TELTA Module (Week 3)
The following is a selection of my contributions to the group chat on Slack from from Wednesday 25th January to Tuesday 31st January 2017. The Slack ‘Chat Channel’ was set up by Dr. Frances Boylan on 10th January 2017 and I joined the channel on 11th January 2017.
28th January 2017
Dave Culliton [1:38 PM]
@frances @paulinerooney Must I use screencastomatic to create the ScreenCast? Or can I use perhaps Articulate Replay or similar?
Gerard Kilkenny [3:16 PM]
Hi Dave, your question was answered by Frances on this (Chat) channel at 12.27 pm yesterday. She said that we are not restricted to screencast-o-matic and we can use any screencasting software we like for this CA. Have a look at what she wrote. I hope that helps. Good luck with your screencast.
Frances Boylan [4:10 PM]
Thanks Gerard. I tried to reply earlier but it wouldn’t send for some reason
Gerard Kilkenny [4:15 PM]
Slack bug:
I noticed that the new(ish) ‘videos-ca’ channel appeared on my iPhone but not on my iPad. I had to close the iPad app and re-open it for the channel to appear. I’m not sure if this is due to synchronisation issues when an individual has two Apple iOS devices or whether it is necessary to re-open the Slack app for new channels to appear. I suspect it is the former. Anyone else experience this issue?
Gerard Kilkenny [4:41 PM]
Slack notifications:
Usually it is possible to configure notifications for apps in either and/or the app itself, e.g. WhatsApp has two notification locations – Settings => Notifications (from the app itself) and Settings => Notifications (from the iOS ‘Settings’ app). However, the two locations DO NOT HAVE THE SAME SET OF SETTINGS.
The same applies to Slack. However, the difference between the two locations is far more pronounced in Slack. Slack has a sophisticated user interface for notification settings from within it’s web interface and from settings within it’s mobile (at least iOS) apps which even allow the user to configure notifications differently for individual channels e.g. “Activity of any kind from ‘videos-ca’ ” and “Only Direct Messages & Highlight Words from ‘chat’ “. The URL which describes the set up for mobile push notifications is as follows:
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201398457-Mobile-push-notifications
Correction: its…not it’s (for web interface and mobile)…in case I am tracked by the Grammar Police!
29th January 2017
Rachel Lynch [12:18 PM]
Does anyone have any suggestions for exporting powtoons to vimeo without paying for it?
Gerard Kilkenny [1:45 PM]
@rachellynch I haven’t used Powtoon yet but the following two links suggest that it’s possible for free users to export to Vimeo. If you can’t do so for some reason, I assume you can simply paste the URL for your Powtoon animation to Slack, or upload it to YouTube (and again paste the YouTube link here in Slack) to satisfy the requirements of the CA? Have you created a free Vimeo account for yourself?
https://powtoon.uservoice.com/forums/149780-powtoon-community/suggestions/15673878-to-make-exporting-free-for-the-free-users
PowToon Customer Feedback
to make exporting free “for the free users”
not asking to unlock the characters but at least exporting the files should be free, it is a headache to make a slideshow and not being able to export it.
https://powtoon.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000009898-publishing-and-exporting-my-powtoon
Rachel Lynch [2:11 PM]
Thanks Gerry, the mp4 option is only available on pro, the vimeo option eventually worked, but took almost an hour to process.
Gerard Kilkenny [5:07 PM]
Having finished the CA for this week, I looked at all of the other work (about 6) from my TELTA module classmates that have been posted so far to the ‘videos-ca’ channel. I then went back and looked at the brief for this week’s CA and did some reflecting.
The brief was to create a presentation to introduce a teaching/learning module with either a video or a screencast. However, screencasting software is designed to record activities on the computer screen and is typically used to teach / train the end user (possibly a student) to use a piece of application software. Creating a video to introduce a teaching module does comply with the brief because a video is more closely aligned with the genre ‘presentation’.
