I attended a seminar in Omaha, Nebraska put on by Apple about podcasting. Janet Hill from Apple did most of the presenting. Here are some of my notes:

• Apple has a page about iPods in classrooms and another page for podcasting in education.
• Janet had a good analogy for RSS and podcasting. She showed a screen with a bunch of paper magazines. You subscribe to podcasts and have them delivered to you, just like Entertainment Weekly or Time Magazine. But, you don't have to pay for the subscriptions. And of course, when you subscribe, the magazine issue for next January has not been printed yet. When it is printed, it's sent to you. Just like magazines, podcasts are delivered to you after they have been produced.
• If you have to pay for a podcast, iTunes does not put it in the Podcast category. If there is a charge, Apple puts it in the Audiobook category.
• Remember that the iTunes Store does not host podcast files. It simply points users to the web server that contains the file. For instance, when you subscribe to the Our City Podcast in iTunes, it actually downloads the mp3 file from the learninginhand.com server.
• There are three kinds of podcasts: Audio (just sound), Enhanced (sound, images/slides, and URL links), and Video (movies).
• You can create a podcast using QuickTime Pro ($30). QuickTime Pro is available for Mac and Windows. Here's a tutorial. Using QuickTime Pro is best for straight audio that probably won't be mixed with other tracks, sound effects, or music. Janet exported her recording to an MPEG-4 (.mp4). She explains that mp4 files are smaller and sound better than mp3 files. Smaller files download faster from servers and take up less memory. However, I still prefer mp3 files because they are much more compatible with all kinds of handheld devices.
• You can also create video podcasts using QuickTime Pro. If you have a Mac with an iSight camera, it's just a press of the record button and you're recording video.
• Isn't it crazy the number of ways you can record, publish, and listen to podcasts? With so many options and methods, it's actually hard to decide which one is best for you. I prefer using GarageBand (Macs) or Audacity (Windows) to record directly into the desktop or laptop computer.
• Besides recording directly in a computer, Janet used a Belkin voice recorder iPod attachment. She passed it around the room and had attendees record something they learned. Then when she syncs her iPod, the recordings are transferred into her computer's iTunes library. She then can use those recordings for podcasts. I prefer to record on my Palm TX using a microphone attachment and SoundRec (freeware) software. This way I can easily rename clips, so that everything is in order when I transfer the clips from my SD card to my computer.
• Using GarageBand, Janet made an enhanced podcast with photos. She showed how to include chapters and hyperlinks that can be clicked in iTunes while it's playing.You can link to websites and documents. That means you can make worksheets or other digital documents for students to access while they are listening to the podcast. Enhanced podcasts are in the AAC format, not MP3, so they cannot play on most devices but play great in iTunes.
• Macintosh servers have the ability to serve podcasts on the web. Janet demonstrated how fast it is to upload to the server through a web page. She fills in a couple of fields of information about her recording and clicks a button to upload the audio file. Within seconds, a podcast feed is created and uploaded, available to the world. This really is such a great solution. The problem is not many educators have access to these kinds of servers.
• The question was asked that on iPods, the pictures that accompany an enhanced podcast are very small and pretty much unusable. To enlarge the image, push the iPod's Center button.
• Profcast is a Mac only applications that allows teachers to easily record a podcast. Just drop your slide show on the Profcast window and then start recording. It will create an enhanced podcast (or you can export it to GarageBand for editing). Profcast makes it easy to then publish the podcast. The day's lecture can be published online and available in iTunes before students get home after class. (Profcast works best with a wireless mic with a receiver plugged into the computer). It's a podcast so, it can be played on a Mac or a Windows computer.

Although Apple has taken the lead in podcasting, you should know that you don't need a Mac or an iPod to participate. In fact, many podcasters are in favor of calling online media that can be downloaded through an RSS feed a netcast instead of podcast. Netcast doesn't suggest you need an Apple product to listen or create.

