Blogging in the Classroom

What is Screensteps?

Posted by admin in Tutorials on 12 30th, 2010 | no responses

this is a short demo of the potential of using screensteps.

What is Screensteps and what does it do?

Bug reports, quick how-to’s, responses to forum posts, product overviews, or anything else you can think of. Use ScreenSteps.me when you need to share more than just one image to get your point across.

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Mac Setup for Streaming Audio with Elluminate

Posted by admin in Tutorials on 08 29th, 2010 | one response

The following instructions will guide you through the process of setting up your computer to capture audio during application sharing in an Elluminate session. This process can be used to capture the audio portion of an mp3 file and/or the audio of a video embedded in a web page. This can be particularly useful, if the audio file is posted in a password protected application such as Moodle. Please note that the video display may be choppy and the screen will refresh frequently. You may find it more successful to use web tour for displaying videos that are not posted in a password protected installation. (YouTube videos, Voice Thread presentations or Flash video ) Capturing audio in application sharing is more suited to mp3 files posted in a web page or in iTunes and particularly helpful in cases where you may be reviewing music clips.You will need two applications Linein and Soundflower. These programs are available for free on the Internet. Download and install the applications then set the options described below for these applications, your computer and the audio in your Elluminate Session.

After you download and install Linein and Soundflower, locate the Soundflower application on your local computer and open the application.

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Set up Soundflower. Click the black flower on your menu bar to activate the drop down menu

Select the Audio device to use in Soundflower (2ch). In this case it is Built-in Output.

Set the buffer size to 64

Set up your audio settings to use Soundflower

Click the Apple icon to activate system preferences: Apple > System Preferences > Sound

Set your input device to Soundflower (2ch)

Set you output device to Soundflower (2ch)

Set the volume levels in the system preferences

The output level is set slightly higher than the input to prevent hum. You may have to adjust levels to meet your own system requirements.

Set up Linein Settings

Set your input to Built-in Microphone and output to Soundflower (2ch)

Take note of the Pass Thru setting

You will be activating this button to channel your audio through your internal speakers and to the Elluminate session. You must select Pass Thru to broadcast the audio during application sharing.

When it is unselected participants will not be able to hear your audio clip. It is a common mistake to forget to activate Linein by not selecting the Pass Thru button.

Set up your audio Preferences in Elluminate

In the menu bar go to Tools > Audio> Select Input Device.

Select the audio input device.

Select the option "Soundflower 2ch" and then click OK

Capturing Audio while using Application Sharing in Elluminate

1. Start Linein and activate Pass Thru.
2. Start application sharing
3 Turn on the microphone and be sure to leave it on during and after playing the audio.
4. Start to play the embedded audio file.
5. Confirm the audio is playing by watching the audio slider.
When your sound clip is completed stop the player and then continue with the demonstration leaving the mic open at all times. The presenter’s voice is secondary to the audio clip but can still be heard as muffled static. Speak softly or refrain from talking during the audio playback.

As a presenter you can play audio, stop the player speak and then start up audio. There is an issue, however, with 2 active mics. If the presenter’s mic is active using the built-in mic, and other participants turn on their mic to speak – a feedback echo will result.

There are two options. 1. Use a walkie- talkie approach – one mic open at a time. 2. If you have completed the application sharing and audio playback, plugin your headset and reconfigure the audio settings. System preferences: Audio input and Output set to headset. Elluminate Audio: set to head set. Stop the Pass Thru in Linein. There are no adjustments necessary for soundflower.

Using SoundSource to toggle between audio settings.

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Sound Source is a free application for Macs. The program icon will display in the Mac menu bar. Once activated you can use a drop down menu toggle from one audio device to another.
These instructions have been created by Lorna Costantini and are licensed under Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/

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Looking for your input

Posted by admin in Teacher resources, Uncategorized on 06 25th, 2010 | no responses

Ceara McCurdy, a researcher at the University of Dundee in Scotland, asked me to share her exciting new project with you. She is trying to encourage teachers to use movies, mash-ups and video editing in the classroom (mainly ages 7-11). so that students will have skills they need to create content for YouTube etc. It is a natural for a creative outlet for students as well as a vital tool for presenting themselves online.

Ceara has a website started for her project Called Spoonfulofmovies http://www.cearanissa.com/spoonfulofmovies/ It is in the development stage and she is looking for your input and ideas. Of course there are already some good resources and ideas you can use. Storyboards and question prompts for your students to use in creating videos.
Take a look.