Monthly Archives: January 2008

The Asteroid/Video Edit

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A while back, I Ustreamed a presentation on the prevalence of hate sites on the Internet. As people joined the stream, I kept on thinking, what if someone entered the stream at the wrong moment as I went over a list of hate-related literature and media. Or, what if someone decided to take record the audio later and put it together for mischievous purposes.

Well fortunately that hasn’t happened … yet, but I was reminded of this idea when I saw this link today. Luckily, this is a more humourous (and obviously edited) occurrence of the similar idea.

There are YouTube videos and websites saying that a near-Earth asteroid may cause epic disasters.

In this leaked Top Secret footage Phil Plait tells the real story, before NASA edited it and no doubt forced him to post it on his blog in order to prevent the inevitable public panic.

Disclaimer: This video is a good-natured joke at the expense of Phil Plait, and not a product of the Bad Astronomer. It is not endorsed by, or officially representative of Phil Plait’s opinions or website.

Get the real story here.

Influences for Violence

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It seems that a fight-club has emerged in Saskatoon and is being documented via Youtube. This one was discovered by a mother of one of the teens involved.

Amateur fight videos involving teenagers or young men have become increasingly popular on the internet, and when Brenda Burns saw her son in one of them, she was appalled.

One YouTube video shows Burns’s 16-year-old son, Jonathon Carroll, falling to the ground and being kicked in the head by another teenager. (link)

Since the release of the movie Fight Club (way back in 1999), real fight clubs have reportedly emerged. Documenting and sharing these violent events through Youtube (and other social media sites) should not be surprising. Depictions of violence, real and fictional, have been documented for centuries through various forms of media.

Is our society becoming more violent? Steven Pinker argues that our society is the least violent in recorded history. While I accept this general argument, I still believe it is important to understand human tendencies toward violence, whether it be war or happy slapping, and any influences that promote or encourage acts of violence. After all, in my mind, ANY act of violence is intolerable.

Yvonne Roberts offered a troubling theory last November regarding new influences for violence. While types of social upbringing have traditionally been correlated with acts of violence, Roberts touches upon a theory more inline with notions of digital narcissism.

If a growing minority, are ceasing to care about how the other person feels; if we believe in the cartoon violence that allows no place for conscience; if we think that a minute on YouTube or Facebook is worth several deaths or the ritual public humiliation of another human being and some of this is not rooted in poverty or emotional deprivation or intolerance then looking for the “causes” of crime may require a new approach.

Self-gratification and self-glorification appear, in some – a few? – cases, to be the overriding impulses. A justification to take what is wanted, to extinguish who they choose. Killing, rape and injury for its own sake – as part of a buzz, a high, 15 minutes of fame, sometimes filmed for all to see, appears to be a crime unique to the 21st century. A kind of greed for attention and/or self-pleasure and a desire to be a somebody, gone mad.

So what is your current thinking on the influences toward violence in our children? Democratic or mainstream media? Governmental or school policies/practice? Video games? Family? All of the above? And, if we can identify the influences, what do we then do about it as educators, administrators, and parents.

Yes, this is a huge question, but let’s hear from you.

Questioning Twitter

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Peter Rock has asked some fair questions about Twitter on his blog.

I already use a blog and an RSS aggregator. Is adding Twitter as a tool to post and receive information going to enhance or burden my learning experience? Is it that I need to follow only those who use Twitter effectively to enhance my learning opportunities? If so, what is “effective” twittering and how does it differ from effective blogging? Is the energy required to add Twitter to my toolbox and follow Twitterers worth the payoff? Are really good ideas and resources found often enough on Twitter that never surface in blogs?

I sent a link to his post via Twitter and asked people to respond. Within a couple of hours, he received 23 posts, many of them very insightful.

Check it out and contribute to the conversation. What are your thoughts on Twitter?

Viral Professional Development

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I don’t have the time to adequately respond to Jennifer Jones’ excellent post on what she calls “viral professional development”. Once I do get time, I would like to talk to Jen more about this because it has really hit some parallel thoughts in my own recent thinking.

So, for now … read this post. There are several important points for anyone involved in professional development programs at their institutions or are concerned with their own professional learning.

Thanks Jen. Great post.

Small Things

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Sometimes I worry that my sharing of links in Twitter may be seen by some as spamming. After all, dropping links into Twitter does not usually answer its prime question “What are you doing?”, and to some, that may be perceived as breaking one of the Twitter commandments.

A while back, I shared the comiqs.com link. Brian Van Dyck, a middle years teacher located in Sunnydale California, thought there might be some potential for his students. I noticed these recent tweets from Brian.

@courosa the http://comiqs.com/ was a hit with 6th graders. Book reports and story boarding for narrative writing underway. Thank you! (link)

@courosa One of my students is featured on Comiqs. Working on “How To” writing. http://tinyurl.com/ynrjwd One proud teacher here. Thanks. (link)

Here is one of those featured Comiqs, “How to Catch Crayfish.”

