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Top Web Tools of 2008 – Number 8

Posted on December 18, 2008 by barrydahl

poll-everywhere-logoPoll Everywhere makes it into the Top 10 this year, partly based on performance to date, and partly based on the promise that it holds for the future.

I have used Poll Everywhere a few different times this year during presentations. Most often I have used it during a presentation where I am using clickers, such as the Turning Point clickers (very good) that we have at my campus. Part of the point is to show how cell phones can be used as clickers, and part of the point is to not lose sight of the fact that technology continues to expand and develop at an incredible rate. This wouldn’t have been possible just a short time ago. Now it’s easy, it’s cheap, and it works.

Using the service is free if you plan to collect 30 or fewer responses per question. This was specifically targeted at being free for classrooms of 30 or less. Sure, some classes have more than 30 students, but the first un-free tier of pricing is $15 per month for 50 responses per question (no limit on the number of questions). You don’t have to sign a long-term contract but instead pay month-to-month. That tells me that this service could be used for four months in the fall and four months in the spring for $120 per year. You can definitely try it out for free before you decide to do anything else with it.

It’s true that not all students have cell phones with text messaging enabled. On my campus our surveys indicate that about 90% do have cell phones. Most clearly have a texting plan since that is a preferred mode of communication for many. So, even though a few of your students might not have devices in their pockets for this task, it clearly has been increasing rapidly and I have no doubt that this will be less and less of an issue in the next couple of years ahead.

Also, text messaging your answer is not the only option. Your polls can also be web-enabled so that people can answer the questions using a computer instead of a cell phone. In fact, they give you the embed code so that you can place the poll anywhere that you want on a web page. For example, place a poll on the home page inside your VLE, or on a content page, or even a discussion forum.

Ironically, although you can embed the poll widget on just about any webpage, I can’t embed it here (WordPress doesn’t allow it.) So, instead just click on the graphic below to go to answer a Poll Everywhere question (no cell phone needed for this one).

poll-everywhere-example

How does it work? (from the Poll Everywhere FAQ page) – As a poll is displayed to an audience, they cast votes by sending text messages to our short code number (99503) indicating the option they wish to select. Their mobile carrier (e.g., Sprint, AT&T) routes their text message to our web servers where the vote is counted. Once counted, the vote is displayed in real time on-screen.

Can I embed a poll in my PowerPoint presentation? (also from FAQ) – Yes, when viewing your poll, click the PowerPoint link for instructions. If you use PowerPoint 2007, you can download a small .pptx file containing your poll. The poll inside this slide can be copied into other presentations, used multiple times in a presentation, and resized like other PowerPoint objects.

Some useful links:

Filed under: Web2.0 | Tagged: , | Comments Off on Top Web Tools of 2008 – Number 8

Top Web Tools of 2008 – Number 9

Posted on December 17, 2008 by barrydahl

imeem-current-logoimeem was number 5 last year but this shouldn’t be viewed as a downgrade of how much I like imeem. I think it’s great and I think it’s getting better all the time. The only reason it is not higher on the list is that I also spend a fair amount of time using other music services, including Pandora, Seeqpod, Songza, and a few others. These different services are explained in a post from June titled “Embedding Music Playlists in your VLE.”

Because WordPress will not allow a flash-based player to be embedded, you’ll have to click on the screenshot below to open the playlist at the imeem site. You can embed the imeem player in normal webpages including Blogger blogs and inside things like Desire2Learn, Angel, Moodle, etc. See the links above.

imeem-holiday-embed

If you click through to the playlist, you will probably see that some of the songs in that playlist are not full-length. When I am logged in to my imeem account and using the playlist at their site, they are all full-length. If you don’t have an imeem account, or you are listening to an embedded playlist, some songs are shortened to 30 seconds depending upon licensing agreements between imeem and the music company in question. Songs on imeem will be only a 30-second preview if the artist or record label has not signed an agreement with imeem giving approval for full-length streaming. Their interpretation of copyright fair use principles indicates that a 30-second preview is acceptable. When you search for a song on imeem you’ll see right away whether it is a preview or full-length.

