First a little about podcasting…

A podcast is one in a series of digital media files (usually in either  audio MP3 or video M4V format) that is released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication.

This syndication aspect of the content delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other ways of accessing files, such as simple download or streaming. Special client software applications called RSS aggregators (also known colloquially as podcatchers) such as Apple  iTunes or Nullsoft Winamp can  automatically identify and retrieve new podcast files in a given series when they are made available, by accessing a centrally-maintained ‘feed’ that lists all files currently associated with that particular series.

New files can be downloaded automatically by the podcatcher and stored locally on the user’s computer or other media device for offline use, enabling the audience to download content that is released episodically without having to manually check that new material has been made available.

According to the Horizon Report (2006) podcasting is

At the leading edge of a wave that will last for the next several years and beyond, personal broadcasting takes advantage of small, easy-to-use devices that people already carry to capture and share personal experiences, information, and events. This trend, which has roots in text-based media (personal websites and blogs), is expanding to include audio and video, as the tools for capturing and sharing those media become smaller and better. From podcasting to video blogging (vlogging), personal broadcasting is an increasingly popular trend that is impacting… audiences.

(p.11)

It’s easy to see why podcasts have value in e-learning. Will Richardson states in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms that the

underlying technology here is digital recording and the idea that it is now very easy to create and publish these recordings… As long as you have a way to make the recording, and as as long as your students have access to the Internet, you can make this work.

(p.113)

Now that I have started publishing podcasts, I’m obviously going to write a series of articles about developing and delivering content using this learning channel. What’s more, I will discuss podcast authoring using production techniques, based upon my experiences as a radio documentary maker in a ‘previous life’ – I’ll be talking about the craft of writing for audio, as well as the technical aspects of the process.

Now, [drum roll] I want to introduce you to the E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcast. This podcast service is about subjects that interest me other than e-learning. Topics I’ll be covering include aviation, history and music, among others. The first set of podcasts is called Transatlantic: the Flying Boats of Foynes:

July 2009 is the 70th anniversary of the first scheduled trans-Atlantic airplane passenger service. Told against a backdrop of the momentous events of World War Two, this eight-part podcast documentary series by Michael Hanley tells the story of a unique era in world aviation.

Airlines like Pan American Airways (PAA) and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) with their flying boats like the Short series of planes, and the massive Boeing 314 ‘Clippers’ were welcomed to the seaport of Foynes, in the embrace of the River Shannon estuary on the Western edge of Europe. Come with me now as we fly back in time to the Golden Age of Aviation, a era of adventure, conflict – and the invention of Irish Coffee.

Parts 1 and 2 of the series are now available. You can listen and subscribe to each episode here, or you can access the podcast via iTunes. The next installment, The Glamour of Travel will be released on Tuesday July 28th, 2009.

The more observant among you will have noticed that this podcast channel is called the Other Podcast, which implies that there is a regular E-Learning Curve Podcast, discussing subjects associated with learning and development.

Yes there is. And it’s on it’s way soon. More about this closer to its launch.
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References:

The New Media Consortium (2006). 2006 Horizon Report. [Internet] Available from: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2006_Horizon_Report.pdf Accessed 15 July 2009

Richardson, W. (2006) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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In the meantime, the eLearning Guild have just published an informative primer called Making a  Demonstration Video for E-Learning Use.

The article in  Learning Solutions e-Magazine discusses a favorite of mine: straight-forward ‘How-to’ video demonstrations.   The authors, Steve Haskin and Tim Martin describe this learning modality:

“How-to” instruction is an important training modality; in fact, “learning how to do things” is the cornerstone of being human. Our lives are spent learning how to do things, and this doesn’t stop simply because we “learn” in the workplace or even when we slip the “e-” in front of learning.

(p.2)

In this context then, tasks and activities can be elucidated using a number of video based approaches including:

• Sequenced still images
• Video
• 3-D animation

Video photography is basically light captured on a medium like film, video tape, or DVD. However, lighting a subject properly is something of a black art and if done poorly will undermine the learners’ ability to interact with the subject matter. The article’s authors discuss the basics of lighting in reasonably good detail, including key-, fill-, and back lighting, as well as color temperature, and new lighting technologies like fluorescent and LED light types.

