Worldbridges Megafeed

Hey folks. New tool just got set up. So far, it looks like a step in the right direction. I'd be very interested to see what you folks make of it. http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/06_10/slideshare%20techcrunch.html

Class of 1.3

 This will be the last 1.x class at the Academy (Class 2.1 will be beginning in early January).  If you are interested in joining the Class of 1.3, please fill out the 'Webcast Apprentice' portion of your Webcast Academy Profile and post a comment in the Apply for Class of 1.3 Forum thread indicating your interest in joining. If you have any questions, please post them in the About the Academy Forums, so everyone at the academy can share in the info exchange. 

What does it mean to become an intern?
Interns are expected to work collaboratively with other members of the Academy community, contribute to the development of training resources, and eventually produce and publish at least three live, interactive webcasts. We're a pretty 'low-pressure' environment, but we do ask that interns be willing to invest a couple hours/week during their internship.  All materials produced at the Academy (and all Worldbridges sites) are released with a Creative Commons  license  There is no fee for participating and no official commitment after you complete your internship, but we hope that graduated interns will remain part of the community, assisting future classes and possibly webcasting somewhere on the Worldbridges network. Everyone is welcome to join, although if we receive more applicants than we can handle, priority will be given to those interested in webcasting 'Worldbridgy' kind of content - that is educational, collaborative, and/or inter-cultural.
The first Class of 1.3 sessions will be scheduled the week of Oct. 16-22. 

We will have at least one meeting on Sunday Oct. 22 at 4pmGMT.  If other interns are available to host and/or stream meetings at other times, that would be great.  Please post an event.

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In a recent post I described my experiment with live online training.

Anyone who has tried recording both ends of an audio conversation would know that the voice of the person on machine the recrding is being done gets recorded significantly louder than the other participants. Leveling this difference is a manual process where we normalize and amplify certain sections in Audacity.

A new tool called Levelator automates this process. You give it a WAV file, and it gives back a leveled WAV file. It does work and pretty well too.

The best part is: it's free for non commercial use.

The software is available at http://www.gigavox.com/levelatorDownload/

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Academy Meeting 1.2.8
Oct. 1, 2006
Download mp3

Chat Transcript Below

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Academy Meeting 1.2.8
Oct. 1, 2006
Download mp3

