Low cost video cameras

Image taken with sepia camera app for iPhone

Time to share some received wisdom from the RSC crowd about a simple question posed by Justin Spooner from RSC Wales. He asked us all .. 


"We currently use the Busbi video camera with the flip-out screen and the Flip Ultra video cameras for recording and demoing low cost video cameras. Unfortunately the Busbi was discontinued some time ago and one of our learning providers would like to know of alternatives. I have no problem with the Flip Ultra but I was wondering what you all used in the £120 or less range."


The replies came thick and fast from across the UK:

• There is a lovely wee case study on the recent Scottish RSCs Newsfeed posted by Hugh Dailly which highlights how Perth College have used the Creative Vado Digital Video Camera.  The entry also provides a link to a you tube review on this gadget.  I think they cost around £90 and seem to be quite simple to use. http://scottish-rscs.org.uk/newsfeed/?p=7662
  
• My vote would currently go to the Kodak Zi8. HD quality. A key benefit over others in this price range is that you can use an external mic. It also has a macro mode – useful for reasonable close-ups. I realised quite early on that our Flip was useless for such things when I was going to do a video review of an iPod Touch app. It just couldn’t focus close enough. So a bit more flexible than the flip but still easy to use. The black one on amazon is about £119. Other colours are about £5 cheaper.

 Here’s quite an in-depth review on youtube

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Qq5__ETI8

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro0ce5nDfS4&NR=1

• We use disgos as a very cheap alternative   http://tinyurl.com/disgo-amazon

We have also recently bought a Samsung Flashcam which does time lapse which can be useful for gathering digital evidence of a time consuming tak such as building a wall etc http://tinyurl.com/flashcam-amazon

• Try Disgo cameras, they are the same design and price as the lower end cameras.
  
• Yep Flips are a good choice as well, also try the XACTI. They come in a number of price brackets and will allow the user to take video and stills and allow the video playback to be paused.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=xacti&tag=googhydr-21&index=electronics&hvadid=4947908465&ref=pd_sl_6ghzgxajsf_b

• I am moving more and more towards simple devices that allow you to shoot stills and video as these tend to be better value for money, more flexible. The one thing I hadn't appreciated until recently was the importance of the pause function when playing back footage.
  
• ..the Disgos and Xactis are really good, Xactis prices can get a bit steep.  Another consideration is the holding format, the square of the Disgo or a pistol grip style of the Xacti.  I bought my daughters the Samsung U10s for Christmas, HD and very good.  One thing they commented on is having to hold it very steady, as in HD mild handshake/vibration at 30 fps is very noticable (particularly when the video is taken from the edge of a dance floor in a club after a few beers).  If waterproof for outside use is a consideration then the Xacti has a model and if cheap and waterproof is a consideration Tesco have a Vivitar DVR850W for just under GBP 60 (70-80 elsewhere). Final consideration that may not be important is low light capabilities, but indoors shooting can end up grainy even under eyeball acceptable artificial light.

All I can add to this is that my iphone camera is perhaps the worst mobile camera I ever used! Don't buy an iphone if you want a 1/2 decent camera. Buy one of those new Sony Erricsson phones instead.


And think of how you are going to use the output video, if it's going to youtube then buy one with a USB port (the disgos), but be careful some of these cameras output in MP4 format (apple stuff) which is a difficult format to convert and to be embedded into Moodle,blog ,etc.  

JISC online conference 2009

I've just been into the first day of the conference. Very interesting keynotes, and discussions taking place.  Plus there's a "have a go" area full of useful resources and demonstrations.  Thought I'd share some of those with you;

• The EVOLUTION project - reusable materials
  
  

The JISC funded EVOLUTION project is an Open Educational Resources project that is disaggregating existing materials so they may be re-used and re-purposedfor different contexts or pedagogies. Click here to listen to a talk about the project and the materials available. If you would like to download the materials for review than please register to use the materials on our repository at www.employability.org.uk. Open to UK HE only!