Labels: podcasting

The second day of the Handheld Learning Conference 2006 was held Friday, October 13. A full morning was planned with speakers taking the stage every 20 minutes! Thursday's sessions were mostly about policy and technology. Friday's sessions were more for educators and had examples of learning with handheld devices. Here are some notes I thought I'd share:

• Martin Ripley spoke about 21st Century Learning. Martin talked about a better definition of 21st Century Learning that not only includes books, spelling, and mental math, but also problem solving (with technology). Recently Britain's science standards have been called "more suitable for the pub than for the classroom." Britain has an assessment system not unlike the U. S.'s. Instead of "No Child Left Behind," they have "Every Child Matters." From speaking to delegates to the conference, it seems that the U.K. often follows the U.S. lead in education (and I love the word delegate to describe a conference attendee--it implies that those in attendance take what they learn back to others).
• There is one project in the U.K. that seems to be mentioned every few minutes in each presentation. It's the Learning2Go Project in Wolverhampton school that currently has 1,000 devices in the hands of students. David Whyley spoke about "The Wolverhampton Experience." The project has been a big success, especially with teachers and students. David says that teacher training is the most important part of their initiative. Wolverhampton seems to use a lot of multimedia and websites with their Pocket PCs. I've noticed many Fujutsu Siemens Pocket PCs around the conference and those are the devices that Wolverhampton students use. Wolverhampton schools have noticed better students behavior and a positive impact on reading as a result of their project.
• Wolverhampton has five points of its vision for their mobile learning initiative:
  • Enable "learning without boundaries..."
  • Bridging learning between home and school.
  • Learners -- using technology as if it were second natures.
  • Tapping into the learners' culture.
  • Improved achievement and attainment via raised aspirations and motivated learners and their families.
• Gerry Gray from Court Moor School spoke about teaching with Tablet PCs. Tablet PCs run a version of Microsoft Windows that you can write on with a stylus. While I think Tablet PCs are pretty darn cool, I think they are just too expensive for schools--they are more costly than laptops. In a perfectly funded world, I think Tablet PCs would be a wonderful learning tool. Gerry showed an electronic textbook that her students can write and draw on. How useful! Gerry showed many other examples of her students' work. I'm jealous of what she and her students can do with their computers! Students use Microsoft Office OneNote to make pages that can contain typing, handwriting, drawings, images, and videos!
• "Stealth teaching" was mentioned where learning is made so fun, that students don't know they are learning. Personally, I think learning should be fun just by its very nature. Hopefully it doesn't need to be done covertly and students realize they are learning and love it. I believe in telling students learning objectives for each lesson so they know that whatever activity we're doing, there is an educational reason. I think of a video I made with my fifth grade students telling about their favorite Palm applications where, even though its the last day of school, they remember exactly what or how they learned using a particular piece of software.
• Three gentleman from Bradford talked about their KS4 PDA Project. The school paid for the handhelds, but parents pay for the insurance. Kids talking to each other is important. It was noted that when you take students into a computer lab, 30 students can quickly disappear--you can't see them because of "all of the kit." With handheld devices, students can still see one another and does not cut off communication. They told about a great field trip experience where some students visited a museum with smartphones. The students took photos and blogged right from the museum with the devices. Then students who were left at the school would read the blog and text message the field trippers questions to ask the docents or ask to take more photos of certain items. It sounds like everyone, whether they went on the trip or stayed at school, learned a lot!
