Qik and easy video

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Doc

As a former educational media producer, I am always on the lookout for quick and easy ways for busy educational professionals to create and use videos in their onsite and online courses. Two emerging educational technologies have converged into one very useful way to achieve this goal: 1. Smart-phones (like the Droid, iPhone, etc.) with built-in video camera and Internet connectivity and 2. Streaming Video sites (like youtube.com, qik.com, etc.) with live Webcast and/or archived videos, searchable content, and “channels” where related video content can be assembled and compiled.

For example, I am experimenting with the use of an app that I have downloaded to my Droid smartphone (Android 2.0 OS) from qik.com that allows me to use the video camera in my smartphone to upload a video sequence via my wireless 3G connection to the Internet and have it broadcast live streaming video on the Qik.com Web site. The Qik.com Web site also lets me create a title and provide a description of the videos which remain archived. Registered users who browse to this Web site and view the videos can also type text comments that remain as part of the archived data.

This is an information system which I am planning to use for my online courses to present live and archived streaming videos of relevant topics – in some cases when I am traveling, attending conferences, and/or witness to relevant live events that emerge.

Comments welcome at http://www.qik.com/docteled and here.

Prego!

Doc

Posted in content management, digital repositories, emerging educational technology, mobile learning, social media, social networking, user experience | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

DSpace – an open source platform for digital repositories

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Doc

At the ECEL09 conference in Bari, Italy, a keynote address by Julià Minguillón introduced the application of learning objects supported in an open source digital repository software called DSpace. On my return, I took a look at this software on their site and can more clearly see the possibilities it offers not only for supporting repositories of digital objects for knowledge management and research, but also for learning – and in the context of a more robust representation of what most educators and learners would like to see represented in what we call a learning object.

I welcome your thoughts about this type of software and its uses to support online digital repositories of all kinds, and especially toward the more challenging goal of supporting richly contextual collections of learning objects.

Posted in conducting research online, content management, digital repositories, emerging educational technology, human factors in information systems design, information architecture, instructional design, knowledge management, learner experience, management of information systems and technology, social media, social networking, strategic management of technology innovation, user experience | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Riding the Crest of Change

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Doc

greatwave

In 1996, as I wrote the Introduction to a book that my co-author (Gene De Libero) and I would call Strategic Networking, I wanted to capture in words what I could about the innovation that was then in an early stage of adoption: internetworking, or as we now think of it as the Internet. As I was searching for a metaphor that would help define our perspective on understanding and managing this technological change on an individual, organizational, and social perspective, I drew upon my experience as a surfer attempting to catch and ride a wave.

“Networking is a highly dynamic innovation that moves quickly and broadly like the crest of a high-rising wave. Riding that crest means balancing your existing networking assets, knowledge, and skills against the steep and often risky investment in new technology. Moving ahead too far incurs risks inherent with unproven technology. Yet remaining behind courts obsolescence and the related loss of competitiveness. Riding the crest is also not without cost. It requires a constant commitment of resources for strategic planning and management.”

More than a decade has passed since the release of that first version of the book when we realized that the wave I was describing was more like a tsunami surging onto shore with the full force of nature. Rather than bringing destruction, the Internet and all forms of internetworking have become a global infrastructure for communications and commerce that we all have incorporated into our lives.

As each of us look back on this great wave of change and where it has carried us so far, we can see that it is dynamic and constantly growing. It is not merely technological, but social; not merely fixed, but mobile. At this point in change and time, we look forward as well, to where we sense it is moving so that we can catch and hold it in ways that help us continue to ride the crest of change.

Gene and I are in the early stages of creating the second version of Strategic Networking. Much has changed in publishing since the first version and it is part of this wave. We are considering many ways to float this boat, including self-publishing in e-book format, but we are open to making it available through the many innovations that are still occurring in the publishing world.

We want to make the content and form of this book part of this wave, rather than a floating piece of driftwood. In that endeavor, I welcome your suggestions and comments about the book and what topics you feel we should cover in it, but also about your sense of this great wave and the change it has ushered in your life.

Catch the Wave!

Paul “Doc” Henry

Posted in blogs for business, blogs for research, collaborative computing, conducting research online, customer experience management, innovation, social networking, strategic management of technology innovation, Strategic Networking, user experience | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Online Presentation Strategies for Visual Learners

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Doc

Greetings,

Here is a Web-based version of my ECEL09 conference presentation on the topic:

Online Presentation Strategies for Visual Learners

http://www.programhouse.com/webpres/phecel09pres1.htm

This Web-based PowerPoint presentation (optimized for the Internet Explorer browser) outlines the major points of a (peer-reviewed) paper that provides a foundation for identifying and measuring learning styles in an online course, how online learners can accommodate divergent teaching styles, and how online teachers can accommodate divergent learning styles.

