Screen Capture II

So as stated last week, really busy at the moment!

But I thought I would continue the theme of screen capturing, although not something I would add to last weeks previous post I have found a nice, easy to use video capture and saver for those YouTube vids.

Catch Video at http://catchvideo.net/ allows you to grab, convert, preview and download those video’s you just dont want to get away in a variety of formats, a non-fussy interface that does exactly what you need it for!

Screen Capture

No last weekend post due to hectic week!

• Passed the Cisco CCNA 1 module
• Got some work done on my Dissertation
• got nominated by my college to be the Professional Development Advisor, and booked training days starting next week in London, see http://ecpd.bdplearning.com/ecpd/news_details.php?id=18
• and celebrated my first wedding anniversary

So I think I can get away with a bit of slack.

But I can still throw a few goodies in, following on from last weeks post on video capturing, this week I have been using Adobe Captivate to create some materials for students (price is not too pleasing), a cheaper (well free!) if less versatile alternative is WINK found at http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

you can always check out jing at  http://www.jingproject.com/ – an excellent screen-capturing utility from the guys at TechSmith

That should keep you interested :O)

Video Capture

So this week I have been looking at video capturing, many software applications exist out there (which I am sure I will look at in the future) but the one that interests me the most this week is ScreenToaster at http://www.screentoaster.com/.

A web based desktop capture application that doesnt just capture your browsing activities but anything you care to show before you finish recording. Still in its early stages it allows you to save in a variety of formats (flash, avi) once you have registered.

I was wondering how this could be put to simple yet effective use for learners (as there are far better software out there, but you do need to install it) The most obvious advantage is those of assessing student activities, learners carry out a task and use screentoaster to capture those activities, the lecturer need not have more than the standard pair of eyes. Students activities can be replayed back to the lecturer upon completion (without registration) or saved for assessment by lecturers at a more convenient time away from the classroom (requires registration) once the students have supplied the video file in an appropriate format.

Collaborative Software

So I am pretty hyped at the moment, much to the annoyance of my colleagues. After recommending the USB solutions to my students (and so far a lot of them are starting to use it already) I have been focusing on collaborative software this week.

Most of the course I am involved with have project/group elements and in the past we have utilised the likes of  “Yahoo Groups” when they need to manage their own files, coding and documentation. Wiki’s seem like a useful area to explore too, but I have been toying around with MS Groove (only a little) but mainly with a piece of software called “Gobby”.

In essence Groove allows you to place a document on in a virtual space, and any of the invited members can edit the documents at any time from anywhere (given a net connection and the groove software), certainly it helps with having many “revision” documents floating around, or the need for a document manager. so this is certainly something that my degree students could use when needing to produce documents in groups away from classroom activities. A free alternative to this is google docs (includes demo) at http://docs.google.com

Something that I have found on the web that is free and offers a range of functionality is Collaber at http://www.collaber.com/, this might me something to look into in the future.

However, what I’m really physched about is “Gobby”.  Not only is it a free download it has many applications. So what is it then? well basically it is a simple text editor where everyone can access each other documents and create/edit text on-the-fly in a networked environment. Each users text is indicated by a chosen colour background, so you can see who has typed and if editing has occurred who has carried it out. There is also a chat section that is seperate from the main document section. Website: http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/

Now how might this be useful? well lets look at a simple scenario, a Lecturer is delivering a PowerPoint presentation of 20 slides to 10 students. Each student will make their own notes of varying depth (and understanding). These 10 (if they all take notes!) sets of notes are not often (if at all) reviewed.

So now we try out “Gobby”. The Lecturer creates a “session” giving his/her 10 Students the logon details (host/password), each Student starts the “Gobby” application and gives their name (or  nickname) and picks a colour to use. So we are ready to go!

With the same presentation of 20 slides, each student picks 2 slides to author notes on, and two slides to become an editor.  At the end of the slide show we have a comprehensive set of notes that have been collaborated upon, they are peer reviewed and upon summation of the session the Lecturer can review the document themselves (hopefully on the interactive board), correcting any miscomprehension’s. The document is saved for all to use.

But the application reaches further than this, although it has no Bold, Italic or Underline facilities, it does lend itself (and its main use) to collaborative programming – easily being used for web page design, visual basic, etc.

The software is intended to be piloted in April with my Degree students, observations and result to be posted soon after!

Memory Stick Solution & Blog Justification

So I have searched the web, downloaded and tested and I seem to have a found a stable and acceptable solution to the USB Stick Woes post.

See the page on Portable Media Advice

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So now onto the reason for this blog (the USB problem being higher priority)

Why? well for a number of reasons

1. In relation to an ILT seminar that im due to deliver to an Essex University & Regional Colleges in the near future

2. I have just been told that I am the new ILT Champion where I work

3. I am a self confessed nerd anyway

Now I have know about blogs, but are they useful? well to anyone interested in the topic surely. To me though? yes, at the very least its can be a repository of all my little projects, maybe a bit better organised. I probably dabble with so many ideas its hard to remember them all in one go – mention ILT and it’s blogs, wikis, podcasts and VLE’s (virtual learning environments). Well maybe this blog can change that!

(I have just got to make sure its not page after page of useless ramblings!)

USB Stick Woes

So it finally happened after 7 years depending upon them, I lost my USB stick – after a whole two weeks with a new 4GB!Luckily enough I had -

• More than enough spare USB Sticks
• Backed up all my data the previous day (more luck than judgment)
• Only created 3 simple docs since I had backed up

So other than losing a £5 stick it got me thinking on how I could employ ICT to minimise the damage by losing any further USB sticks (at minimal cost!), I want something that  -

• Can backup my memory sticks frequently  and automatically
• I know sometimes I leave my memory stick at work and often use the backup files to edit and improve then I have to transfer the next day  – so I want something that can syncronise and not just copy would be even better.
• Finally, although no sensitive material was on the lost memory stick it occurs to me that some form of encryption would be good for sensitive files, ideally this would need to be used on any machine – even those that I do not have administrator rights for.

The search begins!