DevLearn08 DemoFest Entry

Using the footage you develop for a lesson, you can easily (and rapidly) develop a short video podcast to leverage your video footage.  I would encourage you to add a running text line in your podcasts that highlight key points.

Actual eLearning use of this always uses 640 by 480 pixel video where complete text is clearly legible for users.  This helps address ADA 508 compliance and also gives the very real option of use in settings that do not have audio capabilities.

The original file is 20MB and a bit higher quality than displayed here.  This was entirely done with Windows MovieMaker (iMovie would work too).  The version displayed in the session on the Blackberry was simply converted with Blackberry software.  Super C is a free tool that can be used to convert to MP4 and many other formats with good results.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by subquark with a No license (All rights reserved) license.

edit – Jan. 19, ‘09: blip.tv post updated to reflect closer to intended 320×240 portable size.  Also re-recorded with Blue Snowball mike and text included.  License changed to Creative Commons.  lol, why do Quicktimes always turn the bright whites into a dingy gray when I export from Flash?

Getting the most from Session 708

DevLearn08 is upon us! To maximize our one hour together in session 708 here are a few things you can do that don’t take much time.

Watch the GuildCast interview, take a quick look at the sample “before” lesson and script, and watch the “original” video. If you are looking for an inexpensive and fairly straightforward way to add video to your eLearning, then this session will have value for it.

It’s not about making a game but about making your eLearning a more immersive and richer experience with the realities of what many eLearning departments face this year. Small budgets, full schedules, limited resources (people and software), and so on.

If you understand fussing over a 2 credit Dreamstime or iStockPhoto image and wishing you could do real video, then this session is for you. The software needed for this is inexpensive ($37 for a highly recommended video capture application) and the actual techniques are quick to learn and use.

The biggest factor here is not the software or technique, but your imagination. Hope to see you there!

GuildCast
sample lesson & script (live on Tuesday)
concept video

Additional suggestions are attending David Anderson’s workshop on Second Life, Breakfast Bytes on Friday morning, and DemoFest Thursday afternoon (table 37 is this topic in action).

It may also help for you to see what Newmarket’s Ed Dev department does and if it is something you can identify with in your corporate setting.

Wow, when it rains it pours

The “sample” course I am using in my DevLearn presentation has morphed into more than originally planned. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I did not want to just make a lesson on baking cookies (any sample will work, but my day job’s courses are all proprietary).  Don’t get me wrong, I love cookies.

So with the help of my lovely subject matter expert (I am biased as she is my spouse), we hammered out a course that will hopefully add to the corporate enterprise goals of Second Life in a very small way.  Making Meetings Matter is the name of a series of seven courses on meetings tools.

So what is the morphing bit?  Well, I was “encouraged” to submit the final course for DevLearn08’s DemoFest.  This is a competition for eLearning material and is intended to show off new and novel approaches to delivering eLearning.  Our course was selected as one of the entrants!

That is a nice accolade and the material in the DemoFest is different than in my presentation (Session 708, Friday at 10).  The presentation focuses on how to use Second Life as a film studio for those of us on a limited budget (read: $0) and shows how video clips can easily be inserted into your existing training in a rapid and inexpensive manner.

The DemoFest submission goes beyond this by taking a complex (and dry) topic and serving it up as a short podcast.  Think a bit of a blend of CommonCraft simplicity (in the way that the complex concepts he teaches are so easily digestible) with Second Life video as the medium.  A very user centered approach explaining what is often made to be a dry topic.

My day job is with a company that creates software for the hospitality industry that deals directly with meetings. Thus, I am aware of the dire lack of real meeting skills in Second Life. 

I hope that our Making Meetings Matter series also adds to the meetings community in Second Life (they will be available free inworld).