Beginners Guide to WordPress: Setting up a local site, Setting up a working development environment, Gaining practical skills and Developing understanding

Before we move onto the central theme of this article, as a foundation to our knowledge I suggest you read this article which outlines the different versions of WordPress that are available: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/08/27/wordpress-versions-how-many-and-whats-the-diff/

As individual developers we are concerned with the full version of WordPress.  For individual developers that are learning their trade or who need access to an environment where they can experiment and practice without the additional issues of acquiring web space and a web server we need a local web server installed that will replicate the online web space where WordPress would normally be housed. There are a couple of solutions listed below. I suggest you try out both options i) to see what environment you like working in the most and ii) give you the opportunity to work on a couple of WordPress sites as you experiment in the future.

·         Have a read of section 1 for some background to the technology

·         Try both implementations in section 2. You may want to go to section 3 before you start and download WordPress. Instructions will then be given in section 2 on how to install this onto your local web server.

·         Section 4 will give tips on using Dreamweaver as your development environment. If you do not have Dreamweaver links to other options are provided.

·         In section 5 we get down to work by creating a WordPress theme.

·         Section 6 Plugins, you will not really need at this stage, but it is there for future reference

·         Section 7 offers some thoughts on development Strategies, Environments and Tools

·         Section 8 offers links to websites that can help with the development of individual LAMP technology programming skills.

·         And in section 9 some other useful resources are listed.

I. Background to the Technology

1. Understanding LAMP: http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3567741/Understanding-LAMP.htm

II. Setting up the Local web server Infrastructure (XAMPP)

2a. XAMPP Home http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html (This link is for an overview of product)

3a Download XAMPP (v1.8.1)  http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html  (includes Apache web server v2.4.3, PHP programming language v5.4.7 and MySQL database v5.5.27 and phpMyAdmin 3.5.22 : (probably best to use the installer option. Note also there is Lite version for use on USB Sticks)

4a How to Setup a WordPress Development Environment for Windows (XAMPP): http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-setup-a-wordpress-development-environment-for-windows/

OR

II. Setting up the Local web server Infrastructure (WAMPSERVER)

2b WampServer Home http://www.wampserver.com/. (This link is for an overview of the product. The product is made by a French company, use the ‘ENGLISH’ text link on the home page to translate the page, not the browser translate option if prompted.)

3b DOWNLOAD WAMPSERVER 2.2E. From the Home page there are a range of installation options depending on your computer and the specific versions of Apache, MySql, PHP and phpMyAdmin.

If you intend transferring an existing php intensive WordPress site into this setup it is probably best to match your existing versions.

You get the choice of 32 bit or 64bit depending on your machine. You can find this out by looking of the properties of your ‘computer’ or ‘my computer’ icon on your desktop (right click).

When downloading you will be presented with a form to fill in(for training) – you don’t need to fill this in, you will find a link to download the file at the top of the page. I went for this version (64-BIT & PHP 5.3) as it matched my machine and the PHP version matched a WordPress site I was transferring in.

4b. Setting up a local server for WordPress development (WAMPSERVER): http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/02/setting-up-a-local-server-for-wordpress-development/

III. Installing WordPress

5. Download WordPress: http://wordpress.org/download/

6. Installing WordPress: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

IV. Working with WordPress

7. Setting up a PHP Development Environment: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/setup_php.html The article gives a comprehensive overview which includes installation of XAMPP and myPHP admin as they are critical to being able to progress when setting up your Dreamweaver development site. Instructions included for both MAC and windows users.  If you have already installed XAMPP you may just want to review the instructions. The Dreamweaver action kicks in with the section “Defining a PHP site in Dreamweaver CS5” and finalises the whole download , installation and development setup to get you ready just to focus on the development of the WordPress website.

http://www.wpbeginner.com/news/wordpress-themes-made-easy-with-adobe-dreamweaver-cs5/

8. Other Development Environment options include:

·         WordPress development with Netbeans IDE: http://www.dev4press.com/2012/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress-development-with-netbeans-ide/

·         Sublime text 2: http://www.sublimetext.com/

·         Webmatrix: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

I have not used any of these but all have been mentioned in dispatches as useful development environments.

V. Getting to Work – Themes

9. Using Themes: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes

10. Theme Development: http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development#Template_Files_List

11. Intro: How to build a WordPress theme from scratch: http://www.developerdrive.com/2011/10/how-to-build-a-wordpress-theme-from-scratch-part-one/

12. More in Depth: How to create a WordPress theme: http://themeshaper.com/2012/10/22/the-themeshaper-wordpress-theme-tutorial-2nd-edition/ 

VI Getting to Work – Plugins

13. Plugin Development for WordPress: http://www.developerdrive.com/2012/05/plugin-development-for-wordpress/

VI DISCUSSION – Strategies, Environments and Tools

14. Professional WordPress Development Strategies:  http://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/general/professional-wordpress-development-strategies/

15. Professional WordPress Development environments: http://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/general/professional-wordpress-development-environments/

16. Professional WordPress Development tools: http://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/general/professional-wordpress-development-tools-2/

VII Skill Development

17. PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner: http://devzone.zend.com/6/php-101-php-for-the-absolute-beginner/

18. CSS Tutorials: http://www.csstutorial.net/

19. JavaScript tutorials: http://www.pageresource.com/jscript/

20. jQuery Tutorials: http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials  (About jQuery: http://jquery.com/)

VIII Useful Other Resources

DEVELOPER Drive: http://www.developerdrive.com/

How jQuery Works:  http://docs.jquery.com/How_jQuery_Works

Camtasia 7.0 Part 1: Key Preparation

This post is the first in a series that will shed light on my approach to developing a videocast. In particular what i would call a video 'infocast'. This post mainly draws on my experience of developing a set of videocasts that introduce students to 'online and distance learning' (See parts 1,2,3,4,5,6) at the University that i work DMU.

