Webcast Academy

My standard “rig” for webcasting is as follows: Hardware: iMac G4 desktop with 1Gb RAM, Logitech USB desktop Mic Software: Nicecast (for broadcasting and recording), Audacity and Garageband (editing), Skype (conference calls), iTunes (music broadcasting via Nicecast) The above rig is what I have found the most dependable to date. Even though my Mac has fairly good system specs, I find that it still tends to struggle when running Skype and Nicecast simultaneously. Using the web-based Skypecast facility definitely helps to reduce the load on system resources.

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Last week I posed some questions about the Academy through the lense of the Masters unit I'm currently taking. A couple of the community members were kind enough to respond to that post and links to their responses can be found here and here. So given that I put the questions out there in the first place it's only appropriate that I give my perspective.

• What is the common vision of members of the Academy community?

The Academy website defines the following goals for its activities:

• Increasing the number of people who are capable of producing live, interactive webcasts

• applying the open source community approach to skill development

• creating a place that formally recognizes proficiency, excellence, and innovation in these new media skills

The members of the community come together from many different countries, education systems and levels of education. So it is, in some ways, quite amazing that the people who have involved themselves manage to find a common ground. The thing that strikes me about the people that I have met through the Academy is that they are all prepared to be open to making new connections with other people. They are prepared to share their knowledge and also want to learn from others. They are prepared to go more out of their way to help their fellow community members. The community members are prepared to enter into open discussions that bring forward new things to learn and issues to be considered. My perspective is that the community members share a vision of a community where they can learn about how to apply new technologies to their own lives and the lives of their students. The community is growing into one where professional knowledge and experience is shared via the webcast shows that are developed as members proceed through the Academy training. As more people participate in, and complete the training, the community grows; so to does the audience as new webcasters introduce members of their other networks to their webcasting activities.

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 I just finished a new  Nicecast Screencast.

I tried a new version of screencasting. I made the camera follow the cursor. Just experimenting with SnapZPro X. The Nicecast tutorial I created before had some incorrect set up instructions in them so I am working on a new version. This now replaces the video shown in the Book of Webcasting. I kept the same URL address so if you used the last one as a link or reference, it will now show the new video.

Let me know if this style video makes you too dizzy! It is "kinda rapid"! ~Lee

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Curious if anyone has had experience with streaming solutions for the Macintosh. We discussed this a little bit during last night's webcast workshop (#3b). In particular, I found this: Welcome to Darwin Streaming Server, the open source version of Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server technology that allows you to send streaming media to clients across the Internet using the industry standard RTP and RTSP protocols. http://developer.apple.com/opensource/server/streaming/index.html Seems to also play nice with Windows and Linux, according to the description.

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 Webcast Academy Meeting
Sept. 3, 2006
Download mp3 (18.4MB, 40:11)

A Webcast Academy meeting for Class of 1.1 and 1.2 interns to check in and see 'where we're at'.  Topics included:

- Interncasts for 1.2'ers
- Posting, streaming, and other tech issues
- 1.1'ers certifications and graduation
- upcoming webcastathons and this season's webcast schedule
- any other questions or issues interns would like to address

Chat Transcript Below

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For really long URLs use tiny url! You probably heard of it but here it is again in case you hadn't!  Lee

Yeah! Finally had my first success with Nicecast tonight. I was able to cast into Sandbox B. Seems so easy in hindsight. Cormier promises it gets easier. I believe him. :)

Over recent weeks I have been considering the phenomenon of professional learning communities as a major theme for the Masters unit I'm currently undertaking. I have been considering the readings for this unit in the context of the community that has built up around the Webcast Academy, and more recently Education Bridges. The following quote from Haberman (2004, p.52), raises some questions to reflect on with regard to the Academy: 'A group is a learning community when members share a common vision that learning is the primary purpose for their association and the ultimate value to preserve in their worplace and that learning outcomes are the primary criteria for evaluating the success of their work.'

• What is the common vision of members of the Academy community?
• What are the learning outcomes that are the basis for evaluating the success of work undertaken in the Academy?
• How do we evaluate the success of the Academy's work?
• What personal motivations do individual community members have for being involved?

Some of these questions are answered through the way that the webcasting training and requirements have been structured to date. However, I would be interested to get some responses to these questions from members of the Webcast Academy community. Haberman, M. (2004). Can star teachers create learning communities? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 52-56.

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Hey folks. Just thought i would point to this one. As many of us are self hosting, this cpanel skypecast might be useful https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=... September 2nd. 16:45 Eastern.

Hi Everyone,

Been away and busy for the last little while, so i am a little behind on the WCA course of study.  I recorded the following today during the Webcast Academy check-in.  I hope Doug and Dave don't mind, as its their thoughts on when to mute Skypecast / Conference participants.  I did a little editing, shortened it and added an intro at the front.

