I have just had the most amazing experience with High Speed Conferencing, UStream and CamTwist – all from the comfort of my own home.

It’s Friday of the second to last week I have left of my summer holidays. These holidays, through my PLN (Personal Learning Network), I’ve learnt how to use flickr in new ways, I’ve taken part in an un-conference in Bangkok, Thailand, made some new twitter contacts, been invited to join photophlow and have a go and now I’ve CamTwist, SoundFlower and LineIn in action via UStream!

Earlier this week Alec Couros had been kind enough to email me an invitation to play around with photophlow. (That’s a post for another time) So, at 3.00pm NZ time, when Alec sent out this twitter ……..

……… I thought I’d take a look since I was just playing around with my travel blog (that’s a post for another time too!).

I couldn’t have asked for a better demonstration of CamTwist, UStream and Highspeed Conferencing. The stream was smooth, the audio had a bit of an echo for us all for a while, but a little bit of brainstorming saw those in the Skype conferencing call, turn down the volume of UStream. Bingo! -away went the echo for us – but unfortunately for Alec a little delay echo remained for him. Now all you intern webcasters out there can totally relate to how off putting that can be when you’re broadcasting until you get used to it. Doug Symington of EdtechTalk was in the call too and he was able to capture the audio of our conference conversation and broadcast it through EdTechTalk. How cool is that?

CamTwist
(Sorry it’s a MAC only app but there is a PC equivalent called WebCamMax but it costs $30US after 10 days)

CamTwist is tool that lets you add nice special effects to your video chats. It’s also possible to stream your desktop and still images. With CamTwist, you can also use multiple video chat programs at the same time.
CamTwist comes with an installer package and manual install instructions. Install the CamTwist driver along with the application program. You’ll need to configure your chat software to use the CamTwist camera. Once that is done, launch the CamTwist application and have fun.
CamTwist comes with a few different pieces. At the lowest level, there is a QuickTime component that pretends to be a camera driver. What it does in reality is display the video frames that it collects from the CamTwist application.
The CamTwist application is responsible for collecting the video frames, adding the special effects, and then feeding the images to the QuickTime component.
Please note: CamTwist does NOT work with iChat.

Alec took us all through the steps of using CamTwist a couple of times (especially showing a video through it) and I could not get over how easy it was to do. This is definitely worth checking out if you are a MAC school or MAC user.

Soundflower
(Again, a MAC app but its PC equivalent is VAC I think)

Soundflower is a MacOS X system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications. Soundflower is easy to use, it simply presents itself as an audio device, allowing any audio application to send and receive audio with no other support needed.

HighSpeed Conferencing

Now this does cost! At the moment you can get 10 days FREE trial. High Speed Conferencing is still in BETA form but it offers a video conferencing calling service with high-definition audio. The prices appear reasonable, but I have I would have to thoroughly look at my options to decide if the amount of time I was going to use it would justify the cost.

Of course, the alternative is SkypeConferencing, or a Skypecast.
But some of us have experienced the varied reliability of Skype in the conference situation.

If you’re interested in the technical side of UStreaming, Arthus has very kindly provided us, via his blog, a great post entitled “Stream What You Hear”. It’s very indepth, very useful with links and extremely easy to understand. Kristin Hokanson blogged about “The Greatest Things I’ve ever Learned” in which she also has put together an indepth yet simple explanation of how to go about skyping UStream.
Thanks Arthus and Kristin! I’ll be referring to both posts myself, when I have a go at ustreaming our Open Discussion Forum at Learning@Schools08 later on in February.

And I just could not stop laughing at this demonstration of screen effects using CamTwist ……..

Better still was the vortex image but I was laughing so hard I forgot to take a screenshot!

But the best thing about it all, is now I feel a little bit more comfortable with UStream, using some applications and I feel more confident to handle this type of setup during an up and coming presentation I hope will be a huge success! Thanks Alec! Thanks to everyone else in the conference call too.

So have a guess what I’m off to download and play with now!

Thanks to Julie Lindsay for posting this YouTube Video.  It’s the Vegetable Orchestra!  What an interesting way to show your students how diverse everyday things can be if you are prepared to be a little creative and willing to think outside the square.

It’s a must watch …………

I have just had the privilege of taking part in an un-conference, in a school that I don’t work for, but one that was discussing the very issues that continue to be part of my professional questionings.
What’s the reason for this, the first of many un-conferences to come?

It’s called FLNW (Future of Learning in a Networked World 2)

“FLNW08 will kick off from Bangkok on the 16th January 2008. An itinerary of events outlines all that is happening through out January 2008. A blog is also being used to document progress and an email forum cops the incessant chatter of the participants. The Living Classroom is providing a Moodle as a forum to continue the conversations started during the FLNW 2006 visit to Waiheke around teaching English in a Mobile and Networked World and host new activities with educators in Thailand.”

Thanks to an open invitation via twitter from my good friend Kim Cofino, I was able to watch ISB’s un-conference via ustream and contribute to a backchannel via ustream chat.

Whilst speaking, Vance Stevens shared his Slideshare URL regarding Reading and the Internet so that we could follow along with his presentation for the staff at ISB taking part in this un-conference.
This particular slide speaks volumes to me, and encourages me to continue to include blogging in our classroom.

