Dr. Luanne Fose - The Tweed Geek

Book Review: Getting Organized in the Google Era

Sat, 22 May 2010 13:27:23 -0700

The main point of Merrill’s book is that in this world of information overload, we need to take a new approach to how we organize data for our brains and be a bit more choosy about what we decide is important to store there. I, myself, find that many of the faculty I work with, who didn’t have the internet at their disposal when they were young, shake their heads in disbelief at the Millennial students who have no inclination or desire, for that matter, to memorize data. Most likely this current generation’s philosophy is largely due to the fact that they have been taught that any information they may need is available anytime at their fingertips by just “Googling it!” Although I believe there are a few essential facts in one’s discipline that merit memorization, in this information age explosion can we really blame our students for this mindset?
In the first chapter of the book, Merrill tells an amusing anecdote (fact or fiction?) about Albert Einstein. As the story goes, a reporter was interviewing Albert Einstein and asked him if he could have his phone number, in case he needed to follow-up with any questions before the article was published. The reporter said that Einstein walked over to a pay phone on the street where they were walking, picked up a phone book and proceeded to look up his own phone number in order to read off the numbers to the reporter. When the reporter expressed surprise that Einstein didn’t have his own phone number memorized, Einstein responded: “Why remember my phone number when it’s in the phone book?” The veracity of this story is hard to confirm but what I take away from it is that Einstein was even far ahead of us in his understanding about what information was truly necessary to store in the brain!
Merrill talks in depth about how to organize your life to minimize brain strain by following some of the principles he developed to cope with his own dyslexia. Near the end of the book, he summarizes eighteen points to recap his Principles of Organization (pp. 174-175):
1. Organize your life to minimize brain strain.
2. Get stuff out of your head as quickly as possible.
3. Multitasking can actually make you less efficient.
4. Use stories to remember.
5. Just because something’s always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it should be.
6. Knowledge is not power. The sharing of knowledge is power.
7. Organize around actual constraints, not assumed ones.
8. Be completely honest (but never judgmental) with yourself.
9. Know when to ignore your constraints.
10. Know exactly where you’re going (and how you’ll get there) before you start the engine.
11. Be flexible about the outcome of your goals.
12. Don’t organize your information; search for it.
13. Only keep in your head what truly needs to be there.
14. Break big chunks into small ones.
15. Dedicate time each week to reviewing key information.
16. There’s no such thing as a perfect system of organization.
17. Whenever possible, use the tools you already know.
18. Add relevant keywords to your digital information so you can easily find it later.
* Points 12, 13, and 18 (above) are really the essence of this book.
A confessed music fanatic (as am I), Merrill’s constant musical references throughout the book to song lyrics made his points more memorable for me. For example, when discussing the problem of tapping into your long-term memory for recall, he quotes from Steely Dan’s popular song: “Rikki don’t lose that number... Send it off in a letter to yourself.” Later he discusses how emailing yourself things you wish to remember can be extremely helpful if you are fortunate enough to have access to your email from any location (as is true with a Gmail or .Mac mail account) because this process allows you to later search digitally for the information you sent off to yourself in an email. This is one of the strongest points that Merrill keeps hammering at us, over and over, throughout the book: Creating digital documents allows you to search (in a matter of moments) for information that you need at your fingertips. Digital documents can truly act as a personal database for all the information that cannot be contained within our cluttered brains. Take advantage of such an approach and you’ll reap the benefits of a life that is better organized and less stressed!
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Deep Linking To A YouTube Video

Sat, 22 May 2010 09:20:14 -0700

Did you know that by creating a deep link in YouTube, you can share a moment in a YouTube video that interests you and then comment upon it for other viewers? A deep link in YouTube allows the viewer of the video to start watching from a specific location that you've designated by creating an anchor that jumps to the exact location you wish to emphasize. Here’s how you can create a YouTube deep link:
1. Go to a video on YouTube and watch the video until you arrive at the location where the particular event occurs that you want the viewer to focus upon and then stop the video. 
2. Note the exact time that the event occurs in minutes and seconds (e.g., 5:34) by hovering your mouse above the playhead or by looking at the timecode provided within the play bar. 
3. Now go to your URL browser address and append something similar to the following at the end of the YouTube URL: #t=5m34s (Note: In this example, the #t=5m34s is a time marker anchor that tells YouTube to automatically begin playing the video at 5 minutes and 34 seconds, which is designated by the 5m34s of the code. Obviously, you would change the numbers in this code with regard to the minutes and seconds to reflect your desired location. Be advised this technique for creating an anchor pointer to a specified location doesn't appear to work for embedded YouTube videos.)
4. Once you have added the time marker at the end of the YouTube URL, go to your browser’s address window, click on the URL’s address and select all the text of the URL by pressing Command-A (Mac) or Control-A (Windows). The URL will look something like this with the #t= and the timecode appended at the end of the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY#t=5m34s
5. Copy the URL address by pressing Command-C (Mac) or Control-C (Windows). This is the link you would paste into your email, if you wish to send correspondence about the YouTube video via email. (Note: You can also paste a link like this into software tools such as Facebook or Blackboard.) When the recipient receives the email, Facebook link, or Blackboard link and clicks on it, the video will upload and begin playing at the location that you designated with the timecode. The viewer can also click on the playhead and move back to the beginning of the video and watch the entire movie, if they desire.
6. One way to use deep links effectively within an email or as a link provided within Blackboard might be to provide the normal link for the YouTube video and then also provide the link with the timecode designation. With this approach, the surprise of whatever you intended to have your students focus upon isn’t spoiled by taking them to the specified location right away; however, when they click on the alternative link that you've provided, they can clearly see the location in the video that you wanted them to focus upon and possibly provide comments.
7. If you choose to use the text comments box in YouTube, you don’t have to paste this entire URL timecode link there in order to provide a pointer to a specified location. Instead, you can just make a text comment on a YouTube video as you normally would and then place the timecode within the comment in the following manner: 9:50. For example, you could create a comment that says, “I love what Sir Ken Robinson says about university professors at 9:50!” Once the comment is posted, there will be a hyperlink attached to the number 9:50 within the comment. (To see an example of this, go to the lfose comment in the comments section on this Sir Ken Robinson YouTube video.) When the viewer clicks on the link in the video's comment box, the playhead of the video will jump to the exact location specified and begin playing the video from there. (Are you curious what Sir Ken Robinson says about university professors? Check it out in your browser right now at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY#t=9m50s)
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Embedding a YouTube Video In Blackboard

