Category Archives: Hardware and software

SMART: live streaming of their eSim research

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The  new SMART centre (stilll under construction) will have a number of special simulation rooms in which hi-tech research will be occuring. The would like to have each room fitted with an IP camera and to be constantly recording the activities in the room, and to be able to broadcast this via both high-definition TV eg UoWConnect and digital signage (located in various part of the SMART building and indeed around campus) as well as lower-definition streaming media format for delivery to staff and students via eLearning environment and other websites and also via mobile devices such as iPhones.

To enable multiple streams of the media to be processed and delivered, UoW would need to purchase a new server and locate this in the UoW data centre. I am liaising with vendors regarding quotations. I’ll keep you posted, so watch this space.

For information SMART centre, see their website http://smart.uow.edu.au/index.html

Articulate – an alternative to Adobe Creative Suite?

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I met with Rob Wright from HB&s/Nursing on 29th March and he told me of the success he had been having with creating rich media teaching resources by building on PPT with products from Articulate, see http://www.articulate.com/

Rob said that he can integrate quizzes and output the lot as Flash files (swf) and import these into Equella collection (under development) for sharing and re-use. He said he is starting with some Science Education modules, with the aim of moving from lecture based resources to self-paced online learning materials. He also notes that the product has a strong user support community from both industry training and education sectors with regular blog postings around educational process and practical ‘how to…’ posts.

A screen shot from the Articulate website showing their products

I will contact Rob again and see if he can post some screen shots of the Flash modules that he has been able to output with this software. I am also talking to staff at ITS about the similarities and differences between this suite of products and that being offered by Adobe for media creation.

Brainstorming eLearning tech innovations with John

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I ducked over to the Innovation Campus for lunch with John Glynn, head of the Business School. We talked blogs and collaboration spaces for communities of students, mobile applications and competitive advantage, case and role-based learning and e-simulations, alumni blogs and videos, and busted a few subtly racist myths of international student habits.

I feel the spirit of innovation growing on campus, and it’s a great place to be.

Ning Social networks in teaching

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Currently there are 3 undergrad classes that I’m aware of that use Ning as an entire learning environment, after a trial use by one class last session.

Ning lets anybody create their own social network and you can have sub-networks or special interest groups inside each network, which usually has a theme. I explored one called “Classroom 2.0”

After navigating thorugh to this network from an “education” themed newtwork i clicked on a network called “Classroom 2.0” and then i clicked on a “visit” link to go there. Once inside (ie on the Classroom 2.0 homepage) it looked remarkably like a WordPress blog. I wondered if it was based on WordPress with some additional code to create a visual clustering and linking between the different sites.

Can anybody comment on what exactly the students like about this particular site/network? How do they use it to stay in touch? Is it particularly easy to link through to find friends’ contributions?

The Classroom 2.0 social network (Ning) homepage      Another part of the homepage, with the special interest group links.

It certainly was easy to set up a new network, see images below you just name and pick a url, theme and colour scheme, and drag and drop the items/features to set the layout.

Setting up a Ning network

And here is what it looked like after i’d set it up. Empty. But ready to roll.

45 seconds later, a new Ning network site.

How to use the New UOW CISCO phones to set up an audio conference

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I’ve had to learn this in the last 24 hours, thought you might be interested to know how it can be done from your office and from the Mountain Room unit. (Thanks Scott for the lesson.) Regards, Sarah

How to Audio conference (2+ participants) from your new CISCO IP phone, using hands-free mode (so you can have more than one person in the conference at your end.)

1. Use the keypad to type in the phone number of the first person you want to dial in to the conference. Press the “dial” button (see 1st photo). It rings them hands-free. Greet your caller and ask them to hold while you dial in extra participants.
2. Press the “more” button on your phone, just under the digital display pad, then press the “Confrn” button – this is short for “Conference” (see 2nd photo).
3. Use the keypad to type in the phone number of the next person – it will then dial them. Greet your next caller and tell them to hold while you add them to the conference. Press the “Confrn” button again to add them to the audio conference. Their phone number will be added below the first in a listing of participants on your digital display.
4. To add additional users repeat steps 2 and 3.

How to Audio conference (2+ participants) from your new CISCO IP phone, without speaker phone (ie you are the only participant in the conference from your end.)

1. Pick up the phone handset. Dial the phone number of the first person you want to dial in to the conference. Greet your caller and ask them to hold while you dial in extra participants.
2. Press the “more” button on your phone, just under the digitial display pad, then press the “Confrn” button – this is short for “Conference” (see 2nd photo).
3. Use the keypad to type in the phone number of the next person – it will then dial them. Greet your next caller and tell them to hold while you add them to the conference. Press the “Confrn” button again to add them to the audio conference. Their phone number will be added below the first in a listing of participants on your digital display.
4. To add additional users repeat steps 2 and 3.

Photo 1
VOIP_phone1

Photo 2
VOIP_phone2

Smart boards are coming soon to a lecture room near you

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I like the fact that the board is so big you can use your whole arm to operate the huge scroll-bars and pulldown menus from the projected computer image. It gets you out from behind the lecturn more. You can stay out front and more in touch with your audience until you need to go back to keyboard on lecturn to type any text into a dialogue box or form.

Commerce eSimulation takes shape

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Just came back from a meeting with Belinda and Ellie re the Forio.com terms of service. Also got some great feedback for a few additions to the Guidelines for working with Externally hosted websites that I’m working on.