They go on to describe the importance of a good tripod, and what you should look for in a video camera. I would agree with their assertion that HD cameras “are complete overkill” (p.7) and in fact that good old reliable MiniDV digital tape is still the best video media choice for e-learning practitioners – your content is captured as uncompressed DV-AVI video (so it can be edited and rendered in either NTSC or PAL as well as in various compressed formats), and MiniDV is a great archive format. 

The authors conclude by discussing the pros and cons of various video codecs, their benefits and disadvantages.

Video can seem technical, overly-involved, and even intimidating to the novice videographer: I suggest that you have a look at the article if you want a good introduction to video for e-learning and if you want to know your blondes from your redheads. (They’re types of light: I wasn’t being rude!) 

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References:

Haskin, S., Martin, T. (2009) Making a Demonstration Video for E-Learning Use. Learning Solutions e-Magazine [Internet] Available from: http://www.elearningguild.com/articles/abstracts/index.cfm?id=302&action=viewonly Accessed 30 March 2009

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We can all appreciate the potential of m-learning as a component of an integrated online educational strategy in the medium- to long term. However a number of factors, encompassing everything from still-developing IT and telecoms standards and infrastructure through to the diversity of mobile devices’ capabilities has led to a situation where m-learning is still maturing as a learning channel, and is still finding its niche in the e-learning eco-system. What seems to be emerging is that mobile media devices work best as electronic performance support tools, and that some devices are more suited than others to enable people to learn and understand.

According to Gloria Gery, performance guru (2004)

Performance support enables people who don’t know what they are doing… to do [a task] as if they did.

We can say that the goal of training is to support learning – that is impart new skills and knowledge for the purpose of enhancing performance, and that the goal of performance support is to guide and improve performance directly.

With performance support, the desired outcome is performance.

Rosenberg, M. 2006. p.195

There are four benefits of performance support.

1. Makes work simpler Performance support can take the complexity out of work processes and tools. Mobile devices that can receive up-to-date support or step-by-step procedures enables already trained workers to perform faster and more effectively.
2. Provides High Scalability As digital data, performance support can be deployed to a few people or to thousands of learners. Using the wireless Web as well as 3G technologies updates in both content and features can be distributed quickly and securely. For example, an organization can pilot a mobile application to a small group of workers for UAT, and roll it out across the business (once it has proven itself) with relatively little additional effort.
3. Provides a known baseline of competencies Performance support can reduce variability in the way workers perform tasks, which improves activity performance by underpinning an individual’s judgment and decision-making abilities.
4. Allows non-experts to perform closer to the level of experts Performance support can enable individuals to perform with a similar pace and limited error rates as if they were more proficient than they actually are. Performance support can enhance the competence of an employee beyond the level of their training.

These are some of the ways that m-learning can support learners:

Audio – The original, and most basic m-learning channel, audio can range from lectures to narrated glossaries. Podcasts, popularized by the iPod, also fall into this category. In essence, if you can have an audio recording of the content, it can be deployed via the mobile environment. Common audio file types such as .mp3 and .mp4 are almost universally supported by mobile devices. Within minutes educators can have their audio-based presentations prepared and ready for delivery to learners’ mobile devices.

Video – Most modern converged media devices support video playback in at least one of the major digital formats (.mov, .mp4, .wmw, etc.). Content in this category can include lectures, presentations, interviews, visual “how-to” guides, and demos. Since the display area on mobile devices is limited, video whose content is dependent on minute visual detail or extremely complex visual representations may not transfer to the mobile environment as desired, but most video content works quite well..

Flashcards – Basic to semi-interactive flashcards are a great learning tool for the mobile environment. The range of content that can be harnessed in flashcards is vast, covering educational levels from kindergarten to graduate studies, and subjects such as math, biology, medicine, anatomy, physics, English, language, history, law, etc. Devices such as the iPhone, which have built-in image libraries and support a slideshow feature, are very well-suited for flashcards.

