http://cogdogblog.com/wp-content/audio/dr-microphone.mp3 [35:19 min, 24.3 mp3]

What follows are just some of the many references Gardner mentioned. It only dawned on me after having set up a time to chat, that I was going to be editing this and posting it as a podcast, and then thinking- “Gardner will learn how sloppy I am on my audio editing…” — the truth is there are audio experts out there that will hear every pop, crack, clip, and there are others for whom those might was well by the whistling of bats (which most humans do no hear).

We had decided to talk via Skype, and my plan was to use Ambrosia Software’s WireTap Pro to record both the audio (WireTap can capture all sound coming in or coming out of a Mac). Some of the goofiness in the beginning was some stumbling as I tried different things to get a better connection. I had tried first on my old 700 Mhz iBook, where the audio was dropping out, and Gardner sounded.. well, a bit in a stupor (which he was not). Thinking it was bandwidth, I switched the connection from wireless to me wired connection (I have a fast DSL connection for the home office, routed both for wired and wireless). Not much better.

So I tried again, switching computers to the newer MacBookPro– and shazam! great sound. The old iBook may need to be put to mild surfing use from now on. Since Audacity does not yet run on the Intel Macs, and I was lazy to restart the MBP to Windows to edit there, I just imported the WireTap recording into Garage Band… which may not have the most full fledged audio editing tools, but wow is it fun to use. There was at least an hour’s divergence into assembling opening music. I also noted my audio inputs (me on my USB headset microphone) and outputs (Gardner through Skype) were not even, so I ended up adjusting the levels for each of our speaking turns. I need to find the right balance (drop the input levels on my microphone) for future use. This is probably a case where the better approach is a 3 way Skype, where the third party is an extra computer that just records the other t2 parties.

Garage Band/iTunes also does a nice job of compressing, getting 35 minutes down to 24 Mb (saving at 96 kbs stereo). It is an extra step- from Garage Band it is Save to iTunes (where my music is AAC), and then I use iTunes to convert to MP3.

Mentioned Sites:

• Sound Projects C3 Microphone
• Marantz PMD 671 Portable Recorder
• Edirol R1 Portable Digital Recorder
• Rode NT5 Matched Pair Cardioid Condenser Microphones
• Giant Squid Microphones
• iRiver
• iAudio U3
• BLUE Snowball Microphones
• University of Mary Washngton’s ProfCast
• IT Conversations Wiki
  • Audio Processing
  • File Formats and Encoding
  • Uncle Doug’s Audio Tips
• Transom
• Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide

The audio quality is mostly good, with some bad moments of echos and volumes drops as the Case staff struggled to deal with the media capability of the hotel. Editing required popping the audio files to the Windows side of the MacBookPro since Audacity is not a Universal option yet. See how handy this machine is?

So hold on to your mouse… below is a slew of ‘casts…

Thursday: The conference begins- a welcome from Wendy Shapiro, the host from Case Western Reserve University.
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/nmc2006-welcome.mp3 [15:17 7 Mb MP3]

Thursday: NMC’s Larry Johnson thanks opening plenary Brenda Laurel
New Media in Education: Students Looking Forward was just an inspirational message about creativity, as Brenda shared examples of the works her students create at the Art Center College of Design by working in a pure studio environment. She has a low key, slightly sarcastic tone that was just engaging. This was a great kick off to the conference.
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/brenda-laurel.mp3 [54:24 24.9 Mb MP3]

How Were Thursday’s Sessions?
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/thursday.mp3
Some random thoughts for participants when I accosted them in them in the hallways with my iAudio recorder.

Centers for Excellence Award
Friday: Three NMC centers, Case Western, SFMOMA, and University of Michigan were recognized for their achievements. The audio starts with an intro from Adobe, who sponsored the session, and includes some audio from a video segment they showed. Each center also showed a video, so as a podcast, some it is just music.
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/centers-excellence.mp3 [35:37 16.5 Mb]

Friday: A special award of recognition was given to Carl Berger, as he was named as an NMC Fellow. I ahve had the pleasure of knowing Carl for a few years, and his excitement, vision, and energy are a model for all of us in the field. During the conference sessions, he was invariably snapping photos, posting blog entries, uploading to flickr, and asking great questions.
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/nmc-fellow.mp3 [10:31 4.8 Mb]

Friday: Five Minutes of Fame the fast and furious session in which NMC members present a project or innovation and must do so in five minutes, when the gong rings and they must sit down. We had 10 presentations cover a lot of ground in just over 50 minutes.
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/five-minutes.mp3 [51:20 25.3 Mb]

Friday: The NMC Second Life Campus: From Dream to Virtual Reality our session where real and virtual crossed. At Cleveland, our guest presenters Giff Constable and Sara Van Gordon from Electric Sheep Company did an overview of Second Life and their work on the design of the NMC Campus. The video from the hotel, feeble as the internet connection was, was streamed into the NMC Campus so our virtual guests could see. The first 5 minutes of the audio includes the track from the video segment (below), but be sure to tune in to hear Giff describe his perspective on Second Life (see coverage in the NMC Observer).
http://www.nmc.org/events/2006summerconf/media/second-life.mp3 [55:39 25.5 Mb MP3]

NMC Second Life Movie
The video shown during this session is available as a QuickTime movie file and as an iPod ready m4v video.
http://www.nmc.org/sl/video/nmc-secondlife.mov [5:33 Quicktime MOV 12.6 Mb]
http://www.nmc.org/sl/video/nmc-secondlife.m4v [5:33 QuickTime iPod M$v 31.9 Mb]

There, that should keep a few of you busy.

http://cogdogblog.com/wp-content/audio/nau06-keynote.mp3 [1:20:00 36.6 Mb MP3]

I happily stand corrected to a 6 hour old assertion.