Photo Courtesy of elibrody under the CC BY-NC 2.0 license.

To ensure that you do not waste unneccesary time, there are six key things you need to do before you embark on your project. These are:
1. Split your project up into approx 5 minute videos. There will be research around that indicates that 5 minutes is at the outer limit of time that people will set aside to concentrate on watching a videocast. In my own particular project I ended up with about 6 videos. One video did stretch to 7 minutes, but i personally think in the context of 5 other shorter videos of between 2-5 minutes, then slightly breaking the rule but keeping the breaks natural was ok to do (I say - follow guidelines but don't be afraid to break the rules). 2. Store and Work on a USB Memory Stick. One of the few poor things about Camtasia is that when you add Media to the project it only refers to the media using the original absolute file path and location. If you wish to move your folder somewhere else or if you want to work on your project at home and also at work you will have to re-find the media everytime you change locations before you can start working on the project. To get around this problem you need to store all your work on a USB Memory Stick, keep a consistent folder structure and make sure that whatever machine you work on assigns the same drive letter to your USB Stick. This article explains how to Assigning a Drive letter to a USB drive. For me as the work machine forced me to use a G:/ Drive, I reassigned my own drive at home to match up and ensure i could work on both machines with no problem should i have to.
3. Set up a clear working folder structure. There are lots of different types of files that may be used when developing a Camtasia project. In order to work in a methodical, stress free way it pays to get your working folder structure clearly organised before you start. In the Development of this series of online and distance learning videocasts my preferred working methodology was as follows:

A. i) Create a "_Camtasia projects" folder to save the project file and any iterations thereof. ii) Create a "_Final outputs" folder to store the many variations of output that you may experiment with during the production process e.g. 480x360px screen size versus a 320x240px. iii) Create a "_Powerpoint storyboards" folder to store the powerpoint file (and any iterations thereof) that i use to build and develop my ideas. iv) Create a "AA Finalised projects" folder to store the completed series of videos that will be ready for distribution. v) Create "audio, images and video" folders to store the various media that may be used and finally vi) Create a "transcript" folder to store your transcripts and vii) Create a "caption" folder to export finalise audio text captions for use with closed captioning.
B. Plan and map out the sequence of the video using Powerpoint. This allows me to use individual slides (save as > other format - jpg files) as graphic images in the videocast and for me to use the notes section of a powerpoint slide to write and then perfect the initial audio transcript. I can print the slides (publish > create handouts in microsoft word) with the transcript for reference when delivering voiceover narration.
C. Develop and use Other media (audio, video, graphics) as appropriate and save in clearly labelled media folders.
D. Experiment if necessary by producing a final output to the "_Final outputs" folder. This a test folder to see various output options in action.
E. When final output format is finalised then save in "AA Finalised projects" folder.
4. Use Audacity to create and Edit Audio narration files. You can record audio narration files quite happily from within camtasia (saves in a .WAV format). Audacity is just very quick and easy for recording and editing short narrated files. Additionally you can output in the .MP3 format. (although you need to install an extra file - the LAME MP3 Encoder). You can get away without audacity but i consider it a tool that makes your development easier and gives you more flexibility (you can use with other applications, once you know how it works).
5. Settings for best quality video on youtube This article explains in depth how to prepare video for youtube: How to Make YouTube Videos Look Great. The key thing seems to be to use the 16:9 ratio and set to dimensions that are equal to 480x360 or same aspect ratio, as youtube finalize videos at 480x360px. Especially if I need to do screen capturing I now tend to use 960x720 to keep the ratio the same (but i did not do this for these videos). Note: I am still experimenting with this and have not come to a definitive view on what the best strategy is, but at this time this is my position.
Late Update
6. If recording is slow Disable Display Acceleration During Capture. I noticed that initially especially with PowerPoints capturing a screen recording can be very slow. by disabling the display acceleration during capture recording speeded up dramatically. Read this link on How to Improve Recording Performance for a full explanation and other related tips.
So this is an insight to one particular project that I have worked on - there are other ways of using camtasia, but hopefully this gives an initial idea of the things to think about when setting up. note: looking back I will probably review my naming conventions - the underscores and "AA" in the folder names was to keep these folders together away from the media folders, so that I could find the media folders more easily when in the middle of working.

Articulate Presenter: Adding Voiceover Sound

In a previous post we looked at how to include voice-over sound in PowerPoint presentations. For those that also have access to the Articulate Presenter PowerPoint Add-In there is the opportunity to add sound to an enhanced presentational format.

This two part series demonstrates how add to add voiceover sound to Articulate presentations and highlights a few basic points about the files and folders that are generated.

Part 1: Adding Voiceover sound to Articulate Presenter - Adding Sound, Previewing and Publishing

Part 2: Adding Voiceover sound to Articulate Presenter - Files, Folders and External Sound

Adding Voiceover Sound to Powerpoint

I have created a 4 part series of videos demonstrating and discussing how to include voice-over sound in PowerPoint presentations. For those that are new to PowerPoint, electronic presentations or are slightly technophobic in these matters hopefully these videos will be useful to you.