For songs that you already have on your computer, you can upload them to your imeem account and listen to them full-length, regardless of whether imeem otherwise has permission for that song.

You can use your imeem account to store and play audio and videos, and also to store and display photos. It can easily be used for podcasting, as explained in their FAQ section. Although I haven’t done it, it would be easy to embed the player inside your VLE, then each time a new podcast is uploaded it will appear in the player for students or other subscribers to listen to. For video files, imeem supports many different file types, but recommends .MPEG, .MOV, .FLV, and .AVI for optimum results. The suggested video size is 400×300, but other sizes will work as well. For music files, imeem supports mp3s only, with a recommended sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. At this time there are no maximum file size limitations for uploading video or other file types.

imeem certainly has it’s critics since some people don’t like anything that is ad-supported. But come on, they’re doing all the heavy lifting by dealing directly with the a-hole record companies, they’re helping make it legal to access your music from any Internet connection, and they’re enabling you to legally share the music of other account holders. In my book, that’s a pretty good deal. Did I mention that it’s free?   (some of this text is repeated from the June post linked above)

Filed under: Web2.0 | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Top Web Tools of 2008 – Number 10

Posted on December 16, 2008 by barrydahl

ustream_logoUstream.TV enters the Top 10 for the first time this year. Although I’m not a heavy user, it has come in very handy several times for live broadcasts on the Internet. In addition to the live broadcasts, UStream will also allow you to record and archive the broadcast, and it does all of this for free.

This great tool is not even two years old yet, having been founded in March 2007. This year they added co-hosting so that you can have more than one presenter (and more than one web cam displayed), you can have poll questions appear on screen, send out automatic tweets on Twitter about upcoming shows, and probably other additions that I’ve forgotten about.

ustream-barry-keynote

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2008 Web Tools Hall of Fame

Posted on December 15, 2008 by barrydahl

Hall of fame iconIt’s that time of the year again. Time to add new web-based tools to my Hall of Fame and to announce my year-end Top 10 (not 12 like previous years) tools. The Top 10 are those tools that are not yet in the Hall of Fame. Think of them of being on the cusp of the Hall. If they have another good year, there’s a chance that they will enter the hall next year.

New additions for 2008 to Barry’s Web Tools Hall of Fame:

  • Twitter

  • Picnik

  • WordPress

Here’s the post from last year when the first six tools were inducted. They are Zoho Suite, Flickr, Skype, Meebo, Delicious, and Bloglines.

And now, for 2008, there are three more to be added.

twitter-logoTwitter – This one snuck up on me. A year ago I did move it up to #8 on my year-end list of tools, but I still wasn’t sold on it. A year later it is completely indispensable to my everyday learning and staying connected with lots of smart people. I have little doubt that Twitter as a thought outlet has resulted in a reduction in the number of blog posts that I write. I’m not saying that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s a change in how I communicate. Just a few random thoughts:

Picnik Logo

Picnik – This free photo editing tool is only the second of the free web-tools that I have ever paid for. I bought the premium account partly to have access tot he extra features, but even more for the reason of supporting the company that provides such an incredibly useful tool for my use. For more info: here is the post I made at the end of last year about Picnik.

wordpress-logo-cristalWordPress – Somehow I didn’t even put WordPress on my year-end list of the top web tools. Apparently that means that I was taking it for granted. The site you are reading right now is provided to me (and you) for free at WordPress.com. WordPress is an excellent blogging tool but it is a bit more restrictive than Blogger in that they don’t allow certain types of content (especially flash and javascript) unless they have built a specific tool to utilize the content. This restrictiveness is related to security concerns and is a wise approach to follow. WordPress.org is the free and open source option for hosting your own WordPress blog software. It is not exactly the same as wordpress dot com, but very similar and based on the same original code.

That makes a total of 9 web apps in Barry’s Hall of Fame. BTW, I know how pretentious it sounds to have your own Hall of Fame. This started as a joke but now I sort of enjoy it. These tools are in my Hall of Fame because I use them, I recommend them, and they never illegally bet on baseball.

Coming up next, my Top 10 web tools for year-end 2008.