10/1/06 09:27:07 Adam: hi all
10/1/06 10:52:45 Jeff: http://vyew.com/v0.30U/content/sm_main.php?mid=086346
10/1/06 11:05:26 Jeff: Hi Jason
10/1/06 11:05:35 Jeff: Vyew is here: http://vyew.com/v0.30U/content/sm_main.php?mid=086346
10/1/06 11:07:02 JasonR: Greetings
10/1/06 11:07:09 Trevor: The same!
10/1/06 11:08:40 JasonR: Checking audio settings
10/1/06 11:10:13 JasonR: New headset has a mute button. Forgot to check that. :)
10/1/06 11:11:02 JasonR: Figured with a mesh network, more would be better, no?
10/1/06 11:13:37 new2mac: cool
10/1/06 11:13:49 Jeff: http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/377
10/1/06 11:16:01 new2mac: i noticed a couple of interesting skypecasts by worldbriges
10/1/06 11:16:50 Trevor: I'm having a problem with the audio today, so at the moment I am simply going to follow the text chat!
10/1/06 11:18:14 new2mac: jeff,trevor i do reviews on skypecast at http://myvideopodcast.libsyn.com
10/1/06 11:19:02 new2mac: main ingredient lacking in skypecast is the ability to integrate text chat
10/1/06 11:20:59 Trevor: I finally have audio.
10/1/06 11:22:11 Trevor: Great idea!
10/1/06 11:22:30 Trevor: Sound quality on the stream is great
10/1/06 11:22:47 Jeff: cool - glad to hear it
10/1/06 11:22:57 Jeff: thanks
10/1/06 11:24:48 new2mac: great quality sound..am listening via itunes on my mac
10/1/06 11:26:02 new2mac: using nicecast?
10/1/06 11:26:17 Jeff: I'm using Oddcast (open source and free)
10/1/06 11:26:23 new2mac: lol
10/1/06 11:27:10 new2mac: whats the software jeff
10/1/06 11:27:27 adaptives: Sounds good (a few breaks...) but good otherwise
10/1/06 11:28:00 Trevor: Sounds perfect, really perfect on the stream!
10/1/06 11:28:09 Jeff: http://www.oddsock.org/tools/
10/1/06 11:29:23 Trevor: Can you contextualize this for me Jeff? What program are you using for streaming today?
10/1/06 11:29:34 new2mac: yup blew US40 on my logitech 350D
10/1/06 11:30:54 Jeff: http://www.oddsock.org/tools/oddcastv3/oddcastv3_standalone_3.1.12.exe
10/1/06 11:31:08 new2mac: yikes win only?
10/1/06 11:31:12 Jeff: http://vyew.com/v0.30U/content/sm_main.php?mid=086346
10/1/06 11:31:24 adaptives: How do we add items to the list on the webcast report page?
10/1/06 11:31:42 Trevor: A naive question that hopefully will not frustrate you -- can people join in the streaming or is that only done through Skypecast?
10/1/06 11:33:03 JasonR: afk
10/1/06 11:33:21 Trevor: afk?
10/1/06 11:34:36 new2mac: wow am seeing somebodys desktop
10/1/06 11:34:48 Trevor: I see your desktop!
10/1/06 11:35:49 JasonR: Away From Keyboard. I am back now. :)
10/1/06 11:36:20 Trevor: So you would use Oddcast instead of Nicecast?
10/1/06 11:36:58 new2mac: good question
10/1/06 11:37:44 Trevor: That's what I see -- only Vjew.
10/1/06 11:37:52 new2mac: have to test out oddcast in my other intel puter
10/1/06 11:38:58 Trevor: No we have only seen one page -- your entry vjew page
10/1/06 11:39:07 new2mac: opensource shouldnt be win only
10/1/06 11:39:13 Trevor: Oh Oh -- the audio is gone from the streaming now!
10/1/06 11:39:54 Trevor: I am going to try clicking on Channel 1 again. . .
10/1/06 11:40:21 new2mac: trevor,channel 2 is better for u i guess
10/1/06 11:40:43 JasonR: Guessing Jeff needed to reboot
10/1/06 11:40:53 new2mac: lol win
10/1/06 11:41:18 Trevor: I guess too -- the streaming audio is definitely out.
10/1/06 11:42:50 new2mac: is the streaming done live..or does it reads from a self creating archive that is almost live
10/1/06 11:42:52 Trevor: I have the audio again on streaming
10/1/06 11:43:14 new2mac: what happened
10/1/06 11:43:50 Trevor: You are back.
10/1/06 11:44:08 jl: my connection went down
10/1/06 11:44:36 adaptives: You are brave to try it again :-)
10/1/06 11:45:23 adaptives: Is everyone silent or is the sound out again?
10/1/06 11:45:45 Trevor: Yes the sound is out again.
10/1/06 11:46:27 new2mac: is this the first time using Oddcast?
10/1/06 11:46:38 adaptives: I can see the blue line and the ellipses in vyew
10/1/06 11:47:15 Trevor: The ellipses are from me!
10/1/06 11:47:18 new2mac: jl, is this the first time using Oddcast
10/1/06 11:48:07 Trevor: Sound is back on streaming.
10/1/06 11:48:07 new2mac: wow
10/1/06 11:48:17 Trevor: Must be a conflict with Vjew
10/1/06 11:48:48 new2mac: it crashes the browser
10/1/06 11:49:06 Trevor: How about trying IE?
10/1/06 11:49:14 new2mac: simulat a crash?
10/1/06 11:49:34 JasonR: Re: Stream and participation. You have to be in the Skypecast to participate in the conversation.
10/1/06 11:49:53 new2mac: lol
10/1/06 11:50:03 JasonR: There is usually a slight delay between the Skyepcast and the stream (true Jeff?)
10/1/06 11:50:11 new2mac: yes
10/1/06 11:50:45 Trevor: I see something really nice in the possibility -- i.e. that there is a collective whiteboard.
10/1/06 11:51:04 JasonR: No
10/1/06 11:51:50 new2mac: jeff say a keyword and we will see how long is the lag
10/1/06 11:52:36 new2mac: ping
10/1/06 11:53:04 JL: 21 secs
10/1/06 11:53:10 new2mac: cool
10/1/06 11:53:41 adaptives: http://www.blogarithms.com/index.php/archives/2006/09/28/the-levelator/
10/1/06 11:54:49 new2mac: check out this framset tool for skypecast http://www.lookr.net/skypecast/?user=myvideopodcast
10/1/06 11:56:40 Trevor: Ciao!
10/1/06 11:57:22 JasonR: Lost audio
10/1/06 11:57:37 JL: you're not in the skypecast
10/1/06 11:57:46 new2mac: thanks jeff for playing host am out of here

Attached audio files:  Webcast Academy Meeting - 1.2.8

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I have been meaning to try webcasting for training from a very long time.

I was finally able to try it for a corporate training with a client. This is an account of our experience, hoping that it will motivate those who have been thinking of similar initiatives, to actually give it a try.

The topic for the session was related to object oriented software design, where we discussed the goals that we should have in mind when we design software. There were a total of 5 participants. We used Vyew (http://www.vyew.com) for collaboration. Vyew is an excellent free tool that supports slides, desktop sharing, desktop screenshots, and text chatting. It also has a voice conferencing facility that supports upto 20 participants. However we did not use this feature because participants would have had to make long distance calls to the conference call number. Instead we conferenced using Skype. One user had problems with his mic and could only hear. It was a slight limitation, but he got over it by asking questions over the text chat. I used Audacity to record the session. I used "Wave Out Mix" to record both ends of the conversation, but the incoming audio was not recorded properly, because the speaker volume on Audacity was slightly low.