Part 1: Adding Sounds



Part 2: Summary and Considerations



Part 3: Audacity



Part 4: Adding External Sound Files and Final Summary

Videoblogging versus Blogging

This blog post gives me an initial opportunity to consider the potential of videoblogging compared with straightforward blogging. It is a short initial piece, primarily for me to focus on the video editing technology. I lay the foundations for a deeper more meaningful discussion on the learning potential of both types of blogging with a few observations about both types of blogging (not by a long chalk, full and complete), suggesting that one advantage of videoblogging could be that it is a quicker more productive method of blogging.




My initial conclusions are that for learning purposes, both types of blogging require some thinking through and some preparation and planning. For audience capturing, videoblogging may help in this regard, but both types will need high quality output, be that written text or engaging on-camera presence. I am coming around to the idea that it actually might be a good idea to mix the two approaches. Having a visual stimulus on the blog i think will spark more initial interest.

Video Editing Technology

Although my initial interest was in using videoblogging to produce content more quickly. I actually became more interested in how to make good use of video editing technology and i have made a start here in this blog. What i can say is that Camtasia is an excellent video editing tool, allowing importing and editing of webcam video, video screencasts, camera video, audio files and image files. With creation and editing also of functions such as zoom and panning, captions, on screen text 'callouts', hyperlinking and an option to include flash based quizzes and surveys there are plenty of tools to be creative with your finalized video output. The bottom line is that working in the camtasia editing environment is very easy even for a teacher that has no previous experience of editing video.

For what you get i think camtasia is very well priced (at last time of checking £134 for educational license), however if you are looking for a free video editor then windows movie maker is also a great free bit of software, that can add a bit of variety and interest to a straightforward talking head webcam.

Final WordIf you did not know already text based blogging is a fantastic learning tool (see my earlier blogging posts). However whatever blogging method is used, you the blogger need to find a subject worth blogging about and then invest time in using your blogging weapon of choice to engage and interest your audience in what you have to say. This may be i) Developing your writing style ii) Improving your webcam talking head delivery or iii) Understanding visual media delivery to make best use of the great video editing tools that are at your disposal. In short if you are like me you blog to learn, but also blog to offer something of value to the audience. In offering something of value to the audience it pays to improve the many communication skills at your disposal.

The Three Dubya's - Wimba, Webex and WiZiQ

Coming towards the end of a phase of Live Online Learning learning using Wimba Live Classroom. Thought i'd take some time to reflect on the Wimba application and compare it with my previous experiences with Webex (training room) and WiZiQ. These are just my initial comparisons, I intend to go into much more depth on these and other applications at a later time.

Good teaching, Great Passion and a Critical Eye

My great passion for live online learning started when i enrolled on the Synchronous Learning Expert Certificate run by insynctraining. I was taught by great teachers with a great philosophy on how learning online needs to be a participative active learning experience. This effects the way i look at the various web conferencing tools. I am looking very critically to see how best the various applications at our disposal incorporate tools to aid learning and how effective these tools are in facilitating technologically efficient, trouble and interference free learning. With each of the three tools that are the focus of this post i have been involved heavily in design, delivery and support of live online synchronous classes. For each web conferencing application at least 30 participants/students in total have partaken of at least one or more live online synchronous classes.

Example: Interaction during Live Online Webex Class

Note: technology should be like a good football (soccer) referee i.e you don't notice it/them

Context

I have an interest in looking at the most effective tool for teaching and learning but also the most appropriate for integration into a higher education institutional setup, where external services may not be an appropriate solution.

• Webex: Agreed a year long trial with Webex at their standard business rates for just a one user licence. A personalised DMU Webex site was created with full admin facilities including the setting up of automatic email reminders and integration with Microsoft Outlook. Can be integrated to Blackboard VLE, but was not for this trial.
• Wimba: Wimba are a company that look to agree institutional wide solutions which would involve integration with Blackboard VLE. Agreed a year long trial with a personalised Wimba website. Admin facilities existed but no automatic email reminders and integration with Microsoft Outlook. The Wimba trial was a stans alone classroom outside of Blackboard.
• WizIq: Free service available to individual teachers. Teachers can sign up to the service and start delivering live online classes. Participant/students need also to sign up and get account before they can participate in any live online classes. For a monthly fee more services can be added.

Logging on to a live Online Classroom

• Webex was by far the least problematic. An email link is created for each session and a listing is available from your main personalised webex site. Most participants could logon satisfactorily.
• Wiziq - unfortunately our students had major problems logging into this service. Most problems seemed to occur when clicking a class invitation link, users also often seemed to go around in circles trying to log back in after changing passwords. After a lot of irritating unnecessary time and effort (for myself and other colleagues), students eventually got sorted out and it was ok after a while. Do not know the exact nature of the problem, but something was not quite right and this experience was a big driver to look for other solutions.
• Wimba also gave our students lots of logging on problems. Although there is a setup wizard which is a good thing, If there was a problem it was not always clear how to rectify the problem. Different browsers seem to react in different ways during the setup wizard causing various problems.