Sat, 22 May 2010 08:49:37 -0700

Obviously, you can link to YouTube videos from Blackboard by simply using Blackboard’s External Link option to take students directly from Blackboard to a video on the YouTube web site. However, there is another more pedagogically-effective method for placing YouTube videos in Blackboard: Embed them so that it actually appears as if the YouTube videos are playing within your Blackboard course. This approach will keep your students from getting lost in the “black hole” that is YouTube and hopefully, will encourage them to continue concentrating on your Blackboard course content. Below are the steps to embedding a YouTube video within Blackboard: 
1. Open up Firefox and go to http://www.youtube.com. (Note: This method of embedding YouTube videos in Blackboard must be done with the Firefox browser because Firefox displays ALL the formatting options available for use in the Blackboard Text area.)
2. Search YouTube for the video you wish to embed. 
3. Below the YouTube video, you will see a button labeled Embed. Click on this Embed button.

Embed Button 
4. A dialog box will appear underneath with some checkboxes. Uncheck the box that says Include related videos. (Note: We don’t want students distracted by other YouTube videos; after all, avoidance of the “related videos black hole” was the reason we selected to employ this method in the first place.)

Embed Dialog Box

5. In the embed text box above this, select all of the embed code that resides there (i.e., use Command-A on Macintosh or Control-A on Windows to select all of the text of the embedded code).
6. Now copy the embed text to your computer's clipboard by pressing Command-C (Macintosh) or Control-C (Windows).
7. Leave the YouTube web site and open your Blackboard course by logging in through the Cal Poly portal and navigating to your Blackboard course.
8. Once you have entered the Blackboard course, click on the Control Panel link and select the proper link to the location in your Blackboard course where you wish to place the video (e.g., Course Documents, Assignments, Videos, etc.)
9. Click on the Item button and provide a Name for the video in the Blackboard text box.
10. Below the Name area, you will see a text box labeled Text with all sorts of formatting buttons provided for text editing. Click on the <> button. (Note: You’ll know you’re on the correct button if you hover your mouse over this <> button and it displays the words “Toggle HTML Source Mode.” Be advised that if you’re not using Firefox, you may not have the ability to see the <> button.)
11. Now In the text box under the Blackboard Text formatting buttons, paste the embed code you copied from YouTube’s text box in Step 6 above. (Note: To paste the code, simply use Command-V on the Macintosh or Control-V on Windows.)
12. Select the Yes button next to Make the content available, select whether or not to Track number of views and if desired, Choose date and time restrictions (Note: Doing nothing in the Choose date and time restrictions area will make the content appear immediately as long as you requested Yes for Make the content available.)

Blackboard Availability Options

13. Scroll down to the bottom right of the Blackboard web page and click the Submit button; then click OK.
14. Now, if you wish, change the numbering order of the item in Blackboard by pulling down on the drop-down menu next to its number sequence and selecting the position order you desire.

Change Blackboard Order 
15. To test the embedded video in Blackboard, simply click on the play arrow in the middle of the YouTube embedded file in Blackboard and the YouTube video should play directly in the Blackboard window without going off to the YouTube web site.
16. Note: Because Blackboard is simply pointing to the file, please be aware that this is not a method for ensuring you have the video as an archive for all-time usage during the rest of your teaching career at Cal Poly. By using the embed method explained above, you are simply pointing to the YouTube video at the YouTube web site (i.e., the video is actually residing on YouTube’s server and could be taken down at any time by YouTube); however, if you use this method of embedding the video in Blackboard, it will appear to the student as if they have never left the Blackboard web page.
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

9 Fish Pufferfish Bodyboard

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 13:02:25 -0700

Ok, I admit it: I’m a surfboard junkie. What can I say? The 9 Fish Pufferfish is now the latest addition to my board quiver. A couple weeks ago I went down to San Diego for a few days for a technology conference. I had been saving my hard-earned pennies and hoped to pick up this board at the factory in Carson, CA on the way but the sales representative told me that they had become so popular that they couldn’t keep them in stock. When I arrived in San Diego, I checked out all the dealers in San Diego that sell 9 Fish boards, but nobody had one. I called back up the factory and they said they could put me in touch with their San Diego rep, who might have a demo board. I was hesitant to buy a demo, thinking it might be messed up but this board is epoxy so I figured I had a better chance that it might be in good shape and I could shave a couple hundred dollars off the high price tag and still save money to buy an iPad (priorities, you know). After several text messages, the San Diego rep and I arranged to meet in the parking lot of Tourmaline Surf Park. After close examination, I found that the board was in excellent shape so we exchanged $$ right there at the back of his VW van (I must say to others it probably looked like a clandestine drug deal). I pulled out some Boogie Board fins I have in the back of my SUV and took it out right there. It was the perfect San Diego offshore sunny day with 3-4 waves and this thing screamed down the line. I mean SCREAMED! It’s twice as fast as any bodyboard I have ever ridden, and I have ridden some of the best!

