Webcast Academy

I haven't used my secret access code yet to test simplecast. I have other more pressing concerns at the moment. I have listened in to many webcasts over the past several weeks and I still feel like Dorothy when she visits the wizard for the first time. I'm not sure what lies beyond the curtain.

   1. How exactly is the initial call set up?
   2. Is the host, guest and other primary speakers on a separate conference call just in case skype doesn't work?
   3. What exactly are the contingency plan steps? Is there a checklist? If skype is going to begin charging what does that mean for us?

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Webcast Academy Meetin 1.3.9
 Dec. 17, 2006
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Discussion of wrapping up the Class of 1.3,  what lies ahead, and planning the New Year's Webcastathon.  Interns, please add your shows to the 2007 New Year Webcastathon schedule.  If you'd like to do a show/host a discussion but are not ready to stream solo, please post a request for streaming support in the forums.

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Download on MP3 (5,8 MB)

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How do I book the sandbox to practice the streaming set up? I went to the schedule and it didn't look too full but I was unable to sign up. If you are all busy with Holiday preparations I could do my test on January 2nd or 3rd any time during the day because I have off work. Please let me know how to proceed. Thanks. Kathy Shields

This was my first live show. It was short and I had responsibility for very little but still I had problems concentrating even though I have quite a bit of experience hosting live online multimedia meetings. A huge thank you to Jeff for seeing to the webcast hosting, streaming and recording. What was there left to do? Hosting and keeping an eye on the chat. I discovered that all my attention was centred on the hosting and I missed most of the chat as a result.

Skype was not optimal but the recording is usable (which is one of my main goals). Have a little question about how I download Jeff's audio file. It behaves differently on different computers and here at work it opened in in Windows media player and I was able to go to files and 'save as' but then got only the first ten minutes?? When I tried save as again I was horrified to find 3 Gb waiting to be downloaded so stopped the second attempt. (The first attempt had told me the file was about 37Mb which seemed reasonable).

Like most of the interns in 1.3 I have struggled with my audio settings, wrestled with my microphones and tried to rewire my virtual audio cables. All this to be met with consistent failure sprinkled with a healthy dose of encouragement along the way. Enough with the history lesson let me get to the good news! I did it! Last night I was testing my new R1-edirol digital recorder. I was very happy because I was able to use the headphone jack out from the computer and the line-in into my device. I attached my basic headset to the recorder to see if it was picking up anything. Affirmative. I tried a skype call and entered a skypecast. Fine. The only difficulty arose when I tried to join the skypecast. Hmmm, the desktop mic was in the USB but even with some selection adjustments no-go. Ah ha! Why not open the VAC. Yes! The key was in the order I opened the utilities. (Jeff has said this before, I bow down to the great and powerful wizard) I had my R1 attached, the desktop mic plugged in,then I opened and started VAC. Finally I opened and launched the skypecast. I listened through my headphones attached to the R1 and spoke through the desktop mic plugged into the USB. Success! I'm ready to try streaming. I know, I know. When is it available you ask? I don't know but I plan to find out soon. Would any interns like to join me for this exciting first? Let me know. I'm just alittle happy, can you tell?

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... happened during this evening's webcast academy weekly meeting. I thought it had happened last Thursday but when I listened to the playback I found that the flat level of noise was not me being recorded quietly but was in fact noisy silence.

However over the last week I have made progress in eliminating echo on Skype by dividing the job of recording and playback between my USB soundcard and my internal soundcard.

And this evening I managed to make a recording. The attached file is not coherent as it consists of three test slices of the meeting and I have not edited it at all. I notice that the sound levels are very variable. I was controlling sound levels through Audacity but the recording would need more manipulation to level them out  even further if I were publishing this.

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Webcast Academy Meetin 1.3.8
 Dec. 10, 2006
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Agenda

- Book of Webcasting, Hardware & Software Profile Pages
- Skypecast Alternatives
- New Year Webcastathon
- Open Troubleshooting

 

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A discussion with Brad and Cathy that includes the appropriate use of technolog y in education to Australian Christmas stories.

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Chat Log Below

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Download (19MB)

The Euromeeting on Thursday the 7.12.06 was hosted by Anne Fox in a

skypecast-room and recorded and edited (strongly) in Audacity and

streamed to Sandbox A and B with SAM Broadcastiing by Niels. Before

the start we played Beethowen 5. sym found on wikimedia - and a litte

glimse of Danish music (Kim Larsen: Kloden drejer stille rundt = the

Earth is turning silent around) just to suppress Doug a little (sorry

for that, Doug)

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As I continue to fail to record using VAC, I thought it was just my luck that I couldn't book a Skypecast for Monday. Using the skypecast booking system and having chosen the date I got the message that it was not possible to book a session more than two weeks in advance. I found this baffling but having notified Skype support they have replied that this is a problem they are aware of and which they are working to rectify. Just in case anybody else out there is experiencing the same frustration.