VOIP Audio Quality

One of the essential features in the live online classroom is the VOIP audio quality, without good quality and reliability the whole exercise becomes pointless. I am pleased to say that all three applications provided a generally good service (although not as good as Skype) . When i first started using Webex, we logged on using an integrated telephone landline (the quality is much better, but will cost extra), which i believe is also available in Wimba. Use of VOIP also costs extra in Webex, but not in Wimba or Wiziq. There are occasionally microphone connection issues for participants which seemed to be most problematic for webex users, but after some effort most people got sorted out ok.

Whiteboard Tools and Feedback Tools

Another important issue is control and access to tools, especially the whiteboard tools. Using the whiteboard to gather opinions or for drawing exercises is a very useful way to promote interaction in a live online class. The Webex environment is top class in that a pointer tool associated with a participant/student is automatically available and can be used to grab screen space, thus easily identifying participant contributions. Importantly the presenter does not have to give the participant presenter rights, which would enable participants to have the potential of clicking on slides and moving the class off in an uncontrolled direction not of the presenters choosing. Also participants can individually erase their own contributions to the whiteboard.

Unfortunately in the Wimba environment participants if given whiteboard control both these things can occur, but i think it probably stems from different views on how these applications should work. The Webex way allows for great group interaction and collaboration, ideal for active participatory learning. I get the feeling that the wimba environment is fundamentally based on the old teacher as presenter philosophy, which is disappointing. I was very involved in the initial design and logging on process for the Wiziq sessions and for a number of reasons extensive use of the whiteboard was ruled out, so i have not worked with it as much as the other two products. It does not include the pointer tool, but the whiteboard tools works adequately and i think there is enough scope to instigate the interactive group work that i described for Webex. - (i have just taken another look - i need to revisit and check more thoroughly - it's looking good). Webex and Wimba both had the appropriate feedback icons the most important of which is yes/no, rasied hand and emoticon icons. WizIq had a raised hand only and with no yes/no icons this is a definite dissapointment in this environment, as they are vital when checking understanding of instructions as well as topic understanding.

General Environmental Look and Feel

• Webex by far has the most appealing look and feel for participnats and is easy to work with for teachers.
• Wimba also scores strongly on ease of use for teachers. Probably the most easy to use for teachers - With an easy uploading and organisation of files to be used in the lesson - a presenters panel that allows easy navigation from slide to slide, easy to move students to breakout rooms and easy to setup polls.
• WiziQ is probably the most clunky looking and does not have the feel of an integrated classroom like the other two applications. Good for free though. Once you start paying then maybe need to compare with many of the other individual monthly web conferencing services that are out there.

Recordings

Need to review this information but my experience was as follows:

• Webex: Can download and edit in special editor. Can save files locally or on the webex server. local files initially captured the whole feel of the class - so interactions were an exact copy of what went on in the class. When saving on server this different method did not give exactly the same interactions i.e participant panel was not listed as normal but was accessible. need a webex player to view. Was not easy at the time to then get the recorded file into an mp4 for easy viewing outside of the player, but did manage it.
• Wimba: can view directly by linking to a server and can apparently will soon be available as an mp4 file. When downloading a zip file archive of a recording it is not obvious that a media file can be played.
• WizIq: access to online recordings, but expire after a month which is not that great and is an obvious inducement to sign up for the monthly fee service where recordings can be downloaded - have not tried the service.

Support

• Webex: support was excellent - if need technical support live during a class got it straight away
• Wimba: Not quite as hot, seem more keen for participants to check faq's and other info before engaging directly with the participants on the phone.
• WiziQ: Did not really engage with anyone on the phone during our troubles logging on - may have swapped some emails, but i have no strong memory of great additional support (it has been a while now)

A Word about Video Conferencing

Video conferencing i think for some in this industry may be tremendously important. I think more so if they are still in the mindset of the lecturer presenting and the students passively taking it all in. That is why the video conferencing element of these applications has no great appeal to me. Because my main focus is promoting interaction between participants i do not use it that much (i am sure there is a time and place for me to use it). To me it is an extra technological problem and due to the nature of interactive sessions there is a lot going on for the presenter, especially if dealing with technological problems of other students, grabbing a cup of tea at an appropriate break in proceedings :-) or generally feeling flustered if something is going wrong then presenting via webcam adds additional pressure to a job that already requires a high degree of concentration (very rewarding though)

A Word about other Web Conferencing Applications

Two other applications that i have experimented with in the past but not to a great extent are Elluminate and Adobe Connect Pro. Both i believe are worth taking a look at and i shall review them again in the forthcoming year. Elluminate is popular in education circles. I favoured Webex over Elluminate when looking at theses products over a year ago. I prefer the Webex interface and the visual appeal of the learning environment and at the time i wanted to have as many simultaneous VOIP connections open at the same time (webex allows 7 and Elluminate 5 (at the time of testing)).

This is important to me as spontaneity of response makes for a more stimulating class, so i have always liked everyone to have immediate access to speak without passing a microphone and thus making the technology invisible. This stems from my early insynch training with everybody on the phone you could hear the hubble bubble excitement in the classroom - it was great. With VOIP bandwidth limitations and the teacher as presenter mentality i have learnt that i sometimes have to compromise and stick with systems that will only allow restricted numbers of people to use voice at the same time. Adobe Connect pro is definitely one of the slickest looking products. I discarded it a couple of years ago due to a particularly bad VOIP experience and the whiteboard control problems that i refereed to earlier. I think it is worth revisiting now, a few years down the line.