I know that Frances made a relevant post to this Chat channel on Friday offering more flexibility and choice around the software we could use (and I appreciate this flexibility). She mentioned Powtoon and I noticed that this was used by one or two of the TELTA module participants. Powtoon belongs to,the genre of ‘presentation’ (specifically animated presentation software) and so too does its close rival GoAnimate. I would like to point out that PowerPoint is also presentation software and this could equally have been used, with narration, to make a similar presentation to Powtoon. However, I suspect there may be some bias against using PowerPoint because it’s around so long. However, properly used, PowerPoint is an excellent presentation tool that can create a presentation comprising text, graphics, video, animation, and audio (both narration and music).
I chose to use Adobe Captivate’s software simulation mode to create an screencast and not a presentation. I know that, technically speaking, I did not fully comply with the CA specification, I.e. introduce a teaching module. (I wanted to satisfy more if my TELTA module PLOs by using Adobe Captivate and Moodle). I would argue that it is not possible to create a presentation with screencasting software, If it is, then the software is either not screencasting software or is a superset of screencasting software (such as Adobe Captivate 9 which can create eLearning lessons and courses, apps for iOS and Android, and presentations well as screencasts)
I think that the CA specifications should have stated to create (a) a video or (b) a presentation (not a screencast) if the purpose is to create an introduction to a teaching/learning module.
Anne Mulvihill mentioned that we might collate the different recording tools used in this CA. I think that if this is to be done, and is to be useful, then the various software tools should be categorised as follows:
(a) Screencasting: Adobe Captivate, Screencast-O-Matic, Camtasia, etc.
(b) Presentation: Adobe Captivate, Powtoon, GoAnimate, PowerPoint, Prezi, SlideShare, etc.
(c) Video Editing: Windows Movie Maker, Apple iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc,
(d) Video Sharing: YouTube, Vimeo, Personal Websites (simply upload a MP4 file or a bunch of HTML5 files), etc.
If course, then there is the hardware used for video creation, iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Windows phone, digital video cameras, etc.
Before someone points out that the assignment is as much, or more to do, with the teaching and learning than the technology, I would like to make this point. It is extremely important to be (a) aware of the purpose and genre of the tool on an immersive TELTA course (like this module) (b) aware of the research carried out into how to combine different multimedia components, such as text with narrated audio, text with graphics, etc. (what Clark and Mayer call the ‘Contiguity Principle’).
Here are three links:
(1) comparison of screencasting software
(2) 31 presentation and PowerPoint alternatives for 2016
(3) an annotated bibliography I wrote on a chapter from ‘eLearning and the Science of Instruction’ (by Clark and Mayer) called ‘Applying the Contiguity Principle’.
Comparison of Screencasting Software:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software
Wikipedia
Comparison of screencasting software
This page provides a comparison of notable screencasting software, used to record activities on the computer screen. This software is commonly used for desktop recording, gameplay recording and video editing. Screencasting software is typically limited to streaming and recording desktop activity alone, in contrast with a software vision mixer, which has the capacity to mix and switch the output between various input streams.
Presentation Software Alternatives:
https://www.customshow.com/best-powerpoint-alternatives-presentation-programs/
customshow.com
31 Presentation Software & Powerpoint Alternatives For 2016
At CustomShow, we decided to list some powerpoint alternatives that could help solve your overall presentation software problems. Thes programs serve many purposes.
Apr 8th, 2016
https://www.customshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Powerpoint-Alternatives.jpg
Annotated Bibliography (The Contiguity Principle):
Frances Boylan [8:40 PM]
@gerard.kilkenny: Actually, the brief, as written in the telta module, was to create either (1) a video introducing the module, or (2) to create a screencast that showed the user around the module, explaining how to access content & submit assignments etc. Neither is a ‘presentation’ and the focus of each was very different. The purpose of the screencast was not to introduce the module, but the show the user how to use it – a training tutorial of sorts.
