Scripting and Video for Learning ... Web 2.0

This week I am assisting in putting together a video for work; scripts have been created and we have been following those fairly closely as we create each video.  It is unbelievable the amount of work that is put into this effort.  Not only do you actually have to create the video, you have to ensure the actors are in place, know their lines, have practiced, and are available when the videotaping begins.

That is only the beginning.  You have to ensure there is adequate supplies on hand, especially when you consider videotaping outside during the summer months ... in Atlanta!  You need plenty of water, food, snacks, more water, and towels handy!

The amount of coaching and redo's that take place is simply amazing.  Video 3, Scene 10, take ... 11!  It seems to never end.  And this is only the beginning.  The video editor then has to take all of the different videos, scenes, and takes, and somehow magically splice them together, using also what is called B takes (still images or video that is included in the video/audio components).

I have taken a videoscripting class from an awesome AT&T videographer, however, I had NO idea the complexities of such an endeavor.  My hats go off to these guys that work week in and week out producing this type of media.

I would love to hear ideas around incorporating video into Web 2.0 technology.  I know there is YouTube, and the auras that I created for our Produsage 1 assignment.  I just wonder if there are other ways that video could be a fit for Web 2.0.

Week 6 Journal

Reflecting on my fast-paced 6-week Summer Web 2.0 class with Dr. Dennen at Florida State University, as a lifelong learner and as an instructional designer, I will most definitely use Web 2.0 tools professionally, at least as much as my organization will allow. The firewall that is in place within our organization does not allow complete access to all web sites in order to utilize open blogs, wikis, etc. We do have wikis and blogs available on our Intranet, however, I discovered during the Produsage 1 assignment, that it is very rarely utilized.  This realization made me wonder whether I could maybe make the sites more active if I began blogging, etc. on our internal Intranet.

I was very interested to read in Shirky about AT&T engineers working with a small business many years ago that used open source tools for programming support in the Perl community.  The AT&T folks believed that unless you paid for support, no real support existed in the open source communities that have become so prevalent in produsage.  Yet, the small company that AT&T was working with at that time went on to become very successful.  This was a real eye opener for me, and made me realize, there is quite an advantage to having community input – at no cost!

Web 2.0 - Enlightenment - Introversion - Blogging's the Best

I have heard of Web 2.0 for quite some time, however, I had no idea of the far-reaching implications until I took the Web 2.0 class this Summer semester.  I have learned about so many tools in a short period of time - 5 weeks to be exact - that I am in total awe.  Our Web 2.0 instructor pushes us out of our comfort zone, which is a good thing for me.

I tend to be somewhat of an introvert, without a whole lot to say - publicly anyway!  My boyfriend and my children hear a ton from me, but not many others do!  I have to say that I have definitely been pulled out of my comfort zone this Summer semester, but I am finding they are all very good experiences.  I still feel somewhat on the periphery, however, hesitant to do much more than lurk in most of the communities.

I will say I have become comfortable with blogging, since that is part of our weekly assignments!  I think I like blogging the best over all of the other tools.  Tweeting seems hit or miss to me.  I couldn't really think of an awesome tool to write about for this blog, so I went with my feelings around Web 2.0 instead.

It's been a good summer, and a good class!  :)

eLearning Brothers for Gaming

eLearning Brothers is one of the coolest sites I have found in a while.  Creating the games by downloading the xml for Flash files and then creating the questions, responses, and feedback in the .xml files using Notepad is a breeze!  Here's the web site:
http://elearningbrothers.com/

I enjoyed sharing what I know during our Web 2.0 smackdown this afternoon!  It's so cool to share my knowledge and to learn from other folks.  One thing I forgot to mention is that you can also edit the sound by loading another audio file into the audio folder, and either ensuring the audio file name is the same as what was in the folder previously, or change it directly in the .xml file.

Enjoy gaming!

Creating Audio Using Audacity - Presenter

I am designing a course currently and will be incorporating audio.  I will be using Audacity to record and then edit and finalize the audio, and then will save it to an MP3 file.  I will then insert the MP3 audio files into Presenter, which houses the bulk of the course content, with the exception to some link-outs to some  simulations, a pdf file, and the L1 survey and L2 assessment.

The link to the Audacity web site is http://audacity.sourceforge.net/  Only when I went to the website to grab the url to share did I realize that this was open source software.  That makes it even more unique and interesting to me.

