The Sound of New Mics

Finally, Blue has given us an heir to the fabulous and versatile Mikey microphone for iOS devices. Right around the time that I was mocking up what a mobile media creation iPod kit would look like, I discovered the Mikey and realized what a great companion it would be.

Unfortunately, it was also around this time that it became apparent that the Mikey would not work with Apple’s newest hardware due to pin/power incompatibility. Saddened, we sent the devices out without external mics – or, in the case of the IDS mobile media kits, with handheld line-in microphones. This worked well enough, but the Mikey presents such a tightly integrated and infinitely portable package that it’s almost a no-brainer.  Can’t wait to get my hands on one when they go on sale!

And for those looking for a more desk-bound solution, Blue has also released the Spark Digital condenser microphone with iPad compatibility, a more official setup than the Yeti + Camera Connection Kit we had been trying.

(Engadget)

From the Far Future

A hot internet story yesterday was that of a new camera developed at MIT that allows researchers to capture video at 1 trillion frames per second. At this speed, the exact path of light particles can be accurately observed and even recreated. Though still very much a new concept in need of much improvement – and miniaturization – one of the co-creator points out the obvious potential for creating rich, expensive lighting simulations with nothing but software.

Certainly a major shake up for the traditional video studio, even if it’s still years off.

Last Week of Class, Looking Back

Well, this semester has soared right past, hasn’t it?  How’d we get to December already?!

As I’ve got a bit of a quiet spot in the day, I thought it might not be a bad idea to take a look back at last week’s Scholarly Storytelling workshop at Greater Allegheny.  On Tuesday afternoon, I presented with Courtney Young to a group of just four faculty members from Communications, Art, Education and Mathematics.  A relatively diverse group, to be sure.  The group also included media project veterans and newbies alike, all of them eager to learn how assignments could be made to draw on Library resources to foster more academic final productions.

Though Courtney and I had never presented the materials together, it felt incredibly natural to be talking our way through the slides we were each designated, even if it took a moment to code-switch into Ryan Wetzel and Ann Behler’s thought processes in a few places (the last iteration of the presentation was at Tailgate by my colleague and a UP librarian).  The truncated time allotment worked out well and I think the workshop actually gained from losing its hands on component in favor of an open and generous Q&A session with both Media Commons and Library on hand to provide joint answers.

I even booked a Spring class visit out of the deal.<

Learn more about the Scholarly Storytelling workshop and download the materials.

Reflecting on Scholarly Storytelling

Well, hello there, work blog.  It’s been a tremendously busy middle of the semester – to say nothing of this past week – and I know I haven’t posted much lately.  I wanted to get back in the swing of things and comment on the Scholarly Storytelling workshop that I co-presented at Media Commons Tailgate 2011.

Scholarly Storytelling kicked off with around 20 people in attendance.  The audience was mostly made up of campus staff with a few faculty members and one student thrown in to the mix.  Several folks have worked on media projects before and the majority were there to learn how to make the projects they are developing or assigning as academically rigorous as possible.  Therefore, it was the right crowd.

Ryan Wetzel and Anne Behler did the bulk of the presenting of materials, owing to the fact that Ryan has been developing and refining the workshop in conjunction with the Knowledge Commons project.  My role was to present the collaborative tool we would be asking them to use – and, in theory, that they would then encourage students to use on real projects – during the hands on portion of the event.

We chose to emphasize building a collaborative project notebook, research collection and eventual storyboard using Spaaze (view the sample board we made for the workshop).  Spaaze is basically an infinite cork board that allows users to pin on it numerous types of media gathered from all over the internet.  This blank canvas really does lend itself well to the way that we see students organize their materials and presents an opportunity for faculty and support staff (including us) to check in on group progress.

It’s also darned cool.  Hannah Inzko has been a champion of Spaaze for some time now and it was great to put it to a practical application in the workshop.

The response to Spaaze was generally positive (view a workshop example board) – though we did find some holes in its iPad implementation.  Lots of questions about ways to integrate it into specific projects were asked of us as well as whether or not we could support it by teaching students how to use it in the classroom.

The other items that seemed to gain a lot of attention actually came before the Spaaze demo and hands on session, though.  Ryan and I had developed a novel way of citing source material in a video.  By numbering each source and then displaying the number subtly on screen during its use we were able to link the materials unobtrusively.  We then placed the numbered sources in a Google doc (again, allowing for student collaboration in collecting materials) and used a QR code at the end of the video to take people directly to the citations.

This was a revelation to many and worked so elegantly that I plan to offer it as a suggestion going forward when consulting on new projects.  I’m also going to be rolling out the workshop across the Commonwealth beginning on November 29th at Greater Allegheny where I will be co-presenting with head librarian Courtney Young.  I’ll check back in with an update on the shortened version of the presentation!

TED on Gamification in Education

Chris had shared with us some videos that were recently posted as examples of good gamification concepts in education over at the Gamification Wiki.  This one in particular was highly inspiring, as it discusses the use of a physical game to teach elementary students about geopolitical issues.  Fascinating interviews with the children and a real gem of a presenter.

Engaging Résumés with QR Codes

Today I taught the first, experimental workshop on adding QR codes to paper résumés. Behind these QR codes are video introductions, basically compressed cover letters that give an overview of a job candidate’s professional experience, training and unique attributes.

I opened the session at Shenango with a warning that the content was entirely untested – and a QR code that pointed to “Weird Science” by Oingo Boingo (because there is nowhere that 80s music is inappropriate).  I demonstrated to the six students – and one Career Services staffer – just how easy it is to scan a code and be taken to any and every kind of content.

The VideoResumes.pptx (downloadable) presentation next walks the audience through shooting, editing and uploading a video intro to YouTube, etc.  I had a student volunteer come to the workshop in full suit and tie and serve as a real life example.  We cleaned up his recording in iMovie, sent it to the web and generated a real, working QR code to add to a mock résumé.

The attendees loved what they saw, how easy it was and how powerful the implications were.  We rounded out the morning by talking about other applications of QR codes like linking to portfolio sites or adding them to business cards, which also went over extremely well.  Heidi Friedrich from Career Services even hopes to have the presentation given at an upcoming regional PSU Career Services meeting which I think would be a great fit.

Now, to find more 80s videos to spice things up…