BP_8 RILS-Links To Comments

Joe Brightman's Blog, Theoretically Speaking, features a RILS plan that has music students using the Web 2.0 tool, uJam. The students are creating musical compositions around their own solo performances and working collaboratively.  Follow  this link to my comments on his blog.

Glenn Shelton's blog, Ponderings of a Mid-Life Teacher, explores an innovative use of Web 2.0 tools to review for an end of course test.  Follow this link for my comments on his blog.

ETC_Final_Project

Overview:

            This Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario will have students creating work in a Web 2.0 tool that is very similar to software tools that they use in the school computer labs.  They will compare and contrast their experience and share their opinions with the teacher and each other.  The assignment will be executed entirely online.

1.              Target Audience: 

2^nd year college students.  Generally20-28 yrs. old, male and female.

2.              Materials (per student):

a)    Computer with

·  Adobe Photoshop

·  Adobe Audition

b)  Broadband Internet Connection

c)   Picture or sound files for students to work with

3.              Objectives: (Students will…)

a)    Create a new piece of work using an Aviary.com tool (Phoenix or Myna).

b)   Analyze the ease of use of the Aviary tool.

c)    Evaluate and contrast the capability of the Aviary tool with that of the comparative Adobe product (they’ve already used).

d)   Identify how this technology might be useful in one or more of the courses taken at the college.

4.         Procedure

a)    Email the student group with a link to Schoology.com including the access code for this assignment/class.  Request a brief message be sent by each student once they have registered for Schoology and linked to the class with the access code.

b)   From Schoology, send a message to all students with a link to Aviary.com.  Direct students to either create or manipulate an image, as they would do with Photoshop or create a new a new audio file using several audio tracks in Myna.

c)    Create a discussion board in Schoology for students to post a link to their work and leave comments.

d)   Direct the students to save their work on the Aviary server, then copy and paste the link to the work in the Discussion Board.  They must then view or listen to at least 2 other students’ works and leave comments.

e)    After comments have been posted, direct students to take the last step and write a blog comparing/contrasting the Aviary tool with the Adobe tool and reflecting on their experience.  Students should be directed to embed their work into the blog post.

Blog post can either be done from inside Schoology or one central blog could be created for the project using Blogger.

5.         Web 2.0 Tools

This RIL Scenario will utilize two tools of the Aviary.com suite of online tools: Phoenix & Myna.  These tools are comparable to the popular and well-known Adobe production tools of Photoshop and Audition, respectively.  This scenario will also make use of another Web 2.0 tool: Schoology.com.  Schoology offers a Facebook-like social networking environment as well as learning management tools.  This will become the conduit for students to communicate with the professor and each other during the learning/experimentation process.  Finally, students will publish links to their finished work and the critiques to a class blog using blogger.

6.         Social Participation

After completing their creations, students must view or listen to two other student’s works and post comments on the work.  This interchange between students will serve as a foundation for their final compare/contrast entry on the blog post.

7.         Making Connections

Students will connect work that they have done with their lab software with the Web 2.0 tools to create something new.  The new material will then become part of a new project, which will make use of the product(s) created with the Aviary tool(s).  The students’ work will also be shared to other classes and courses via their blog post on the web.

8.         Create/Produce

While the student will create a new work connected with a previous endeavor, the real product will be the analysis of the Web 2.0 tool itself.  Sharing the experience with other students will help all the students gain insight into effective use of the Aviary tools and guide the lesson toward more effective deployment in the future.

9.         Assessment

            See rubric below.

