Drape's Takes

I've been asked a number of times to share additional tips and tricks regarding the Ustream/CamTwist 1-2 punch we used to enable the kind of learning environment created for OpenPD (please see my post here for initial thoughts and tips regarding the practice).

Tip of the Day: Work Within the Limitations of CamTwist.

OK, so you're giving a presentation and want to be able to stream each of the following sources (but not necessarily at the same time):

• Your presentation as it appears on the projector
• Your destop as it appears on your laptop screen
• The audience as they appear in your firewire iSight
• And yourself as you appear in the built-in iSight

Here's how to do it, assuming here that you've used CamTwist before and understand the difference between a 'Selected' source and a 'PIP' source.

It's most important to understand that you've got to add every camera option you will need (all four, in our case) to CamTwist's list of possible sources/effects (Step 3). Once they're added to the list, you can then switch cameras - effectively turning them on and off - by simply checking the appropriate box. Click on each of the screenshots below to get a better view.


In adding the various camera options, you will need to select the right kind of settings for each source. For the presentation itself (that is actually being shown on the projector, or second screen), you'll want to choose 'Desktop' > Select. Then choose the second screen (from the pull-down menu) as the desktop to be shown.


The rest of the camera options are actually PIPs scaled up to fill the entire screen.




No good? I hope this makes sense but realize that I've probably only confused you more. Drop your questions into the comments and I'll take a crack at 'em.

Technorati Tags: ustream camtwist openpd

Building upon Wesley Fryer's list of tips and tricks for creating a successful Ustream broadcast, I thought it would be helpful to illustrate a few additional pointers. These pointers come after conducting over 30 hours of Open Professional Development and the realization that poor streams simply don't cut it anymore. Especially when doing it right can be so simple.


In order for a Ustream audience to get the most out of your presentation, you need to give them two things:

1. A quality audio feed. Unless you're actually showing them important information related to your presentation, there's a good chance they'll get just as much in listening to your presentation as they would in viewing your presentation. Besides, your remote audience is probably off playing Scrabble while you're presenting, anyway. Who are we trying to kid?
   
2. A good view of what you actually want them to see. In most cases, you probably want your remote audience to see the same thing you want your local audience to see (which is probably what you're displaying from your computer).

Remember: You're streaming for your remote audience - that portion of your audience that is not currently in the room with you. Because they can't see what you can, it's important to help them along the way.

The Ustream Presenter's Toolbox:

• A good microphone. Even thought it's a little pricey, I would highly recommend using the Blue Snowball USB Microphone. With both uni-directional and omni-directional settings, you just can't go wrong.
• CamTwist (Mac) or ManyCam (PC). Each of these free applications will allow you to serve your computer's desktop out as the webcam feed. Unfortunately, only CamTwist will also allow you to place your actual webcam image as a picture-in-picture.
• Mouseposé (Mac) or Mouselight (PC). These (used-to-be-free) applications place a spotlight around your mouse. Without the spotlight, it's nearly impossible to follow the presenter in a window that's only 320 x 240.
• An Alternate Browser. I've also found it very helpful to run the Ustream broadcast using a different browser than the one with which I will be demonstrating. During OpenPD, for example, I will teach using Firefox, but run Ustream with Safari. That way if/when Firefox gets overloaded and I need to restart it, I don't have to quit the Ustream broadcast.
  

Last night's Social Software in the Classroom open professional development class went as well as I had envisioned it could go from the beginning. To say that it went perfectly would probably be an understatement:

• Recording, transmission, and connecting went flawlessly.
• We opened with the first "show & tell" session that I know of that has included teachers from across the country. The topic: Bring your favorite Firefox plugin.
• We continued with a wonderful discussion about the in-class use of various exciting, online teaching tools.
• After a brief break, we were happy to interact with our first international guest speaker. Rachel Boyd (from New Zealand) was kind enough to explain to our class about a few of the experiences she's had in using blogging as an educational tool for her students. How many guest speakers from New Zealand have you brought into your class lately? +10pts to Rachel for her willingness to share.
  
• Finally, Rachel's discussion led perfectly into a discussion about blogging. We used Blogger as our tool of choice, simply because the participants already had Google accounts and the Blogger interface is relatively easy to use.
• In total, roughly 35 teachers from around the world participated in our class.
• It's been amazing to see how far we've come in 5 short weeks, and am glad that we were able to shine in this final session.
• None of this would have been possible without educational social networking! Classroom 2.0, EduBloggerWorld, FaceBook, and especially the Twitter network (my TwitterSchool) have been able to come together to make truly great things happen.
  

Again, the entire class was extremely refreshing, and I'm confident that everyone that participating walked away from the night having learned much.


Click here to view the video and audio recorded during the class to read about how we accomplished it all.

Technorati Tags: socialsoftware07 firefox blogosphere professional_development classroom20 edubloggerworld twitter ustream camtwist

I had the opportunity to present at the TESOL Macedonia Thrace Conference (held in Northern Greece) today. Rather than fly to Greece to join the conference, I elected to give my presentation via Skype and Ustream. Other than the 30 minutes of technical difficulties that the TESOL folks had on their end, the presentation went well and was a good experience all around.

If you're interested, the Google Presentation file I used can be found here (a spin-off of the general message I've been giving lately) and the stream of my presentation (take 3, anyway) can be viewed here.

For a good time (when you have a spare minute or two), you may want to check out takes 1 and 2. Take 2, by the way, begins with a very good intro to my actual presentation.

For those of you keeping score at home, the technologies I used to get all of this running were truly amazing - and what was more amazing is the fact that everything worked flawlessly on my end. We may have turned this classroom-broadcasting thing into a science.

Each of the windows shown in the screen shots above were used at some point in the presentation. Here's a quick rundown:

• A few visual aides during the presentation were shown using the Google Docs presentation component.
• YugmaSkype was used initially to share my screen. Their limited bandwidth called for plan B.
• I had an additional iSight connected to my MacBook (which has an iSight built in). One camera was used for Skype video, the other was used for CamTwist - I then used CamTwist to feed both my desktop and my picture-in-picture webcam image to Ustream.
• In truth, Ustream is the most critical component to this entire technological equation as it allows your video to be easily recorded and also provides an easy-to-access back-channel.

Technorati Tags: TESOL ustream skype yugma camtwist education technology google