If anyone has time, like less than 3 minutes, can you say “hello” and perhaps share some ideas for interesting uses of podcast technology beyond “recorded lectures”? Or tell me the methods you are using to do “podcasting on the cheap”

Just send me an Odeo:

I wish I could offer more than thanks (and Cole and Gardner, you are off the hook since you’ve previously responded). Audio will be shared/casted from http://www.odeo.com/channel/69807/view

Thanks.

Thanks.

Actually “prepping” means begging, nagging, cajoling people to actually write something (rather than copy and paste a summary of events that already exist on other web sites).

Anyhow, as a preview (not exactly linked from the front entrance), I am sharing an article that was garnered via a quick interview (e.g. turn on iRiver, click “record”) I did with Karen Schwalm, one of our true pioneering faculty who use technology effectively. Karen had attending my Podcasting, Schmodcasting demo in March and got inspired by Odeo to do some interesting online audio essays.

She has done some interesting experiments in creating class materials, motivational pieces, and is trying to have our students use audio as a writing/revision tool. She’s put together some thoughts about the values (and challenges) of using audio as a tool to improve writing).

Well, let the content “speak” for itself:

Speaking What We Write (article preview)
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/iforum/2006/65

Audio from interview (18 minute, 4.1 Mb MP3):
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/forum/spr06/karen_schwalm.mp3

Sample pieces by Karen referenced in the article:
Watching Boars
Approaching the Finish Line
Home Alone
Sine Curve of Teaching with Technology

But the podcasting flow is pretty good, with my quick and dirty recording with an iRiver, simple Audacity editing (fade in, fade out, bump levels, and take out a few “umms”), and publishing via a scotch tape and rubber band MovableType system.

It seems to make sense for many of our projects and events, since not everyone in our geographically far flung system can be there for synchronous events. Just toss the iRiver on a table and record.

So recently added to our podcast mix:

(1) We have a group trying to look creatively at Learning Space Design. On Wednesday of this week, we visited an Interior Design class at Mesa Community College. The students had completed projects doing a “Post Occupancy Evaluation” of the college’s Jazzland CyberCafe, a coffee shop and student gathering area (plus wireless and technology available) built during a remodel of the old library. Previous design students had worked on the plans for this facility. This group did photographic ethnography, surveys, and detailed observations to gather data and analyze just how the facility was used. The students gave our committee presentations and discussed their findings. We will eventually have the PowerPoints posted to our meeting notes wiki, but the 63 minute audio is posted:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/audio/mcc_design_students_mar06.mp3

(2) At the same meeting, we also had a cool demo of what Mesa Community College is doing with Voice/Video Over IP. All of their phones are/will be VOIP, essentially enabling them to do video conferencing with cheap web cams over the network. But the reason for this demo was to show us their surveillance cameras and software– for their security office, cameras are set up in open and public places around campus, and are connected and controlled via IP. The software they have is pretty amazing; cameras can be scripted to do pans and zooms, and the video stored is all digital. Beyond the concerns of privacy, we were told that numerous crimes had been solved (including a mugging that had happened that day). But our group was interested in the possibility of this kind of technology to possibly gather data over time that would help assess how informal learning space was being used. Their ought to be some tools to script image captures on a timed basis, and some method of estimating perhaps number of people in or moving through a space. Anyhow, the audio is a bit over 30 minutes:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/audio/mcc_voip_mar06.mp3

(3) I’ve been posting 8-12 minute clips recorded from our Honors Forum Lecture Series, where 6 public lectures are given to a student and community office during the year, all within the theme of the national honor society. (This year it is “Popular Culture: Shaping and Reflecting Who We Are”). The audio is sent to our colleges in CD format, so we just wanted to provide a sampler (plus I am not excited about digitizing hours and hours of audio). This set of podcasts are listed at:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/honors/podcast.php

(4) And woot! We just got our first Apple iTunes podcast in their system. Our Digital Story examples mentioned earlier are now directly linkable to the A-iT store via:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa
/viewPodcast?id=130033155&s=143441

Can’t wait to add this as a subscribe link to the storytelling site.

That’s enough. Clouds are building out my window.

For the past few years, two of our faculty that teach a semester-long class in digital storytelling have provided the same experience in compressed form for faculty as a 40 hour “Bringing Digital Storytelling to the Classroom LearnShop”. I started hovering in the August 2004 session and made a lot of appeals for getting permission to share the final stories on our web site, in both streaming QuickTime and Windows media formats.