What is the Pufferfish? The Pufferfish is the smallest board of the 9 Fish family. It is 4’11” in length (a bit longer than most bodyboards) and has twin removable FCS fins. It is 3.25” thick, and 24” wide (I bought the “thin” Pufferfish, which is 24” rather than the standard 25” wide) with 6oz+6oz+6oz deck glassing on an Excel EPS blank. It can be ridden as a wakeboard, a bodyboard, or a kneeboard; however, some of the pros have been seen riding it as a regular shortboard and because of it’s shortness and width, they can do some fun tricks, like 360’s, on it. See some pros demonstrating their surf technique on it here in this short YouTube clip:

All I can say is that this board is extremely FUN! I bought it for kneeboarding during the bigger swells in Morro Bay when I am too chicken to ride my 9’0” Robert August Longboard out there in the monster waves. However, this might also be a blast on dead days in the summer when no one can catch anything. Just me and the SUPs out there! Ride on!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Smashwords Offers eBook Self-Publishing for the iPad

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:51:11 -0700

Low cost eBook self-publishing for the common man or woman - enter Smashwords. That’s right! Smashwords has signed a distribution deal with Apple to place their eBooks in the iBookstore for the iPad. This opportunity will be another step toward breaking down the barriers for independent authors to sell their books worldwide and actually make a sizable profit doing so. In fact, I think this will be akin to the success that Apple had in allowing outside developers to develop applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad with its App Store, except it will open up the market for Indie authors and that’s BIG!
Smashwords recently announced that authors who place their books in the iBookstore will receive 85% of the net sales or 70.5% from affiliate sales. That’s right, I said 85%! What kind of book publishing company will offer you that kind of deal these days? Not any that I have dealt with. Besides that, with a publisher you’ll have to go through all the hoopla trying to get a book publisher to actually pick up your book. This approach of self-publishing could be especially useful for educators, who may wish to publish an eBook for their students to have easy and inexpensive access without the chore of having it printed out in packets through the campus bookstore.
The process for publishing with Smashwords is very simple. Authors can electronically submit their ebooks to Smashwords as a Microsoft Word document, set the price, and decide where the book should be published. The books can be priced as low as 99 cents and must follow Apple’s pricing rules of ending in 99 cents (i.e., $10.99, $12.99, etc.), but the author can set the price at whatever price they desire. One caveat: if the book has a printed counterpart, the eBook must be priced lower than the printed version. Smashwords will also add the International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) to the titles, which Apple will require for all titles that are available through the iBookstore.
Simple e-publishing... this might just change the publishing game for good! We can only hope!
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

ONLY THREE DAYS UNTIL...

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Transferring iTunes To An External Drive

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 16:37:56 -0800

In a recent blog post, I discussed transferring large iPhoto libraries to an external drive. Did you know that you could do the same thing with your iTunes library? It requires following a few more steps than moving your iPhoto library, but it’s possible.
“Why would I want to do this?” you may ask. Well, some music aficionados have thousands of songs in their iTunes library as a result of uploading songs to iTunes from their private CD libraries as well as purchasing music online from the iTunes Store or other venues. This can result in your music taking up hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of space. At some point, all those music files begin to take up the majority of your hard drive space and so your computer doesn’t have room for new applications you may need to install or that personal family video you need to edit for the upcoming family reunion. If this is your situation, the best approach is to move your iTunes library to an external drive. With this approach, you would still play your music with the iTunes application on your main computer hard drive but it would pull the music you wish to play from the connected external drive.
Here’s how to transfer your iTunes files to an external drive:
1. Navigate to your personal account within the Users folder and then double-click on the Music folder.
2. Double-click the iTunes folder to open it and copy the iTunes Music folder that resides within it to your external hard drive.
3. Launch the iTunes application on your main computer.
4. From the iTunes menu within the iTunes application, select Preferences... and click on the Advanced tab.
5. Enable the Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library choice with a checkmark.
6. While you’re in the Advanced tab, click the Change… button next to the iTunes Media folder location area and navigate to the iTunes Music folder that you previously placed on your external hard drive.
7. Click OK.
That’s all there is to it. Now when you add songs to your iTunes library with the iTunes application, iTunes will use the folder on your external drive and add the new media files to it instead. Don’t forget that you need to back up all your music to another drive, CDs, or DVDs, just in case. It would be a shame to lose all your wonderful music!
Note: The only downside to this approach is that if you have a laptop, you won’t have your entire iTunes music library with you when you travel because it is connected to the content that now resides on your external hard drive. However, if the possibility of having no music with you when you’re on the road is disheartening, consider keeping a few songs in the iTunes Music folder directly on your laptop and just using the Change… button within the Advanced tab to point to these tunes when you’re on the road. When you return home, you can switch the location setting of the iTunes Media folder back to point to your external hard drive again and access your complete music library. My guess is that if you’re that “into” your music, you have an iPod that you take on road trips with you anyway.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Charts & Diagrams: 28 Tools to Make Your Presentations “Pop”

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 18:27:24 -0800

Recently I have been writing quite a bit about improving one’s presentation skills. One of the things you can do to make your presentations more effective is to utilize rich data
visualization tools that manipulate the data for you into visually appealing charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, and maps. You may say, “Well, I already use Excel for that!” Well, guess what? There are far better tools to display your data than what Excel can provide!

O’Reilly’s web page, 28 Rich Data Visualization Tools, reviews the latest tools to enrich your data with descriptive and effective visualization. Check them out! You may find exactly what you need to make your next presentation “pop” and take your audience to the next level so that they will “really get” the point.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Book Review - Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 17:59:25 -0800

Book Review - Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
By Nancy Duarte

Unlike verbal skills, effective visual presentation is not easy, natural, or actively taught in college or business training programs; rather, it is an art that takes a great deal of time to develop. Nancy Duarte, President and CEO of Duarte Design, attempts to take on that void with this book, which is full of practical and innovative approaches to visual story development that can be applied by anyone to create powerful, and sometimes life-changing, presentations.

Duarte's firm is responsible for assisting former Vice-President Al Gore in creating his 2006 Nobel Peace Prize documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. You may not be aware that Gore's highly acclaimed presentation, intended to educate the public about global warming, actually began as a Keynote slideshow (Apple’s growing-in-popularity alternative to PowerPoint). Skillful information literacy techniques, expertise in presentation design, and the implementation of creative thought through new media resulted in making the nation more vitally aware of the global warming threat. Furthermore, this presentation initiated a national dialogue that helped to establish positive steps toward alleviating climate change as well as reenergizing the environmental movement throughout the world. All of this from a presentation that began in slideshow format! When you see something like this, you have to step back and ask yourself, “What made this approach such a success?” The answer to that question can be uncovered in Duarte's presentation techniques, which she freely shares with readers in Slide:ology.

One of the aspects that I thinks separates Duarte's book from some of the other books I have read on presentation design is her attention in great detail to chart and diagram creation. If "a picture is worth a thousand words" then Duarte will show you how to create effective relationships between your charts and diagrams that will be worth even more.