RILS Rubric for Student Work
	Excellent	Good	Average	Marginal
Product Production (20%)	Project contains detail and complexity comparative to projects done in class.	Project is a complete product but lacks some detail or complexity	Project is overly simple and lacks detail and complexity.	Project is incomplete and does not yield a complete product.
Analysis of Web 2.0 Tool (25%)	Narrative contains complete notes of personal experience and personal observations about the process of using the Aviary tool.	Narrative contains some notes of personal experience and at least 1 observation on the process of using the Aviary tool.	Narrative makes at least a single reference of personal experience and one observation on the process of using the Aviary tool.	Narrative lacks notes of personal experience and does not explain the process of using the Aviary tool.
Evaluation (compare/   contrast) (30%)	Narrative contains clear and specific comparisons to Adobe product equivalent and expresses preferences backed by reason.	Narrative makes some general comparisons to Adobe product equivalent and expresses preferences.	Narrative summarizes experience and compares to equivalent Adobe product.  Statement of preference is not fully explained.	Narrative makes no comparisons to Adobe product equivalent and expresses no opinion on preference.
Reflection (25%)	Narrative reflects on the student’s experience and projects, by example, specifically how the Aviary tool could be used by others in a similar course.	Narrative reflects on the student’s experience and describes possible use in another course, not necessarily by example.	Narrative summarizes but does not reflect on student’s personal experience.  Projects possible use of tool without examples.	Narrative lacks reflection on experience and does not project a possible use for the application.

10.      Reflection

Students will create a blog post to compare/contrast the Aviary tool with the Adobe tool.  This will be a written evaluation, posted to a project-centered blog and will include a reflection on their experience and their personal projection for its classroom use.

The teacher will create a personal reflection using iMovie that includes feedback from the student reflections (using screen capture and/or Screenflow video).

PE5_Aviary/Myna

Since I am well versed in audio production and not at all on image editing, I chose to explore the Myna application in the Aviary suite.

Myna compares very well to the multi-track environment of Adobe Audition and would probably seem comfortably familiar to Garage Band users as well.

In the multi-track session above, I have 3 tracks: a voice-over and two tracks of music.  I can easily move these tracks around to sync the music to the voiceover anywhere I want.  The screen shot above also has the automation track visible for 2 of my 3 tracks.  This is where I am able to manipulate the volume and other elements of the sound file.  I can also edit how much of the file I use by trimming it from either the left or right side.

Close up view of an individual music clip in Myna.  The yellow line indicates volume adjustments.  Dragging the upper ends inward allow a user to edit the clip by limiting how much of it is used.  Dragging the lower end outward allows the clip to loop or repeat, seamlessly.

Finally, by simply double-clicking the file I can open up the effects window.  Below you can see that I chose to add reverb to the top track, but you can see in the list on the right that there are several other effects to choose from.

Students often struggle to make deadlines and some try to work from home where they may not have all the resource of the school’s computer lab.  While getting comfortable and knowledgeable with Adobe Audition is required for my Audio Production class.  I can see several instances where using Myna could help students create at home and supplement their work in class.  They could even save their work online for free, then download the .mp3 once they are in class.

Take a listen to the brief piece of work that I put together in Myna.  It’s just a reworking of a piece of my 1-minute video for BlogAmp.  It doesn’t have the reverb that I mentioned above and it does contain a “speak-o”…that’s like a typo, but spoken…but it illustrates the flexibility and capability of Myna.  Also, it illustrates the benefit of their limited free online storage and the ability to embed a player, right in your blog...perhaps, easier than BlogAMP!

BlogAMP vo music mix.egg on Aviary.

The only real drawback of Myna compared to Adobe Audition is that Audition gives you the capability to physically edit and modify an individual sound clip.  Myna does not provide this, though with proper trimming and sequencing, you could accomplish comparable results with Myna’s multi-track environment.

PE4-Aviary

I’m actually targeting two Web 2.0 tools for my RILS project: Schoology.com and Aviary.com.   I’m hoping that this strategy isn’t too ambitious.  Asking students to work with two brand new tools might be a lot, but each should be somewhat familiar to them. 

Between Wimba and various student blogs I think we’re all familiar with Schoology by now, so I won’t spend time on that except to say that it will serve as the environment in which my students will communicate and collaborate.

Aviary.com is a site that hosts a variety of programs that rival the well-known applications in the Adobe Creative Suite such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Audition.  For my RILS project, I have focused my attention on two specific Aviary applications Phoenix and Myna.   

 

Phoenix is Aviary’s answer to Adobe’s Photoshop.  It's a pretty powerful image editor.  For a demonstration of the application's capabilities, follow the link.

Myna is comparable to Adobe Audition – a multi-track sound editor.  For a demonstration of the application's capabilities, follow the link.