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I'm sorry I missed the Webcast today for the Webcast Academy, but that notwithstanding I have been profiting greatly from all the discussions there and on EdtechTalk. I just started a Delicious account and found Writely for a Chinese professor who wants to have a collaborative Chinese writing project in the lab. The Edtech Talk newscast was a great idea. For the record, I enjoyed the talk between Doug and Dave spanning the northern part of the continent from the end of August.

Trevor

I am trying to edit one of my blog entries. Did the option to edit or go to My Workspace get disabled? I was trying to change a link address but get a fatal error note when clicking on My Workspace. Thanks!
Lee

Back after 4 weeks away, and hoping, finally, to get streaming. I'd be happy to be contacted by all LwC Academy interns.

Dennis

My Blog is finally up. I have been trying to get one that I feel will do all the things I need to do for blogging (especially about DOPA and Blackboard patent issues), resume, work showcase, photos, and the like.

My elgg space is most definately the best version of a blog app I have used but I have a .mac account and want to try combining the .mac blog with the elgg using rss.

I want to keep all my stuff in one place so I can find it to share with everyone. Too many videos and audio in too many places.
~Lee

 

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Last Sunday's session became a general discussion about all things Mac. While the discussion was interesting it took us away from the intended focus of the session, webcasting for interns. The deviation from program was largely a result of people outside the intern community joining the Skypecast. All future Mac webcasting workshops will no longer be Skypecast. Interns are asked to enter the Academy Chat Room at the beginning of the workshop so that they can be given the Skype Id of the person facilitating the workshop and be brought into the Skype call by that person. This procedure should ensure that sessions stay on topic and do not compromise Academy information that might be considered more confidential in nature. In response to the desire for more general discussion about Macs and their application to education and communication, we are pleased to announce, at Jason Robertshaw's suggestion, MacBridges. While there is not much at the site as yet, stay tuned to 'Upcoming Events' for our first webcast (sooner than you might think!).

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Ok, I have done a bit more work on these, using the Site that Jason recommended, this is what i have come up with... not sure which icon I want to go with, the pillars or the mic. But the different levels will have a different colour laurel.

• Voice Recorder - Red
• Audio Editor - Green (proof2)
• Webcaster - Yellow (Gold)(proof1)
• Instructor - Orange

Let me know what you think!

Our Weekly Webcast Academy Meeting

- Webcastathon Rescheduled
- 'Commencement Ceremonies'
- Class of 1.3 and 2.1 (EVO special)
- Proficieny 'pillars' & certification criteria

1. Audio Engineer - record & edit telephony conversation
2. Streamer - webcast the audio from a telephony conversation
3. Show Manager - moderate the discussion, manage callers
4. Publisher - post edited audio and show notes on a website
                    1+2+3+4= Webcaster
   

- Tech Issues
Chat Transcript Below

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Hi everyone

Liz and I streamed to Sandbox A fairly successfully. We were discussing an article found online which was a presentation to the Education and Technology Committees of the New York City Council by Ellen Meir from the Center for Technology and School Change at Teachers College, Columbia University.

 We didn't get to start on time because of some technical issues. We resolved those about fifteen minutes after our start time. A few minutes into the show, the chat room let us know that I was coming through but Liz was not. I had forgotten to set the sound capture in SimpleCast to the sound card, so no Liz. We fixed that and were good until the end.

The attached file is from Audacity since the stream recording was not complete until half way through. 

Download MP3 (18.5 MB, 20:18)

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I just downloaded Audacity for the Mac. I've used it a couple times on a PC. When I lauch it for the first time, it says "Audacity First Run," and asks me to choose a language (with English being the only option). When I click OK, it just hangs, spinning the beachball and never fully launches.

I thought this might have something to do with my account settings, because I don't usually run as full admin. So I logged into the full admin account and launched Audacity and it eventually came up. So what's going on here? Is this normal? Do I have to have full permissions to use Audacity, or is it something else.

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Just found this August 2006 interview with Jeff and Dave: http://edufilter.org/?p=4). Sorry if this is old news. But I found the statistics on listenership and number of downloads insightful. I've wondered about that and thought it might be a important nugget of information to add when discussing Webcast Academy proficiency, i.e., number of listeners reached.

Thanks to Doug Symington, Paul Reid, Alice Barr, Jason Robertshaw, Lee Baber and Cheryl Oakes for their contributions over the first four sessions. It has been great to have the exchange of information and ideas between Mac users in the community. It has also been good to share in the achievement of people getting up and running with streaming. I look forward to more Mac users joining us for future workshops.

PS check out Lee's live banjo at the end of the Session 3 mp3 file!

Download Session 3 mp3 (14.1MB, 59min)
Download Session 4 mp3 (14.8MB, 1hr, 5min)

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Paul,

Good to hear from you. When I descend from the Weksh mountains, I will contact you for help.

Thanks for writing,

Dennis

I have been thinking about using Webcasting on our closed network where I work. I am guessing that I would need to set-up a Shoutcast Server,but what I use instead of Skype? Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

paul...

Might be able to generate custom badges using the Official Seal Generator. See attached.