You can find Slide:ology in Kennedy Library at the following Call Number:

HF
5718.22
.D83
2008

Or, you can order it from Amazon.

Enjoy!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

NMC 2010 Horizon Report

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 16:52:08 -0800

Since 2002, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) have been collaborating to create the yearly Horizon Report. The Horizon Report focuses upon six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to progress to mainstream use in education within one to five years. The report also comments upon critical trends and challenges that may impact teaching and learning during this time frame.

The Advisory Board for this year’s report identified four key trends that will be drivers of technology adoptions from 2010 through 2015.

Key Trends:

1. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing. 
2. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. 
3. The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized. 
4. The work of students is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more cross-campus collaboration between departments.

In addition to the current trends, the Advisory Board notes four critical challenges that leaders in education and technology will face.

Critical Challenges:

1. The role of the academy — and the way we prepare students for their future lives — is changing. 
2. New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching continue to emerge but appropriate metrics for evaluating them increasingly and far too often lag behind. 
3. Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. 
4. Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate.

Although not to be viewed as a predictive, the Horizon Report highlights six emerging technologies with considerable potential that the Advisory Board believes will have a significant impact upon education in the future; two on the near-term horizon (i.e., these will enter into the mainstream within the next 12 months); two on the mid-term horizon (mainstream within 2-3 years); and two on the far-term (mainstream within 4-5 years).

The Six Technologies to Watch:

Near-Term Horizon (within next 12 months)

• Mobile Computing
• Open Content

Mid-Term Horizon (within 2-3 years)

• Electronic Books
• Simple Augmented Reality

Far-Term (within 4-5 years)

• Gesture-Based Computing
• Visual Data Analysis

For a detailed description of these six technologies and their usage in education, please review the entire Horizon Report.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

YouTube - Not Just for Fluff Projects Anymore!

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:32:04 -0800

If you happen to hear a high school senior yelling from her room to her parents, “No, Mom and Dad, I’m really not goofing off on YouTube right now; I’m trying to get accepted into college!” it may well be the truth! This year, for the first time, the admissions office at Tufts University is accepting short YouTube videos as supplements to their required admissions essay, transcripts, and recommendations. So… now, in the very near future, you may not only need to “look good” on paper, you may need to “look good” on video as well in order to be accepted at your university of choice.

In her admissions video for Tufts, Amelia Downs demonstrates how she combines two of her favorite things, being a nerd and dancing. Check out her “math dances” below.

Roaming through YouTube and searching for other videos by Tuft applicants, I found another quite creative admissions video by Matthew Dion, who happens to be a pretty good pianist as well:

Check out the full article about Tufts University’s new admissions approach in the New York Times article dated February 22, 2010.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Bugs Bunny Who? Are You Kidding Me?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:00:26 -0800

Yesterday, one of my friends on Facebook who teaches elementary school-age children, told us that her class looked at her in confusion when she mentioned Bugs Bunny. Are you kidding me? I am totally horrified by the thought that somehow young children are no longer in touch with the Looney Tunes crew. From a wise-cracking point of view, Bugs Bunny was pure genius. My friend asked if there might be some way we could get Bugs Bunny accepted as REQUIRED curriculum in the California state teaching standards.

I would think the answer is “YES!” if these educators really knew their music history. After all, who actually learned the tune for the Overture of Rossini's Barber of Seville except through the Bugs Bunny episode Rabbit of Seville? In 1994 the cartoon Rabbit of Seville was voted #12 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time by 1,000 members of the animation field.

And who could forget Bugs in full concert regalia giving a performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody and answering the telephone saying, "Eh, what's up, Doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him! Wrong number."

Heck, I could do an entire Intro to Music class on Bug's material (actually that would be quite fun). Since I'm not a big fan of teaching opera, I might have to to take that project on someday, eh? Also, how about the "What's Opera, Doc?" episode (rated #1 in the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time list) in which music from several Wagnerian operas is showcased (e.g., The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, Die Walkure, etc) with different lyrics applied to the original music. My partner says that most of her opera knowledge comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons. Bugs Bunny is core to children's opera exposure and familiarity with the tenets of classical music. For your enjoyment, here’s the full version of What's Opera, Doc? from YouTube in complete HD video:

I guess the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 was quite popular for cartoons. Tom and Jerry did a rendition of it as well:

Here’s to you, Bugs! Thanks for filling my childhood days with classical music references!
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Rewriting the Content of Textbooks

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:16:04 -0800

Macmillan, one of the “top five” of the largest textbook publishers in the United States is now introducing a new digital textbook software called DynamicBooks. DynamicBooks allows instructors to edit the digital editions of their textbooks and customize them. In the past there have been other textbook companies that have permitted instructors to “reorder” the digital textbook chapters, but this is a large leap further. According to Macmillan: “Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations, or illustrations.” It is really the last part of that sentence that is most intriguing - the permission and ability to rewrite or delete content without consulting the original author or publisher. Wow!
It all begins this August 2010, when Macmillan plans to sell 100 of their titles through DynamicBooks. The DynamicBooks editions will be available for download and can be read on a laptop or an iPhone. DynamicBooks is still trying to negotiate agreements with Apple so the electronic books can be read in the future on an iPad but at press time of this NY Times article, Apple and Amazon were in the throes of the great e-book war although Amazon and Macmillan have finally settled their differences over pricing that had brought Macmillan’s e-book progress to an abrupt halt.
For more information about Macmillan’s DynamicBooks, check out the NY Times article of February 21, 2010 : Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Presentation As Art