Quizzes – Assessments comprised of basic question types such as MCQs and true/false statements can be integrated into the mobile environment. These are great resources for pre-exam reviews or end-of-chapter quizzes. Support for assessment is found on devices that have Web capabilities.

Slideshows & Presentations – Most slideshows or presentation can be successfully deployed on a mobile platform, especially those created with programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint. These presentations can contain images, graphs, tables and even audio. This type of content is normally supported by mobile devices with video capabilities.

Glossaries – Glossaries are possible in the mobile environment in a basic static form which consists of a term, its audio pronunciation and a small accompanying definition or image. There is limited native support for glossaries, but they can be created for newer iPhones and other Web-enabled devices like RIMs BlackBerry devices, and Nokia N-series smartphones.

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Gery, G. (2004) The Moment of Need: Directly Supporting Doing, Learning, Referencing and Collaborating [Internet] Available from: http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=6&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.epsscentral.info%2Fgery%2Fpresentations%2FTEMPO-ASTD.ppt&ei=fnS-SereHeS1jAfVhPirCA&usg=AFQjCNFDHBizyYVisiHD7ivB1KG-NaoRVg&sig2=ji1XqzE6dEIO84r3B1Iz7Q Accessed 12 March 2009

Rosenberg, M. J. (2006) Beyond e-Learning. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com/2008/06/e-learning-ecosystem-in-organizations.html

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Now read on…

This post will cover how to integrate your audio-with-metadata files into Adobe Presenter. In my next article I will discuss using markers to generate content for Captivate – the processes are different. While the process is quite straight-forward, it’s easier to show you this process in a demo than describe it in a linear fashion using text and images (after all, this is an E-learning blog, folks!).

First some background: as you probably know, Presenter enables you to publish Microsoft PowerPoint-created content in a Web friendly format. The Presenter Audio Editor supports editing voice-over narrationvia its functionality in PowerPoint.

As well as using an external audio editing program, you can perform basic audio and animation editing tasks within your presentation, including:

• Viewing the presentation audio, including slide and animation markers
• Playing, recording, deleting, and editing audio, including adding silence
• Inserting commands to control playback
• Adjusting volume and processing options

Using audio markers
Adobe Presenter displays a visual representation of a presentation’s audio, along with markers that represent commands for controlling playback. Audio is edited incrementally, one slide at a time.

To view audio markers, open the PowerPoint presentation you want to edit. Click the Adobe Presenter menu or ribbon and click the Audio Edit button. The Audio Editor is displayed (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Audio Editor in Presenter

Using the Slide Navigation drop-down list, select a slide to edit (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Slide Navigation drop-down list

The Audio Editor displays a visual representation of the audio file called a waveform. Markers along the top of the waveform represent commands you can use to control the timing of slide transitions, animations, and other events during playback of your content.

In Presenter, you can add four types of markers in the Audio Editor (see Table 1):

Table 1. Markers applied to the Audio Editor

Playing, recording, deleting, and editing audio

Use the playback controls in the Audio Editor to review the audio for the presentation. You can also record new audio, delete selected sections, and insert silence.

Adjusting volume and audio processing options

The Adjust Volume dialog box is used to adjust audio playback levels. Adjust Volume also enables you to use some basic audio processing options including normalization (finding the optimal audio volume) and signal boost for quiet audio. The default settings should be fine if you’ve recorded your audio properly. I suggest that you experiment with these settings to understand how changes to these options affect the audio quality of your rendered presentation .

You Try:

To adjust audio volume and digital signal processing options:

1. Click the Tools menu in the Audio Editor and select Volume. The Adjust Volume dialog box is displayed.
2. Adjust the settings and click on OK.
3. Click the File menu and select Exit.When you exit the Audio Editor, Adobe Presenter prompts you to save your changes.
4. Click Yes to close the dialog box and return to PowerPoint.

Adding Audio with Marker to Adobe Presenter

Note: Even though this demo is about adding audio to a presentation, for copyright reasons there is no narration track associated with the file.

Next: Importing audio in to Captivate.