•  LexDis - student participation, issues and strategies

This project, with the help of students, explored successful 'e-skills' and supporting strategies, including the use of assistive technologies introduced by e-learning and Web 2.0 type services such as blogs, wikis, social networks and mobile technologies. The outcome has been the development of an online database with student strategies, explanations about the technologies used and a series of one page guides with print versions. The latter have been provided to encourage staff to develop accessible teaching and learning materials. Some link to the work of JISC TechDis Accessibility essentials and all have links to further resources.

• The Design Studio: a curriculum design and delivery toolkit
  
  

The newly launched Design Studio is a developing dynamic web-based toolkit hosted by JISC infoNet which draws together a range of existing and developing resources around curriculum design and delivery and the role technology plays in supporting these processes and practices. The Studio will provide access to project outcomes and outputs from the JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes as they are developed and will continue to be sustained as a community resource after the programmes end. A curriculum lifecycle concept provides a structure for this wiki-based resource and the primary portal to materials whilst tagging provides flexible entry levels to information based on e.g. themes, technologies and subject areas. This is a recorded (not live!) tour in Elluminate. Click https://sas.elluminate.com/mrtbl?suid=M.257864C26A4F22C5EE6DB9B8A536AD to view the recording. Access the curriculum change document that accompanies this resource.

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  JISC Digital Media videos

  
  
  
  

These are videos covering a range of topics, including those of interest to teaching and learning:  http://vimeo.com/user2187259/videos

• Internet for Image Searching
  
  

This is a practical tool for learning how to use the Internet to find copyright cleared images to support learning and teaching. The link below takes you to an online tutorial about the tool. http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/imagesearching/

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  The Phoebe Pedagogy Planner tool

  
  
  
  

Phoebe is a pedagogy planner tool, designed to help teachers create learning experiences that are motivating and productive for both their students and themselves. It comprises a simple authoring environment and extensive guidance on teaching and learning with digital technologies. Phoebe was developed from 2006-2008 by a team from the University of Oxford, with funding from the JISC Design for Learning programme.

About Phoebe:

• Overview (2 pages, PDF format)
• Introduction and demonstration by Marion Manton, given at the University of Oxford on 28th August, 2008 (23-minute video)

Exploring Phoebe:

• Phoebe Pedagogy Planner
• Exploring Phoebe guide (12 pages, PDF format)

• You might also like to visit the website of the LDSE project, on which we are now working with colleagues from five other institutions.

creative tinkering

Steampunk Aural Enhancer, from instrucatbles.com

 A few ideas to get those creative juices flowing;

I  stumbled across the latest flip animation festival (5th Nov 09) offering all sorts of events around the subject of animation.

• Flip is an eclectic mix of all things animation. Based in the heart of the Midlands the festival provides a wide range of experiences from educational workshops for young people to experimental animation for grown ups; from industry led panels to feature film screenings and from international showcases and retrospectives of short films to spotlights on animation studios.  The event is located mainly in the Lighthouse media centre who also provide low cost training courses covering animation and video production, including HD.

• One session that stuck out was a Game Design Workshop for only 5 quids!! This one day workshop, run in conjunction with Wolverhampton University’s Institute of Gaming and Animation, is a great opportunity to get introduced to the X-Box XNA game platform which allows users to begin developing their own games with the free downloadable tools from Microsoft.  You can download and tinker with the X-Box XNA developers kit to create your own games.

• Whilst following links around the Lighthouse media centre I discovered "Mediabox", the fund that offers 13-19 year olds the chance to create their own media projects and get their voices heard, has opened its Mix Mediabox strand. Mix Mediabox enables organisations working within the community to apply for grants of between £5,000 - £20,000 for youth-led media projects that explore the theme of community cohesion. 

So essentially you bid for funds to create fun and interesting productions using film, animation, etc.  The videos already produced are inspriing stuff. Mix Mediabox is open to registered charities, trusts, local authorities and unincorporated associations.