My target audience is comprised of college students that have experience in one or both of the Adobe products, so my challenge to them is to use the Aviary products then compare and contrast their abilities, ease of use and application to that of the Adobe products.  Like some of our assignments in ETC, I’m not that concerned with the students’ final product using these tools.  I’m more interested in their analysis.

Since my volunteers have actually departed for the semester, I’m just hoping that they’ll still have enough drive to try these applications fully before they are overwhelmed with summer-fever.  I’m also going to work with Myna myself so check back to see how we all make out!

BP7_One_Minute_Video

Here's my one minute video on BlogAMP, the first web 2.0 tool that I reviewed.  Hope you enjoy it!

BP6_Mindi's Mind

I recently blogged about Schoology.com and linked to Glenn Shelton's blog in that post.  Well if you want some more info on Schoology, but with a little attitude and conviction, read my classmate Mindi Vandagriff's blog.  Mindi's Mind tells like it is with true Texas flavor.  Seriously, Mindi's a great blogger -- check it out.

BP5_Theoretically Speaking

My teammate and classmate Joe Brightman is a music teacher and a real quick study when it comes to media tools.  Check out his blog Theoretically Speaking.  He found a great Web 2.0 tool recently called uJam; read his blog on it.  While you're there, watch his :60 video on uJam and see his media skills at work.

BP4_Schoology.com

The latest exploration of the Exploratorium is Schoology.com.  I know that some of my fellow students have looked at it already, but the buzz around Wimba was just to great to accept the knowledge of this site as just a simple anecdote.  Glenn Shelton gave us some great insight into this Web 2.0 tool earlier and was kind enough to address one of my questions on his blog.  Thanks for your “ponderings” Glenn, they have helped me and others, I’m sure.

If there is one thing I’ve learned during my 3½ short months at Full Sail University it is that we need to engage students with the technology that they’re used to and using.  Schoology blends a Facebook-esqe interface and social networking features with the controls of a fully functional Learning Management System (LMS).

I expect to use Schoology as I try to keep a connection with my students now that our semester is over.  I have several volunteers who will be assisting me with my RILS project and Schoology seems like a great way to administrate that.

This screen is a simple entry point to name the course and establish the time frame for it.

 

I’ll skip showing the typical sign-up and profile pages because we’ve probably all used Facebook to some extent and the qualities of these pages are remarkably similar.  I chose to feature the course management screens as the LMS features seem to be extremely easy to use.

  

The content page lists all the various types of elements that I might consider incorporating into a class.  Assignments, quizzes, discussion boards, all just a click away.  

 

Finally, I was please to find that some basic privacy settings were available to maintain secure control of content.

I am not an experienced Facebook user so I will be relying on my students to help me discover effective ways to communicate across this platform.  I will look forward to using the LMS features to get meaningful interaction between students on selected topics.  Schoology also appeals to me because in my first step toward my CBR implementation, my students echoed a concern that I had.  I questioned them about communicating with professors on Facebook.  While about half thought that the idea was a good one, the other half expressed concern over their professors seeing all their posts and friends.  As a professor, I agree with the second half of those students.  I don’t want to see all their personal posts and musings.  Schoology can give them and me a similar environment for professional purposes only.

PE3_iMovie

Well, I finished the training!

 

I think that the most valuable points that I learned from Lynda.com’s essential training were the pointers about workspace, audio and the ability to do green screen with iMovie.  I have a full wall of green screen at my disposal in the TV studio at the college where I teach so I can’t wait to try that out.  But since school’s almost over, that may be a while.

As I mentioned in my previous post, iMovie offers a lot more flexibility in audio than I expected.  For my past iMovie projects, I was composing and layering all my audio in Adobe Audition and then importing that sound track into iMoive.  Perhaps I’ll try to do it all in iMovie next time.

The most intriguing feature in iMovie for me though was the easy way that I could edit to the beat of music.  The snap to beat function makes it so intuitive.  

Working with my pics from iPhoto and my beat-mapped music in iMovie.

