Mobile Technology in TAFE

Yep, I know a lot about “a lot of stuff” but there lies my problem; as Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) says:

The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you become informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize that nothing is as clear and simple as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing

So I need help, advice, on what solutions/options you would recommend for the following scenario. Image by Petite Corneille.

I’ve been contacted by a lecturer who teaches horticulture. She says:

I’ve been recording botanical terms e.g. plant names and spelling to help ot students using a tape recorder. It seems to me it would be much more efficient to put this stuff onto the net so that they can download it to their mp3 players but I’m not quite sure where or how to do it. Any advice?

Here’s my thought process so far:

1. Worthwhile considering offering both video and audio formats - to enhance the connection between the terms and the botanical images
2. For audio I’d use a USB headset and Audacity. My choice for video would be MovieMaker or PhotoStory.
3. Will the outcome desired change with time? i.e. focus currently is the benefit of recordings on mp3 but long term will this change to include: students being able to interact using a forum and post their own videos & photos; being able to provide other resources (documents, PDF); and/or write posts.
4. Does the site need to be password protected or can it be open?

Can You Help Out?

1. What other questions are worth asking?
2. What solutions or options are worth considering?
3. Do you know of any sites that horticulture lecturers are using with their students?
4. What haven’t I thought of?

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I have been thinking about the fact that I wanted a Mac now for several months. Why - because I podcast and Macs are meant to be better set up for podcasting. So yesterday my friends in Twitter convinced me that it was time to buy it, they made all the decisions about which one to buy and the lovely Waxlyrical with her husband came to the store to assist me with the purchase. Photo by Waxlyrical.

I was able to purchase the Mac at educational prices since I work for TAFE (discount allowed on one Mac per year). All I had to do was take my pay slip and photo ID, this entitled me to the discount and I walked out with one nice black MacBook (13″), plus wireless mouse and travel bag.

Switching from PCs to a Mac

If you have only ever used a PC before using a Mac is really weird. The first thing that gets you is that as a PC user you have this expectation (probably unrealistic) that the keyboard on a Mac and a PC is the same. Wrong. To do a left mouse click you have to press the ctrl key and right click mouse. So then I was confused because I could not work out why I could not do shortcuts with the ctrl key - the laughing Mac twitters told me you have to use the key with the apple symbol on it. Fortunately at this stage Jason Hando felt sorry for me and sent me a link to the Switchers’ Guide to Windows and Mac Differences and Equivalents and Waxlyrical sent me lots of links for people starting out with Macs. Too scared to ask them where is the missing backspace key (as the delete key works like the backspace key on a PC - what the?).

To be honest the differences between a Mac and a PC are just what happens when you get a new device. The first time I used a PDA I struggled because I expected the Start menu to be on the bottom left not at the top of the screen; and it did take me awhile to how to use a PDA effectively, reality is it will take me awhile to learn how to use a Mac effectively (like I tell the lecturers the more you practice the better you get).

iMovie vs MovieMaker for creating a video podcast

To road test my new Mac I decided to create a video podcast using the Mac’s iMovie. Since I have been using MovieMaker for so long I did not find it obvious what I needed to do in iMovie so I started by watching the online video tutorial’s on iMovie at the Apple web site. These tutorials were really easy to understand however I do think they need to have more videos because some of the things I wanted to do were not in the videos (e.g. how to use themes effectively). Having saying that these are things that I do when creating movies using MovieMaker and are just tricks that I have picked up as I have used the program so are probably not shown in Windows tutorials either.

My thoughts are iMovie and MovieMaker are both easy to use and have different benefits over each other. The best aspects iMovie are:

1. Can save the video as .m4v format so do not have to convert from .wmv before I upload to my podcast site (if I upload as .wmv it converts the file format to .mp4 which plays on the podcast but does not play the audio on a video ipod)
2. Able to create Chapter podcasts - so audience can easily move to the section of the podcast they want to watch (not sure if my podcast site keeps the chapters when it converts when uploading - will need to test)

I am sure that as I get better using iMovie, the features of the program that I am less fussed with, will irate me less. Obviously it is also worth looking at other Mac software that might be useful for video podcasting. I have used Camtasia Studio 4 on a PC; definitely is a great program but is much harder to learn than both iMovie and MovieMaker (Camtasia also saves as .mp4 format).