• On the subject of tinkering I also came across a website called tinker.it , which is a design studio that builds interactive products, spaces and events that bridge the physical and the digital. They've got some excellent ideas and event running. Including the Arduino workshops.  I was intrigued to discover that Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

So it could be used to teach product design engineering, electronics, etc, in schools, colleges & Universities?  So you've got free games developers kits and free eletcronics prototyping gubbins :O)... In fact this Wired artcle lists some of the more popular (and) free programming and games platforms.

• To further inspire you take a look at one of my favourite sites : instructables.  It's what the web is for !O).  See top image
  

access the grid

ja.net services are offering Access Grid Nodes allow people to communicate through visual images and sound exchanged between different computers. There is no theoretical limit to how many nodes can be linked, and the number of people at each site is limited only by room size and hardware present.

 
Access Grid (AG) in simple terms is an advanced videoconferencing application that uses audio and video tools allowing people in different locations worldwide to meet in a virtual venue (virtual meeting room). In these virtual venues participants can see and speak to each other in realtime, use online chat and share applications simultaneously.

The image above typifies this application in action. It looks impressive.

• This service complements their existing JANET Video Technology Advisory Service (VTAS)

• ja.net also offer an extensive list of training events across the UK
  

Streaming video delivery

Image provided CC cleared free

We ran a 1/2 day workshop today covering the requirements for Colleges to be able to record, digitise, and broadcast (stream via the web) video content. Whether the content is an existing bit of recorded video ( or from DVD or VHS), or recorded from "free to air" TV.

We watched an interesting presentation from Dave Kings of Worcester College of Technology who has developed their own unicast streaming service for internal College use only. The system is very robust and uses MS Expresssion Encoder to compress the video, and an Opsprey TV capture card to record TV from Freeview. The encoder creates a suite of files at different bit rates , so the server can decide upon whcih video to deliver to the end user depending upon network cababilities at the point of delivery. The new MS Expresssion encoder will also allow, chaptering, overlays ( for college logos), and captioning. All this is powered by IIS 7 with the smooth streaming plugin. All recordings are made available to staff on the Sharepoint intranet/CMS platform. The vids are played through a browser media player called MS Silverlight, which was new to me. It looks like a whole new .NET framework, as opposed to "just a media player"?

All of this high quality video is being delivered to students internally, whcih is covered by the eduational ERA licence. NB they have developed a "you-tube" type of servce to deliver lower quality videos (mainly Flash based) to students on home (DSL) connections. If you are a College, you need the ERA PLUS licence to run this service externally. See my wiki page covering other streaming video case studies here.

We also sat through two demonstrations of companies offering solutions to record, digitise, archive, record from live TV, embed videos, link resources, etc,etc. By ClickView and Streaming UK. Both systems were feature rich, versatile , user friendly and offered some excellent and robust features. It was interesting to see how both companies had incoroporated features such as embed URL, to deliver videos via VLE featured as standard on most free video hosting sites. Both good systems, with slightly differing market niches, and some Colleges in the room were already using Clickview.

My favourite free web hosting is still Vimeo.



JISC Digital media are offering to assist Colleges set up such a service by bidding for some funds they are dishing out. Find out more and download docs on the event page.

How to use video

Image displayed under creative commons distribution rights

For those who are delivering staff development sessions covering the use of video, or any one interested in the subject of video and education.

http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Streaming_video


I have just updated our RSC wiki page covering:

streaming video (definitions and options), pre (storyboarding) and post production (shooting & editing software), tutorials, applications of video for learning, CODECs, copyright, and resources.

Hopefully it's a one stop shop. Please feel free to link to/pass on.

Please feedback on any dead links, typos, errors or omissions, and of course juicy updates to keep it current. Please add a comment to suggest new links.

screencasting

Here are some free web based applications (i.e. you don't have to install stuff) that busy educators can use to create engaging presentations. Both Viddix & ScreenToaster combine video with either what's on your screen or a synchronized slide presentation. See examples below. Alternatively you can create what's called a "slidecast" using http://www.slideshare.net/. Simply upload you powerpoint presentation you want to share, then use the online tools at your disposal to add a voice-over /narrative to accompany the slides. Simple, easy to use and effective.

A presentation I created using Viddix.