The presentation continues with a description of how these research findings have been initially applied in the author’s online courses as the basis for subsequent action research focusing on usability of these techniques within an online learning environment.

The instructional techniques of this innovation are described in terms of how online teachers can search, select, encode, and annotate video segments, still images, animations, and other visual types of information in course management systems within the context of legitimate re-use tactics and data repository use that conform to established intellectual property conventions for public domain, licensed, and fair use of existing visual materials.

Presented at the 8th European Conference on e-Learning, University of Bari in Bari, Italy on 29-30 October 2009.

http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecel/ecel2009/ecel09-home.htm

Insights, experiences, and other comments welcome in reply,

Doc

Posted in conducting research online, content management, digital repositories, emerging educational technology, human factors in information systems design, information architecture, instructional design, knowledge management, learner experience, online learning and teaching, social media, user experience | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Catch the (Google) Wave!

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Doc

Video from Google I/O 2009 Conference:

It is an understatement to say that Google is changing the way we use the Web. It is now true for the way their Google Wave (open-source) software platform with its real-time software tools is changing the way we can communicate and work on the Web.

Google Wave offers software extensions to repurpose and integrate its use across existing Web-based social and collaborative software/sites, software “robots” that enable tasks like real-time language translation, and their “Federation Protocol” that allows this platform to interoperate with other “wave-like” systems.

Like the open protocols of email and the World Wide Web that became the foundation for social networking activities, Google Wave can help us redefine the way we communicate and collaborate using the universal client interface of a Web browser.

As I contemplate and plan for ways in which this software platform will transform online learning, project work, and other ongoing personal and professional activities we do in a social context, I invite your comments about this innovation and what you feel it means to you.

Posted in collaborative computing, content management, knowledge management, social networking, Strategic Networking | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

digital marketing strategies and techniques for Web sites

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Doc

There are many digital marketing strategies and techniques that can be used for achieving e-business Web site goals such as increasing traffic, social networking, social media, converting browsers to customers, etc.  Share with us briefly in your comment what you feel is the most important strategy and/or technique for achieving a given e-business Web site marketing goal.

Posted in blogs for business, content management, customer experience management, social media, social networking, strategic management of technology innovation, user experience | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

how would you gather user needs data?

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Doc

In human factors work, you need to gather data about software user needs before you begin to design (or redesign) software. As a user, what are your suggestions for getting the right kind of user needs information from prospective users?

Posted in conducting research online, content management, customer experience management, human factors in information systems design, user experience | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

using blogs to promote traffic to a Web site

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Doc
In this entry, I would like to consider the use of blogs as a marketing tool to promote traffic to a Web site, such as my own at http://www.programhouse.com

The rationale for this strategy can be expressed as tenets of search engine optimization (SEO) as follows. You can increase traffic to a site by presenting content of interest to your target visitors, regularly updating that content, using appropriate keywords for search engines, and as needed, paying for placement in search engines for certain search terms.

Of these tenets, the first two can be realized in part through the use of a blog that is connected to the Web site. Not only can the blog be easily updated (including through plugins or updates that allow posting by mobile devices), but as blogs are examples of the read-write Web 2.0, you can provide opportunities for visitors to your site to read the latest blog entries and also post their comments in reply.

By doing so, you can not only create relevant content, you can also update it regularly and encourage blog readers to make return visits through receiving RSS feeds of changing content. You can also create tags for blog entries that improve their ranking in search results.

This all makes sense to me, but I wonder what other techniques and strategies can be used to encourage visitors to the blog to migrate to other areas of the Web site to achieve goals associated with the site, such as e-business transactions?

I also wonder to what degree or under what circumstances using a blog as an extension of a Web site (or the Web site itself) might not always be realized in a positive manner?

For these questions and other issues associated with the use of blogs to achieve Web site goals, I welcome your comments in reply,

Doc

Posted in blogs for business, blogs for research, conducting research online, content management, customer experience management, management of information systems and technology, social networking, user experience | Tagged , , , , , , | 22 Comments

how do you use your mobile computing device to support your learning?

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Doc

There is likely to be a wide range of frequency and types of use of mobile devices in support of learning. I wonder how we might be able to accommodate those uses as user needs in the design, development, and delivery of education or training?

Posted in conducting research online, customer experience management, human factors in information systems design, instructional design, knowledge management, learner experience, mobile computing, mobile learning, online learning and teaching, strategic management of technology innovation, user experience | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments