The Seed of an Idea: Education, Technology & Innovation

For several years JCCC has set aside 1% of its Information Technology Plan (ITP) budget to fund the Technology Innovation Grant (TIG) program. Faculty members may apply for a grant which is “designed to assist JCCC faculty with the acquisition of technical hardware and software, which fosters innovation in instruction. This process has been created to help make possible and expedite technological innovations that improve learning at JCCC.” Not all of the grant applications have been funded and some proposals have been funded wholly or partially out of other college resources besides TIG funds. One benefit of the program is that it brings to light instructional needs that while not funded through TIG, need to be funded within the institutional budget.

Some of the funded projects have included the acquisition of an iTouch mobile device for a faculty member teaching in the Interactive Media program, several Kindles for faculty in the Reading program, Camtasia Studio, handheld camcorders and wireless Wacom tablets for 35 faculty in a pilot project to develop tutorials for classroom/online use, PDAs for Nursing faculty to try out software for their curriculum, assembling equipment for an Archaeological Field School, the addition of three “Cones of Silence” for use by students viewing media in the Library and a 3D printer for the Drafting Department to enable students to visually create a 3D model from CADD drawings. The last two projects are detailed in a recent Technology Brown Bag session (see http://tinyurl.com/tigtbb or http://video.jccc.edu/academicvid/BrownBags/Brownbag10-14-09.asx ).

Sometimes there’s a scarcity of faculty proposals for TIG funds. I suspect that one reason is that technological innovation doesn’t always require funds, hardware or software. With faculty creativity and access to a wide range of free web 2.0 or rich internet applications (RIAs), sometimes no institutional funding is required.

When funding is required, where does the seed of an idea come from? We’ve encouraged brainstorming of ideas during Technology Brown Bag sessions and JCCC faculty members are always invited to visit with a staff member in the Educational Technology Center (ETC) to discuss possible instructional technology projects (and not just for TIG proposals).

As an additional brainstorming opportunity, TechNews shares information about webinars, Web 2.0 tools and ideas that could provide the seed of an idea for a TIG proposal.

Recently I asked colleagues on the New Media Consortium subscribers list (JCCC is a NMC member) for classroom innovations from their institutions. Here are a few of the responses.
Edward Lee Lamoureux (Associate Professor in the Interactive Media Program and Department of Communication at Bradley University) teaches a course entirely (100%) in Second Life (see http://im.bradley.edu/ell/slstuff.html ). His initial motivation was to find a distance learning environment that would support audio interaction with his students. Edward teaches “Introduction to Field Research in Virtual Worlds” in second life, a three-week intersession course at Bradley U. You can hear an audio interview about his experiences teaching in SL at http://sl.nmc.org/2006/08/08/professor-beliveau/ .

Pamela Gades (Instructional Technology Specialist, University of Minnesota, Morris) reported that an organic chemistry professor is using Camtasia Relay to record “pre-lab lectures” for her students and posting them on her course web site and on iTunes U. Students are required to view the pre-lab lectures before attending the weekly organic chemistry labs. The instructor creates the videos in her office using an iMac. Camtasia Relay is available at JCCC too and can be run on either a Macintosh or Windows PC. More information on JCCC’s Camtasia Relay pilot will be available by late-November. The instructor at UM-Morris uses humor and stories while infusing her sessions with lots of encouragement and real-life application of the topics.

Damon E. Betlow (Academic Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology) reported that RIT has created a Teaching & Learning Technology Studio (similar to JCCC’s Learning Studio) which allows instructors to try out new technologies in a safe, supported environment. The classroom features:

• 25 student tablet PCs
• An instructor tablet PC and stylus-enabled monitor
• Collaboration and Faculty Monitoring System for the tablets (DyKnow Vision and Monitor)
• Student Response System (iClicker)
• Multiple Digital Projection Systems (3 screens that allow for widescreen content or 3 separate sources)
• Flexible Seating Design
• Remote Pan/Tilt Video capture capability
• Audio conferencing capability through room’s sound system (remote microphones and ceiling speakers)

RIT is looking into adding an interactive whiteboard, instructor-controlled lecture capture and/or live streaming, as well as videoconferencing capability. For more information, visit http://tltstudio.rit.edu/ .

So, if you have an idea for a TIG, stop by the ETC and talk with the Center’s staff about your idea. Maybe we can help you flesh it out.

New Media Consortium Summer Archives Online

JCCC is a member of the New Media Consortium (NMC) which holds an annual Summer Conference. A collection of videos from the 2009 NMC Summer Conference in Monterey are available, including:

• Keynote presentations by Kathy Sierra and Marco Torres
• Point Lobos Photo Shoot- a slide show of the best photos from the pre-conference digital photography workshop
• The Five Minutes of Fame session (10 great presentations in less than an hour! with a gong!)
• And more.

