to pick up ball point pens) then University of Central Florida Reception (with Tom Atkinson on the horns again) then much conversation and sipping time in the president's suite, then the hotel lobby bar, then the Kook sports bar where some of us tested learning theory while playing Guitar Hero. You can really feel those mirror neurons at work. Now, must sleep.
AECT 2008 - Allison Rossett Keynote
You are either doing distance education or retiring, so if you plan to stay you might as well get ready to do it right. Allison was surprised to see that so many of us had postponed the last night partying to attend her keynote. We were glad we did. Her lively and humorous presentation put us in the mood to party.
AECT 2008 - Learning Outcomes and Instructional Strategies in Second LIfe
Leaunda Hemphill, Western Illinois University, reporting on her work in Second Life in a joint project between her class in the US and students in China, with emphasis on learning by interacting with the differently abled community in Second Life. Leaunda is DocL Brandenburg in SL. DocL attended a presentation by Bill Friis in SL a few months ago. One of those "even though we have never met, we have met before" moments.
AECT 2008 - Is There Such a Thing as "Too Safe?"
LeAnne Robinson, Western Washington University, and Abbie Brown, East Carolina University, presented information from their forthcoming book, coauthored with Tim Green of CSU-Fullerton. Theme is that by going overboard in keeping kids safe from new digital technologies, we damage their learning experience. Reason must prevail.
AECT 2008 - Second Life and Concerns Based Assessment
Arrived late for Aline Click and Sharon Smaldino's presentation, but caught all of Kathryn Ley, University of Houston Clear Lake. General conclusion, it takes a team do design of instruction in Second Life. Secondary conclusion, Kathryn gives a lively presentation.
AECT 2008 - Second Life Task Force
The SL task force met in incoming AECT President Marry Herring's suite for lunch and much discussion about how to advance the instructional use of virtual worlds, and how to represent AECT in them, with emphasis on the currently hot version, Second Life. Much progress made, and the discussion will continue.
AECT 2008 - "As I Lay Dying" in Second Life
Carrie Coker-Bishop on Real Life, and Michele Estes in Second Life, aided by Daisyane Barreto, University of Georgia, reported their experience as instructional designers for a project based around the Faulkner story. A very interesting project and a good example. Main points, in SL keep the client involved in the design process and everything takes longer than you think it will. Just like in real life.
AECT 2008 - Embedded Conceptual Knowledge
Iskandaria Masduki and Bi-Jen Hsich, Florida State University, reported a study on the advantages of including information explaining why the student does things in a tutorial that tells the student what to do. ANOVA analysis says the slight positive result is not significant, but the sample was very small. More study needed.
AECT 2008 - Roundtable- A Year of My Second Life
Abbie Brown, East Carolina University, lead us in a discussion centered around his experience using Second Life to improve contact with his distance education students. I really must set up an SL office and establish regular office hours.
AECT 2008 - School Media Technology and Teacher Education Divisions Breakfast
Due to MSU's policy of not letting us charge anything to the University that might involve food, since food is being paid for through the per diem allowance, I was not allowed to pre-register for this breakfast. But AECT was going to find a way to get me in. Mary Herring came to my rescue with a ticket because she was unable to attend. Leigh Zeitz (Leigh Writer in Second Life) also arrived without a ticket. I split mine with him and we each paid half price for a fine meal on the lovely veranda of the Outback Restaurant. Much making of contact was made during the breakfast and many business cards were traded. And the scrambled eggs were fabulous.
Friday, November 7, 2008
AECT 2008 - ect Foundation Reception and after
Tom Atkinson played horn for the event. And quite well. He is a man of many talents. Food included breaded sesame chicken, stuffed cherry tomatoes, a very nice selection of olives and cheeses. Cash bar. We were told later that the set-up for that one hour event, room, staff and snacks, cost AECT $5000.
At the reception I ran into Barbara Rosenfeld who I had met (and had ice cream with) at AECT last year. This year she came with Sharon Anne. They are New Yorkers, and were shocked at the high prices here. So you can imagine how it is for a Montana boy. I joined them for a shopping trip to the Downtown Disney Marketplace. We walked a friend of Barbara's to his meeting at an Irish pub there, and then shopped our way back, including time in the Disney store and the toy store, which is called "Once Upon a Toy". We also stopped at Ghirardelli's for ice cream, so having ice cream with Barbara is now an annual thing for me.
We went back to the hotel, and sat in the bar for a bit. We were joined by many interesting AECT folks. One of those parties that gets larger and larger. Kay Persichitte bought our drinks, bless her heart. The conversation was lively. I snuck away at about 11, leaving others still chatting. Making contacts with people is one of the best things you can do at these conventions. If I can only remember peoples names, I might get good at it.