 

I didn’t care for leaving the ordering of the clips up to iMovie.  I tried that once and wasn’t happy with the results, but then, I’m really picky about such things.  So I started itemizing my iphotos, noting picture numbers and dragged them into the workspace one by one after mapping out the beats that I wanted to cut to.  The result is below.  Half of my week-long Alaskan cruise with my family reduced down to approximately 60 seconds.  I’ll bet my relatives wished I learned how to do this a long time ago!  I did take about 600 pictures after all.  When I get some free time I’ll have to finish this and see if I can feature the entire trip in about 2 minutes – that should make everyone happy.

PE2_iMovie

As the Lynda menu shows below, I’m in the home stretch!  I just need to watch the lessons on exporting and I’m done!

I just finished watching the series on audio.  Again, iMovie offers a lot more than I gave it credit for.  For some reason, I didn’t think that iMovie could deal with more than two tracks of audio.  I was surprised to see that even after adding a couple of sound effects tracks you could add music and a voiceover.  I was also impressed with the different ways that iMovie can manage music tracks.  The image below shows a video from the tutorial.  All the green in the upper left corner represents music that is linked to individual clips.

In addition to tying music to specific clips, iMovie can layer a background music track that is independent of the movement of video clips.  Also, editing to a  beat is so easy in iMovie.  The ability to map out the beats in the music first and then drag pictures or video in to the project to automatically snap to the beat is awesome!  The DJ in me just can’t wait to try this feature.   But that will have to wait…time to finish up with Lynda.

PE1_iMovie

I’m usually pretty good at poking around new software and teaching myself what I need to know.  When I began using iMovie in my first month of Full Sail University’s EMDT program, I thought, “This program is really basic and limiting.”  I used to edit video on Sony Vegas and AVID.  Now those were video editors…this iMovie thing seemed really restrictive.  Then I learned more by making more videos and putting more demands on myself…yes, and poking around some more.  I soon realized that iMovie is a pretty strong program! 

Right now, as I go through the iMovie training on Lynda.com, I’m seeing things that are pretty run-of-the-mill and basic.  Of course that is to be expected in the beginning.  I must say though that I have already picked up one great tip.

I never realized that you could switch the workspace to gain more on-screen real estate for the edit timeline.

What a great idea!  I could write quite a rant about all the times that I’ve squinted and over-maneuvered my cursor trying to get things right in that little workspace.  Thanks Lynda for such a great tip!

And now, back to Lynda -- hopefully, for some deeper learning!

BP2_BlogAMP

New to the Exploratorium: BlogAMP. 

I thought that finding a Web. 2.0 tool that would have relevance to my classes and my students, who already use a good deal of specialized technology, would be difficult.  Let me back up for a moment. I teach college courses in Radio and Audio Production.  A great deal of the content of these courses relies on technology and special equipment that works with sound.  My students are constantly recording and creating new material whether it’s practicing an on-air radio technique in my Intro to Radio class or producing a project in my Digital Audio Production class.  Currently, the procedure we follow for evaluation and critique is to play the work in the classroom, studio or computer lab and exchange comments in person.  Sometimes students let their opinions and constructive criticism flow and sometimes its like pulling teeth!

Now I’ve found BlogAMP and I can suddenly imagine a class blog where students post their audio work and comment on each others' projects!  BlogAMP allows a user to aggregate audio clips then play them from a player that can be embedded into a blog (such as mine below) or a website.

Registration for BlogAMP is quick and easy and there is a no-cost option as you can see from the screen shot below.  The advantage to a paid membership is that BlogAMP will host your audio files.  Traffic is unlimited with all plans and the more you pay, the more storage is provided.  If you have a place where you can host your audio files online yourself, then you can take advantage of the free membership.  This is the option I chose, and I’ll refer to this later.

Getting BlogAMP set up is pretty easy.  Though I am disappointed that their site does not offer any tutorial videos, their FAQ page is extremely helpful and gave me all the tips I needed to set up my player.

The player menu (below) is very straight-forward.  You can set up the look of the player, build and manage a playlist, publish the results and get statistics on usage.

 

To set up the skin or the look of player, you can choose one of their custom color skin templates or, with a properly formatted image file, you can even brand the player.  I could then identify the player with my college or even my class.  (I chose to skip branding).