Summary

I think the most problems i have encountered have been with initial logging on problems. This is a nuisance as students often may be afraid of technology and do not need additional hurdles put in their way. I have learnt that, although it is time i did not expect to have to allocate, that in a higher eduction setting, it is best to be very proactive in helping students get their logon problems sorted our before they come to their first online class.

All these applications have a lot to offer, but both Wimba and WizIQ have made myself and colleagues work a lot harder than we expected to ensure participant/student access. For less determined teachers and students and for time challenged teachers/students this is going to lead to major disillusionment. Both applications are worth taking a look at though. Once any initial logging on difficulties are overcome they both have their selling points and it will become a case of deciding if it suits your needs and the price is right then it might be for you.

Webex is definitely the pick of the bunch but is primarily aimed at the business market. I think they are missing a massive trick by not developing a distinct educational pricing model. For higher education we need stable, trouble free web conferencing environments and webex does fit the bill save for this lack of creative thinking with regard to educational establishments. I suggest they take a leaf out of Google's book who have just joined forces with my own university DMU to provide a student email service in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The Way Forward

It is only through trial (and tribulation) that we can iron out any access issues with Wimba and Wiziq. By trialling and learning we can build a clear picture of advice to our students and take advantage of the learning environments that both these applications offer. Elluminate and Adobe Connect Pro are also products that are more than worth a further look. As i have said earlier, maybe you cannot get everything that you want and compromises may have to be made. So i shall continue to explore web conferencing applications and try and establish the best balance between functionality, technological invisibility, the needs of the institution or the individual teacher and of course the price.

Camtasia is King and Live Online Learning is the thing

Enjoying Distance Learning

Yes the thing – the thing to bring some emotion and enjoyment to the business of distance learning. Live online learning not only connects people, but is also a powerful aid to learning. How so! Using web conferencing software a teacher/facilitator has a vast array of tools to promote active learning and whether that be face to face or online at a distance there is a vast array of literature that extols the virtues of active learning. What tools say thee! Ok we have voice and video conferencing, text chat, whiteboard text and drawing tools, feedback icons such as 'yes', 'no' and raised hand (to ask a question), web browser sharing, quizzes and polls, file transfers and on the fly uploading of resources.

from a previous study (Mackenzie 2008)

Now with some investment in time to understand how best to use the technology for teaching and learning, you'll soon see how you can transform the hum drum educational experience of the distance learner.

Some Initial Reactions

I write these notes after completing an initial round of live online inductions using Wimba Live Classroom with my colleague Mellissa Phillips on the topic of myDmu and Blackboard, the main online learning services of my university DMU. These first set of month long inductions were not without some initial logging on difficulties which was disappointing as we were desperate to avoid irritating logging on problems. However for those postgraduate students that did logon and participate it appeared to be a welcome and enjoyable experience. Some brief comments (all positive) from those that attended included:

“Very interesting session, i am amazed by what technology is available and i think it will be a very good way of learning and communicating during the remainder of the course.”

“I thought the use of live on line tech was very good and there were no problems. Would like to see it used in discussion boards etc if poss”

Some Broad Lesson Learnt

Some good comments appreciating the value of this form of learning, but we still have work to do to improve this particular live online learning experience. The lessons we are learning are:

1. We have to keep working very hard to change the mindset of the vast majority of programme leaders and students who are unaware of the power of voice technology in distance learning. We hope at the end of this month long series of inductions to have gathered a body of evidence to support the value of this mode of learning and try gradually to move thinking and expectations on in this area.
2. Due to the struggle to get participants live online we are cramming too much into their first live online learning experience. We end up giving them a crash course on how to work in the new environment and then proceed to give the myDMU and Blackboard induction. Currently thinking this should be split due to the need to iron out initial technology problems that some students have.
3. You have to work hard to understand how each particular live online learning environment works. By this I mean that there are a vast array of web conferencing services to use, each one is setup differently - you have to understand how you can smoothly integrate the technology into your teaching aims. Big Big tip – to fully appreciate this whilst developing you should log in on two machines – one as admin/presenter and the other as participant. You can then see the effects of your intended interactions from the participant viewpoint (allowing you to shape and refine your approach).

The Technology Used

Knowing that this was for most students this was their first experience of this type of learning we restricted our use of technology to:

1. Voice conferencing
2. Text chatting
3. Web browser demonstrations
4. Links to web pages that held pre-recorded Camtasia video screencasts.
5. The students also completed some self study tasks during the class.

A Word on Participant Interaction

With regard to the level of participant interaction and use of the technology available on a scale of 1 to 5 I’d rate this just over three. With increased student familiarity and appreciation of the live online environment we can edge this more to 5 when devising classroom activities and interactions in the future.

Headline Grabbing Camtasia



Mentioned as a headline grabber Camtasia is undoubtedly King in the world of e-learning tools. This easy to use moving screen capture software, with brilliant automatic zoom focus technology is a must for any lecturer who spends hours and hours grabbing screenshots for the production of module guides. The video quality is excellent and once saved the source material can be produced in a variety of formats for use in a variety of situations. i.e. web, iPod, DVD. Educational versions can be picked up for £134and in my opinion should be subject to a site licence for any serious learning organization.

More on explanation and discussion on Camtasia and live online learning will follow soon in up and coming blog posts. Look out for them.