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:30:47 -0800

Many of you may be familiar with Garr Reynolds who is often referred to as the “Zen Master of Presentation.” (BTW: If you’re not familiar with Reynolds, I highly suggest you get acquainted with his engaging presentation techniques.) Currently an Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, Reynolds was formerly employed at Apple Computer, Inc. as a leading authority on presentation, design, and delivery. Steve Jobs’ success in his presentation delivery methods for his Macworld keynotes (which many of the Macintosh faithful refer to as “Stevenotes”) may largely be attributable to the expert tutelage he received from Reynolds when he worked at his company.
There have been many pundits of presentation (e.g., Cliff Atkinson, Guy Kawasaki, and Edward Tufte - to name just a few) who have spoken out over the years against the damage that PowerPoint has inflicted toward achieving any semblance of engaged learning. Reynolds stands among the “best in class” in terms of illustrating how to engage your audience in the “Art of Story.” The main gist of Reynolds’ message is that “everyone has a story to tell.” Yes, even in the midst of the most boring of topics, “story” is possible AND necessary to pull your audience in. Finding that story can be the key to truly engaging your audience.
On March 21, 2008, Garr Reynolds gave a presentation to the “Googlers” (staff and management at Google headquarters) as part of the Authors@Google series. This video is rather long (1:11:48) but I think it’s worth watching; it will give you a lot of insight into Reynolds’ presentation techniques. If you can’t afford the time to watch the entire video, jump in at around 27:38 and listen to his tips. Yes, design does matter…

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Transferring Large iPhoto Libraries To An External Hard Drive

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:28:53 -0800

It seems as though it was just a few years ago that we had computer hard drives that could only hold a few gigs of data. Now, it’s not unusual for new computers to have a terabyte of space (1024 gigabytes). This increase is most likely due to our desire to place all of our media directly on our machines for easy access, manipulation, and viewing.
You may have noticed that photos, videos, and music can take up an extremely large amount of space. If you have an older computer, without much space to begin with, or you have just transformed into a “media glutton” over the past year, you may want to try to move media, such as your photos, to an external hard drive. 
If you don’t already have an external drive, consider buying one or even two. If you have two external drives then you can have one drive for backing up your data with Apple’s Time Machine application (or with an application such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner) and still have another drive to store your large media libraries from iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, and iDVD. (My personal favorite external drives brands that seem to work well with the Macintosh are LaCie or Western Digital drives.) Once you purchase an external drive, you can move all your media from your computer's internal drive and free up hard drive space for more applications. However, I would strongly recommend that you back up all your media and other computer files to another external drive because what would be more tragic then losing all your media memories? After all, most people say that in case of a house fire, besides loved ones and animals, the next thing they would grab in their house is their photos.
Here’s the process of transferring your large iPhoto Library to an external drive so that you can still access it within the iPhoto application:
1. Simply connect an external hard drive to your computer via USB or FireWire. If it is properly formatted, it will mount on your computer's desktop where you can see it. 
2. Double-click on the icon for your external drive to open it and view its contents. 
3. Go to Users > Pictures on your computer's hard drive and copy the entire iPhoto Library file by dragging it to a location on your external drive. 
4. Next, launch the iPhoto application on your computer while holding down the Option key. A dialog box will appear asking, "What Photo Library Do You Want iPhoto to Use?" Navigate to the copy of the iPhoto Library file you just copied to the external drive, select that file and click the Choose button. 
That’s all there is to it! iPhoto will now read and write to this iPhoto Library rather than to the one that was located on the internal drive of your computer.
~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Complaint Choirs

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 07:18:37 -0700

Have you heard of Complaint Choirs? I hadn’t until a few months ago when my pastor mentioned them to me. I googled and found this web site explaining the phenomenon and highlighting the most popular ones out there: http://www.complaintschoir.org/choirs.html

You can read for yourself about the entire history of Complaint Choirs but in brief, the basic idea was to transform the huge amount of energy that people use complaining into something more satisfying. Apparently in Finnish vocabulary there is an expression “Valituskuoro” which translates “Complaints Choir” and refers to situations where a lot of people are complaining simultaneously. Hellsinki residents Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen decided it would be a great idea to take this Finnish expression more literally and so they went about the task of organizing a real Complaints Choir. The phenomenon has taken off across the world with Complaint Choirs popping up all over.

Our Worship Board decided that we wanted to present this to the congregation as a multimedia presentation in a Sunday morning service. In my search for “just the right” clip, I found the Gabriola Island Complaint Choir showcased in the YouTube video posted at the top of this page. This is one of my favorites and I think it rings as one of the “most sincere.” :-) (Can you hear Linus out in his pumpkin patch somewhere?)

Since our congregation would have had trouble seeing the captions on our small projector screen from far away in the pews, I typed out the lyrics and made sure they were included in the Sunday morning bulletin. Here are the lyrics to the above video for those of you who might want to use this clip and copy/paste the lyrics into the bulletin of your own congregation:

Gabriola Island Complaint Choir Lyrics

3-year wait for a hip replacement
Deadly fungus all around
Monster houses, mail-in rebates
Car keys that can’t be found
Politicians think we’re stupid, now they say they’re green
But still they ride in private jets, and SUVs, and limousines!

And why does it always rain on Sunday?
Why are there so many deer?
And why do all these people have to move here?
It shouldn’t be allowed!
It’s a crying shame!
Who’s in charge here? Who’s to blame?

Too many visitors using water – baths & showers all the time
Packages too hard to open
Clear-cut logging – what a crime!!
My kids tune into YouTube, MySpace, MSN, Messenger, MTV
I can talk and talk and talk
But they don’t tune into me!

Next time I’m gonna have power! Next time I’m gonna be rich!
But this time… I’m just gonna bitch!

Christmas carols banned in schools
Sloppy drunks and other fools
Air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution
No solution!

Cell phone sex and new fur coats
Nobody cares and nobody votes
Taxes, taxes, what do we get?
More grey hair and deeper in debt!
Women’s hockey underrated
Long-life bulbs that don’t last long
Mindless airheads celebrated
Government studies, nice green lawns
Dogs that bark incessantly
No personal responsibility
Deadbeat dads who don’t pay up
People who complain and won’t SHUT UP!!!

Duck and cover, the big one’s coming, sea level’s getting high!
Mad Cow, Bird “Flu”, West Nile Virus
We’re all going to DIE!!!

Why does it always rain on Sunday?
Why are there so many deer?
And why does everybody (there’s probably been a study) –
On why all these people have to move here
It shouldn’t be allowed!
It’s a crying shame!
Who’s in charge here? Who’s to blame?

It shouldn’t be allowed!
It’s a crying shame!
Who’s in charge here? Who’s to blame?