Filed under: Web2.0 | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Happy Holidays from all the Dahls

Posted on December 10, 2008 by barrydahl

Here’s a quick little Animoto slideshow to wish you a Merry Christmas, or any other happy holiday that you choose to celebrate.

Click image and video will play in new window.

Filed under: Computing, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: | Comments Off on Happy Holidays from all the Dahls

Technology Fees in 2009?

Posted on December 3, 2008 by barrydahl

I continue to be amazed that we in higher ed continue to think of technology as something extra, something not assumed and expected, indeed something that we need to charge separately for. Maybe that made sense in 1990 (but that’s only a maybe). It doesn’t make any sense in 2008, 2009, or anytime else in the future. In fact, as each year goes by it makes less and less sense to charge something special (extra) for technology.

Typical line items on a student invoice (YMMV):
Tuition: 3 credits X $140 per credit =            $420
Technology fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =         $30
Total cost (except for all those other fees) = $450

I’m not proposing that we forgo revenue. Lord knows that really isn’t an option. What I am proposing is that we simplify what the cost of attending college is. Like this:

Tuition: 3 credits X $150 per credit =            $450
Total cost (except for all those other fees) = $450

I think it is embarrassing that we treat technology as something extra. It is expected that we have technology available to all campus stakeholders in various different ways. Kinda like safety, which we are also expected to provide throughout the campus in many different ways (security guards, fire alarms, non-slippery surfaces, clean air, etc.). Sort of like knowledge and intelligence, which we are expected to provide at no extra charge (that’s a joke, son). Sort of like drinking fountains and rest rooms.

How would this look for a student invoice?

Tuition: 3 credits X $100 per credit =             $300
Technology fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =           $30
Safety fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =                   $30
Intelligence fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =           $30
Rest room fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =             $30
Bullshit fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =                $30
Total cost (except for all those other fees) =  $450

As absurd as the invoice above may appear, it’s not that different from the invoice that we actually do give to students with numerous line items that are added onto the cost of tuition to determine the total cost of attendance (TCA). In technology we are always concerned about the total cost of ownership (TCO). Aren’t students equally concerned about their total cost of attendance? Shouldn’t we be much more transparent (and far less stupid-looking) by telling the student up front what their TCA is?

To make it worse, the technology fee doesn’t cover the cost of technology used on campus. It covers about half the cost of technology (at my school), and that’s a pretty generous (the real number is lower) estimate in that I’m not including some of the difficult costs such as basic IT infrastructure (fiber networks, etc.) So, technology fee is a misnomer. We should call it “Half of the Technology Fee,” or more accurately “Part of the Technology Fee.”

Take a look at the special invoice above with all the extra line items. Remind you of anything? Is it starting to look at all like your phone bill? Don’t you love how the phone company (and cable company and a few others) nickle and dime you to death with all their add-ons to their basic service cost? Don’t you? Do we in higher ed really want to be like the phone companies?

Name one other industry where technology is considered to be an extra, an add-on, something that you have to pay extra to get. Options on a new car are something that you decide to pay for or not. You can opt out if you don’t want to pay for that sun roof. Sun roofs aren’t expected, they are extra – but you have a choice. Do students have a choice whether they pay the technology fee? Can they opt-out if they don’t want to use any of our technology? “No thank you, I’ve brought my own!”

Grab your crystal ball. Do you think we’ll still be charging extra for technology as a line-item addition on student invoices in the year 2020? What about 2050? Maybe green space will be so rare by then that we’ll charge for blue skies, picnic tables, and green grass. Don’t laugh, we charge for technology in 2009 and that is pretty laughable.

In closing, you might be wondering where this rant came from. Actually, I’ve been on it for a few years now, but nobody else seems to really care about this issue. What brought it to mind now is a seminar session yesterday about charging specific student fees related to the costs of developing and delivering distance learning courses. You can expect a rant about that in the near future.