Razzle Dazzle: Converting VHS Video to Digital Format

Converting VHS video recordings to a digital format is made easy using the Dazzle video capture device and the bundled Pinnacle V11 software, which is easily obtainable from Maplins the excellent electronics specialists store. In addition to this hardware/software combination you will need a SCART socket with composite video 3 Pin (yellow, red and white, known as 3 Phono (RCA)) male plugs which will connect with the dazzle hardware.

So to recap, what you need to capture the video in a digital format is

1. Video cassette player connected to a TV with a SCART Socket,
2. Dazzle video capture device with Pinacle V11 Video editing Software £49.99
3. SCART socket lead with composite video 3 Pin (yellow, red and white, known as 3 Phono (RCA)) male plugs at the other end of the lead £9.99

(I actually paid £39.99 for the hardware/software combination with a months free trial of the software.I'll need to pay another £20 for a full upgrade.)

You have all you need now to convert VHS Video to a digital format of your choice. The issue now becomes to what digital format and level of quality do you convert the video. Initially i tried to save approx two and half hours into an AVI format in DVD format. I could not quite manage this as i ran out of disk space at 25GB at about the 2 hour mark. I was hoping to edit the end product into manageable chunks at my leisure in front of the computer. In the end i decided to work through the video in real time and saved it to file in chunks of 10, 15 or 20 mins.

I decided in the end to save in an MPEG format at CD ROM quality to save disk space and to make them as easily transferable as possible on a memory stick or CD ROM. Not quite sure what this means for transfer to DVD (Does it need to be in VOB Format? (i think so, but will look into this).

Conversion
The conversion quality options that are available are to DVD, SCVD and CD. The CD quality seemed adequate to me and during the conversion process for all formats i never noticed and it was not indicated at the end that any frames were dropped during the conversion process. In terms of disk space usage i noted that the following disk storage space was used:

Disk Storage space per 1 Minute of video captured:

• AVI to DVD: 70MB
• MPG to DVD: 46 MB
• MPG to SCVD: 19 MB
• MPG to CD: 10 MB

For completeness i will look at the other AVI conversions another time and as it stands i am only left with CD Quality originals and i am not sure if they can be transferred onto DVD (I suspect not).

I shall investigate more, when i have time to get the best balance between disk storage and quality of conversion.

Links
Pinnacle V11 + Dazzle Video Creator Combo Pack
Maplins Search for DazzleSCART to 3 Phono Plugs

A discussion of strategies for managing social bookmarking teaching and learning activities (using del.icio.us)

Many educational benefits are attributed to the activity known as social bookmarking. Whilst re-iterating these benefits this article will discuss and offer a solution to the task of managing social bookmarking learning activities.

Three reasons why teachers and students should join a social bookmarking site

1. Accelerated Knowledge Acquisition: Through personally tagging, building a network of informed users, through subscribing to specific tags and from connecting with like minded taggers, you will acquire phenomenally fast access to resources of interest. What this means is that your access to knowledge is increased dramatically, your knowledge and understanding will develop more quickly and your awareness of current issues will keep you up to date and at the forefront in your field.

2. Portability and Flexibility: Because social bookmarking websites can be accessed anytime from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection the opportunity to tag bookmarks, retrieve information from saved bookmarks and keep up to date with the tagging activities of your network is increased dramatically compared to the option of saving your bookmarks to a location bound home or office based personal computer.

3. Easy and fast searching and retrieval of Resources: your own bookmarks, your network members bookmarks and the bookmarks of all members of your social bookmarking site can easily be searched by keyword or tag to retrieve previously bookmarked resources or find new resources of interest.

More reasons to join a social bookmarking site

4. Easy organization and categorization of resources means teachers can offer improved support for students. Students have a mechanism to assist themselves in self directed study. Tagging allows bookmarks to be organized in a number of different categories, not just one as is the case in a hierarchical folder type set up. Bundling of tags is an additional organisational tool

5. Connections: Tagging can reveal other individuals that have bookmarked the same resources as you and who may therefore share the same interests. Apart from adding them to your own social bookmarking network it could lead to collaboration, support and access to other knowledge resources external to the social bookmarking activity.

6. Sharing your access to knowledge: For teachers’ resources can be made easily available to students and colleagues either through the social bookmarking site itself, embedding bookmark links into web pages or by using RSS Feeds. Students can do the same and learn these valuable skills for other areas of their life e.g. work, family, hobbies.

Individual Motivation
In my view initially the use of a social bookmarking tool such as ‘del.icio.us’ is essentially a tool for the individual to have a convenient location to store and categorize bookmarks for their own benefit, thus enabling 24/7 access from any internet connected computer. In relation to the wider world of the web, the individual tagging of bookmarks has unwitting, unplanned and uncontrived social and group benefits.

As the concept and features of social bookmarking have evolved it is possible that some individuals develop a collective consciousness and the tagging of bookmarks may become more of a social act as well as just for individual benefit. That said, as there is no overwhelming reason or obligation to conform to a tagging standard, then it would seem that primarily the tagging of bookmarks is for individual gain. Which I guess is how it should be for it to be a genuine folksonomic tagging system (that reflects the true tagging intentions of its members). Tagging habits may change overtime depending how influenced an individual is by the rest of the tagging community.

Social Bookmarking in relation to teaching and learning activities
As part of their definition Phillip Jeffrey and Samia Khan from the Human Communication Technologies Lab describe social bookmarking as a “non-hierarchical and inclusive process of groups cooperating ad hoc to categorise and share information using reader-created (e.g. del.icio.us) tags” They add “This non-hierarchical concept of tagging to classify and share is called a folksonomy.” (Jeffrey and Khan 2005) .