This is our 6th show. I heard all about Skype 3.0, but it is not available for Mac, yet. I limped along with 2.0.0.2, after theshow I upgraded to 2.0.0.6.We had over 20 people in the skypecast, a dozen in the chat. It was a busy show. Finally I was able to mute all, and select the individuals who asked to speak.

Webcasting gets easier, but the glitches are the same. Put the goggles on, seatbelts and sometimes a bungee cord to get through the show!

Over and out.

I have posted about the recent reaction paper I had to submit for my Masters course, which examines the Academy as an online learning community, over at EducationBridges.  Please note that I feel this barely covers the wide range of issues I looked at when researching for the paper.  I had to cut back quite a lot to keep within the assigned word limit.

 http://elgg.educationbridges.net/bradh/weblog/793.html

This blog is an extension of some of the ideas discussed in today's' skype conference...The webcast academy already has several metaphors currently in use.  One is the 'academy' and the other is 'bridges'.  A third general metaphor is 'community'.  In a way having three 'identities' can be a little confusing.  A new visual model would serve as the hanger for new ideas. By visual I am mean image based as opposed to text based.  To me text is auditory, it's just an internal dialogue.  A site needs to have a strong metaphor and graphical interface if it's going to build a community image in the users mind.  Users need to construct a mental model of the community. They need to define their role as well as the roles of others. They must be able to find their way around the community easily, unless the goal is to create a maze and reward only those who can figure it out.It's like browsing a multidimensional universe.

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Webcast Meeting 1.3.7
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Our weekly discussion started by troubleshooting Anne's audio challenges (leaving her without any functional way of communicating with us) and then got into discussing the homestretch of this session and what lies beyond, and finally got into other issues of building Worldbridges and its component sites.

Chat Log Below

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As Anne has already reported, she Niels and I tried to meet last night. I called a conference, then set up a Skypecast, then Niels set up a Skypecast and we ended up in Webhuddle. In the conference and the Skypecasts there were terrible echo problems. In the Webhuddle I simply could not find how to activate sound, and there did not seem to be any instructions anywhere. We were ejected unceremoniously after a shortish period.

 This is often a Beta world, isn't it? When things work it is impressive. But they often do not work and for reasons unknown to anyone around at the time. 

I have had experience of other Skypecasts in the last couple of days. It is a jungle. If you do not "mute all" and invite people to speak selectively, you are lost. And the language of some of the people that will start speaking if you don't stop them is not the sort of language you would want your grandmother to hear. 

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I have finally today succeeded in recording both ends of a telephony call after much playing with sound settings and after experimenting with a different computer and different versions of Audacity. My settings were as follows:

Equipment: Laptop with wireless connection

External USB sound board Audio Advantage Roadie

Headphones and mike plugged into the Roadie-

1. Control Panel Settings

Ø          Audio: Recording, RoadieØ          Playback, RoadieØ          Voice: Recording RoadieØ          Playback Roadie

1. Sound Properties

Ø          Recording: Stereo MixØ          Playback: Mike checked

1. Audacity (ver 1.2.3) I/O

Ø          Audio in RoadieØ          Audio out: Roadie

1. Skype

Ø          Audio in RoadieØ          Audio out RoadieØ          Let Skype decide: unchecked

1. Audio Repeater

Ø          Wave in sound cardØ          Wave out: Roadie

I don't understand why this combination works. The settings in audio repeater seem to be exactly the opposite of those recommended in Jeff's screencast. I wish I understood more what I was doing!

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Wanted to share my experience of this afternoon regarding "audio issues" with my Dell Latitude D800 laptop. Out of nowhere I began having trouble with the sound on my laptop. The internal speakers weren't producing any sound -- no start-up/shut-down for Windows, or anything else -- and plugging in headphones led "white noise" but even that was extremely faint.

I went into the audio settings and everything seemed as it should be. Control Panel > System > Device Manager also indicated that everything was working as it should, although I still was unable to get any sound out of the machine.

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This show is a shorter version of Women of Web 2.0.

Thanks to Maria Knee, Bob Sprankle, Alice Barr and Ed Trouble Latham. Cheryl Oakes recorded and mixed.

Thanks to Derek Miller for his music Meltdown Man.

 

I at least have a quick recording of the SkypeLady and me. Just used Pamela - but at least it is a very minor baby step. It is just a simple mono recording. Now, onward.