johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

Wealth Without Work

Pleasure Without Conscience

Knowledge Without Character

Commerce Without Morality

Science Without Humanity

Worship Without Sacrifice

Politics Without Principles

Rights Without Responsibilities.

from Ghandi

EdTechMag.com recently published an article on podcasting in schools. They quoted me several times, including this one:

“Fresh is Best!”

When talking about the importance in keeping podcasts published. Just like a blog, old content stinks of staleness. It’s important to establish a podcast, but keep the episodes coming!

Tonight I completed part II of my digital portfolios class at work. In years past, we’ve generated an interactive PowerPoint or Keynote Presentation. This time around, they wanted to try blogs.

First, I set up an example. I think using blog posts as individual artifact holders makes a lot of sense, and if your portfolio has domains (as ours do), you can use blog categories.

I think one of the benefits of this procedure is that your portfolio can be interactive! Yes, you can solicit comments from others. Not a bad thing. And individual pages in our WordPress-powered blogs can be used for more static content, like resumés, references, or awards.

I recently found a new product from a company called “Drobo,” called the drobo. It’s like a RAID enclosure for 4 SATA drives–for both Macs and PCs.

They call it a “robot,” something intelligent enough to re-format new drives, and keep data integrity when one drive goes south.

The demo says it all. If it works as good as they show, I’d hope to get one some day.

Drobo.com

Video on the web is here to stay. Over the past two days at work, I developed a new video podcast on using Google’s new “MyMaps” service, part of Google Maps.

(The feed for the podcast is here: TechTimes Live.)

So, with folks like the Washington Post now sporting HD podcasts (presumably for the AppleTV), what gives for instructional video podcasts?

I’ve recently found some online tutorial sites, such as MacInstruct and Screencasts Online, which are great (for Mac users). Tonight, I received an e-mail from Apple, with this suggestion (er, warning?):

It’s best not to create two different podcast feeds for different resolutions. By doing so, you dilute the popularity of your podcast and reduce exposure in our charts. It’s better to have one feed high in the charts than two that are lower.

They like 16:9 format, and they really like 640 resolution, across.

If your source files are 16:9, stick with that aspect ratio. Don’t add letterboxing to make them 4:3. By doing so, you prevent the video from expanding to fill a 16:9 widescreen TV and instead end up with black space on all four sides. Also, your original source files should be at least 640 pixels wide.

This was my solution in working with the new video podcast.

I developed an introduction at 30fps at HD resolution (1280×720). This is too big for some monitors (1024×768). It’s great for an Apple TV. But the original source file was 5.42 GB. That’s bigger than a DVD for an 11-minute podcast (full 48kHz audio, 30fps, Motion-JPEG). These are huge files. My screen recording, likewise, filled the majority of those 11 minutes at the same resolution.

I next did some editing in Final Cut Pro. The entire video required re-rendering. Not sure why. This is FCP 4.

After the editing, I got my giant 5.42 GB file. I dragged it into a 3rd-party encoder (MPEG Streamer) and compressed the video to 800px wide, by 450 tall. This seemed to be a nice compromise. I used H.264, mono AAC audio, and 15 fps.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the video quality (at 62 MB). I might try again at a higher bit-rate. I could also try again with another compression engine (Quicktime, VisualHub, etc.) to see if the quality would improve. My app contained an option to multi-pass, which I did, and didn’t see any significant improvement for the 3-times as long wait.

The problem with instructional videos that rely upon screen capture is that, even at 640×480, they are not effective for iPods. They “sing” at HD. But a good quality HD video at 11 minutes would likely be 150-200MB download. And that’s not reasonable for distribution on the web–yet. The 800×450 ratio is likely a good candidate for Apple TV, but my videos are intended for teachers (and in some cases students) using a 1024 or 1200-pixel wide laptop.

The one thing that did translate well in the video I made was the zooming-in using the Universal Access feature in Mac OS X. When you *really * want someone to see something, it’s worth invoking. The more you, I think the better the video is.

Developing a good instructional video takes time and patience. I think future attempts will include more motion graphics to support the underlying soundtrack (more examples, visualizations), and maybe a “talking head” component so people can actually see the instructor. No one needs to see me for the entire production, but the human-element of having a person delivering the content might help.

The teacher asks:

“What should I be doing?”

Let me clarify: you only have so much time in the day. A teacher wants to use technology in education. Where to start?

This is a reminder for me to write about this topic, as a research question/paper. I have some answers.

I like to write. Maybe that’s why I’m trying the impossible task of blogging here, there, and everywhere. I started a portfolio blog, my work blog, my cuisine blog, my music blog… blog blog blog.

Last month I submitted my revised version of my podcasting/RSS book to ISTE. I want to write a second book. I think the exercise of re-writing helped me become a much better writer.

I want to write again while I have the verve, style, and interest close to heart.

As I contemplate this project, there are many questions to answer:

• What is the book about (I have several ideas)?
• Who will publish it? or
• Should I self-publish
• Should I write a book series (one of my ideas would support this)?
• Should I focus on teachers/educators, or move on to students?
• Should the book be interactive/web based? (Gee, there’s an idea)

Another creative project I’m very much looking forward to is the VSTE Podcast. If all goes to plan, in July I should begin a new VSTE project, a transmogrification of the VSTE Edge newsletter. It will become the Edge Podcast and that’s all I can say for now.

Hey–thanks for reading. I hope to soon start some more writing.

At work i’ve been working with several teachers at integrating the use of podcasts in their classes. I came up with this so-called “Podcast Worksheet” to help students plan-out a project.

The worksheet is in PDF, and can be filled-out on the computer.

There are several things you should know.

1. The basic outline is listed on page 1, and used as a guide.
2. The teacher “signs-off” on the planning worksheet before recording begins.
3. The content may very well be written-up, or -out on another document, sheet, or in a different media. The content can vary between poetry, interviews, a musical work, or a photograph.
4. The concept here builds around one podcast, many episodes.
5. I ask who the audience is… this will likely be important in assessing the project.

I hope to continue work on this, and put it together with a complete “packet” for use in grades 6-12 for evaluating, planning, and producing podcasts.