The differences between social tagging and collaborative tagging are highlighted by comparing the definition of collaboration; “to work together, especially in joint intellectual effort” and the definition of social; "living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation" (ASC 2007) to emphasise that collaborative tagging has more purpose and is perhaps a better way to describe the tagging that will occur in a contrived teaching and learning activity.

Whilst informal social bookmarking has all the benefits mentioned previously, more formal teaching and learning social bookmarking activities bring a number of additional issues relating to secondary tasks such as for example reorganisation and retagging of bookmarks, reviewing and critiquing bookmarks or discussion of tagging strategies. The specifics of various teaching and learning tasks are for another time, the focus of this article centres around two main issues; 1) Task management and 2) A single account strategy.

Scenario and Issues to address
The number of students, the intent of the task and the time in which to do the task will all add to how a task is organised and facilitated. As an example we shall use the following scenario, and assume that the task is completed using the ‘del.icio.us’ social bookmarking site.

If we imagine a scenario where a teacher has 150 students to teach. In order for the individuals in a group to develop some kind of bond and to give focus to the learning activities, the group of 150 is split into 15 groups of 10. Tagging, organising, reviewing and critiquing tasks can ensue from here. The two issues of interest are:

1. Activity Management: How can a teacher maintain and control a number of different groups attempting the same social bookmarking activity.
2. Single Account Strategy: How can this group work be achieved without the need for a separate group account being setup.

Perhaps the first issue is more obvious than the second, but I think both issues are closely related in developing a satisfactory strategy for both teacher and student. I’ll take the second issue first as I believe this is at the heart of a potential problem. When social bookmarking moves into the arena of teaching and learning the emphasis moves onto group work, collaboration and the requirement to complete specific tasks. For social bookmarking the formation of a separate group account seems an obvious and easy solution to organize and control the task. But is this either satisfactory or necessary for the student? Should a student have to work with more than just there own personal social bookmarking account? For the student it is a major inconvenience to interrupt their surfing activity to have to switch from one account to another. For the teacher it is not so much of an issue as one way or another they need to isolate the bookmarks into 15 separate groupings rather than one big group,

Solutions

Options include:
1. Separate group account – Students all login and contribute to the group account with bookmarks that are specific to the purpose of the learning activity. (teacher can still view activity without having to log into group account, by subscribing to RSS feed)

2. Tag as Individuals; View in separate group account – teacher to create a network of the users in the group. Teacher and users can tag in their own account, and also view the group network tags through ‘del.icio.us’ or RSS feeds. (bookmarks not relating to the learning activity will also appear)


3. Tag as Individuals View in separate group account - using the ‘FOR’ function students add bookmarks to their own allotted groups whilst tagging in addition to tagging for themselves.(RSS feeds do not appear to be available for this feature)

4. Tag as Individual with unique identifier tag - We can ask the student to include as one of their tags a unique identifier such as the institution name plus a course code and then a group number e.g DMUabcd1234_G1. Then set up a subscription to this tag. (note: there is potential for misspelling, but both teachers and users can access all bookmarks through ‘del.icio.us’ or RSS feeds)

5. Tag as Individual with unique identifier tag. Use a separate group account – Same as four above, but isolates specific learning activities away from other subscriptions teachers or students may have. (So for a teacher that could potentially be capturing many groups subscriptions in one place, they can look at all subscriptions ensuring bookmarks not relating to the learning activity will not appear)

With all of these options (except the FOR function) viewing of contributions would be best achieved by looking at the network, subscriptions or specific tag pages, either
a) Directly within the ‘del.icio.us’ network or
b) By setting up an RSS feed on the ‘del.icio.us’ tag.

Conclusion
If we start from the premise that no extra group accounts are to be setup and that students will only need to tag as individuals using their own ‘del.icio.us’ account then that rules out option 1. We now have to decide what of the remaining four options seems to be the most suitable to manage the activity of fifteen groups of ten. As I would prefer to view any bookmarks via an RSS feed reader this would rule out option 3. Option 2 with the possibility of unrelated bookmarks being included is also ruled out. For similar reasons I would rule out option 4 as this could also include unrelated subscriptions.

Option 5 will allow students to use their own individual account and tag bookmarks with no restriction on how they tag, other than adding a unique identifier tag.
There is no major burden for the teacher by setting up a separate group. The teacher can use the group account and its subscription feature to collate unique identifier subscriptions for all 15 groups, whilst having the flexibility to flick easily to anyone of the smaller subgroups to view specific group unique identifier subscriptions. These benefits can apply to students as well.


What do you think?
Do you agree with the strategy, have you any other ideas in mind? Can you see any problems or inaccuracies with the five options mentioned.

Bonus Point!
For archival purposes bookmarks for each groups subscriptions can be exported to a separate html document.

Food for thought!
Tagging strategies – if you have a blog post on a particular subject that you want to publicize then tag your own blog to circulate to your network and for those people that might subscribe to a particular tag.

Webex Synchronous Environment

Having just completed three online Interactive synchronous classes with eight of my teaching colleagues on the subject of Web 2.0 technology I thought it was time to review the environment from a technical point of view. The online communication tools I.E whiteboard text and drawing tools, innovative pointer tool, text chat and feedback icons have been easily adopted by the participants for use in the session. Video conferencing has not been used, but there is a facility to view 6 webcams at once if desired.