It is so powerful to hear what other educators around the world are thinking, what they are doing and especially today, how they are looking at ways to continue to instill a love of reading, plus the necessary skills of reading, into their students in this growing Web2.0 environment.  As Kim so eloquently put it during the the conversation …….

“It’s not Web2.0 to the students, it’s just the web, that’s what it’s always been to them”

This living classroom helps to remind us that we are not alone in our thinking, that it is worth pursuing the value of learning in a Networked World 2

So thanks International School of Bangkok. Thanks for being so open and inviting, thanks for letting educators from around the world be “flies on the wall” during your meeting and thanks for letting us be part of your conversation and connected to you.

Meet Me At The Corner is giving a new lease of life to the school field trip. This New York-based website produces video podcasts, hosted by schoolchildren, exploring New York City from their point of view.

“During each vidcast a New York middle schooler serves as a tour guide, leading the viewer around the city, visiting historic and cultural sites. Each show includes a suggested reading list and follow-up activities for school children ages eight to 12.”

Meet Me At The Corner is now seeking to expand by encouraging children in other parts of the world to make their own vidcasts and share them via the website. Vidcasts are typically three to four minutes long.

I know that there are some New Zealand schools out there that are already making some pretty good videos. I think we need to submit a taste of New Zealand to the kids of the Big Apple!

_{Quote source: Netguide, February 2008, Kids Offer Virtual Tour}

Before dropping off to sleep last night, I read NetGuide’s February 08 issue. The How To Section contained an article on How To Use Flickr. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you’ll understand why this bought a smile to my face.
But, amongst all the good bits about how to use flickr (from a beginner’s point of view) was this url link to flickrbits.

This website has a total of 142 applications and plugins in the database, all of which utilise the Flickr API in some way. This is a pretty extensive list and will take me a while to work my way through so I thought I’d pass it on to you so that you can check it out in your own time.  Enjoy!

I’m a Webcast Academy Intern of Class 2.2  (Started 26 July, 2007)

Today I set myself a goal.  I WILL graduate this year.  Sooner rather than later.

Tonight I’ve created my Webcast Portfolio and Webcast Setup in preparation for the official Gradcast ceremony.   At the moment I have two shows under my belt and I’d like to do a couple more shows before I apply for graduation.

Show #1 – ProjectFeelGood Equinox Webcastathon 07 – Interview with Kim Cofino

Show #2 – Educational Bloodbath Show #1 – Mac vrs PC debate with Jason Hando
I have a few ideas for shows, and a couple of possibilities floating around, so stay tuned – I’ll tweet when I’m ready to broadcast live!

Have I mentioned that I love my twitter network? A few days ago a joint post from Chris Betcher & Sue Waters was written about picassa vrs flickr born out of tweets on twitter. I’d already mentioned in a previous post about using flickr more in the classroom this year, so flickr was already on my mind.

This morning on twitter started by @Riptide_Furse …………………

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………….. and ended in a skype call between Fred and myself where he shared what Flickr tools he presented to his teachers at the workshop and their various ways of being used.

Here are just some of the things Fred so generously shared with me ………

1. fd’s Flickr Toys

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This site is full of great tools to use with flickr photos. You don’t need to sign up (athough you can if you’d like) and within a few minutes you can create the most professional looking motivational poster. Here’s my 2 minute effort:

Suggestions for use in the classroom:

• Have students take a photo that represents school motto
• Use Jigsaw / Mosaic Maker with photos from around the school/community representing maths concepts (ie Shapes, angles etc)
• Use Warholizer for Start of Year Activity with student photos
• Spice up class blog with Cartooniser, Framer, Billboard, Slideshow, Writer (list is almost endless possibilities with these gadgets!)

2. Befuddlr

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Use in the classroom?
We talked this over for a bit and decided that you could have some major conversations about which photos would be easy or hard to un-bedfuddlr.

• What would make a picture harder to organise back to its original state?
• Fun problem solving activity to do for fast finishers
• An activity on a rainy day
• A taskboard activity
  

3. Dumpr.net

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You don’t need to sign up (but you can if you’d like) and within 2 minutes I managed to create this …………
A museum-photo of our Class Mascot Kawekakea meeting Ewan McIntosh at ULearn07 earlier this year.

_{Created with dumpr.net – fun with your photos}

Most of the tools in Dumpr.net are similar to fd’s flickr toys but there are a couple of different ones. Don’t mix up the url with Dumpr.com like I did –

Use in the classroom?

• Use Photo in Art Museum, Jigsaw, Make photos look old, Stone Mosaic, for Presentations, blog posts etc
• Use Photo to Sketch, Alien Vision for creating online avatars, profile photos etc
• Use Photo inside a photo for problem solving puzzles

4. Other Possibilities for the Classroom

• If you’re looking for ways to work REAL LIFE editing into writing
  What’s wrong with these pictures Apostrophes Quote abuse
• Spell with Flickr
• Animated GIFs with Flickr

Got heaps of time on your hands? You could check out this long, long, long list of The Great Flickr Tools Collection!

And if that wasn’t enough, those great folks from Commoncraft have released this:

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

So, what are your favourite things to do with flickr?