You can watch all of these packaged together in a single Flash Player (there is a scrolling menu below the video area): http://www.nmc.org/2009-summer-conference/videos
or browse them individually, where we have reference links as well as QuickTime versions: http://www.nmc.org/2009-summer-conference/media

Telling Your Story with Video & Your Video Camera

Yesterday, Bob Epp, Sr. Analyst (Johnson County Community College, Educational Technology Center), presented a Technology Brown Bag on "Telling Your Story with Video." Bob shared his experiences as an attendee at the Travel Channel Academy's 4-day boot camp led by Michael Rosenblum.

Bob discussed the required steps and planning required to effectively communicate a concept in a video format. He briefly touched on storyboarding, script writing and pre-planning for a video shoot, as a brief summary of the 4-day boot camp.

His presentation reminded me of a recent discussion on the New Media Consortium (NMC) list in response to the question: "How good of a camera do you need to videotape for web delivery? Should you still get as good a camera as you can afford or are the cheaper consumer cameras all you need?"

Here are the points I gleaned from the postings (slightly edited).

• As long as your video image size on the web is something on the order of 320 x 240 pixels, you'll do fine even with old non-high definition (HD) cameras, and certainly with a moderately good consumer HD camera. (Hertz)
• The little FlipVideo cameras are good for talking head interviews and field news. Actually, I just sent in a video from home that was aired on the local TV news (using) my FlipVideo. The FlipVideo is good for that and for moving around outside. Good because you can quickly upload to YouTube, without needing that much video knowledge. In my opinion, that is the best use of the cheaper consumer cameras: field use. (Laur)
• In a classroom setting using a FlipVideo or similar camera with no external mic might not provide the quality you need. Recording location and target destination (YouTube, iTunes U, streaming video server) are all considerations. When our target is iTunes U, we use a wireless mic with a digital video camcorder on a tripod. Most of our classrooms are large with people making noise and moving around. You do not notice it until you actually try to record a class lecture and edit the resulting video. (Laur)
• If you plan to do a lot of editing, you'd be best served by something a little more traditional in terms of a camcorder. A FlipVideo and its peers create video files that are designed to be delivered as-is for the most part. They aren't suitable for frame accurate editing. Scrubbing through these types of files can be an exercise in patience even on a nicely equipped machine. (Saunders)
• If you use a cheap consumer camera in a big classroom with students coughing and shuffling around, you are going to have audio problems.” (Laur)
• Your “videographer’s kit” should include a good quality video camcorder, a wireless mic, an equipment bag, tripod, backup hard drive, and editing software. I would suggest (a camcorder) that allows for external mics and either uses a miniDV tape or solid state built-in memory with sufficient storage to record a complete class without needing a recharge or swap power or storage mid-way through. (Laur)
• Good audio can make not so great video look better. Good audio also compresses better, and delivers content more effectively. (Hertz)
• Good quality audio quality may require one of the better cameras. An external mic or various mics fed through a mixer (mic for lecturer, mic for audience) can really improve quality of the recording. A camera with good mic/line audio inputs is essential. If you can get a balanced audio input on the camera, even better, but consumer models tend to have just a simple mini-plug input. (Hertz)
• If you are not working with a good camcorder and a tripod then the best bet might be to only record audio and then use something to capture the presentation on the computer (Camtasia Studio or other screen capture tools). For instance, a chemistry class is best recorded with only audio with a PowerPoint slideshow synchronized with the audio. (Laur)
• You need to determine what value is added by including video over just using an audio recording. Video adds extra editing time and extra download time. If video is mostly someone talking in front of a class, then the audio plus photos, the so-called enhanced podcast, might work pretty good. (Laur)
• If you do get a solid state camera, consider getting one that records in the MJPEG format instead of .mp4 or .wmv. I'd personally recommend a better quality SD DV camera that accommodates the audio concerns others are addressing. That way you get a tape backup, which is a good place to store the video long term (those FlipVideo HD files pile up quickly on your hard drive), you get frame accurate editing that performs well on even a moderately equipped machine, and you'll still be well above the level of delivery in terms of quality. (Saunders)

Special thanks to John Kingsley (Instructional Media Developer, University of Virginia) for posting the question and to Paul Hertz (Senior System Engineer, Northwestern University), Don Laur (Digital Media Systems Specialist - Web Dev & Tech Support, College of Mass Communications & Media Arts , Southern Illinois University) and Grover Saunders (Web Media Design Engineer, Center for Instructional Technology, James Madison University) who posted responses.