ISU Distance Education News

Why and When To Use Technology

Last week I attended the International Forum for Women in eLearning sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association. Carol Daunt, from Australia’s LearnTel Pty Ltd, opened with a workshop titled Dial M for Learning. Her presentation included the following thoughts about choosing technology.....

Having looked at the range of technologies available, we must ask "Why?" Why would you want to use any or all of those available? For one reason only - teaching is about learners. Using a combination of technologies must be for the purpose of improving learning in some way. It must not be because:
* The organization has invested a lot of money in this technology.
* Everyone else is using it.
*This is the latest and it's really sleek.
* Or....any number of such reasons which we unfortunately hear too often!

There is no formula for the right and wrong time to use technology. Only you can decide from your knowledge of the learners, the content, and the technologies available to you.

Today's choices help us meet the demand of students for "anytime/anywhere" education. When deciding how to deliver courses from Iowa State, you can choose from Web-based platforms, mixed delivery methods, CD-ROMs, DVDs, Breeze Live, Podcasting, media streaming - you name it -

Offer comments on your experience with technology.....What has worked for you - for your students? What do you want to learn more about? How can the Iowa State Distance Education staff help you?

Kris Phelps, Program Coordinator

DE Pedagogy and Technology: Microstudio, Breeze and Captivate

Microstudio. In FY04 Engineering Distance Education launched its low-cost, portable lecture capture system, Microstudio. The use of Microstudio has grown rapidly under the efforts of one of its inventors and chief advocate, Joe Monahan, media production specialist. In FY06 Continuing Education and Communication Services (CECS) obtained an ISU Computation Advisory Committee (CAC) grant to make six of the studio units available throughout campus. This spring semester these systems will capture and deliver several hundred lectures and presentations, a number expected to more than double for fall term 2006.

The rapid acceptance of this technology is motivated by two forces:
1) Low impact on faculty. Faculty members arrive at their regularly assigned classroom with a portable drive of digital content for the class – usually PowerPoint slides. The lecture, digital content, and “whiteboard” are captured with the assistance of a student employee, a tablet PC, and a wireless microphone. It requires no additional faculty time for the content to be converted to digital and delivered.
2) Popularity with students. The lectures are converted to a video stream and made available to on-campus students within an hour of delivery. The same lectures can be used for distance education delivery. Students rave about the ability to review lecture content and “make-up” missed sessions.

(photograph by Joe Monahan)

Read on for more on Microstudio and Breeze technologies.

If you are interested in exploring Microstudio use, contact
Engineering: Engineering Distance Education 294-7470 ede@iastate.edu
Agriculture: Brenton Center 294-1862 brentoncontact.iastate.edu brentoncontact@iastate.edu
Other Colleges: David Anderson, CECS 294-1234 dmander@iastate.edu

Breeze and Captivate. Since ISU Extension first purchased the Breeze system in 2004 it has evolved from an Internet conferencing resource to a integrated learning content development and delivery tool capable of creating complex learning objects and organizing them into classes, classes into courses, and courses into curriculums.

Breeze can
• capture content live or “studio” produce content on a desktop
• be interactive, including video and voice of all participants
• record live the presentations and conversations for subsequent replay
• give each participant the ability to present his or her own content and access to others’ applications creating a shared workspace
• be stored on a server for reuse

Captivate is a more sophisticated tool using Breeze features and other Macromedia tools for the creation of content that can be delivered in Breeze. Because Breeze uses Flash Technology it has relatively small file sizes and can be adapted for low-bandwidth users.

Contact Extension IT 294-1725 eit@iastate.edu or Mykola Sarazhynskky 294-8961 msarazh@extension.iastate.edu

“Macrostudio”. As Microstudio’s popularity grows, the campus has sought ways to increase the efficiency of the system and to increase the quality and content-richness of the product. Ten signatories from seven campus units have proposed the launch of an installed system in 10 Iowa State classrooms that would
∙ Automate the scheduling and capture of classroom content
∙ Capture all elements of ISU’s digital classroom
∙ Record a video of the lecturer and improve audio quality
∙ Automate the conversion to digital stream and load that stream onto a server for access
∙ Permit remote management by a technician

CECS, Facilities, and ITS joined with three colleges to submit a proposal to CAC for summer installation of this system and a fall launch. For more information contact David Anderson, CECS 294-1234 dmander@iastate.edu.