At the reception I ran into Barbara Rosenfeld who I had met (and had ice cream with) at AECT last year. This year she came with Sharon Anne. They are New Yorkers, and were shocked at the high prices here. So you can imagine how it is for a Montana boy. I joined them for a shopping trip to the Downtown Disney Marketplace. We walked a friend of Barbara's to his meeting at an Irish pub there, and then shopped our way back, including time in the Disney store and the toy store, which is called "Once Upon a Toy". We also stopped at Ghirardelli's for ice cream, so having ice cream with Barbara is now an annual thing for me.
We went back to the hotel, and sat in the bar for a bit. We were joined by many interesting AECT folks. One of those parties that gets larger and larger. Kay Persichitte bought our drinks, bless her heart. The conversation was lively. I snuck away at about 11, leaving others still chatting. Making contacts with people is one of the best things you can do at these conventions. If I can only remember peoples names, I might get good at it.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
AECT 2008 - Membership Meeting
Membership meeting. Things are looking good for AECT. Books are balanced and money is being saved. Membership is up. Presidential candidates both have a sense of humor. Awards and honors and such.
Next year the Galt House in Louisville with (drum roll) in room Internet access included at no extra charge! The year after, Anaheim.
Next year the Galt House in Louisville with (drum roll) in room Internet access included at no extra charge! The year after, Anaheim.
AECT 2008 - Internet Safety in a Virtual World
The presenter was Bill Freese from Montana State University. Hey, that's me. Small crowd (Who voluntarily goes to the seat belt lecture?) but we had fun. The videos all played flawlessly. The crowd was attentive. Mary Herring talked me into doing this. I really must thank her. And thanks to Robert Carson and the department for sending me to this conference.
AECT 2008 - Notes from a day of Second Life presentations
This is pretty much notes to myself on a full day of Second Life sessions. I may need to edit these someday, Yeah, sure I will.
Alice Bedard-Voorhees (MustangQuimby Messmer) and Lisa Dawley (Mali Young)
Badrul Kahn's E-Learning Model
LIsa gives prereqs of Second Life skills. People arrive without them. So, bootcamp before the class.
Some technical problems with the audio on the panel at 10:30 prevented in world sound as we fell back on telephone conference to avoid monster feedback loops. Good thing Tom decided to go with phone, eh?
Longg also feels we should feel free to fail while learning.
Wikinomics - Book on mass collaborative world. We mod each other's activities.
Pathfinder Linden: avatar island http://secondlife.cyberextruder.com/portal1.aspx on topic of avatars looking like themselves.
Steven Hornik (SL Robins Hermano) accounting teacher, presenting. Irene, the instructional developer could not come. Really Engaging (that is, non-boring) Accounting. University of Central Florida Kenneth Dixon School of Accounting.
Student Epistemological Beliefs - Students don't arrive thinking of themselves as constructivist learners. They expect lectures and tests. In ten years, it will be different. You won't have to spend a lot of time on SL training.
He has a SL only TA. He has 700 - 900 students. Very large class limits ability to do much in SL. No way to bring the whole class in. Things are done asynchronously. With smaller classes, could use it synchronously.
He gets to watch his students in SL while they are doing their homework. Powerful tool. Steven has SL e-mal data to students. Students work in a notecard and results are returned in a notecard.
Steven has been using SL hard this quarter, and it hasn't broken.
Ross Perkins
SOLVE in Teen SL - a pilot project
Perceived Attributes of Innovations
Relative advantage
Compatibility
Complexity
Trialibility
Observability
Innovation has to connect to standards for teachers to adopt.
Innovation has to be compatible with infrastructure.
Installation or maintenance has to be non-complex.
Must have time to experiment.
Public school admin wants locked down island, only our students.
You must create an av who will transfer to the Teen Grid with everything you want to take with you before you leave. Bring ed stuff and fun stuff, too. Kids will need it.
Steven and Ross both point out the digital native thing is a sweeping generalization. Some young folks are not digitally aware or active or happy about dealing with digital stuff.
Buy an island. Linden Lab can't figure out how to do billing. It was about $2500 per year, despite the $18,000 bill. Buying land is renting server space. Background check through Ascertain.com, unless your school has already cleared you, in which case you need to fax the school proof consisting of a letter on district letterhead from the superintendent. Takes weeks to get the island set up.
RegAPI creation. FireSabre Consulting, LLC. Accounts must be set up in advance. Regular Teen Grid accounts are locked out if you have set up your island that way. Fred Fuchs (SL Gus Pliskin, lives in Houston). He let his students pick a common last name. You can pay Linden to create a last name. You could let them all have different last names. Must have real birth dates. If kid turns 18, must have a background check. Goochland County paid 50 per 18 year old for the background check.
Letter went out to parents for approval with full details of project.
Opening or closing a sim involves LInden Lab. The adult av is always stuck on the sim.
Project was to put the kids on the island and see what they would do. Sort of like Lord of the Flies.
Kids got a plot of land and were asked to build a house. A girl asked if she could live with her boyfriend. Ross said very much no.
First experience? Ross put them into a closed box and kept them there for a lesson before letting them out. Must navigate and change appearance.
Scaffolding for SL skills? Ross let them learn natively.
Training for adults?
Worked on school machines with some glitches.
"Goochland county, where teachers blog" was school motto before blogging was common. Advanced tech school.
Hard to be participant and dispassionate observer.
Navigation hard at first. Building stayed difficult for some.
Experiment needs multiple weeks, personnel and equipment.
Original plan was to pose problems to solve, but actually had kids create and then solve problems.
Voice problems with firewall.
Good platform for teamwork and creativity.
FireSabre has open sim rentals. No close sims.
Alice Bedard-Voorhees (MustangQuimby Messmer) and Lisa Dawley (Mali Young)
Badrul Kahn's E-Learning Model
LIsa gives prereqs of Second Life skills. People arrive without them. So, bootcamp before the class.
Some technical problems with the audio on the panel at 10:30 prevented in world sound as we fell back on telephone conference to avoid monster feedback loops. Good thing Tom decided to go with phone, eh?
Longg also feels we should feel free to fail while learning.
Wikinomics - Book on mass collaborative world. We mod each other's activities.
Pathfinder Linden: avatar island http://secondlife.cyberextruder.com/portal1.aspx on topic of avatars looking like themselves.
Steven Hornik (SL Robins Hermano) accounting teacher, presenting. Irene, the instructional developer could not come. Really Engaging (that is, non-boring) Accounting. University of Central Florida Kenneth Dixon School of Accounting.
Student Epistemological Beliefs - Students don't arrive thinking of themselves as constructivist learners. They expect lectures and tests. In ten years, it will be different. You won't have to spend a lot of time on SL training.
He has a SL only TA. He has 700 - 900 students. Very large class limits ability to do much in SL. No way to bring the whole class in. Things are done asynchronously. With smaller classes, could use it synchronously.
He gets to watch his students in SL while they are doing their homework. Powerful tool. Steven has SL e-mal data to students. Students work in a notecard and results are returned in a notecard.
Steven has been using SL hard this quarter, and it hasn't broken.
Ross Perkins
SOLVE in Teen SL - a pilot project
Perceived Attributes of Innovations
Relative advantage
Compatibility
Complexity
Trialibility
Observability
Innovation has to connect to standards for teachers to adopt.
Innovation has to be compatible with infrastructure.
Installation or maintenance has to be non-complex.
Must have time to experiment.
Public school admin wants locked down island, only our students.
You must create an av who will transfer to the Teen Grid with everything you want to take with you before you leave. Bring ed stuff and fun stuff, too. Kids will need it.
Steven and Ross both point out the digital native thing is a sweeping generalization. Some young folks are not digitally aware or active or happy about dealing with digital stuff.
Buy an island. Linden Lab can't figure out how to do billing. It was about $2500 per year, despite the $18,000 bill. Buying land is renting server space. Background check through Ascertain.com, unless your school has already cleared you, in which case you need to fax the school proof consisting of a letter on district letterhead from the superintendent. Takes weeks to get the island set up.
RegAPI creation. FireSabre Consulting, LLC. Accounts must be set up in advance. Regular Teen Grid accounts are locked out if you have set up your island that way. Fred Fuchs (SL Gus Pliskin, lives in Houston). He let his students pick a common last name. You can pay Linden to create a last name. You could let them all have different last names. Must have real birth dates. If kid turns 18, must have a background check. Goochland County paid 50 per 18 year old for the background check.
Letter went out to parents for approval with full details of project.
Opening or closing a sim involves LInden Lab. The adult av is always stuck on the sim.
Project was to put the kids on the island and see what they would do. Sort of like Lord of the Flies.
Kids got a plot of land and were asked to build a house. A girl asked if she could live with her boyfriend. Ross said very much no.
First experience? Ross put them into a closed box and kept them there for a lesson before letting them out. Must navigate and change appearance.