Back when I got an iPod video, I quickly converted the movies to iPod movie format (using QuickTime Pro) but lagged behind in getting a podcast feed set up. Not a big deal, since it only gets updated about once a year, but it does provide an easy way to access the stories at will. The final story examples now also have a download link for the iPod movie version (*.m4v) of every story.

But now we have a working iTunes encrusted RSS feed:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/learnshops/digital/stories.xml

I started by reading up on the “Apple – iTunes – Podcasts – Technical Specification”, but wanted to avoid the pitfalls and hijinks of manual XML editing. So I cranked up a little bit of PHP code to make a script that can create an iTunes tagged RSS feed from a template (well 2 templates). I enter the needed data for the feed items in an Excel spreadsheet, and the contents are then copy/pasted to a text data file, The main PHP script loads some variables that define the information used in the <channel> section.

A useful piece of my code is an often used piece of PHP code used to create a string of content form a template file- an associative array and name of the template file as passed to the function, and it returns the string with values inserted guided by placeholders marked with %%somevariable%%, so the value of my php array $stuff['somevariable'] is inserted in place of the marked tag.

Then the data file is read in as an array marked by newline characters separating records. Each line is a tab delimited set of data, which is then parsed into an array with all the information needed for one item. It spits out the content as a local file “podcast.xml”.

The code is now available at:
http://cogdogblog.com/code/itunes_rss_maker.zip

I tried to make it fairly general, but no guarantees, mileage will vary, etc. I’ve been using it successfully on 2 or 3 sites.

But enough tech stuff, sit back and enjoy the stories, there are some powerful stories to watch, in whatever format you choose.

Enough blabber, you can find the audio from our meeting at:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/olg/notes.php?yr=0506&id=7#students1

There are two segments- the first, at an hour and thirteen minutes, moves through the intros, types of classes taken, experiences, technology issues, ideas on different media formats. The second segment, in 26 minutes, moves into the “challenges” students faced, and their recommendations to our system.

I had hoped I could listen again and pull some highlights, because there were some great quotes, but time is running me ragged this week. Some quick things I recall:

* Online students print a lot of their materials, some almost print everything, including discussion board posts. Some do this because they need to review material away from the computer; others do it as survival, backup, for when the technology fails.
* Students are mixed on the use of audio- they appreciate/desire multiple modes of content, but want it to be things that are not just a repeat of what is available in print form. One used it himself, recording his own audio notes as study guide.
* Most of our students (on the panel) had no orientation, introduction to the environment. One reported hearing other students’ resentment to a required in person orientation to a course they intended to study away from campus.
* Our students find online quizzing troublesome and glitch prone, frustrating. One was very vocal about how trivial and minute the quiz questions were, and how the system often closed him out of a quiz.
* All students were taking this as a means of fitting learning into a busy work.life schedule. It helps just to hear the things they are working learning around to make this “fit”.
* They crave communication/feedback/socialization and more then one were disappointed in ghost town discussion boards.

Yes, the audio is here, but I am still a bit peeved that so few faculty and administrators showed up (21 attending). They missed out.

Different from Monday, today I moved more quickly through the variety of demos portion, zoomed through the definitions, and actually got to get all three how-to create demos thought at such a speed, I know there was some whiplash in the crowd.

Doing the live recording demo with my iRiver, I must have clicked the wrong button, and lost whatever Scott and John said, so I had to resort to using a clip from Monday’s (there is some funny cut and paste at the end as I was showing how you can move things around in Audacicty).

I did fit in a ‘good’ Odea web recording done with the tools on the site, and also did a phone call in demo- and that worked too! It should up actually in less than a minute.

So another day, another MP3…. here is the 53 minutes of my blathering about podcasts:
http://zircon.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/dl/podcast-demo-060301.mp3

Like before, I am also demo-ing lobbing the podcast links to a Blogger site, which is also registered in Feedburner. Ba-da-boom, Ba-da-bing, I get a podcast:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/cogdogbloglab

Also, on the P-cast front, I am fixing up our MCLI motley connection of podcasts with a menu system now that loads the different categories I had set up. This is content still being published via my scotch tape and rubber banded use of MovableType 2.661 – it works, but is somewhat tedious. To do again, I mght have just set up a small WordPress site, and use cateogores to segregate feeds.

I was also experimenting with setting up a small PHP script to generate iTunes friendly RSS, which I have now for our digital storytelling collection, and an assorted mix of special audio and video content from our archives:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/learnshops/digital/podcast.xml
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/podcast/index.xml

This are still being tested out and are not really prime time. I am doing this by using Excel (that is exported to a text file) to create a table of titles , summaries, keywords, author, etc. In PHP I load an array with some data for the channel, run it through a template function, and then the item data is read from a text file, where each line is tab delimited data I can parse and run through another template to fill in the items.

It’s a slight kludge but is working okay– down the line I could easily grab the data from a database rather then a text file. Guessing that someone will ask, I will post some code in a day or too.

Ugh, I am just SICK of podcasting. Is there any other edible buzzword left?