Quality of Audio
The key technical issue is the quality of the audio. Using VOIP the system overall seems to have worked very well. The system limits speaking to seven people at one time, which seems to be better than most competitors. The microphone is passed around to those not in possession of a free microphone who wish to speak. This is achieved easily by the facilitator. The facilitator also has the ability to mute participants which is useful. Participants also have the ability to mute themselves as long as they select their own name first on the participant panel. With regard to muting of participants it was obvious that a lot of background noise could be heard at various times and a much stricter outlining of ground rules to highlight no distractions or using the mute if you are aware of the potential of background noise to interfere with the lesson.

It would seem that everyone could hear me clearly, which was obviously very important especially for those participants that were in the unfortunate position of not being able to be heard. It seems that all those that could not be heard were basically suffering from a problem related to how they initially setup, using the webex audio setup wizard. We will address steps that can be taken to minimise problems in this area later in this article. We seem to be able to get through the sessions ok, if only 1 or 2 had a problem as the participants could still follow the conversation and contribute and communicate via text chat. So most participants once sorted out had no problem with hearing or being heard. Occasionally though people could not hear me for patchy moments of 5-10 seconds or so, maybe longer in some cases. I experienced this myself as a participant in a subsequent session. This would appear to be as a result of the use of VOIP and the way data is transferred over the internet leading to occasional delays in voice data being transmitted across the data networks even though webex use their own private network and most others in this industry use public networks (question for self - is that the Internet only?). So overall it seems that webex does provide an effective application for communicating via audio in using VOIP in a web conferencing environment.
VOIP and Teleconferencing
The actual product that I have been working in is 'training center'. This does come at an extra cost. VOIP usage is charged per person per minute for participation in a session. Teleconferencing linked to the session is also available and I know from having participated in many webex sessions conducted using teleconferencing audio that this is a much more reliable and effective method of audio communication. There is a charge again for this and it is higher than VOIP. Currently I have perceived the use of VOIP as the chosen mode of audio communication because with other companies that use VOIP there are no extra costs involved for students or the institutions and ALSO with a microphone and headset attached to the PC it should be less hassle. As I understand it there are no extra charges for companies that use VOIP over public networks. Although participants will be given a toll-free number to use for teleconferencing my understanding is that most if not all will be charging the institutions for this service. From a participants point of view I think the audio will be clearer and they will need a hands free phone so that they can complete whiteboard and text chat tasks easily. So I don't think teleconferencing option should be dismissed out of hand, but it will be a more expensive option for the institution.

Minimizing Technical Problems
To minimize technical problems related to audio for individual students and to minimize disruptions to classes the following measures will help:
1. An online induction session should be arranged for all students to make sure audio setup works ok. They should not be allowed onto a session until audio setup issues are resolved. If the facilitator cannot help, then the individual student should be directed to webex support (who seem to respond quickly to any queries) to clarify the problem.
2. A document or perhaps a webex recording should be available explaining the step by step process of completing the audio setup wizard, highlighting key points such as
* When indicating the audio equipment to be used make sure you select the correct equipment from the list presented. (Note that if you have 3 or 4 audio devices attached to your machine they may not show up automatically and you need to scroll to find them.
* Headset with microphone is the preferred option for audio quality and if you use them participants need to make sure that during the audio setup wizard process that the option for speaker setup is set to ‘headphones’ and not ‘desktop or laptop speakers’. As a temporary measure in a class – if students have set this up incorrectly the CONTROL key on the keyboard when pressed down can toggle to and from headphones as the preferred choice.
3. Also from the START menu of your machine go to >SETTINGS> CONTROL PANEL>SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES>AUDIO TAB to make sure sound playback and recording are set to the correct devices.
4. Finally if a participant experiences patchy audio during a session they could try leaving the session and then coming back in again to get a better connection.

Adobe Connect Report 2: it ain't happening

Supposed to start delivering a 6 week course online live synchronous course on Monday Nov 5th. In preparation for my course I am massively behind schedule because i was naive enough to assume that adobe connect and the many other products of this ilk were robust enough in the digital age to handle a bit of true interactivity and not just some talking head in a web conferencing system answering a few text chats and ponderously allowing others to speak because the VOIP systems have massive difficulty dealing with multiple speakers. I believe problems are compounded in adobe Connect because of the craziness of having to give presenter rights to participants to access the voice controls and the same problem applies to whiteboards where participants cannot use a whiteboard without presenter rights, meaning that anyone can move onto the next slide or erase text just like that.

during a couple of trial runs with only two people setting aside intermittent patchy audio, there was terrible echo. After investigating i believe problems could stem from the fact that participants can click on all sorts of options, multiple speakers, mute etc and the true host/ presenter is not sure what is going on.

the presenter rights issue aside, all systems seem to struggle with the VOIP bandwidth issue. At might last investigation Webex allow 7 microphones on at once and elluminate 6. I have worked with 5 in a webex environment and it worked fine. As i want to work with 12 at a time it seems that dialing in on a separate teleconference seems to be the best way to ensure that everyone is free to talk freely. I have participated in many sessions of this nature.

The advantage of VOIP in is that there are no additional phone costs to be incurred by either host or user and it's one less technicality to worry about.

Anyhow i have to come up with solutions for a monday start, but all the extra investigation of problems has seriously effected other complimentary preparation for the class, so i am not a happy bunny.