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After yesterday’s excursion into science fiction to demonstrate that the concept, if not the reality of mobile learning (m-learning) has been around for a good part of the last century, today’s post returns to the altogether more prosaic task of identifying the characteristics of m-learning. I think that the best way to approach this is to characterize m-learning’s parent domain, e-learning.

So, let me remind you of my favorite definition of the characteristics of e-learning and consider if they also apply to m-learning. In his influential 2001 text E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age, Marc J Rosenberg argues that e-learning is based on three fundamental criteria (pp.8-29):

1. E-learning is networked making it capable of updating, storage and retrieval, distribution and sharing of instruction or information. So important is this criteria that Rosenberg describes it as fast becoming an “absolute requirement” [his italics] of e-learning.
2. It is delivered to the end-user via a computer using standard internet technology so that even though the definition of what a standard technology is may evolve as the internet matures, e-learning will be deliverable on that channel
3. It focuses on the broadest view of learning: learning that goes beyond “e-training” (Beyond E-Learning, 2006, p.11). E-learning is at the core of the “smart enterprise – a high-performing organization that allows knowledge and capabilities, enabled by technology, to grow and flow freely across departmental geographical or hierarchical boundaries, where it is shared and made actionable for the use and benefit of all” (2006, p.39).

A discussion on m-learning then, must in part be dedicated to the technologies underpinning the broader e-learning domain. In this context, ‘mobile’ generally means portable and personal, like a mobile phone or media player. While ‘mobile device’ typically means PDAs and digital mobile phones, it might more generally be taken to mean any device that is

small, autonomous and unobtrusive enough to accompany people in every moment in their every-day life, and that can be used for some form of learning, for example an MP3 player.

(Kineo and UFI/Learndirect Mobile Learning Reviewed. p.5)

Many examples of learning with mobile technologies fit in to this description, and broadly speaking they all align to the “absolute requirement” to receive and transmit digital voice and data communication over a network – though not necessarily wirelessly, as we shall see).

According to a number of sources including Gartner (M-Learning Opportunities and Applications) and  Kineo & UFI/Learndirect (Mobile Learning Reviewed) mobile handsets are, and will be the “dominant m-learning devices for some time: there were more than 1.2 billion shipped in 2008” (Gartner, p.6). There are four basic categories of devices:

1. ‘Smartphones’ or Converged Media Devices (CMDs) have an identifiable operating system, are Web-capable and support installable applications, such as PDF and content readers. They are able to render a wide range of digital data types so they can act as sophisticated m-learning platforms.
2. Enhanced phones don’t have an open operating system but have some audio, video and Web capability, and typically support simpler installable applications using programming tools such as Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME).
3. Basic phones are low-cost devices that can support voice and text messaging
4. Non-telephony mobile devices are audio/MP3 players and video-enabled media players, the dominant product in both markets belonging to the Apple iPod family of players.
5. Hand-held games consoles are lightweight, portable devices include in-built screens, games controls and speakers. The dominant manufacturers include Nintendo (DS) Sony (PSP) and Nokia (N-Gage).

In 2008, CMDs were a growing minority, comprising approximately 15% of all devices shipped globally; enhanced phones made up a little more than 60%, and the remainder were basic phones. Of the potential mobile learning devices, mobile phones are clearly the most commonplace. According to a recent report by Strategy Analytics (cited in Mobile Learning Reviewed, p.4), there are 1.5 billion mobile phones on earth, with 10% year-over-year adoption expected through 2008. In 2005 the Financial Times reported that UK mobile phone penetration was about 86% of the adult population. By 2006, the penetration rate for Western Europe was reported as 100%, which means there was a mobile phone for every person in the population.

The media player market is one of the biggest IT success stories in recent years. The market leader is Apple’s iPod. Since 2001, Apple has sold over 100 million iPods worldwide. Many other players compete in the personal media player marketplace including Archos, Sony, iRiver, Creative, and Microsoft. While functionality varies according to manufacturer and brand, we can say that a media player is a portable mass storage device that allows content to be downloaded and used offline. Music storage is obviously their primary use, but their mobility and storage capacity makes them ideal mobile learning devices. A significant increase in the audio- and video podcast download market demonstrates that consumers have extended the potential of these devices beyond their intended capacity as über Walkmans.