Although we didn’t have enough time to put together a Complaints Choir by the Sunday that we wanted to spotlight this, our pastor created some complaint lyrics that related to our congregation’s most-recent complaints and passed them out in the Sunday morning bulletin. I led the congregation in singing these lyrics to the hymn tune Ellacombe, which is sung in most hymnals as I Sing the MIghty Power of God. Oh, and can you tell, like most churches I’ve attended, this one isn’t too fond of change. :-)

The CCA Complaint Choir Song

Words by Reverend Susan Brecht with input from the congregation of the Community Church of Atascadero, UCC
Tune: Ellacombe

I’m frustrated ‘cause this service is too long,
and I have other places to go.
I can’t hear what they’re saying,
Why doesn’t Bev turn up the mic?
Why can’t we just sing good old hymns,
the ones we used to sing?
The drums are too loud for my hearing aid.
This music is hard to follow.

Whose making noise in the balcony?
I’m trying to pray to God.
These kids should wear shoes to worship,
and leave their caps outside.
Susan’s getting too political,
and I don’t like plays and dance.
I don’t understand why we have to change.
I like the way it use to be.

I like the blue shag carpet.
They better not take it out.
And why isn’t Luanne playing
the organ I love so much?
Who’s sitting in my favorite pew?
Don’t they know it’s reserved for me?
When is this service going to end,
so I can go have some tea?

At the end of the summer, I was seriously considering starting a Complaints Choir for the CSU employees like myself that were having to endure furloughs. I’m sure we could have come up with a wing-dinger! However, things have calmed down now and it seems like most people are taking the furlough situation in stride so I’ll guess we’ll put that idea on hold for a while. Always good to know that we have an avenue to vent though if we desire to and I’ll be happy to conduct, if needed.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Meeting Donald Takayama

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:35:44 -0700

I wouldn’t say that I am generally the type of person who becomes “star struck” when I see famous people. There are only a few “stars” in the world that would cause me to stumble over my words and be non-functional, I think. In general, those would be certain famous musicians that I love (Yo-Yo Ma, Carol King, Barbara Streisand and Diana Krall come to mind), and certain famous surfers or shapers. (Oh yeah, and Steve Jobs, of course!)

On my vacation to San Diego I was hunting for a new epoxy fish surfboard and so I was hitting every possible surf shop down south (epoxy fish surfboards in the size I wanted are harder to find than normal foam/fiberglass boards). I talked Rachelle into stopping in Oceanside on the way home and we were checking out various shops there. We dropped into the Surfer’s Pro Shop on Oceanside Blvd and I immediately noticed that Donald Takayama boards filled the shop. I love Donald’s boards (although I don’t own one - which is a shame, I have ridden them when renting boards in Hawaii and think they are some of the best around). He is an amazing shaper and especially understands how to make a longboard glide with great joy. Anyway, I had no idea he would actually be in that shop that day. I walked toward the back of the store and saw a bunch of older surfers in a circle laughing and chatting. I approached them to ask if they knew of any stores in Oceanside that might carry epoxy fish since there was none in that store and then I saw him - Donald Takayama in the flesh. I was a little flabbergasted. I said, “Are you Donald Takayama?” He sort of looked at himself and said, “I hope so!” All the surfers in the circle laughed. I immediately stuck out my hand, introduced myself, and told him how much I admired his work. Rachelle said I was tongue-tied more than she had seen before. We chatted for a while and luckily Rachelle remembered to ask him if I could have a picture of us together (I would have never thought to ask for that). I was so star struck I couldn’t even figure out how to bring up my iPhone camera application I have used 100 times before, ha. Rachelle finally grabbed my phone and took the picture above.

Donald immediately noticed that Rachelle looked like someone from the islands. He asked her where she was from and they struck up a conversation about Oahu and he talked about how much he missed the island food. He asked her if she cooked (of course, she does - like any Hawaiian worth their salt!) and then he ran to get us two bottles of teriyaki sauce from the back of the store. Apparently, he has his own brand of teriyaki sauce now. Below is Rachelle with Donald and the bottles of teriyaki sauce. We tried it out the other night. It was ONO! (For you haoles, that is Hawaiian for yummy!) Too bad he didn’t hand me one of his surfboards too, ha. They are pretty expensive. Anyway... it was a joy to meet one of my “heroes.”

To learn more about Donald and his boards, visit: http://www.hawaiianprodesigns.com/

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Joshua Bell - Stop and Hear the Music

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:44:25 -0700

There is an email that has been making the rounds in the past week about Joshua Bell, the famous violinst. The video above documents what happened and the email story is below:

Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3-year-old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes: The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before
Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments .... How many other things are we missing?

In 1981 I began my Masters in Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. I met Joshua Bell my first semester there while I was working on one of my music computer programming projects in the IU music computer lab for a class in creating ear training software. As I recall, I was programming an intervals ear training program at the time. Every week a young boy of about 8 or 9 years of age would come, plop down his violin case on the floor, and sit at the computer next to me and play some of the educational video games that IU graduate students had created on a clugy main frame computer system called PLATO. He waited in the computer lab for his mother to pick him up after his violin lessons. He seemed very bright and mature beyond his years. Eventually, I started chatting with him about what he was playing on the computer. One day I asked him about his violin playing. He said he was studying with the Russian violinist and teacher, Professor Josef Gingold (who I knew was the top violin professor - a legend at IU). He groaned about having to practice so much and said he would rather play and program video games. One day he invited me to a recital he was giving in a few days. I was curious and I went to the recital (not knowing that he was a prodigy but suspecting such since he was studying with Gingold and I also wasn't aware at the time that he was a household word around Bloomington). I went to the recital in the main recital hall. It was packed out! I had to sit in the balcony but it was a perfect view of the stage and the acoustics were excellent there. Among other things, he played the Paganini Caprice No. 24. LIttle kids don't play Paganini! Little kids might play Mozart but not Paganini! I was stunned! Not only did this kid have incredible technique but he played with the soul of someone from a past life - maybe Jascha Heifetz, although Heifetz was old but not dead yet at that point in 1981. Here's a YouTube of Heifetz playing the Paganini Caprice No. 24 so you can hear how complex the piece really is:

Anyway, the next time Joshua returned to sit next to me in the computer lab I told him how much I enjoyed his concert and what an INCREDIBLE gift he had been given. He groaned and said he knew it was a gift but that he didn't really want to perform music as his career - he wanted to create video games. I told him that I envied him of his musical gift and although I knew it took incredible discipline as well as talent that he probably had no idea how most of the music students at the university would give anything to have his gift. He just groaned again. I guess he changed his mind and "followed his road."