I would love to hear any tips and tricks from anyone with experience using Audacity to record and Presenter to create courses, and whether you feel it is better to record directly in Presenter or to use Audacity! :)

Week 5 Journal

Judging the Value of Expertise on the Web ...

I highly value expertise on the web as long as it appears to be from a reliable source.  I do not value face-to-face any differently in fact, unless I know the person personally.  So to me, to hear anything online vs. face-to-face, it all just depends - on how I know the credibility of the source or the face-to-face person personally or professionally.

Also, if a source has been recommended by a colleague or educational professional or classmate, then I tend to trust those sources without question.

Communities of Practice - Information Overload - Suggested Sites

I have been following #lrnchat and find the vast number of communities of practice, informational tips, events, and learning opportunities extremely interesting, and want to read all of them and participate in every single event.  However, there is simply not enough time.  So how do you narrow your focus when there is so much interesting stuff out there to digest?  I feel I am on information overload reading and consuming as much information as possible.  I wonder if I retain some of it, most of it, or possibly even all of it?

I asked some peers at work this week for their experience with communities of practice, and received some good information.  One peer suggested these sites, which I checked out, and they really are all good with tons of information:

http://www.w3schools.com

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZmIiIXuZ0&feature=player_embedded

http://2advanced.com/#/home

Another peer suggested the following sites:

• i4cp
• ASTD
• eLearning Guild

These are all very good sites, however, I am really enjoying lurking around in #lrnchat ... for now.

Community of Practice Trajectories

Our  class readings for this week are most appropriate for our community assignment.  I am currently enjoying the paper written by Dr. Dennen, "Intersecting Communities of Practice: Merging Roles Across the Academic and Blogging Worlds."  I am seeing a common denominator between the community of practice trajectories and being a lurker or full participant.  I really like that word, "lurker" ... it sounds as if I am doing something really sneaky! :)

It is interesting that the more that I learn and my length and degree of engagement, along with my level of commitment determines whether I am entrenched in the community of practice or whether I am on a peripheral trajectory.  I believe at this point, I am on the peripheral trajectory.  I want to be more committed, however, and am trying to figure out a way to become more entrenched.  Hopefully soon I will be on the inbound trajectory where I can become increasingly active within the community.

Reminder, the following will be presented this evening at 8:30 PM EST...

#Lrnchat July 18: The Power of Negative Experiences

by janebozarth

The late 20th century saw an increase in the perceived value of positive thinking, positive experiences, and positive feedback.  But some recent research indicates that we learn more from negative experiences and feedback than from the positive. We’ll explore this in #lrnchat on Thursday, July 18. Join us on Twitter at 8:30 pm Eastern, 5:30pm  Pacific (that’s Friday July 19, 11:30 am, in Oz).

Lurking in Community - negative experiences

I happened to be "lurking" in the #lrnchat community this evening as part of my EME6414 assignment, and ran across an interesting topic that I was unprepared to see - negative experiences, so I decided to check it out.

Apparently there is a meeting this Thursday at 8:30 EST around negative experiences.  While I was on the site below, links to several articles were provided.  How interesting!
http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/lrnchat-july-18-the-power-of-negative-experiences/

I am tempted to check out the meeting Thursday!  To be honest, however, I am not sure how to attend!  If my classmates can check the link out above and provide some insight I would be most appreciative! :)  Do I just check in at #lrnchat on this date and time and see what happens?  I will give it a try.

Check out this article on negativity:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1817329,00.html

Week 4 Journal

In response to the question, "How do issues such as authorship, copyright and open access impact your desire, ability and willingness to engage in produsage, both personally and professionally?"

I am not too overly concerned with authorship, copyright and open access from a personal standpoint, as long as I do not say anything offensive, etc. However, professionally, there are many things to consider such as intellectual properties and copyright infringements. Therefore, I have to be very careful speaking from a corporate perspective more so than I do on a personal level. The corporate world tends to prefer to hang onto their intellectual properties to ensure they remain competitive.

With Web 2.0, open access, and shared software - everyone joining together - I wonder how this new found way of collaborating affect Corporate America? I would think it would have to change as well.

Light at the End of the Tunnel - A Tool to Use!

I was inspired today after creating our team meeting agenda completely online using blogger. I converted it to a pdf document to use as minutes of the meeting - super cool! I know the exact tool I want to use to create my lesson that is due Sunday for Dr. Dennen's class. Now to only come up with the content! I think I have an idea of a tool I recently discovered during a Design Hive, and I think my class mates will be able to utilize it in their future design work as well.