Kineo (p.6) assert that:

The commercial market for MP3 downloads is highly developed, though monetizing non-music formats (e.g. podcasts and vodcasts) has proved more challenging. In effect the ‘book on tape’ market has jumped formats to become the commercial podcast market via iTunes and Audible.
The ease of providing podcasts and vodcasts for download has a potential cost advantage, as they can be downloaded for free (assuming the user is on a fixed price broadband line), unlike download or access to learning content via a mobile phone or CMD. Thus, mobile devices used for learning do not require continuous connection. Also, once on the iPod, learning content does not require internet connection for it to be accessed, so there need be no ongoing costs of access after initial download.

Given the almost ubiquitous nature of these devices, it’s not surprising that educators and organizations with an interest in distributing electronic learning content are now considering the potential for these devices to support a previously unavailable channel to communicate and transfer knowledge to learners.

More…

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References:

Jones, N. (2008) M-Learning Opportunities and Applications. ID Number: G00163293 Gartner Research [Internet] Available from: http://www.gartner.com (Subscription or purchase required) Accessed 17 February 2009

Kineo and UFI/Learndirect (2009) Mobile Learning Reviewed. [Internet] Available from: http://www.kineo.com/documents/Mobile_learning_reviewed_final.pdf Accessed 17th February 2009

Rosenberg, M. J. (2001) e-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age London: McGraw-Hill.

Rosenberg, M. J. (2006) Beyond e-Learning. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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If you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, you’ll know that I include archaeology and the study of ancient cultures among my personal interests. Recently I posted on the 2008 Stonehenge dig, and today I’d like to talk about the return voyage of the Viking longship Havhingsten fra Glendalough (Sea Stallion from Glendalough) from Dublin, Ireland to Roskilde, Denmark.

The Sea Stallion is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. According to tree ring dating, the original ship was built near Dublin circa 1042.

The original ship was built with oak from Glendalough, Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship’s name. The reconstruction was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004.

In the Summer of 2007, the longship made the voyage from Denmark to Dublin – a journey of exceptional endurance on the part of the boat and the crew, and fraught with a certain amount of danger, given the lousy weather we had in Northern Europe last year.

If you saw these lads coming 1,000 years ago, it was time to pack up and leave… quick!

After wintering in the Collins’ Barracks site of the National Museum of Ireland, the Sea Stallion is due to set sail for for her home port today.

Thanks to Web 2.0 information sharing tools and technology, you (and I) can share the journey with the crew via their daily blog and video podcasts, play a Viking Attack game, as well as follow the voyage via Google Maps live GPS tracking as the boat and her crew as they make their journey back across the North Sea to Denmark.

Bon voyage…

If you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, you’ll know that I include archaeology and the study of ancient cultures among my personal interests. Recently I posted on the 2008 Stonehenge dig, and today I’d like to talk about the return voyage of the Viking longship Havhingsten fra Glendalough (Sea Stallion from Glendalough) from Dublin, Ireland to Roskilde, Denmark.

The Sea Stallion is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. According to tree ring dating, the original ship was built near Dublin circa 1042.

The original ship was built with oak from Glendalough, Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship’s name. The reconstruction was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004.

In the Summer of 2007, the longship made the voyage from Denmark to Dublin – a journey of exceptional endurance on the part of the boat and the crew, and fraught with a certain amount of danger, given the lousy weather we had in Northern Europe last year.

If you saw these lads coming 1,000 years ago, it was time to pack up and leave… quick!

After wintering in the Collins’ Barracks site of the National Museum of Ireland, the Sea Stallion is due to set sail for for her home port today.

Thanks to Web 2.0 information sharing tools and technology, you (and I) can share the journey with the crew via their daily blog and video podcasts, play a Viking Attack game, as well as follow the voyage via Google Maps live GPS tracking as the boat and her crew as they make their journey back across the North Sea to Denmark.

Bon voyage…