Gerard Kilkenny [10:25 PM]
@frances Thanks, you are absolutely correct in relation to the original brief, and I stand corrected in relation to the fifth paragraph of my post today at 5.07 pm (“I think that the CA specifications…”). However, I think that the rest of the post has a lot of merit. I believe that your suggestion that Powtoon could be used as for a tool to satisfy option 2 of the brief is not consistent with the brief’s stated aim:
“Create a short screencast that shows students around your module, explaining how to access content and/or submit assignments etc. and share it in Slack”
Powtoon is not a screencast tool. It is animation presentation software. I think that it is very important to carefully delineate between different types of tools. I believe that a lack of awareness in relation to different tools, and a lack of expertise in using them, is one of the reasons why there is a worldwide paucity of good eLearning materials. You can be sure that a carpenter will know in what circumstances to use a jigsaw versus a circular saw handsaw. In my opinion, this is not the case in eLearning.
When I first saw Jane Hart’s top 200 tools for eLearning, I was aghast that they were not divided up into categories. Can you imagine this happening in carpentry? No. 1 – The Saw. No. 2 – The Hammer. No. 3 – The Hand Plane. Does this not not look ridiculous? Now, have a look again at Jane Hart’s list:
http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/
Correction: …jigsaw versus a circular saw versus a handsaw.
Anne Mulvihill [10:40 PM]
Gerard, I think as with most briefs in teaching you have to be able to reward creativity and initiative that falls outside the brief otherwise novel ideas can get left out and lost forever!!!
Anne Mulvihill [10:50 PM]
And this comes from someone who boringly sticks rigidly to the brief (but sadly not my script when it comes to screen casting!)
Gerard Kilkenny [11:11 PM]
Anne, I’m not sure of the creative value of trying to design a house with Powtoon instead of AutoCad or Google Sketchup Pro! As I said earlier, I did not fully comply with the CA specification either and I appreciate that Frances (in her post on Friday) allowed us latitude in relation to the tools we could use.
I used the correct tool genre (screencasting using Adobe Captivate) but for a slightly different task (teaching teachers how to use the Moodle LMS). However, at a later stage in the series of screencasts I hope to create, I will get to the stage of creating screencasts to show students how to engage with modules in Moodle (which would comply with the brief!). Is this the initiative you referred to?! Will it be rewarded with a badge on Tuesday?!!
I think I did spend more time making other points in my posts than time taken mentioning compliance with the brief. I’m enjoying this online TELTA module as it is getting is all to use tools we might not otherwise use, and it is making me reflect quite a bit. I was interested in and liked the use you made of OneNote within your screencast, as my school uses Office 365.
30th January 2017
Gerard Kilkenny [2:20 PM]
I just set up a second private channel for our new group 4 for this week. I have found the same problem as when I did this for the first private channel two weeks ago. Only 13 members of Slack appeared (10 students and 3 lecturers). I was able to invite Dave but not Blathnaid to the group. (Her name didn’t appear). Two weeks ago, the problem simply resolved itself about a day later. Has anyone else experienced this problem? It appears to be an annoying bug in Slack.
@blathnaids: Hi Blathnaid. I will try to invite you to our private Slack group channel again later. (See my post above).
@blathnaids: I’ve been able to invite you just now. (Note: There are still names of people belonging to the overall Slack group not appearing on the list, but at least our group problem has been resolved).
Gerard Kilkenny [7:33 PM]
@frances: I haven’t logged in to BB yet. Just wondering do we place our groups’ finished tasks on BB or Slack as well as presenting them on webinar next Tuesday?
Frances Boylan [7:37 PM]
@gerard.kilkenny: Pauline is looking after this week and the task and next week’s webinar,so you might check the finer details with her in the morning. She may have that info on the task section of topic 4 either so maybe give a quick check there first. I’ve just left the PC here again so can’t check for you myself right now.
Gerard Kilkenny [7:46 PM]
@frances: Thanks Frances. I’ll have a look myself later and ask Pauline if it’s not obvious. Not at a working PC available to myself at the moment either! Setting up 11 new PCs in a computer room right now, but not one available to log in to BB until I’ve finished configuring them for network access in a couple of hours time!