Scaffolding for SL skills? Ross let them learn natively.
Training for adults?
Worked on school machines with some glitches.
"Goochland county, where teachers blog" was school motto before blogging was common. Advanced tech school.
Hard to be participant and dispassionate observer.
Navigation hard at first. Building stayed difficult for some.
Experiment needs multiple weeks, personnel and equipment.
Original plan was to pose problems to solve, but actually had kids create and then solve problems.
Voice problems with firewall.
Good platform for teamwork and creativity.
FireSabre has open sim rentals. No close sims.
AECT 2008 - Round-up Reception
Many enjoyable conversations but the highlight was that I bumped into Sandy Patton, friend and traveling companion (Ecuador and Peru this year) of my mentor, Grace France. It was Grace who originally go me into AECT. Always a little odd traveling great distances and then bumping into people I usually see in Bozeman.
AECT 2008 - Keynote - George Strawn
Dr. Strawn is Chief Information Officer for the National Science Foundation, and he has been thinking about the future of education. He leaned heavily on Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. Sustaining technologies make things we have better incrementally, but disruptive technologies, while not necessarily improving the existing systems as well, bring in the new systems. Incoming AECT president Mary Herring made the point to me at the SL prep session that virtual worlds may be such a disruptive technology for education. Strawn mentioned other books to read, including one of my favorites, VS Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain. Any time you would like to hear me declaim on the topic of constructivism, brain science and virtual worlds, just ask. Then try to shut me up.
Strawn mentioned a number of interesting points derived from his reading. Among them, as science learns more about learning, educational systems will be more scientifically engineered. As new technologies make it easier to publish, we may publish everything, and let the peer review take place later as needed. Teaching modules may be created by teachers, students and parents, then placed on-line in a wiki format to be adopted by teachers, schools and managers of teaching systems.
Strawn mentioned a number of interesting points derived from his reading. Among them, as science learns more about learning, educational systems will be more scientifically engineered. As new technologies make it easier to publish, we may publish everything, and let the peer review take place later as needed. Teaching modules may be created by teachers, students and parents, then placed on-line in a wiki format to be adopted by teachers, schools and managers of teaching systems.
AECT 2008 - Second Life prep
Luca is Seed Lane in Second Life, and after his presentation, I spent a happy afternoon working with folks setting up for tomorrow's Second Life related presentations. Tom Atkinson (SL Professor Tomsen) lives about two miles from the hotel, and is taking the lead in setting up real world connections to get us all on screen in Real Life and to put us on audio in Second Life. Cherly Comstock, (SL Ize Mesmer) is running things in-world in SL. Much technology will happen tomorrow. Hopefully, it will all work. (Tomorrow is Thursday. This is one of those items written offline and posted later.)
AECT 2008 - Ethics and AHS
Luca Botturi, University of Lugano, Switzerland, presented on Ethics in Eudcational Technoloties, specifically dealing with Adaptive Hypermedia Systems, that is, systems that pay attention to what you are doing and modify how they present things too you accordingly. Like the way Amazon.com decides what books to recommend to you. Or, in Luca's case, the way three computer programs, Push, Inspire and Adlego, modify how they present information to you based on your own previous behavior or preferences. Ethical questions are raised when automated systems decide how best to teach you. A thought provoking presentation.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
AECT 2008 - Games in the Classroom
Susan Stansberry of Oklahoma State University (a former Dillon, Montana resident) and Elizabeth Simpson from the University of Wyoming presented on using off the shelf entertainment games in the classroom and connecting them to state and national standards. We played Content Standards Bingo while watching a volunteer play Zoo Tycoon In building a zoo, we learn life sciences, math, language arts, earth science, by using the game as a jumping off point for lessons. $ 9.99 at Hastings. Full version has sea and dinosaurs. We got to see a bengal tiger eat a couple of camels, which turned out not to be a good decision on the part of the zoo manager.
Oregon Trail was mentioned as an educational game often used as reward rather than as the lesson.
Recommendation: Assign team roles. Mouse driver, note taker, researcher with scheduled circulation of positions. Similarly with game specific roles. zoo keeper, specialists in animals, habitat, economics, public relations, etc. in Zoo Tycoon.
Civilization, High School AP History class.
Lemonade Stand available online early economics.
Darfur is Dying mentioned.
Real Lives - Windows only - extremely realistic - girl not allowed to continue in school - raped - has an online demo.
Fun is essential emphasized by a participant. Much agreement here.
Some public libraries have games waiting to be played. Happy to work with you.
River City - Science - social game under development. I have heard a lot about this one and really need to see it.