CC Flickr photo by Neubie

Filed under: Computing, Higher Ed | Tagged: , | 9 Comments »

iPhone – The New CompuServe

Posted on November 20, 2008 by barrydahl

zittrain_bookI’ve wanted to write about one of my recent reads for quite a while now, but couldn’t get around to it until now. The Future of the Internet, and How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain is an intriguing read about where we’ve been in our computing history and development, and where we’re heading. He is not trying to stop the Internet from having a future, rather he is trying to stop the Internet from evolving into something very different from what it has been. Basically, this is the net neutrality argument explained with great detail in understandable terms. But it’s more than just that.

The only part of the book that this post will deal with is a small portion of his material dealing with tethered appliances and generative (vs. non-generative) devices.

Right at the beginning of the book, Zittrain draws the distinction between the development and introduction of the PC and that of the iPhone. Regarding the introduction of the Apple II personal computer over 30 years ago, “The Apple II was a blank slate, a bold departure from previous technology that been deployed and marketed to perform specific tasks from the first day of its sale to the last day of its use.” (continuing from page 2) “The Apple II was quintessentially generative technology. It was a platform. It invited people to tinker with it.”

Contrast that with the iPhone (pg. 2). “The iPhone is the opposite. It is sterile. Rather than a platform that invites innovation, the iPhone comes preprogrammed. You are not allowed to add programs to the all-in-one device that Steve Jobs sells you. Its functionality is locked in though Apple can change it through remote updates. Indeed, to those who managed to tinker with the code to enable the iPhone to support more or different applications, Apple threatened (and then delivered on the threat) to transform the iPhone into an iBrick. The machine was not to be generative beyond the innovations that Apple (and its exclusive carrier, AT&T) wanted. Whereas the world would innovate for the Apple II, only Apple would innovate for the iPhone.”

Zittrain also devotes some quality time to exploring some of the early proprietary systems such as “Networks like CompuServe, The Source, America Online, Prodigy, Genie, and MCI Mail gave their subscribers access to content and services deployed solely by the network providers themselves.” (pg. 23) He continues: “PCs were to be only the delivery vehicles for data sent to customers, and users were not themselves expected to program or to be able to receive services from anyone other than their central service provider. CompuServe depended on the phone network’s physical layer generativity to get that last mile to a subscriber’s house, but CompuServe as a service was not open to third-party tinkering.”

The part that I find ironic is probably perfectly obvious by now. No self-respecting geek or pseudo-geek (I put myself in that category) would have been caught dead subscribing to AOL or Compuserve when the wide open Internet was just sitting there waiting for them to shed the bindings of the proprietary service providers. However, these same geeks and pseudo-geeks can’t wait to get their hands on the iPhone.

Zittrain ties it altogether on page 106. “Indeed, recall that some recent devices, like the iPhone, are updated in ways that actively seek out and erase any user modifications. These boxes thus resemble the early proprietary information services like CompuServe and AOL.” I think it’s funny that the iPhone fanatics don’t look anything like the old AOL and CompuServe fanatics.

Zittrain’s book deals with much more than what is included in this post. I highly recommend it, except maybe to the iPhone fanboys who might not like being compared to a CompuServe fanboy. This book is available for free on the Internet, although you can also buy a copy in almost any bookstore. I got mine at Amazon.

Filed under: Computing | Tagged: , , | 9 Comments »

Second Life Presenters – Get a Clue

Posted on October 28, 2008 by barrydahl

I attended a couple of terrible conference sessions recently. The topic of interest was higher education uses of Second Life.

Before I get into the SL portion of this rant, let me start with another pet peeve. One presenter introduced herself and immediately followed with “By the way, I hate PowerPoint, but it’s the best way show something.” Translation: I don’t know whether it is the best way to “show something,” but it’s the only way I know how. She proceeded to use PPT in one of the classic examples of Death by PowerPoint with slides that were nothing more than her lecture notes (for her benefit, I assume) and a few poorly made screen shots of empty spaces in SL.

Also within the first five minutes she said, and I quote, that she has “dabbled in Second Life.” That’s exactly what I was hoping for – a one-hour presentation from somebody who has dabbled with the topic at hand. Whatever possessed her 8 or 9 months earlier to make a conference proposal about using SL? Possessed does seem to be the proper term.

