The 6th incarnation of Elmer's blog
Ok, the theory is that I can use this tool in Oppie (the OPML Editor does need a cute nickname!) to write posts for my WordPress blog, www.symphora.com. If this works, I’ve got a bunch of interesting ideas for Classcaster.
I assume that each section of the outline will translate into a new paragraph. If so, this is the second paragraph. I suppose it may turn up as a bullet point too.
How about some links:
| OPML Editor |
| WordPress |
| Classcaster |
| Using OPML Editor and WordPress together. |
So now, for example, brainstorming can be done with a wiki-like tool, and notes from a meeting or background research can become a blog post. Instead of saving bookmarks as private “favorites” in a web browser, you can publish them as social bookmarks. Ideas and discussions can be expressed as blog posts or as status updates on social networks.
via MediaShift . 9 Tools to Help Live-Stream Your Newsroom | PBS.
Excellent set of tools to let you add live streaming to just about anything. It is easy enough to see that these sort of tools would be useful in legal education and certainly when used with Classcaster allow for all sorts of possibilities. I think the idea here is to open the room, removing the walls from the class/session/seminar/presentation to allow access to the broadest possible audience. Certainly applications for legal education could make use of any combination of these tools to enhance the classroom or open the symposium.
One thought here also is that the law.gov movement should really be using a tool set like this to open there discussions.
And keep in mind that using live streaming tools works best when usage is planned in advance.
This audio broadcast series provides expert commentary on U.S. Supreme Court cases as they are argued and issued. To supplement our scholars’ analysis, we provide brief descriptions of the issues in the cases. The Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker. We hope these broadcasts, like all of our programming, will serve to stimulate discussion and further exchange regarding important current legal issues. The podcasts below are broken up into two groups: Post-Decision podcasts and Post-Argument podcasts.
via SCOTUScast » Publications » The Federalist Society.
Great resource. Commentary started with the October 2006 term and continues. The podcasts are available directly from the site, via RSS or through iTunes.
The written student evaluations from each class have been overwhelmingly positive regarding all technology, but the podcasting was a particular favorite. Students revealed that they listened to the podcasts on iPods as well as work computers. They could listen during their commutes, which in our urban environment frequently took several hours each day. One student told me that she was planning to listen to the entire set of podcasts while she was running the New York Marathon. I once even overheard several of my students bragging to students in other sections about how their podcasts were available after each class. Classcaster statistics revealed that my 2006 Torts pages received 4657 hits, while the 2007 page had 7662 hits. On occasion my page has been one of the most frequently used in the entire Classcaster system. Because I did not require a password, students at other schools were also able download the lessons. The lesson I recorded on “exam writing tips” before the 2006 mid-term exam was one of the most popular of all time.
Podcasts, PowerPoint, and Pedagogy: Using Technology to Teach the Part-Time Student
Be sure to take a look at the results of the survey on page 898, showing that 97.7% of her students listened to the podcasts, while 67.4% ran the CALI Lessons she recommended.
Prof. Saltalamachia makes use of Classcaster’s relatively unique telephone podcasting system to record her class summaries so that “[w]ith a cell phone and a laptop, I could do this anywhere without needing any help from the school’s IT Department.”
The blogs, with podcasts, mentioned in the article are here and here. The podcasts are part of an archive of nearly 20,000 (yes that is twenty thousand) hours of recorded lectures and summaries that are housed in Classcaster. The Classcaster podcasting and blogging system is available to faculty, librarians, and staff of CALI member law schools free of charge.
Very nice. Time to dust off the SIP version of Classcaster, to allow everyone to record podcasts directly from their PCs using the power of Asterisk.Meanwhile, Laszlo, which is rooted in providing RIA software and solutions, and CounterPath Solutions, a Vancouver, British Columbia, provider of multimedia VOIP softphones and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) applications, announced a strategic relationship to bring standards-based voice communications to Laszlo Webtop.The companies plan to join forces to build CMC (CounterPath Multimedia Communicator) WebPhone, a softphone that will play to Laszlo’s vision of one-click, universal communications by merging the voice application with Webtop’s existing browser-based Mail and Contacts applications. The companies demonstrated the CMC WebPhone at the AJAX World show, officials from both companies said.CMC WebPhone will be available for general release later this year, CounterPath officials said.