Favorite game source like a favorite author - get kids into a good series. And games with similar structures cut down time wasted learning game interface.
Digital natives have to find information on their own in the game.
If you use Grand Theft Auto to discuss the cultural and social aspects, great. If you use it for another purpose, those aspects could be a problem.
Goals on the box may differ greatly from teacher and/or user goals.
Restaurant Empire - Authentic evaluation she has her Junior High students interview local restauranteurs about businesses. Actual Restaurant Association rubric used for evaluation.
Accuracy of games. Money in a game was off. Got into long classroom discussion of net vs gross.
Triangulation of information. Distrust. Compare sources. Have students check the game against other sources.
She asks the kids to find games that have educational relevance.
Brain Meld is a source of lesson plans using existing games.
Peace Maker - Very detailed game in which you are Israeli or Palestinian leader. Demo available online.
Introduce the game at parent night before the kids see it. Get the parents in first. Let them know they need to support the educational function of the game(s).
Serious Games Initiative recommended as source for health related game info.
Jing is free Windows or Macintosh video capture software connected to free screencast web service. Yow!
Joan Cook, lots here we need to look at.
Oregon Trail was mentioned as an educational game often used as reward rather than as the lesson.
Recommendation: Assign team roles. Mouse driver, note taker, researcher with scheduled circulation of positions. Similarly with game specific roles. zoo keeper, specialists in animals, habitat, economics, public relations, etc. in Zoo Tycoon.
Civilization, High School AP History class.
Lemonade Stand available online early economics.
Darfur is Dying mentioned.
Real Lives - Windows only - extremely realistic - girl not allowed to continue in school - raped - has an online demo.
Fun is essential emphasized by a participant. Much agreement here.
Some public libraries have games waiting to be played. Happy to work with you.
River City - Science - social game under development. I have heard a lot about this one and really need to see it.
Favorite game source like a favorite author - get kids into a good series. And games with similar structures cut down time wasted learning game interface.
Digital natives have to find information on their own in the game.
If you use Grand Theft Auto to discuss the cultural and social aspects, great. If you use it for another purpose, those aspects could be a problem.
Goals on the box may differ greatly from teacher and/or user goals.
Restaurant Empire - Authentic evaluation she has her Junior High students interview local restauranteurs about businesses. Actual Restaurant Association rubric used for evaluation.
Accuracy of games. Money in a game was off. Got into long classroom discussion of net vs gross.
Triangulation of information. Distrust. Compare sources. Have students check the game against other sources.
She asks the kids to find games that have educational relevance.
Brain Meld is a source of lesson plans using existing games.
Peace Maker - Very detailed game in which you are Israeli or Palestinian leader. Demo available online.
Introduce the game at parent night before the kids see it. Get the parents in first. Let them know they need to support the educational function of the game(s).
Serious Games Initiative recommended as source for health related game info.
Jing is free Windows or Macintosh video capture software connected to free screencast web service. Yow!
Joan Cook, lots here we need to look at.
AECT 2008 - After Workshop Wandering Tuesday
Thinking of my nieces, I took a walk around the grounds and across the street to Downtown Disney. The hotel is called the Buena Vista Palace, and all the conference rooms have names like Knight and Squire and Hampton Court. My workshops this morning were in the Windsor room, and the Second Life presentations Thursday are in the Ireland room.
My own room really does have the best view in the hotel, on the top floor, looking out over a small lake with swans. There are shops and restaurants in the hotel. The Outback Steakhouse has three big colorful fish tanks, and then a waterfall into a pool full of very big goldfish. There are three outdoor swimming pools, tennis and beach volleyball courts and lots of nice places to walk, surrounded by tropical plants. I heard some pleasant frog calls.
Downtown Disney is a short walk from the hotel. It is a shopping area. There is a huge toy store with many interesting displays. I saw very big characters from various Disney movies, and Monopoly cards about as tall as I am, and a Tinkertoy windmill the size of a real windmill. There is a Lego store with many lego sculptures, including a tyrannosaurus (about half life size) which looks like it is made from giant Legos, but when you look at the giant Legos, they are made from jillions of regular sized Legos. (Jillions is a word that means "a very large number but I don't really know how many".)
There is a Disney Store that makes all the Disney Stores in all the shopping malls look small and dark and quiet in comparison. There are stores selling pins and crystal and clothes and pearls and lots and lots of other things. I saw a glass Cinderella's carriage that sparkles wonderfully and a surprisingly large magic castle and a very fine crystal Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore that cost too much to mention.