This is a really neat piece from a very creative 6th grader, and it demonstrates the potential for a tool like this in the right hands, with the appropriate encouragement from a teacher. This is great to see, Brian. Do congratulate your students!

And, to get to a bigger point, I still think it is amazing to see such a tiny digital event can positively affect students over 2700 kilometres away. This is the type of thing that I have experienced many times, but usually on the recipient end. My students and I have benefited countless times from the Twitter network, and this reciprocity may be one of the most compelling reasons I have for my continued use of Twitter.

The Web Is Agreement

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The Web is Agreement is a fantastic hand-drawn poster by Paul Downey, created on behalf of Osmosoft for the 2007 BT Open Source Awareness Day.

The poster, drawn in the style of the Lord of the Rings’s Map of Middle-Earth, delineates the various pitfalls along the way of creating an open source, creative commons work on the Web.

The Web Is Agreement

Visit the original size image on Flickr for a better look.

How to Stream Skype to Ustream (Mac)

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I feel that my EC & I 831 course is going well so far. On Tuesdays, we have been using Elluminate and it has been a rock solid tool. On Wednesdays, we have been using Adobe Connect, and unfortunately, the experience has been unsatisfactory. Therefore, I have been looking for and experimenting with tools that could be used to provide audio conferencing in combination with video and image casting.

Note: This tutorial is for someone wanting to set up/direct/facilitate a conversation. It is a complicated process. I do not want to confuse my students here. Participating in such a conference is a much easier process, and participants do not need to know these setup details.

Rob, Kyle and I played with WizIQ web conferencing. It is free, it does audio conferencing well, but is quite limited in its functionality. It does not provide for screen sharing/casting. It is not quite what I need for my students.

I’ve found a solution-of-the-day which is a combination of Skype, Ustream, Camtwist and other free tools. Using the following information, you will be able to:

    – stream a Skype conversation to Ustream (2 to 100 participants),
    – record the video and audio of the conversation,
    – project your screen, or portion of your screen,
    – broadcast video files through Ustream, and
    – incorporate a number of useful (and not so useful) video effects.

Here is what you need:

    – A Mac Computer (OS X).
    – The latest version of Skype and a Skype account (free).
    – A Ustream account (free).
    – Line In from Rogue Amoeba (free).
    – Soundflower (free).
    – Camtwist (free).

Step 1: Install Skype, Line In, Soundflower, Camtwist, and be sure you have a Ustream and Skype account. Restart your computer.

Step 2: Start Line In. Select your audio input. In my case, I am using the audio input based in my iSight camera. This could be your “built-in line input” or a USB mic if you have one. Then, be sure that your output is to “Soundflower (2ch)”. Be sure to select “Pass Thru”.

Line In Settings

Step 3: Launch Soundflower (I think the application is actually called Soundflowerbed.app). In the Soundflower settings, change the Soundflower (2ch) settings to “Built-in Line Output”. I strongly recommend that this should be set to headphones or you will likely get disastrous echoing effects. The Soundflower (16ch) settings should remain on “None (Off)”.

Soundflower settings

Step 4: Go to your Apple System Preferences. Set your Output and Input settings to “Soundflower (2ch)”.

System Settings - Output

System Settings - Input

Step 5: Launch Skype. In the Skype Preferences Menu (Skype -> Preferences), click on Audio. Set all Audio settings to “Soundflower (2ch)”.

Audio Settings - Skype

Step 6: Go to Ustream. When you login, you will see a “My Shows” option. If you don’t have a show, click on “Create New Show” on the right-hand side. Fill in all of the necessary information and tags. Note, there are a number of tabs that are important, with required information in each section. My assumption here is that you already have used Ustream, or that you can pick it up quickly. If not, go here.

Step 7: In Ustream, click on “Broadcast Now”. You don’t need to broadcast at this time, but this is where you will change your audio and video settings. You will have to allow Camera and Microphone access. Then, adjust your Video Source appropriately (you will know if have set it correctly if you can see yourself), and then set your Audio Source to “Soundflower (2ch)”.

Ustream Settings

Step 8: Call someone on Skype. You can bring in one other person for an audio conference, or (I am told) as many as 10 total. For more people, you could use the Skypecasts service although this has NEVER worked for me … and I mean NEVER, not once out of many attempts. Perhaps others have had better success.

Step 9: Once you have your call initiated in Skype, click on the “Start Broacast” button in your small Ustream window (the one you see above). Note, you can record the session here (“Start Recording”). If you have done everything correctly, Ustream is now streaming the entire Skype conversation (all parties) and thus, will be able to record everything.

Important note: If you are hearing echoing at this point, it is likely because participants have the volume on in their Ustream and it is feeding back into the Skype conversation. People who are talking in Skype should mute (or lower the volume in) their Ustream sessions. Volume controls are found on the Ustream session pages.