I'm feeling excited now; to be honest, up to this point, I have just felt overwhelmed and nervous. I am feeling much better now that I have decided on a tool to use for class.

Adding Gadgets to Google Blogger > Easy ... While Procrastinating about Lesson

Adding gadgets and rearranging the layout on my blog site was fun, such as placing a picture of Dave on my blog, and allowing folks to follow my blogs by submitting their emails, etc.  And it was way easy!  I wish all tools and sites were as user-friendly as the Google features.

My peer classmates and Dr. Dennen may realize what I am doing - procrastinating - and hopefully making progress by accomplishing the easier tasks first.  I am still wondering which Web 2.0 tool to use for my lesson that is due this Sunday!  I figured I should be as efficient as possible as I think through the process and tool that I want to use to create my lesson.

I haven't even figured out what I want the lesson to be about yet! Sigh...  My goal is to make it something the class will find informative and will be helpful toward their future projects, etc.  The lesson is due Sunday, and is likely to be a very short one.  Did I mention it is due Sunday!

Best Web 2.0 Tool to Use for Formal Education

I am having a very difficult time deciding which Web 2.0 tool to use for creating a formal educational lesson. I have considered utilizing an Adobe Connect standalone meeting room where participants can enter the room alone or with multiple participants and interact with each other as well as download the necessary files to review and study, and/or using link-outs.

I wonder if Adobe Connect or GoTo Meeting would be acceptable, or possibly even a single web site as a "gathering" place that houses embedded Web 2.0 tools within.  I have also considered Skype because links can be pushed to participants in the messaging area, along with interactive messaging between all participants.

So many choices and so little time!!!  I think I am about to panic!

Week 3 Journal

Collaborative wikis or blogs used within my telecommunications organization would be most helpful.  As an instructional designer balancing multiple projects and client groups, learnings could be shared easily among all of the designers, laying groundwork for best practices and enhanced future projects.  Additionally clients could blog MPP updates to the designers and designers could blog questions back to them seeking clarification or links to reference sites.

Blogs and wikis could replace electronic performance support tools, or they could actually enhance them by adding information from the learners' perspectives and experiences back on the job after training, in the case of Consumer call center representatives.

Possibly design and implementation challenges would be minimal for management employees whereas MPP clients blog with instructional designers and vice versa.  I am not sure, however, how the interface would work with represented employees, such as the call center representatives.

The design and implementation challenges of a user-initiated effort would be the internal firewall that presen6ts access to certain sites.  Any type of blog and wiki would have to be internal to the organization in order for it to work.  However, it is  not to say that the customer service representatives could not blog and tweet outside of the organization using their own "tools" (iPhone, iPad, etc.) to discover learnings.

Getting Grounded in Web 2.0 & Late Blogs

With all of the different tools and various instructions on Blackboard, I think I was literally dizzy the first week of the Web 2.0 class.  I am certain that Dr. Dennen thinks I am a complete technophobe, as she has patiently written instructions via email to me which explain in detail the various tools on Blackboard and how they differ from the Web 2.0 tools that are available for us to use.  (Thank you, Dr. Dennen!)  I suppose it is true that I am more comfortable with course developer tools over the actual media.

I will admit, I am getting somewhat grounded in Web 2.0 tools, however, I am sure at this point Dr. Dennen may not agree with me!  :)  I am still not 100% sure of how I can make these tools work in formal education or even the corporate environment, unless it is through guided research, which would still require more or less an instructor guide or job aid of some sort. I suppose the guidance could be in the form of a text message, tweet, or blog.

In an attempt to get caught up with "blogging" for the first week and having messed up so badly during Week 1 of this class, I surely hope this reflective type of blog counts as one of the required blogs, as I am blogged out for the day.  I admit that it takes me a moment to catch on at times, but once I learn it, I know it for good.  Reading Dr. Dennen's response to another class member's blog that working on the computer work first and then reading second will help me prioritize.

Also, although I read the participation instructions several times, I completely missed where we are not required to respond to every message in the BB Discussion (I was spending much of my time there responding.)  I will admit, it feels much "cooler" writing blogs... :)

I chose to use a little humor in this blog, as I needed it after two very long days of catching up over the weekend. :)

Can Twitter Be Used to Enhance Learning?

Junco (2011) on page 120 writes that Twitter, as a microblogging platform, provides more of an ongoing public dialogue among multiple users that can be more effectively used for educational purposes over other media, such as Facebook.  Twitter also encourages faculty to be more engaged with students as well as educational peers.  Does Twitter, however, actually enhance learning?