• Professor Miguel Nussbaum from Universidad Catolica de Chile showed an exciting series of applications for Pocket PCs called Edunova. It's based on students working in groups of three. Through Wi-Fi and a server, students interact with questions where all three exchange answers and then must agree on a final solution. The teacher's Pocket PC displays a color-coded matrix showing what's going on in each group. This is going to be a great tool as it elicits student discussion and has a great teacher management piece.
• Stephen Carrick-Davies Chief Executive, Childnet International, spoke about online safety issues. Stephen says the real danger of the Internet is that adults will focus on the dangers and forget the benefits.
• I spoke about my five reasons for loving handheld computers. These include freeing the computer lab, teacher tools, free software, engaging activities, and animations. I've given this speech many times in the states, but this was first time abroad and by far the shortest time I've had to showcase why handhelds are great for teaching and learning. Aside from a few other speakers like Gerry Gray, I was the only one to really talk about hardware and software. In fact, most speakers emphasized that its not about the technology and all about learning. So true. However, teachers need to know the capabilities of the devices so they can plan learning activities! Most delegates didn't realize that they can run Palm OS applications using StyleTap and were very excited with what they saw. I wish I had more time to share other pieces of software.
• Paula Bouw, School of Education Leiden University Applied Sciences, presented "Innovation in Education? Please, switch on your cell phones!" There has been a lot of talking of using cell phones in learning. I was told that virtually all U.K. 12 year olds and up have mobile phones, so it makes sense that schools would try to use these as learning tools. The cell phone activities focused on taking photos and movies with cell phones. Students could share these via Bluetooth. One example was making an English ABC book. She shared a quote, "A photo is worth a thousand teachers." Students know that they learn a lot from images. To me, learning activities that use cell phones seem somewhat contrived. Smartphones, on the other hand, can so much more and right now, but those aren't the kinds of phones students already have (yet). But, if all of the students already have a mobile device, why not use it as a digital camera and messaging system?
• Representatives from Wireless Generation spoke about their mClass Assessment software for Palm handhelds. They claim 100,000 teachers are currently using mClass learning in the U.S. and growing 75% per year. What I like is that when teachers use software to help them do their job like mClass, they begin to see how handhelds could be used by students for learning. 100,000 is a lot of potential handheld-using classrooms.
• There was very little talk of Palm handhelds. In fact, I was the only a very few speakers even uttered the word "Palm." Pocket PCs are certainly the way schools in the U.K. are going. With the Edunova system mentioned above, I can see that Pocket PCs are getting content, software, and abilities that aren't available on Palm handhelds. Furthermore, with the availability of the StyleTap platform, Pocket PC users can run most Palm OS applications. Today there really are no barriers to going the Pocket PC route. In fact, Fujitsu Siemens is making the EDA, a Pocket PC made just for schools. The EDA is rugged and comes with a suite of software much like HLE from GoKnow, including Inspiration and an animation program. The EDA syncs using software that will allow multiple types of devices to sync content called Red Halo. Red Halo will use a local school server through Wi-Fi for students and teachers to access online. The EDA will ship in January, but after talking with sales reps, it may not be available in the U.S. If the EDA is successful in the Europe, it might be sold in the U.S.
• Podcasts for each of the keynote sessions are available online. Presentations slide shows are available as well.