There are also many places to eat. There is a Rainforest Cafe, and a restaurant full of dinosaurs which was so loud you could not hear a baby scream. Down on the dock, kind of out of the way, there is a Margarita Bar where you can drink and smoke a cigar by the waterside. Not for the nieces. There is a MacDonalds, of course. The place I really want to eat is Fulton's Crab House which looks like a full size riverboat. But I noticed that local employees were eating at the Earl of Sandwich, a sure sign of good food.
Since I was alone, and eating alone in a restaurant is always kind of odd, I came home and bought a tuna sandwich in the little market in the hotel and ate it on the balcony in my room. So, I really do wish you were here. If you were, I would take you out to dinner.
My own room really does have the best view in the hotel, on the top floor, looking out over a small lake with swans. There are shops and restaurants in the hotel. The Outback Steakhouse has three big colorful fish tanks, and then a waterfall into a pool full of very big goldfish. There are three outdoor swimming pools, tennis and beach volleyball courts and lots of nice places to walk, surrounded by tropical plants. I heard some pleasant frog calls.
Downtown Disney is a short walk from the hotel. It is a shopping area. There is a huge toy store with many interesting displays. I saw very big characters from various Disney movies, and Monopoly cards about as tall as I am, and a Tinkertoy windmill the size of a real windmill. There is a Lego store with many lego sculptures, including a tyrannosaurus (about half life size) which looks like it is made from giant Legos, but when you look at the giant Legos, they are made from jillions of regular sized Legos. (Jillions is a word that means "a very large number but I don't really know how many".)
There is a Disney Store that makes all the Disney Stores in all the shopping malls look small and dark and quiet in comparison. There are stores selling pins and crystal and clothes and pearls and lots and lots of other things. I saw a glass Cinderella's carriage that sparkles wonderfully and a surprisingly large magic castle and a very fine crystal Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore that cost too much to mention.
There are also many places to eat. There is a Rainforest Cafe, and a restaurant full of dinosaurs which was so loud you could not hear a baby scream. Down on the dock, kind of out of the way, there is a Margarita Bar where you can drink and smoke a cigar by the waterside. Not for the nieces. There is a MacDonalds, of course. The place I really want to eat is Fulton's Crab House which looks like a full size riverboat. But I noticed that local employees were eating at the Earl of Sandwich, a sure sign of good food.
Since I was alone, and eating alone in a restaurant is always kind of odd, I came home and bought a tuna sandwich in the little market in the hotel and ate it on the balcony in my room. So, I really do wish you were here. If you were, I would take you out to dinner.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
AECT 2008 - Tuesday General Observations
Both presenters use and recommend the same technique for generating code. Steal. Find a script (HTML, CSS, Flash Action Script) that does something much like what you want and modify it. Even if you can't read the whole mess, you may be able to figure out which bits to change to get things to work. This is a method I have used for many years, and tried to pass on to students. It may not be ideal, but we must often deal with the real.
Just like last year, after the first day of workshops I am totally satisfied that this trip was worthwhile. I have so much to bring back that I can use in the lab. The workshops may be pre-conference extras, but they are worth the extra days.
Just like last year, after the first day of workshops I am totally satisfied that this trip was worthwhile. I have so much to bring back that I can use in the lab. The workshops may be pre-conference extras, but they are worth the extra days.
AECT 2008 - Flash Video Workshop continues
Taeyeol Park, Georgetown University, is the presenter. In the second half, we embedded videos, which turned them into individual frames to which Flash animation could be added. Very flexible, but limited to 16,000 frames and we are warned that sound will go out of sync. We also imported progressive download videos with cue points which could be scripted. Event cue points are set at time of import, but Action Script cue points can be added later from the Component Inspector. Publish Settings includes many options. Include HTML and it will generate page with code to embed the video.
Adobe Captivate (PC only) can be used as an easy Flash video authoring tool. Taeyeol says he is always looking for easier ways to do it, because Flash itself gets to be a little complex for many faculty at some point. I can believe that. It looks like something I could use, but it would be hard to train some faculty in its use.
Adobe Captivate (PC only) can be used as an easy Flash video authoring tool. Taeyeol says he is always looking for easier ways to do it, because Flash itself gets to be a little complex for many faculty at some point. I can believe that. It looks like something I could use, but it would be hard to train some faculty in its use.
AECT 2008 - Flash Video Workshop
We are using the demo of Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, a demo of CS4 not being available yet. Half way through the workshop and I can now convert videos to .fla, .flv and .swf files. Mighty easy, assuming you have the $700 Flash software. Typical well organized Adobe product. Presenter and participants speak highly of the free VLC Media Player but the free Flash Video Player seems to work fine. After importing video into Flash, the files that need to be uploaded to a website are the resulting .flv file and two .swf files, one of which is the player skin. Files created with Flash Video Encoder are one piece without the controller skin.