Open Education Search – The Hewlett Foundation is working with ccLearn to develop a web search portal of open education resources. And they are looking for material. I wonder how 4,000 hours of law school class lectures and summaries would work? I think we’re going to find out.
From the Open Education Search FAQ
What data are you gathering to enable web-scale open education search?
Most important: Site URLs
We are collecting top level URLs for sites hosting OERs. A well-known example would be http://ocw.mit.edu. A web-scale open education search should minimally index all pages under such a site URL.Resource URLs
We are also collecting individual resource URLs, for example http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01TFall-2004/CourseHome/.We are interested in individual resource URLs even where we have a siteURL for the resource’s host, as the resource URL may be annotated morespecifically.Keyword annotations (also known as tags, labels, and subjects, among others)
Both types of URLs may be tagged (or whatever verb you prefer) with keywords. This is optional but desired. How can I ensure that my OERs are included?
If you have lists of OERs or OER sites in any textualformat (that includes XML and XML dialects, such as OAI), we can importfrom these formats. Send the file(s) or URL(s) to Creative Commons CTONathan Yergler: nathan@creativecommons.org. An example would be a URL pointing to an OAI file. It is very likely in this example that we can use
dc:subjectvalues as tags.Contacts
For purely technical questions, see Nathan Yergler above. For allother questions, contact ccLearn Executive Director Ahrash Bissell: ahrash@creativecommons.org.
technorati tags:Hewlett_Foundation, CreativeCommons, ccLearning, Classcaster, CALI
CommentPress is an open source theme for the WordPress blogging engine that allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text.
This remarkable WordPress plugin is being developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book. It adds a high level of interactivity and coinversation to WordPress blogs by allow for comments at the paragraph level with the comments displayed in a floating window. I think the implications for this in education are astounding. Imagine providing a text that be readily commented on, paragraph by paragraph by students and teachers.
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The Quick Capture tool uses an Adobe Flash Player API to connect to the user’s webcam. The user must first grant the Flash Player permission to use the camera and microphone—and must do so every time—before using the service. Once the user grants permission, he or she must then select the type of connection being used for the video and microphone: DV, FireWire, or USB.
YouTube allows users to record directly to site
This is cool. I wonder if we could replicate this on Classcaster?
technorati tags:youtube, video, flash, classcaster
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MAKE: Blog: HOW TO – Podcasting for educators – Everybody is looking for grant money to do this, but come on, it ain’t that expensive. Classcaster is open source, and we recommend a sub $100 digital recorder that works just fine. Quality is good enough and it is easy for teachers to use and students to listen to.
technorati tags:make, podcasting, classcaster
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To ‘cast or not to ‘cast. It seems to be a much hotter topic than it deserves to be these days. Here’s how it boils down. Are you producing media for the web: Yes/No. If you check the Yes box, why not create an RSS feed for it? If you check the No box, why aren’t you?
Peterson’s – a Nelnet Company–Syndication for Higher Ed » Podcasts Passe – Or were they ever “In”?
As usual, Dan asks a good question. I left him this comment:
One year ago we launched a simple service for law school faculty to create podcasts of lectures and course summaries at www.classcaster.org. Now we have over 60 active bloggers and podcasters, more than 2500 hours of audio material, a lot of satisfied students. I think you need to look past the hype about podcasting and ask a basic question: is there value for the student in having this supplemental material? If the answer is yes, you can create an effective infrastructure for recording classes and summaries with less than $100 digital recorders and open source software. All the information on how we built Classcaster, including the software we used, is at http://www.classcaster.net/.
technorati tags:classcaster, cali, podcasting
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