Direct link to the above presentation: http://www.viddix.com/watch/48f45ff45ee7c/vles-are-for-more-than-objects/

Free online screencasting tool

A presentation Matt Gallon created using ScreenToaster

Direct link to the above presentation : http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stU0pWQEBIR1paQFhaW1hQUVNT


An alternative ( to use for assessment feedback) would be TOkBOx - again a free web based screen capture tool. Read more on the MASHe blog.

innovative webinars?

Copyright image supplied by FLICKR CC


Today I gave a "training session" to some local trainers using a live "webcasting tool". Well, it was more like an informal walk through of the capabilities of a synchronous webcasting tool called DimDim (which is free for basic use). I think everyone enjoyed it, and we had some excellent ideas for using such a tool in teaching and learning. Everyone who took part could see genuine benefits in using such software with their particular roles. This type of tool would help out employers and training in general, and perhaps help lift the train to gain initiative into the 21st Century? Read more about the current state of play in the edecxel policy watch.

When I read the speech that John Denham (DIUS) gave the other day at the AoC conference, he never mentioned the option of maximising the opportunity for training by exploiting technology at all? When he eventually did mention innovation, all he spoke of was the work going on in new builds to improve local training provision. Somehow I feel that the point is being seriously missed here. Move the information (zeros & ones) around, not the people, Mr Denham! Using live webinar tools such as DimDim is far more efficient, innovative, and greener that focusing on the physical infrastructure of organisations. We are in the 21st Century after all! Well some of us are. If we are ever going to match up to the 2020 Leitch goals, someone is going to have to think laterally, and that means exploiting e-learning tools to up-skill the UK. The new High skills - high value DIUS policy also discusses this burgeoning requirement.

I've blogged on this subject before (especially dimdim) so here's some links to explore this subject further.

What is webcasting or webinars:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcasting
• http://delicious.com/tag/webinar

Protocols:

• http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Synchronous_webcasting_tools#Webcasting_protocols 
• http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.1025

And here's some free alternatives to DimDim

• http://www.wiziq.com/
• https://www.yugma.com/
• Skype (conference calls)
• http://www.oovoo.com/
• http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/home.html
• Both Adobe Connect & elluminate offer their tools free for small groups (3 – 5)

Find references to more of these types of tools here : http://c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/Tools/conferencing.html

Free webcasting is getting better

Earlier on this year I posted an overview of DimDim the excellent and free webcasting tool, that IMHO is as good as some of the 15k - 20k established products out there. Well, just today, my good elearning friend @ Stafford Uni, Helen Walmsley gave me a quick demo of WizIQ . I'm impressed (again) - easily done! It works well, and also incorporates a kind of social networking angle into the software, buy attempting to get you to sign up to their network to share ideas, resources, etc.

If you host a meeting you don't have to install a client bit of software (As you do with DimDim), but it doesn't have desktop sharing that DimDim offers. Apart from that it's very similar to DimDim. Neither of them (video) record the whole session that some of the top products do. But I suppose you could use Wink or another "screencam " tool to do this?
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STOP PRESS - WIz IQ can record & archive sessions - my apologies - see comment at bottom of this posting.

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I also sat through a demo of Adobe Connect recently which pitches Connect up in the top 3 webcasting products out there. Adobe connect can handle multiple webcams synchronously, and be able to split larger groups into smaller breakout "rooms for discussions. It can do more , but those two worked well i nthe demo.

The recent Adobe Connect archived conference session run by RSC SW is also well worth a look to experience what a recorded session looks like. Watch it @ URL : http://www.eduweb.plymouth.ac.uk/p75106536/

You can also see what the interface for Connect looks like during the video. Melanie Roberts ( elearning technologist at RSC SW) facilitated this session, which was done using a wireless connection! Scary stuff (wirelessly), but apparently it worked. Melanie contributed to our protocols (see below).

Finally, if you are thinking of using webcasting to present/discuss/teach at a distance, please peruse the list of protocols we have put togehter. Following these should make your session run much more smoothly. Please contact me if you want to contribute to these protocols.