I would say that Twitter does enhance learning simply via its collaborative nature where ideas can be discussed and expanded on.  However, it would take multiple tweets to provide detail on any one subject as a single post is limited to 140 characters, as I discovered as I tweeted my first time this past week.

I discovered a cool interactive site created by Helen Doyle on the use of Twitter in education:
http://prezi.com/gsp73lokv3ni/social-media-twitter-as-a-tool-for-education/

iPhones and iPads + Web 2.0 = Education

iPhones and iPads utilize Web 2.0 technology and allow collaborative communication through the use of some Apps.  In fact, simple texting on an iPhone is viewed as a "chat" between two or more participants.  Wouldn't this be considered Web 2.0?

I did some research on the Internet and there is a lot of information available on IOS technology and Web 2.0.  In fact, I ran across one site, 40 Useful Web 2.0 iPhone Applications and Sites (below), and I am sure there are a ton more, but this was enough to intrigue me!
http://www.dzineblog360.com/2010/12/40-useful-web-2-0-iphone-applications-and-sites/

I am interested in learning more about utilizing the Web 2.0 capabilities that iPhones and iPads have for educational purposes.

Using Web 2.0 in Corporate Environments

In my organization, learners are limited to search capabilities and tools outside of the organization's approved sites due to a firewall.  With more and more learners utilizing Web 2.0 technology, how is one expected to work within the confines of corporate limitations, such as firewalls?

There are many benefits to Web 2.0 for learners:

• Collaboration is encouraged
• Comfort level of users is high
• There is low cost to use the tools (Google Web 2.0 tools are free to use)

The question is how do you incorporate Web 2.0 into Corporate America in order for learners within these organizations to benefit from such tools?

I discovered this interesting article below that discusses protecting intellectual properties, etc., which leads me to another question - how do you get your organization to buy into utilizing Web 2.0?

http://content.arma.org/IMM/JanFeb09/Walk_In_The_Cloud/web_2.0_issues_risks.aspx

Generations, Learning Styles, Web 2.0

Generations and learning styles are quite interesting.  Most generation’s preferred style of training are Performance Support (tools) and reference materials for self study.  Interestingly, over a span of four generations of learners - Baby Boomers, Gen X, Traditionalists, and Gen Y - Gen X'ers prefer self navigating to find training for learning purposes.

Source for the above information can be found at the following web site:
http://www.meridiaars.com/assets/other/LearningStyles.pdf

While it may be more comfortable to remain in one's own preferred style of learning, it is important to understand all learning styles in order to develop and provide training for all learners within all generations.

Web 2.0 tools can be intimidating for the older generations; as a Baby Boomer, I understand fully the need to at least learn how to navigate and interact with these tools from a supportive standpoint as it relates to ID/HPT.

4 Principles of Produsage Described by Brun

While I have an overall understanding of produsage, the 4 principles described Brun are a little difficult for me to comprehend:

1. Open participation, communal evaluation
2. Fluid heterarchy, ad hoc meritocracy
3. Unfinished artefacts, continuing process
4. Common property, individual rewards
I found a few websites that were helpful in helping me to further understand the 4 principles that Brun describes:

http://produsage.org/node/11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produsage

Even with the additional readings, I still struggled with writing formal educational conditions for the 4th principle - Common property, individual rewards.

I am thinking it would be along the lines of intellectual property instances for organizations.  Wherein, a collaborative effort to determine a certain outcome resulted in a second outcome on an individual's contribution.  However, in this instance, the contributor was under an agreement with the organization, and so was not able to gain recognition or reward due to the agreement with the organization.

Of course this is a negative instance, where the individual could not be rewarded financially, however, they could receive recognition as a form of reward.

Week 2 Journal

The concept of produsage is applied in my personal, professional, and academic life.  In my personal life, I have participated in server-side activities such as Farm Town on Facebook where two or more users interact with the game and each other striving to achieve the highest score.

In my professional life, I routinely develop virtual courses using Adobe Connect along with other hosts.  Adobe Connect allows interaction of two or more hosts to collaborate, update, and make changes to the meeting room layouts as well as respond to participants simultaneously that are attending the virtual class.

Finally, in my academic life, I utilize Googledocs to collaborate with other learning peers to develop, update, and enhance content for the various classes that I am in at Florida State University.  Also, I am learning how to utilize many new produsage applications as we learn about Web 2.0 and how to utilize it in formal learning environments.