She went to talk about how they were building a teaching and learning environment within SL. She said their goal was to create a place with a PG rating, to provide a safe place for the students to interact. She admitted that they had no safe guards in place, but that they would ban people if they caused trouble. She said they really haven’t had any trouble yet. I pointed out that griefers rarely hang around uninhabited spaces within SL. That’s just not much fun for them. I’m not positive that she knows what a griefer is.

The whole topic of appropriate behavior was basically brushed aside. Regarding the monitoring of student behavior in SL, she said, “We don’t monitor them in first life, so why in Second Life?” Excuse me, but we do monitor them in FL when they are in our learning environments – we just don’t continue to monitor them (much) after they leave our campuses or networks. For the record, I’m not too concerned with monitoring student behaviors in SL either, but I am concerned when people just make inaccurate statements in order to not deal with the question at hand.

There were two things of which she seemed particularly proud. They have built a classroom in the sky and another one underwater. “You can do whatever you want in this flying classroom,” although she gave no examples of what those things might be. “You can show your PowerPoint on the screen under water. Oh boy, that’s what we’ve been missing from a quality education. I’ll grant you that it sure would be more difficult to show your PPT under water in first life, so this sounds like a great opportunity for someone to show their underwater basket weaving slideshow while actually (OK, not actually, but virtually) under water. Yes, technology enables us to do fabulous things.

I was troubled by the screen shots that never showed any avatars on their educational island. I asked how much the space was getting used. “I believe they are using it, but I’m not really sure. I’ll be using it this week for the first time myself.” At that point, 25 minutes into the presentation, I decided that I needed to leave the room before my head (especially my mouth) exploded. So, I did. I wish I could report out on the last 35 minutes, but right now all I’ve got is yada, yada, yada; blah, blah, blah.

Along with a couple of lousy presentations, I also saw a good one. Here the presenters were actually using SL, including one presenter who was back in New York state and was presenting and commenting in world. Not only was it far more effective to use SL as the presentation platform, but we actually had presenters who knew what they were talking about, who have taught real live students in SL, and who can give some concrete examples of useful things that can be done in world. They admitted to some of the lame things that they had tried, and took credit for some of the cool things that they have created. If you’re looking for some of the good examples of how higher ed is using SL, take a look at SUNY Live or search in world for Monroe CC. This presentation was really quite outstanding.

CC Flickr photo by Hiro Sheridan

Filed under: Conference, Higher Ed | Tagged: | 6 Comments »

LSC in Top 10

Posted on October 19, 2008 by barrydahl

The Center for Digital Education and Converge magazine have selected 31 community colleges as outstanding examples of technology delivery in higher education. The fourth annual Digital Community Colleges Survey identifies and spotlights colleges that provide a high level of service to their students and faculty through information technology.

Lake Superior College has been selected at #10 for mid-sized colleges (between 3,000-7,500 students) in the U.S.

The survey examined areas of technology ranging from online admissions, student access to transcripts and grades, information security and infrastructure, to weather and campus security alerts and online library capabilities. Some of the factors that most likely set us apart from some of the schools include our online enrollments (25% of total enrollment), our uses of Web 2.0 technologies including school-branded blogs and wikis, and our efforts at green computing procedures.

The goal for next year is to move higher on the list.

Filed under: Computing, Higher Ed | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Heading for CIT2008

Posted on October 17, 2008 by barrydahl

I leave Saturday morning for Salt Lake City and the League for Innovation’s 2008 Conference on Information Technology. The League conferences are always quite large and very smoothly run. I am involved in a total of five presentations during the conference, but I wanted to take a look at what else I would be doing during the four days.

I took the key words from all the session titles at CIT and fed them into Wordle.net. This is what I found about the content of Track #1: Emerging and Future Educational Technology

Now I don’t want to be a jerk, but this sure seems to be dominated by Microsoft, Adobe, and Certifications such as IC3. Maybe they should rename this the vendor track.

The word cloud for Track #2:  Teaching and Learning seems a bit more to my liking.

And last but not least, I combined the titles of the remaining (smaller) tracks 3 through 7 and came up with this:


There’s sure to be something in that cloud worth attending.

Filed under: Conference | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

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