Step 10: If you want to go beyond talking heads on Ustream, Camtwist allows you to change the virtual video device so that you can broadcast parts of your screen, produce visual effects (e.g., text tickers, RSS feeds, imagery, etc.), or broadcast videos previously saved to your computer. This is a great tool that has a lot of potential for conferencing sessions.

Bonus: As I mentioned, it is possible to connect 100 (or even more) people via Skype conference. While Skypecasts has not worked well for me, I think I have found a reasonably inexpensive pay service which does this quite well. High Speed Conferencing provides a service where up to 100 people can connect via audio-conferencing. Individuals are able to call in through a Skype number or through a toll-free (for the end user) telephone number. The facilitator of the conference can view the connected calls, can mute audio on any call(s), and can drop people from the conference. It is not a very sophisticated interface, but the system worked very well, and I was able to test this with up to 15 concurrent users.

I hope all of this information makes sense, and is accurate. If anyone attempts to use this information and there are any errors, let me know and I will be sure to update. I’d love to know if others can get this working.

And here’s a dare for you. I DARE someone to create a Windows version of this tutorial. :-)

Impact of Authentic Audience

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One of my colleagues in the Faculty of Education has partnered a group of undergraduate student teachers with Kathy Cassidy’s Grade 1 classroom in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Today, I noticed a post from Mrs. Cassidy reflecting on the immediate impact of this mentor relationship on her students.

Having these “big” blogging buddies has already impacted the writing of the children. As we headed off to the computer lab the other day, instead of reminding the children about what good writers do, I asked them what kinds of things their blogging buddies would be looking for in their writing. Because I provided the U of R students with grade one end of year expectations and they have been using these to make comments on my students’ blogs (which I have been reading aloud so that all of the children benefit), the children easily told me. “A period at the end.” “Starting with a capital letter.” “Spaces between words.” “Sounding out the words.”

The remarkable thing was that as they wrote on their blogs that day, they obviously thought about their blogging buddy audience. Not only did some of them address their writing directly to their buddy, (for example, “I like your name and i oslu like you.”) but there were more periods, capital letters and spaces in evidence than I had ever seen in their writing before. An authentic audience is a powerful thing.

Sounds like a great experience for these students, both younger and older, and one that we all can learn from.

Kathy Cassidy's Classroom

Darren Kuropatwa – Day In The Life

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My students, colleagues, and I are extremely lucky to have had Darren Kuropatwa as our guest this past Tuesday. Darren presented “A Day in the Life of a Teacher Teaching with Technology“. It was a wonderful presentation that seems to have really inspired the session participants.

Here’s a bit of what they are saying:

What a great experience in class tonight. Darren Kuropatwa is a math teacher who embraces technology in his classroom and shared with us his typical day (from start to finish!). He painted a wonderful picture and shared his class blogs, his insights, and his passion. Thank you Darren. (Cindy)

The presentation this week with Darren Kuropatwa was very inspiring. As the feeling of this new technology that we are learning is at times overwhelming, this presentation was a breath of fresh air. It was nice to see how this technology can be worked into the classroom. (Leah)

I have only one word to say . . . Thanks! I had the privilege of listening to a presentation from Darren Kuropatwa, who in my opinion, is an expert in the field of Educational Technology. . . this is very obvious!! He is someone that, in a perfect world, all educators would strive to be like. Darren (for those of you who don’t know) is a teacher who teaches a variety of grade 9-12 Mathematics classes integrating the use of technology to amplify student learning. In the eyes of a self-proclaimed ‘rookie blogger / techie’ , he is someone that I learned an awful lot from last night. (Travis)

We were very fortunate to have Darren Kuropatwa present to our EC&I 831 class last night: “A Day in the Life of a teacher teaching with technology“. I think I sat through most of the presentation with my jaw on my keyboard! He is absolutely AMAZING! (Connie)

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Darren Kuropatwa, an educator from Winnipeg. After witnessing how Darren incorporates technology into his classes I am giving him the label of ed tech guru. What he is doing within his classroom is exciting, cutting edge, engaging, etc, and that is through the eyes of an administrator. (Dean)

I agree. Darren is an amazing, innovative, and inspiring teacher. But don’t take my word for it.

See the session summary, view Darren’s slides, or view the Elluminate session recording.

Thanks again Darren!

Growing Up Online – On Frontline (PBS)

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Growing Up Online, a Frontline special, will be broadcast tomorrow, January 22, 2008, on PBS.

MySpace. YouTube. Facebook. Nearly every teen in America is on the Internet every day, socializing with friends and strangers alike, “trying on” identities, and building a virtual profile of themselves–one that many kids insist is a more honest depiction of who they really are than the person they portray at home or in school.

In “Growing Up Online,” FRONTLINE peers inside the world of this cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides of a new digital divide. From cyber bullying to instant “Internet fame,” to the specter of online sexual predators, FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin investigates the risks, realities and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web.

It looks interesting, although I’m assuming a high degree of sensationalism. Even so, it should be worth watching.

More information.