Today I found this great video on YouTube of Joshua Bell with pictures and video of him as a child. And yes, you can see him playing video games in this video - that is just about the time that I met him in the computer lab. :-)

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

“Nora” the Piano Playing Cat - Update

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:40:10 -0700

In a previous blog post (April 23, 2007), I commented about Nora the Piano Playing Cat. Nora has continued with her piano study and now has a concerto created just for her by Mindaugas Piecaitis. It’s a lovely piece and she plays with the style of a concert pianist. Check it out!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Herding Cats

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:52:49 -0700

Speaking of herding cats, here’s the “Herding Cats” video we used to use in the New Faculty Orientation Workshops for a laugh or two. Thought you might enjoy seeing it again!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

The Tipping Point & Faculty Training

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:49:38 -0700

At the beginning of the book, Gladwell looks at a variety of social epidemics (e.g., the re-emergence in popularity of Hush Puppies shoes in 1994) and he spends some time explaining certain personality types who serve as “natural pollinators” of new ideas and trends. He continues in the next section of the book to examine the success of Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues in a discussion of the “stickiness factor,” i.e., how one makes sure what is said is remembered and built upon for future knowledge. (This is the section of the book I have found most interesting so far.)

When Sesame Street evolved in the early 60’s with the goal of improving literacy and giving children from disadvantaged homes a “leg up” for entering kindergarten, a variety of educational/psychological experts were enlisted to study how pre-schoolers learn and what increases the “stickiness factor” in learning. By observing pre-schoolers watching episodes of Sesame Street and making small, but critical, adjustments in how the ideas were presented to them, they were able to figure out how to make the educational messages of Sesame Street memorable (i.e., “sticky”). You’ll want to read Chapter 3 for yourself to learn about the variety of tests and studies that were done to determine this but the bottom-line conclusion was this:

“Kids don’t watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused. If you are in the business of educational television, this is a critical difference. It means if you want to know whether -- and what -- kids are learning from a TV show, all you have to do is to notice what they are watching. And if you want to know what kids aren’t learning, all you have to do is notice what they aren’t watching.” (page 102)

“So what?” you say, “that doesn’t really seem like rocket science!” True, but I started thinking about this as it pertains to teaching faculty a software tool in a technology workshop and I see some correlations.

Case Study: My father - a Protestant minister - was a fairly engaging speaker; however, if he had to go somewhere and listen to another minister preach, he was fidgety and annoyed. He was constantly getting up from his seat to go out to the hallway to find someone to chat with or unwrapping Wintergreen Lifesavers at his seat (which I particularly enjoyed as a child seated next to him); he doodled on the back of bulletins or played with change in his pocket. If he wasn’t the one speaking, it was hard for him to focus his concentration and learn anything from another speaker. (I must also point out that this man had a “speed reader” version of the Bible - everything had to be done FAST!)

In my 10+ years as an instructional designer and faculty trainer, I have noticed that some faculty seem to have ADHD characteristics like my father, and exhibit similar types of behaviors when attending faculty workshops. It appears that some of them may have chosen teaching as their career because they wanted to be the center of attention in the room. These “Sage on the Stage” types, who are often excellent lecturers, often have trouble listening to others lecture or explain a concept and are quite fidgety and unengaged when they aren’t the one leading the lecture or discussion. I have found that you’ll be much more successful in your faculty workshops if you allow them to talk a lot even if they are not familiar with the topic because talking is what keeps them most engaged. (Note, however, that you also have to be careful with these types of personalities to keep them from “highjacking” your workshop so that you don’t have time to get through the material you needed to cover due to the extensive “side trips” they may take the class on.)

What happens when a discussion format isn’t possible and the ADHD faculty member can’t contribute to the discussion because you’re trying to train them on an unfamiliar software tool with hands-on training in a computer lab? Initially, they will pay attention and seem fine in this type of training, but if they get distracted for a moment and miss a step (and thus become confused), WATCH OUT! You will lose them just like Sesame Street lost the attention of the pre-schoolers due to confusion. These type of faculty will watch when they understand and look away when they are confused. At the point of confusion, you’ll often see them fidgeting with their iPhone to read an email or send a chat message. Once this happens, they are generally unable to get back on track or continue with the training. A typical characteristic of this kind of person is that they are also generally a little too prideful to ask a neighbor to help them, and if they do ask a neighbor for help, the neighbor may get behind themselves while stopping to assist them - an even worse situation for you as a trainer!

So, what is a faculty trainer to do? I was discussing this with a colleague this week and she seemed to agree that this is the norm with these types of personalities in some of our faculty workshops. When we teach a “point-and-click” workshop to faculty and staff, we usualy have one of us (whoever is not the workshop leader) walking around the room to assist those who are lost when they raise their hand and we get them back on track as quickly as possible in a low whisper while the workshop leader continues teaching. This technique works in the case of those who WILL admit they need assistance and ASK for it. However, it doesn’t really work for the ADHD faculty member who has a lapse in their understanding of a step, won’t ask for help, and then goes into confusion and thus, immediately zones into the “unengaged mode.” (“Warning Will Robinson!”)

Based on my reflections on The Tipping Point, I think we’re going to try a new approach this Fall: When the workshop assistant sees such confusion behavior exhibited by an ADHD faculty member (where they begin to consult email on their iPhone or just have a glassy-eyed look), instead of waiting for a hand to raise (which may never happen) the workshop assisant will immediately approach them, ask them if they need help, and get them back on track. This way, confusion will be eliminated quickly and hopefully re-engagement will ensue as well. Of course, if you are teaching a workshop without a workshop assistant, you may have to be more observant yourself, and when you observe this type of ADHD behavior, you’ll need to pause and repeat what you were saying a couple steps backward in order to pull them back from a state of confusion and re-engage them.