The screen shot below shows the real meat of this Web 2.0 tool: the playlist section.  Here is where .mp3 files are uploaded, or directed to the designated url so the embedded player can reach it.  The user can easily upload a single cut or designate a playlist.  I am impressed with the ease-of-use of this page.  It is simple, direct, and would be easy for my students to learn.

 

Finally, the screen shot below shows the publishing stage.  Here, an embed code is provided for pasting the player into a blog or website.  At this point, the user decides on a player that will play a playlist of .mp3s or a single-play player.

This could be a very useful tool in my environment, especially in the hybrid class that I am creating for my Intro to Radio course.  I can easily imagine having students record their assignments, then uploading their .mp3s and posting them to a class blog before they leave the studio.  I could require students to evaluate and comment on at least 2 of their classmate’s assignments.  Imagine the dialogue that such a procedure could create with the right guidance!  No more teeth-pulling!

One caveat though.  My testing tells me that it is probably best to sign up for a paid plan with BlogAMP.  With such a plan, BlogAMP guarantees proper playback; an important factor if the interaction of the class members relies on the audio.  If the url for the audio points back to your own server, who manages the quality or effectiveness of the delivery?  To illustrate my point, click the play icon on my player above, which is looking back to my iDisk for the file.  Sadly, it doesn’t play.  This failure however, doesn’t diminish the power of this tool in my eyes.  With some additional time for testing, I would either find a more reliable server or simply subscribe to their basic paid plan.  BlogAMP could help enhance the critique element of my audio-driven classes.

BP3_iGoogle Screenshots

I'm not sure I'll ever use regular bookmarks again.  This page displays the various iGoogle tabs that I created for my Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture class at Full Sail University.  Creating this Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is going to be very helpful.  If I want to get something done at my job (without my mac) or if I'm traveling, all I need to do is access my iGoogle and everything is there.  This will surely make the rest of my time at Full Sail more productive and convenient.  Here are the screen shots of my tabbed pages:

Above:  My Home tab featuring Facebook & Twitter gadgets.  Below the scroll line are a few news feeds, a To-Do list and my Gmail.

Above: My FSO tab featuring a LinkedIn gadget and a box of Full Sail links such as the portal, FSO Mail, Wimba and links to my classmates' as well my own portfolio site.

Above: My CBR tab with boxes of links to CBR resources and to my teammates CBR sites.

Above: My ETC tab with Blogger and Flickr gadgets, my Google docs and links to web 2.0 tools as well as links to the ETC blog and my teammates' blogs.

BP1_Welcome to my blog

This is my first blog post for the Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture course in the EMDT Masters program at Full Sail University.  The picture personifies my feelings at the beginning of each course in this accelerated program: an up hill climb.  A climb that seems daunting at first, then I get to a plateau, level off, acknowledge my momentary accomplishment, then climb some more.  Before I know it, four weeks have gone by and I find myself at the summit and admiring the view...or, in non-metaphorical terms, I find myself at the end of the course and amazed at what I've learned!  So, here's to the climb...with some luck and hard work, I'll find my footing in the blogs to come

as I explore Personal Learning Environments and, I expect, numerous Web 2.0 tools.

Though writing is not new to me, blogging is.  Much of my writing over the years has been commercial in nature.  I suppose that blogging about various Web 2.0 tools will be product oriented, but unlike the advertising that I’ve written in the past, I will try to make my blogs more objective, more useful and informative.  I believe that as you read my reviews, you’ll want to see if the Web 2.0 application has value for you and if it is easy to use.  I’ll do my best to evaluate it and present it clearly.  Take Blogger for example.  I find this blog software extremely easy to use.  One of my other websites is built on WordPress and though I like the platform, Blogger is simply easier to navigate and use.  The templates are attractive and easily customizable and the most useful gadgets are already in the basic templates.  I chose to take the ETC course recommendation to use Blogger so I could try something new.  I’m glad I did.

So as you read my blog, please feel free to leave comments.  Tell me if you learned something new or if you think I wasted your time.  Tell me if you think I “hit the mark” or if I am way off base.  I look forward to reading the blogs of my fellow ETC students and leaving comments for you as well.  I look forward to seeing you all on the climb.