Florida and Floridians
Just bumped into Janis Bruwelheide at registration. This exotic tropical paradise is where she grew up. I am disappointed. It is only 26 degrees warmer here than it is in Bozeman. We are promised better weather later in the week.
AECT 2008 - CSS workshop
Peter Rich from Brigham Young University gave us a hands-on introduction to Cascading Style Sheets. He says he actually uses Coda on his Macintosh but went with Style Master for the workshop because everybody could download a free demo. I learned a lot which I can use with our websites and in helping other folks debug theirs. Just knowing that span is the inline version of div is going solve some problems.
Peter directed us to the CSS Zen Garden to demo how CSS can change a page look just by switching style sheets, and recommended The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice by Robin Williams available from Amazon.
Peter directed us to the CSS Zen Garden to demo how CSS can change a page look just by switching style sheets, and recommended The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice by Robin Williams available from Amazon.
AECT 2008 - Prep and Travel to
Offline blogging posted Tuesday:
Saturday downloaded and installed Adobe Flash CS3 demo software. Good for 30 days. Played with it just a touch in anticipation of Tuesday Flash workshop.
Monday
Travel day. Bozeman to Denver, nice. Fantastic view of MSU on the way out. Looked down on Reid Hall at 1:30 and thought of you all.
Denver to Orlando, traveled with the colicky baby convention, I believe. The movie was Wall-e. Audio in English unavailable due to technical error. Wall-e works pretty well with no audio.
Airport in Orlando undergoing renovation. At 9:30 p.m. contractors way outnumbered passengers.
Mears Shuttle Service from airport to hotel very efficient and friendly. HIghly recommended. Three passengers. Me, Mike also going to AECT, and a fellow going to Sloan-C conference at another hotel. Three instructional technology guys. We talked distance education, course management systems, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance the whole trip.
Buena Vista Palace hotel works. Easy check-in. Comfortable scale to the architecture. I got a room on the top (well, except for the ballroom) floor with a balcony overlooking various water features. Set out at 11pm looking for a snack not expecting to find one. Found a little in-hotel market with breakfast, lunch or dinner items available at reasonable (for in the hotel) prices. So far, I like this place. Now, sleep, and then conference.
Tuesday early
Charming views from the balcony this morning. Found the NPR station last night, so awoke to Morning Edition as usual. Dixville Notch went heavily for Obama this election day.
I love a hot shower. Water pipes are connected backwards in my shower. Since it took a while for hot water to arrive at all, I was fooled into not realizing this, and took a cold shower. Tomorrow, perhaps.
Saturday downloaded and installed Adobe Flash CS3 demo software. Good for 30 days. Played with it just a touch in anticipation of Tuesday Flash workshop.
Monday
Travel day. Bozeman to Denver, nice. Fantastic view of MSU on the way out. Looked down on Reid Hall at 1:30 and thought of you all.
Denver to Orlando, traveled with the colicky baby convention, I believe. The movie was Wall-e. Audio in English unavailable due to technical error. Wall-e works pretty well with no audio.
Airport in Orlando undergoing renovation. At 9:30 p.m. contractors way outnumbered passengers.
Mears Shuttle Service from airport to hotel very efficient and friendly. HIghly recommended. Three passengers. Me, Mike also going to AECT, and a fellow going to Sloan-C conference at another hotel. Three instructional technology guys. We talked distance education, course management systems, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance the whole trip.
Buena Vista Palace hotel works. Easy check-in. Comfortable scale to the architecture. I got a room on the top (well, except for the ballroom) floor with a balcony overlooking various water features. Set out at 11pm looking for a snack not expecting to find one. Found a little in-hotel market with breakfast, lunch or dinner items available at reasonable (for in the hotel) prices. So far, I like this place. Now, sleep, and then conference.
Tuesday early
Charming views from the balcony this morning. Found the NPR station last night, so awoke to Morning Edition as usual. Dixville Notch went heavily for Obama this election day.
I love a hot shower. Water pipes are connected backwards in my shower. Since it took a while for hot water to arrive at all, I was fooled into not realizing this, and took a cold shower. Tomorrow, perhaps.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Getting Ready for the Next Group
I am setting up the Montana Thai Active Learning Network pages for our next round of Thai scholars who will be arriving in Bozeman on October 19 for a two week program. We are very excited about meeting the new people. Thinking about them reminds us of what a good time we had learning together with the 2007 group.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Getting Ready for San Antonio
I am working with ISTE in Second Life folks, getting ready to participate in the National Educational Computing Conference, the world's largest educational technology conference for teachers and technology coordinators. My intention is to blog it here.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Smart Board Support
Your incident has been logged as Incident # 49440.