Here is my first video (not a podcast yet as I have not uploaded it to my podcast site):

What I really like about my MacBook:

1. Small and compact (I am sitting in the lounge with it on my lap)
2. It easily accessed my wireless network, and the Internet is running really fast using wireless (probably faster than my wired PC). I have not been able to properly use wireless on my work Acer TravelMate 6410 - wireless will drop out anywhere between 5 min to 1 hr then I have to shutdown the laptop and restart to switch the wireless back on (it is my laptop as I tested a work colleague laptop - the same model). Also when I was able to access wireless on these laptops it really annoyed me as the Internet ran so slowly that I wanted to go and use it on my wired PC.
3. It looks pretty - which is important to a woman

What is next?

Well tomorrow I need to buy a cushion for sitting the MacBook on. Frances lent me hers to try when I visited her - so I definitely need one to make me more comfortable.

And I will have to create an audio podcast using GarageBand.

Plus read all the help information that Waxlyrical sent me so I can start using it more effectively.

I often get asked how long it takes to create my podcasts. Well it all depends on the type of podcast I am creating; is it a video or an audio podcast. My video podcasts normally take considerable time because I like to put lots of images to go with the information whereas audio podcasts are quicker since normally it is just a matter tidying them up a bit.

Every now and then you get caught out, what should have been a reasonably quick podcast gets hijacked by gremlins (little men in the machine that are out to get you).

First lets set the scene. I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to interview Sean O’Driscoll, General Manager Communities and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, about online communites and Web 2.0. (You will probably realise by now that I think Sean’s Community Group Therapy blog rocks). Due to work commitments and other podcasts I have had to edit it has taken me awhile to get to editing Sean’s interview.

So today I put Sean’s podcast on my to-do-list; it is only an audio podcast so that won’t take too long.

Famous last words, here is what happened:

1. I record my Skype interviews with HotRecorder. Once finished recording you convert to mp3 using their AutoConvertor. Well - I have been trying since the interview to convert to a mp3 or wav using AutoConvertor without any luck. It kept “not responding” on my computer.
2. Not a problem there is always plan B. Plan B always works. You play the recording in HotRecorder and record using Video ipod with attached MicroMemo recorder (sound is feed from computer to recorder on ipod). That worked so well - NOT! Bugger….
3. Plan C. So I decided that the way to go was to copy the audio file to another location on my computer and then update my version of HotRecorder in case that was the problem with HotRecorder. Imagine my surprise to discover it had converted ok and there was no need for me to have wasted time trying to record onto my ipod.
4. Great so now edited in Audacity - which I did. But FINE….not. HotRecorder produces a wav or mp3 file that is recorded at 24,000 hz with Sean’s audio playing in one ear and mine in the other. If I upload a file at 24,000 hz Sean will sound like a chipmunk (his kids would have a good laugh). So again I got out the video ipod, that always works, and tried lot of times, with lots of combinations to record, because that way if it worked we would both play in both ears and it would be at 44,100 hz - but no luck just could not get it to work.
5. Downloaded a few Audio conversion programs to try and get it to convert to 44,100 hz and play better. Nope…. no good.
6. Even thought I would start up my work laptop and try connecting my ipod to it…NOPE…even my laptop hates me and would not let me log in as localuser.
7. So there was one choice left…..(actually what I really want to do was really a bit dramatic)…changed project rate in Audacity to 22,050 hz which then means it will no longer chipmunk however have to live with the voice each person playing in different ears.

Yes - I know the solution is to get myself some better podcasting equipment like my mate Stephan Ridgway from Talking VTE. He use a mixer and good microphones to record his Skype interviews. Still not sure why my ipod solution won’t work as it normally does. Oh well so is life. I am sure that Stephan, if he listens to my podcast with Sean, will have great pleasure in giving me a bit of a hard time as we have great discussions on how long a podcast should be; and I argue the need to keep them less than 30 minutes.

Any way, broke my own rule, the interview with Sean is longer than 30 minutes but I did not want to break it up as he talks about some many great topics such as: online commnunities and why they are important to businesses; how to manage inappropriate behaviour in online communities; the value of blogging to him; and various Web 2.0 topics.

Please note it is now late - and now my wireless mouse has decided to play up as well. Must be time for bed!!!!!