Cole W. Camplese

Talking Design with Designers

Day before yesterday my colleague, Allan Gyorke, and I gave a talk to the Instructional Design and Development group at the Penn State World Campus related to Digital Expression. It is a talk I've done before and it really focuses on the platforms PSU has been working to deliver for the last 18 months or so. The talk frames the need by looking relatively deeply at the changing characteristics of our undergraduate resident population -- they are very mobile, very smart, and very plugged into social spaces (read, Facebook). I use a bunch of PSU statistics gathered by our assessment team as well as numbers from the Pew Internet and American Life Project team.

After the warm-up I tend to dive into the tools we are highlighting -- Blogs at Penn State, Podcasts at Penn State, Wikis at Penn State, as well as the Digital Commons initiative and a few others. What made this conversation different was the fact the audience was a group of instructional designer and technologists -- certainly a fun group to talk to. I was struck by how interested most of them seemed to be in the tools and how willing they were to discuss how we might think about using them. I was also struck by how excited many of them got as we continued to talk. It was a very fun hour and a half ... it left me thinking two things -- I would very much like to spend more time with groups of interested designers who are in the midst of creating lots of learning spaces and that I have now done this presentation for about a dozen audiences at Penn State but have failed to deliver it to my own staff. That last point hit me last night as I sat on the back patio with a glass of wine -- talk about having one of those reality check, "duh" moments. That is obviously something I have to do.

The thing about the talk is that it really tries to define one of my core strategies -- enabling opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to engage in the art of digital expression within the context of higher education. One of my goals is to create a platform that provides for supported use of digital tools to not only enhance teaching and learning, but that can creep into everyday life. The other thing it does is illustrates how quickly we are all moving ... two years ago these platforms didn't exist in a coherent way on our campus. The talents of many people have made it a reality.

iTunes U Tuesdays - Live from ETS

Chris Millet is managing the Podcast at Penn State project for us and is doing a great job!  Last week he decided that he would create a new podcast show that would highlight new and interesting content going on in the Penn State on iTunes U space.  So with that in mind he took a little time and cranked out the first of the weekly series.  Now into its second week it seems Chris is getting the model down.  If you are interested, go on and click the link.  You will be taken into the open part of Penn State on iTunes U.  Let me know what you think.

Podcasting in Scranton, PA

I got an email from our CIO last night pointing me to a short article in the Scranton Times Tribune highlighting faculty use of podcasting for educational purposes. Nice to see that our faculty and staff at Penn State Worthington are getting some positive press for their efforts. The article is short, but does a nice job of explaining podcasting. Since Scranton is the home to the Office, it just makes it all the better.

When we set out to do things University-wide, we want to make sure we are really thinking beyond University Park. This is a nice piece of evidence of that approach.

iTunes U and ID3 Tags

We are getting closer and closer with our iTunes U implementation here at PSU. We are a little late with it all, but will have a nice sized pilot for the Fall semester. As we discovered last Spring, faculty are very interested in being able to protect their podcasts so only their students can see/hear them. I wonder how much of this is thinking based on the years of LMS/CMS utilization? At any rate, iTunes U gives us the option of making content open to the world, closed to a specific class, and a few other options in between. It should make for an interesting pilot.

One thing we are doing as we get ready to open the doors is collect existing content from all sorts of sounrces all over campus.  We are talking to both Colleges and Administrative Units to make sure our iTunes U space doesn't open as an empty shell.  It is actually a very good process as it requires us to go out and touch all corners of the University in an effort to get the best digital media out there.  Pulling in content has posed an interesting challenge however ...

What we are discovering is that iTunes U uses the ID3 meta data for naming once you have completed uploading a file.  This makes it a pain as very few people actually attach meta data to the file before they hand them to us.  So once they hit the iTunes U space they have ugly file names and we can't alter meta data once it is in there.  This has created an extra step in the process that is annoying to say the least -- it requires us t obounce out of iTunes U, then import the files into iTunes itself to first add meta data, then locating the edited version, then renaming it, then returning to iTunes U, then going through the iTunes U form based upload process ... it isn't fun.

So, the big question I have is what is the best way to edit these tags without using iTunes?  Are there tools people are using to do this?

Enhanced Podcasts in iTunes

As things are heating up in the Podcasts at Penn State project more and more faculty are starting to create podcasts for the fall semester.  Chris Millet has been spending an hour with all the faculty who request a consultation and many times these meetings end with a trip to the Faculty Multimedia Center within ETS.  The FMC has already started working with a handful of faculty to create some great content ... most of it so far has been created using ProfCast so the audio syncs with the slides from PowerPoint or Keynote.  The faculty are excited and other than a few very small issues with software and hardware the FMC team is happy with the results.

One thing we are really starting to notice as a major drawback to iTunes is its inability to play an enhanced podcast the way we think it should.  Everything plays great on screen, the chapters work, and you can watch the slides update in the tiny little album artwork window.  That last point is the kicker ... first of all that window is so small it isn't worth looking at slides on it ... if you do resize it you end up altering the way most people really use iTunes the other 18 hours or so a day.  Apple lets you click the window and get a nice fullsize view ... great, other than it does not refresh with the podcast.  This is putting us in a little bit of a bind.

One of our primary goals from the get go was cross platform playback (no iPod required) ... we thought iTunes is a cross platform tool so we'd be in great shape ... the fact that a student cannot sit down and listen and watch an enhanced podcast on their machine is crazy.  We need to have that artwork refresh.  Chris and I are even discussing what it would take to create our own player ... sounds like a real pain.  Has anyone found a work around for this feature?

>Notice the little window has moved on ...