I absolutely enjoyed the conference and my time in London! As you can see, I learned a lot. I'm honored to have been a speaker and look forward to being involved in the Handheld Learning 2007 conference.

Labels: palm, pocket pc

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Labels: palm, pocket pc, soft reset

The Handheld Learning 2006 Conference was held October 12 and 13 in London, England. I had the pleasure of attending and presenting. This is the largest conference dedicated to handheld computing and learning I have ever attended. Nearly 600 conference-goers gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center, right down the street from Buckingham Palace and Big Ben in Central London. Graham Brown-Martin and his team did a fabulous job organizing this event!

I presented a workshop, "Look What I Can Do For Free" that demonstrated many of the great freeware applications that are out there for handhelds. I focused on applications for the Palm OS, although it seemed most conference delegates are Pocket PC users. Those who use Pocket PCs can run most Palm applications using the StyleTap Platform.

As you know I like to do after conference, allow me to share some highlights from the two days. Here's information from Thursday, October 12:

• It was nice to see that the conference was supported by large companies like Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Samsung, and Fujitsu. The U.K. Department of Education and Skills also helped with the conference.
• Doug Brown, Head of Learning Technologies, Technology Group, says that sometime soon we will not be having conferences about computers. It's not like we have conferences for other tools like pencils. Doug tells the story that things besides the actual technology need to change. He told the story from 20 years ago where there was one computer in a classroom. He worked with educators and told one teacher that the computer could be used by students as they finish the lesson. The teacher said, "That won't work. Students do not move in my classroom." Though most teachers are past this attitude, there are more changes to make for mobile learning to be most useful to students. U.K.'s computer to pupil ratio is 6 to 1 for primary and 3.5 to 1 for secondary. It seems that 1 to 1 is the goal. However, most people have more than one computer. So, is 1 to 1 the right target?
• Professor Stephen Heppell presented the keynote address. His daughter recently became a teacher. If you take the processing power of all of the computers she had in primary school, that power is exceeded by one of today's mobile phones. Stephen posted an interesting slide that said, "In the next 30 years more children will leave school than in all history." What we do in schools in the next 30 years really does matter! Go to heppell.net for some videos of great learning projects called Be Very Afraid.
• Tony Parkin, Head of ICT Development, Specialist Schools & Academies Trust, made a great point. Like in the U.S., the U.K. has had many pilot projects with handheld learning. Tony says that with so many pilots, it's about time this plane gets off the ground! I've seen many pilot projects and I do hope that handhelds take off and go mainstream because I know what it's like to teach with a room full of them--rewarding, exciting, engaging, worthwhile, etc.
• Vanessa Pittard, Director of Evidence & Evaluation at Becta, presented about evaluating handheld learning projects in schools. She says we are learning a lot more about handheld learning, but there is still much more to learn. To expand handheld learning in schools, Vanessa says that in order for it to go mainstream, its results need to be repeatable. Right now most projects are in classrooms with teachers who are enthusiasts for technology or certain learning approaches. Vanessa explains that technology should not be a solution looking for a problem. Educators should identify problems and see what technology may be the solution.
• Professor Terry Russell, CRIPSAT, University of Liverpool, presented "Evidence for Efficacy: Some Thoughts." He uses the term "embedded" when referring to effectively and consistently using handheld computers. He showed several videos of handhelds being used by students. He showed a video of students video recording a P.E. class. The thing is that the class was playing floor hockey. Looked like a handheld disaster waiting to happen with the pucks and sticks going every which way! One of the benefits of handhelds going home, parents have a better connection with their children. The student can show exactly what they did in school right there on the handheld.
• "These Things We Know" by Professor Angela McFarlane, University of Bristol was presented via video link from Oslo. I was thrilled to learn that Futurelab will be publishing a Handhelds Handbook in the next few months. It will have information from school projects and research from 30+ projects. Angela explained that handheld computers can't just be dropped off one day and have your program be successful. Having a plan, technology support, and professional development are very important. It's difficult to manage small numbers of handhelds when there isn't one for each student. Those projects have not been as successful. Professional development time for learning to use a handheld is quite short. But time for collaboration with other handheld-using teachers has been found to be important. It's also important that the whole school support the project, even from those who are not involved with the project. This is especially important in secondary schools where teachers share students. Angela states something I always recommend: have spare devices around to swap in just in case a handheld breaks and needs to be sent away for repair.
• Graham Brown-Martin started his "From Here to Ubiquity" presentation with the assertion that by 2012 the desktop computer as we know it will be dead. We used Qwizdom handsets to instantly vote whether we agreed or disagreed with Graham's statement. It was really interesting to watch the graphs grow as we voted.
• The first day of the conference finished with an industry panel discussion with panelists from Microsoft, Apple, Symbian, Samsung, Sony, and Nokia. PSP. Chris Deering, the chair of the panel, asked the representatives of the companies about non compatibility among their devices. The person from Sony made a good point that the devices can all display file formats like jpeg photos and mpeg videos. Those are the types of files educators will need to stick to.
• Podcasts for each of the keynote sessions are available online.

The entire program (or programme as the British spell it) is available online if you'd like to read about the conference presentations. The Handheld Learning Conference is an extension of the Handheld Learning website and forums. Be sure to check out all of the conversations at this active site!

Labels: palm, pocket pc

Podcasters often have the problem of having varying levels of volume in their episodes. Podcasts by students often suffer from having very loud and very soft voices. It can take hours in postproduction to correct the volume levels using Audacity or GarageBand.

There is new software available that can go through your recording and normalize all of your levels. Loud student voices will be toned down and soft ones turned up. Levelator is a free application for Macintosh and Windows computers. It couldn't be simpler to use. Just drag and drop your recording (it must be in AIFF or WAV format) onto Levelator's window. Within minutes, Levelator creates a new sound file on your desktop that will sound great. Of course, you'll want to encode the new AIFF or WAV file from the desktop into a smaller file format like MP3. You can do this by importing back into Audacity or importing into iTunes. Then use either of these programs to export as an MP3.

Audacity users will choose File > Export as WAV to make a file Levelator will accept. GarageBand 3 users, follow these directions for exporting your project to an AIFF. It would be wonderful if what Levelator does is built into future versions of Audacity and GarageBand, eliminating the extra steps of exporting and importing.

I look forwarding to listening to more podcasts that do not make me constantly reach for my volume controls...

Labels: podcasting