Lightning in a Bottle

Ok, I’ve made my first videoblog. More than anything, just to be able to say that I did. (Got to keep up my geek cred. My son, when asked what his father did for a living, said “He’s a professional nerd.” I was so proud!)

I have to admit I’m still a bit skeptical of the video blog idea. Written text is still the most efficient method for transmitting information most of the time. You can quickly scan through it, print it out, and so on. Video can only be viewed in real time, and watching them can drive anyone within earshot crazy.

The software I used to create this is Sightspeed, which is primarily a cross-platform desktop videoconferencing product that I really like. (That will be pretty obvious if you view it, since it will be surrounded by info and links about Sightspeed. If I wasn’t in a hurry, I could download the video and post it in an ad-free location. You’re stuck with them today!) The latest version has added a videoblogging option to the videomail creation section. It’s simple, easy to use, and holds you to short messages (which is really helpful!) See what you think.

I’ve been intrigued by the idea of essay-grading software such as Criterion by ETS. The software gives provides students with writing prompts, and then scores their papers against stored anchor papers. Feedback is immediate, rather than waiting days (or weeks) for the teacher to score. It’s not meant as a replacement for teacher feedback, but as a supplement. If a teacher can only give deep, meaningful feedback to one writing assignment per week, that can be supplemented with a system such as Criterion, which can handle assignments as fast as students can produce them.

Interestingly enough, America Online has gotten into the act with a product for home use called AOL Writing Wizard. It appears to be not only have the scoring mechanism such as Criterion has, but also has built-in tools for students to outline their work or create simple pre-writing webs.

You’re hard-pressed to find out that info on the promotional site I linked above, however. I tried to watch the demo that you access through the link above, but the various spots in the website that say “click here to see the demo” open up a screen to subscribe to AOL instead. I tried to set up the thirty-day free trial, but it’s one of those things where you have to give your credit card number, and if you don’t cancel in the first 30 days, they automatically start charging you. More disturbing is that nowhere in the sign-up process do they tell you how much that monthly cost will be.

I finally saw the little demo video after I cancelled the registration process for the free trial. It appeared on the second “Are you sure you really want to cancel?” screen. I also found more information at AOL’s Premium Services Page. The demo link still didn’t work, but at least I can tell you it costs $4.95 per month.

So, the product looks promising, but man, somebody really needs to work on their web pages.

We had a great time this summer with a new program called Digital Photography Bootcamp. The project was sponsored by the Northwest Council for Computers in Education (NCCE), and took place at Pack Forest near Mt. Rainier.

We had two three-days sessions of teachers exploring digital cameras and photo software, and taking thousands and thousands of pictures in the beautiful surroundings. (You can see a few here.) With support from vendor partners Adobe, Troxell, HP and Olympus, we were able to have hands-on work with software, cameras, and color printers to make for a very entertaining experience.

If you’re interested in trying it out yourself, NCCE will be offering the program again next summer. Dates will be by winter and be posted on the NCCE website. We hope to see you there!

The World Wildlife Fund has a cool website tracking migrating leatherback sea turtles. Eleven turtles have been tagged with transmitters that monitor their locations, as well as depth, temperature, and other data. For a science program, it is a really interesting way for kids to see real-life research unfolding on a daily basis. It is also, unfortunately, a look into why animals such as these are endangered. One of the original turtles has already been killed, apparently snared in a gill net.

I’ve just installed Photoshop Elements 3, and unfortunately, I’m really underwhelmed. I say this reluctantly, because I’m a big Adobe fan, and really loved Elements 1 and 2. Also, Adobe generously supports our training program here at Puget Sound ESD as a service to teachers in our region, so I feel pretty positive about the company as well.

Still, if you currently have Elements 2, don’t be in any hurry to upgrade to version 3. They have made some significant changes to the interface, and in my opinion made it a cluttered mess. For instance, the Palette Bin that used to sit unobtrusively in the upper right-hand corner is now a huge box that runs the whole length of the screen on the right side. You can hide it, of course, but I never had a reason to before.

There are many little issues like this, including moving items from one menu to another, adding new (more complicated, unnecessary) options, and removing useful ones, such as “Fill Flash” and “Adjust Backlighting.”

It feels like a bad case of Over-Engineering Disease. The focus was on adding more functionality without keeping in mind the target customers, who want something that’s fairly simple to use. It reminds me of Adobe’s first stab at photo software for consumers, called Photo Deluxe. It never did very well because it was a bad combination of limited functionality with an over-friendly, cluttered interface that actually made it more confusing (to me, anyway) than the full-powered Photoshop.

Adobe learns from their mistakes, though. I hope that version 4 takes a step back to a cleaner, neater interface. And “Revert” goes back under “File” where it belongs!

ZDNet has a good online interview with Cornelia Brunner about the challenges of integrating technology into the classroom. (Free registration required.) She is associate director of the Center for Children and Technology at the non-profit Education Development Center, and has a real-world picture of what many of the barriers and issues are. No rose-colored glasses here!

The amount of video material available online continues to increase at a remarkable clip (no pun intended). The BBC has established an online gallery of their archives that will eventually make 1,000,000 hours of video material available online. This will include over 70,000 hours of footage from CBS news as well. The focus of this material is for licensing, so it won’t be open for students to download clips without watermarks in them, but it’s a peek at how the Internet is changing the world of media. Up until now, the vast majority of this material has been sitting in a vault somewhere, probably never before available to the public. Now it will be available (at a cost) to anyone in the world with a web connection.

The Library of Congress has an extensive downloadable video collection, but it can be difficult to find. Their search system doesn’t let you select which kind of media you are looking for, so a search by the term “Puget Sound” will return every kind of document, sound recording, picture, film, or whatever they have in their archives. However, if you add the term “motion picture” to your search, it will help reduce the number of returned records. Once you’ve found clips that do match your general criteria, they usually also have links to similar files and collections.

They do have 15 film collections that can be found at at this part of their site if you just want to browse. I particularly like the Animated Films (1900-1921) myself!

This may just appeal to me because my grandfather was an entomologist, but the Christian Science Monitor has an article about online insect image and activity sites. I particularly liked the Living Jewels website, with spectacular pictures of some of the most colorful insects in the world. (Grandpa was an expert on longhorn beetles.)

The omnibus budget passed by Congress on November 20 had an unpleasant surprise for education technology. The main federal program for ed tech is Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT), which in the current fiscal year distributed $692 million to states. The Senate had proposed level funding, and the House had proposed cutting $92 million, but in the end the budget committee cut $192 million, or 28%.

For Washington state, this will mean a loss of over $2 million.

eSchool news has an article about this at their site. If you want to look at the actual education budget document as passed, you can find it at the House Appropriations Committee website. It’s the second document on the list titled “2005 LHHS Education Conference Detail Table.” Title IID is on page 34.

The busy folks at eSchool News have a new web resource called Ed Tech Insider. It is a collection of online resources and blogs from ed tech experts from around the country. You need to register to add your own comments to the blogs, but that part of the site is down this morning (probably due to the number of people trying to get in). There is a lot of interesting stuff already.