Planning to Plan

For those of you have been around this blog for a while (I can see all four of you out there!), you know that I was/am part of the original Apple Digital Campus group. Back in the day, Apple invited five Universities to help them think about what the digital campus environment might look like in the coming years. All five of us brought a very interesting perspective to the party and we had a great time figuring out what we did, why Apple selected us, and how we could help one of the most creative and educationally grounded companies on the planet think about the higher education landscape.

One of the things we decided to do are the ADC Leadership Institutes. I have gone to two of them over the last few years ... the first, and my favorite so far, was put on by the people at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism (I did the wrap-up talk)... the second, was at Harvard where I was just a participant and spent the week with Kyle Peck thinking about what our event was to look like.

We've been trying for over a year to organize one here at Penn State. With two false starts we are close to finding a date that will actually work. We are thinking early March instead of the November date we've been working towards. Today, I was lucky enough to go offsite with three of the smartest people I get to hang around with (Kyle Peck, Carla Zembal-Saul, and Scott McDonalad ... BTW, when are they going to start blogging?) -- all of them are in the College of Education and all three share a real passion for teaching, teachers, and innovation.

We had scheduled this meeting before our planning committee decided to focus on March, so there wasn't as much of a sense of urgency -- just an opportunity for an informal planning session. We didn't get the whole thing worked out, but there was a block of about 30 minutes or so where we went off on a real directed brainstorming session ... I think the foundation for our event was in there.

It isn't completely clear to me, but if we can somehow focus on the notion of transforming the higher education landscape so that we urge people to balance the needs/expectations of students with an instructor's educational goals we'll be successful. We want to expose people to all sorts of interesting things without making the whole thing solely about emerging technologies ... you know, try to also emphasize there are really good things we should be doing in our classrooms and that the right technology choices can help us get there.

I am thinking/hoping we'll be planning our event in the open -- either here at this site, or at another open space. I'd like for a community to develop around this thing so that we can get closer to hitting the mark. Any ideas and thoughts to share?

iMixes for Education

Not too long ago I blogged about a great research briefing on how social preference was going to change the way people decided on and purchased songs in the eWorld. Tonight while chatting with Chris Millet, I started wondering how an iMix would work as a digital reading/watching/listening list ... I think it is time to add a new question to the list.

New question to think about ... can/do iMixes work in an iTunes U space? Are they exposed as links just like songs and podcasts? Would be great if it worked that way ... I tried creating an iMix with video, podcasts, and a PDF file from the iTunes Podcast Directory and I got the message below:

Not promising, for now. If I could quickly create a playlist that turn into an iMix that can be easily linked in an iTunes U space I could do quite a bit. I did try exposing a URL from one of my iMixes and it seemed to work. See for yourself. At the end of the day, this could be a feature that could make this space even more promising.

Interesting Comments

On Wednesday I was asked to present a breakout session for my unit's all staff meeting on podcasting and iTunes U. I did the typical thing, but very quickly as I only had 20 minutes. Again, I should have recorded it, but I blew it again. One of the things I discussed was the choice of supporting Audacity on podium machines for faculty podcasting during class. Yes, there are better tools to create podcasts with, but Audacity is a cross platform solution. One of the things that struck me were the comments by one person after the session that there were so many better solutions on the Mac. I told him I understood, but he insisted that we were cheating faculty by pushing Audacity. I hate to say it, but I sort of agree ... unfortunately, the reality of our situation is that only about 75 of the hundreds of podiums on our campus have Macs in them. Maybe in the next couple of years I can rely on more Macs and push some of the best software out there ... between GarageBand and ProfCast there is so much we could be doing. All of our Macs do have GarageBand installed.

I imagine over time we'll develop more instructional material to support all these tools. We are collecting a list of all the software pre-installed on the podium Macs and PCs and will begin creating instructions on how to use them all. Until then, we'll train on Audacity because it can serve the masses.

Podcasting Scenarios

As we are moving closer and closer to full blown podcasting service here at PSU, I have been working up some scenarios to help us talk to faculty and students about podcasting.  What I am interested in doing is getting people turned on to podcasting by creating contextual references to podcasting opportunities.  While I think it will be helpful, what I am hoping for are some novel uses of podcasting to turn people on.  So far all I really have are fairly common examples to share:

• Podium Podcasting: Providing the right tools for faculty right from the podium in a technology-supported classroom.  In our environment this means having the right tools in place in all podiums -- software, wireless microphones, support, and easy content storage/distribution.  Actually this sounds difficult, but given the way Penn State manages classrooms it can be straightforward.


• Faculty Podcasting: I'd really like to provide faculty with the ability to check out a physical kit to support their out of classroom podcasting efforts.  What I'd like even more is to provide them with a bundle from our Computer Store to purchase the right stuff to do it on their own.  We have a Faculty Multimedia Center here in ETS that can provide the hands-on training, so this is a good option as well.  Honestly, I like this model of podcasting much more than podium podcasting.


• Activity Podcasting: This is what I am calling the opportunities where students get in the mix.  We have a group here in ETS that runs Studio 204, a student studio where they can go and get help with audio and video development.  More interestingly is the option of faculty coming in and working with the instructional design staff on pedagogical innovations in this space.

All of these are built more around a consulting model -- one where faculty want to learn and do things themselves ... that is also a much more scalable approach to this challenge.  Are there other scenarios that might interest faculty?  Some that impacts their research?  Outreach activities?  There has to be more.

I Thought There Would Be More ...

Hmm ... maybe it is true. Maybe only 2-3 people actually show up here. Maybe it is a tired question ... I don't know. I thought I'd get more response to the question about blogging at a big University. I thought more edu-bloggers would have something novel to say to help move the thinking forward. Chris dropped the social notion on me, but I am looking for more insight before the next big PSU Blogger meeting. Any help?