----------------------------------------------------
Howdy,
Incident number 48334 and incident number 48389 are now also incident
number 49281 and the problem seems to be solved. I broke down and
called tech support, which is a nightmare with most companies. But I
got Howard on the line in only a couple of minutes. He talked me
through the solution. All is well. I am one very satisfied customer.
Oh, these incidents are also incident number 48546, because when I
sent a message to you telling you that 48334 and 48389 were the same
incident, you replied telling me that this was incident 48546. I
suppose this message will also generate an incident number. I have
learned something very important from all this which I will pass
along to others. If you have a problem with a Smart Board, don't
contact tech support by e-mail. Call them. Unless you need a five
digit number generated. In that case, e-mail will do it.
----------------------------------------------------
Howdy,
Incident number 48334 and incident number 48389 are now also incident
number 49281 and the problem seems to be solved. I broke down and
called tech support, which is a nightmare with most companies. But I
got Howard on the line in only a couple of minutes. He talked me
through the solution. All is well. I am one very satisfied customer.
Oh, these incidents are also incident number 48546, because when I
sent a message to you telling you that 48334 and 48389 were the same
incident, you replied telling me that this was incident 48546. I
suppose this message will also generate an incident number. I have
learned something very important from all this which I will pass
along to others. If you have a problem with a Smart Board, don't
contact tech support by e-mail. Call them. Unless you need a five
digit number generated. In that case, e-mail will do it.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Oh, How Can You Be In Two Places At Once?
Readers of the recent two posts below may notice that I attended an AECT and an ISTE event on the same evening. And there is one of the joys of Second Life. Two organizations schedule events I want to attend on the same night. What to do? Attend both of them. Popping back and forth between them is a simple teleport.
ISTE Machinima Theater
Those of you stuck in the flat old 2D web can view the growing collection of International Society for Technology in Education machinima on the ISTE machinima page hosted by Knowclue Kidd, (the real life Marianne Malmstrom). But those of us who have made the move to the Metaverse got to enjoy the films (including a production by your humble narrator) in a luxurious drive-in theater on ISTE island in Second Life on Thursday.
Corinne Fleury (rl: Christie Thomas) and Kittygloom Cassady (rl: Jennifer Ragan-Fore) came up with the drive-in and populated it with a collection of good old tail finned pollution spewing beauties. (Fortunately, the atmosphere of SL is not effected by greenhouse gases.) The videos were all well received, admittedly by a pretty uncritical audience. No Oscars are anticipated, but for a bunch of first time machinimists, we did pretty well.
Corinne Fleury (rl: Christie Thomas) and Kittygloom Cassady (rl: Jennifer Ragan-Fore) came up with the drive-in and populated it with a collection of good old tail finned pollution spewing beauties. (Fortunately, the atmosphere of SL is not effected by greenhouse gases.) The videos were all well received, admittedly by a pretty uncritical audience. No Oscars are anticipated, but for a bunch of first time machinimists, we did pretty well.
AECT Dance Party in SL
The Association for Educational Communications and Technology hosted a dance party on the roof of their building on Eduisland in Second Life Thursday. It was well attended, particularly including many folks new to SL. For those of you who have not been to a dance in a virtual world, all I can say is try it. Virtual dancing struck me as a silly idea when I first heard of it, but I have been to a number of SL dances since then, and have enjoyed every one. The ability of Second Life to host such social events is one of its charms.
MaryLee Sewell was clearly into the music that night. MaryLee is the avatar of the real life Marry Herring, president elect of AECT, and a very graceful virtual dancer. Ize Mesmer (rl: Cheryl Comstock) gets the credit for organizing the dance.AECT is planning a series of presentations in SL. I am currently scheduled to give one in the summer.
Friday, February 29, 2008
ISTE Machinima
The folks at the International Society for Technology in Education are moving into Second Life in a big way. They started out as neighbors on Eduisland, but have now moved to three islands of their own. They have asked ISTE folks in SL to produce machinima about their experiences with ISTE/SL. Your humble narrator made a contribution which can be found on Knowclue Kidd's ISTE machinima page.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Lion Dance in นครสวรรค์
Michael Brody is back from Thailand and has posted lion dance video from Nakhon Sawan. It is amazing. A lot of personality in those lions.
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