Next up is streaming live?

cheers paul...

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Brad Hicks talked me through my first webcast today. I was able to record 20 minutes of audio using Skype and Nicecast archiving set-up. We used Sandbox A. I also experimented with hijacking iTunes. I was happy with the recording though I will need to be careful that my audio is not recording at a higher level than incoming audio in the Skype source.

I find that Audacity uses a lot of system resources so I was happy to be able to record/archive the audio within Nicecast. I used AIFF as a lossless recording but would like to test AAC and MP3 at another stage.

Thanks go out again for to Brad for giving up some of his Sunday afternoon to talk me through the use of Nicecast.

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I just described my continuing failure to stream. I tried uploading screenshots of the steps I take, but the server simply took too long to upload and I aborted the attempt.

Am I the ONLY PC intern trying and failing?

I'm determined to succeed, but determination hasn't got me very far up to now.

Does anyone know UNYTE? It's a program, Skype related, that allows consenting adults to take over each other's computers. Would anyone like to take over mine and get me streaming?

Dennis

Teaching in Rural and Remote Locations series
This is the first webcast in a series on the topic of Teaching in Rural and Remote Locations in Australia. This series is being run in partnership with Edith Cowan University, South West campus. The aim is to give trainee teachers some insight into living and working in the types of locations they may be posted to in their first years of teaching. The discussion will focus on teaching and living in these communities, and how technology can assist teachers who find themselves isolated from professional support networks.

Our first guest was Terri van Zetten, a teacher in the Catholic school system, who has now taught rural/remote for a number of years now and who has a strong interest in using technology in the classroom.

This webcast originally went to air on Wednesday 16th of August 2006.

Download mp3 (24MB, 52min)

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I log in.
Status is still: down - but 'login' has changed to 'logout'. Whatever I do with SimpleCast, I don't get connected.
Return to Shoutcast.
Logouot.
Try to log in again. Form for ID and password does not appear.
Inspect log. No evidence of my visit.
Deducation: my login, desüpite switch from 'login' to 'ogout' on Shoutcast is not effective - otherwise there would be something in the log.

Any suggestive comments welcome.

Dennis

This was practice for next sunday when the SEEDLINGS of Maine get together for a show about their vision for technology and teaching in the coming school year.
Here we go.
NexT Sunday August 27, 2030GMT. Join us if you can.

Go to Skypecast, search for SEEDLINGS of Maine.

Hey, guys, Today I listened to the EdTech Talk and had the chance to record it using Audacity, with my regular mic and no extra things, just adjusting the settings according to Jeff´s instructions. Cool!!! Everything went smoothly and I was happy to see that I could record it with no problems, although I had to give up my laptop and work on the other computer... Here are the screens of it. Later on I´ll try to play around with the audio. Thanks for all your help! Carla

I am good at overlooking things, but it does not seem as if there is a session today.

I cannot get beyond: ERROR when I have logged into Sand 04 and return to Simplecast. My other settings are correct, that even if they are wrong that should not affect, surely, the connection to Sand 04.

ARE THERE ANY PC INTERNS OU THERE experiencing the same problem, or who have solved it. I would love to hear from you, here or at:

[email protected]

Dennis

Hi everyone...

Liz and I successfully streamed in Sandbox A. We briefly discussed an article in School CIO titled Six Mobile Breakthroughs.

Download MP 3 (5.4 MB, 5:54)

Hello all,

   Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be (mostly) offline for the next couple of weeks - we leave for Korea in a few hours. If any interns would like to host a workshop or schedule 'sandbox playtime', please do so.  Just click 'create content'/ event.  When you post an event, the default timezone is GMT, but you can choose any timezone you like.  That timezone will be the one shown to all visitors.  To avoid confusion, I very much suggest including a link to a timeanddate.com world times page, like this -
Workshop #SomethingA - Sunday, Sept. 3, 4pmGMT (global times).

You can also send a newsletter to all interns by clicking 'create content'/ newsletter and choose 'webcast academy intern newsletter'.

May the streaming force be with you and I will very much look forward to connecting upon return.

Anyong for now,
JL

I thought I would post a brief interview that involved recording both ends of a Skype conversation. It finally turned out to be quite easy, requiring nothing more than setting Audio Hijack Pro to the Skype application and clicking record.

What I was most pleased about was the complete lack of latency. I did not hear any feedback or echo of myself in the headset. Another important feature for me was the quality of the recording with an iSight camera (firewire), as this is what we will use in our Mac lab for the Japanese students. Also the ease of use makes it possible to set up as a class assignment.

Unfortuntely a Persian teacher was meeting with students in Ryan's office when I called -- it is a little disurbing and for a recording that I would archive I would call back at another time. Still, it provides evidence for me that the recording will be satisfactory when other students are talking simultaneously.

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