You know what they say (although I can’t remember who said it):
“Teaching faculty is like herding cats!” :-)

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Facebook Security Settings

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:16:00 -0700

Ok, I admit it... I like Facebook. Granted, I am generally the type of person that stays away from some of the applications that draw the masses. For example, I was never even slightly tempted to start a MySpace page since I had my own website, blog, etc. I probably would have never considered getting a Facebook account either except for the tiny acknowledgement nods it was begining to receive from educators as a possible new tool to attract students in a way that appeals to them (Yep, I’m always looking at tools that will do that!) Actually, the real reason I even opened a Facebook account was due to an email from a friend, who told me that a bunch of people I had traveled in an orchestra with across Europe back in the summer of 1980, had started a Facebook group. The thought of being able to reconnect with all those friends I had lost track of, drew me in. Once I started using Facebook, I realized it was a great tool for keeping track of all kinds of old college and high school classmates and even for keeping up with my current colleagues (Due to our busy schedules, we rarely get to see each other like we would like to even though we exist on the same campus!)

Like most tech savvy individuals, I took a look at the privacy settings on Facebook when I installed the application. I made a few tweaks but for the most part, it seemed the default settings were OK. Then I read the story in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled How Not to Lose Face on Facebook, for Professors. Jeffrey R. Young’s article tells how Darmouth College professor, Reiko Ohnuma, endured an embarrassing experience at her campus due to her privacy settings in Facebook not being set properly. The students posted her Facebook musings about her colleagues, the department chair, and her opinons about the poor state of Dartmouth education in general into the school newspaper for EVERYONE to read. Talk about embarrassing! Now whenever you Google Reiko Ohnuma, you don’t immediately see references to her contributions to religion and theology - instead, you see all sorts of comments on this embarrassing snafu in her history. It could happen to anyone really... and it has happened to countless people. A simple Googling will show you that!

Anyway, that particular CHE article on Facebook security settings “woke me up” and made me start researching the privacy settings in my own Facebook account. After some investigation, I presented a CTL Teaching Well workshop on the topic to our faculty at Cal Poly last quarter and this quarter I was asked to co-present in a campus-wide security forum on the topic with a few of my tech-savvy colleagues in ITS and the Cal Poly Foundation. If you wish to learn more about it, here is the link to view the PDF of the slides for our presentation on May 27, 2009: Social Networking: How to Be Safe Online.

I learned a lot from preparing for that presentation. The main thing I wish to pass on to you is that you should be aware that Facebook’s privacy settings are set by default to “My Network.” In my haste of reviewing my privacy settings, I assumed that “My Network” meant “My Network of Friends” (i.e., the friends I had added to Facebook). Not true! In my case, “My Network” was the entire Central Coast of California! Opps -- I had made the same mistake as Professor Ohnuma! The only difference was that I had been careful about what I had said in Facebook, not totally unleashing my tongue on topics that I would discuss in the privacy of gatherings with close friends. The bottom line here is that it’s not only important to set your privacy settings correctly but it is best to assume that whatever you post on Facebook could become public knowledge at some point in your life, either by user error or by changes in the company’s policies. Facebook just recently told the public that they were changing their Terms of Use policies and that they now owned the rights to your content FOREVER! Originally, the policy said that Facebook had the right to utilize your content for as long as it was on the site - meaning once it was removed by you, the site no longer had rights to it. Their new policy that they were attempting to adopt stated that even if you removed content from your Facebook account, it could remain in Facebook’s archives and that they had a license to use it forever! When the public balked about this change in Facebook’s policy and people actually started closing their accounts, Facebook backed down a bit but this doesn’t mean that the same thing might not happen in the future. For more info about the change in policies that were proposed, see: 
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41458/108/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10165190-36.html

Finally, one other thing you should be aware of: Those seemingly innocent Facebook quizzes you can take such as “What Kind of Dog Are You?” “What’s Your Aura?” “What Period of History Best Defines Your Personality?” etc., etc., etc., can be quite dangerous! Those Facebook applications open up your profile information to those developers for possible identify theft (and do you think you can really trust them? Come on!); those applications also cause your computer to be vulnerable to some nasty viruses (Windows users especially BEWARE!). Haven’t you noticed that when you go to take the quiz, it actually warns you about this by saying: “Allowing (NAME OF QUIZ) access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work.” You’re actually even putting your friends’ information at risk when you do this! (My Facebook friends are getting tired of me pointing this out to them when they take these stupid quizzes but hey, they’re putting me at risk as well as themselves when they choose to run these type of applications.)

What does all of this mean? What’s the bottom line, you ask? It means users need to be more careful about how they utilize social networking sites. Not just Facebook but MySpace, Twitter, Linked In, or whatever new social networking application may be lurking around the corner. Be mindful of what you post and refrain from posting comments you wouldn’t want to be distributed worldwide on the internet someday. If you don’t want embarrassing photos of you appearing in your future when a potential employer Googles you for a job possibility, don’t post them in your Facebook account! Pay attention to the tag settings for photos and videos so that only you can see the photo tags that “friends” might post of you in their Facebook accounts. And be sure to turn off your Facebook settings for public search engines so that your Facebook page isn’t the first thing that appears when someone Googles you!

So, how do you find out how to fix your privacy settings? One of the best explanations of how to set up your privacy settings is given in this article:
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
(Note: I created the mindmap image at the top of this blog page based upon that article.)

The following is also an excellent article that explains in detail how to use friends lists in Facebook: Facebook Fail: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

If you prefer to watch a video rather than read about how to set your privacy settings (What did you expect? You know how I am into promoting multiple learning styles <smile>), the following is an excellent YouTube video entitled Protect Yourself From Indentity Theft on Facebook.

Watch the video and then go make the necessary changes to your Facebook account. Don’t delay... Avoid embarrasment today!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Multimedia in the Church - Part 3

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:26:19 -0700

Recently, I stumbled upon this website, http://www.bluefishtv.com, whose logo is “Creating Videos to Help you Teach.” The videos are mostly religious and are more conducive to the type of usage of multimedia in the church I have been discussing in the past two blog posts, but some of these videos are just about life issues and could be used in the classroom for discussions about ethics, values, etc. Some of the video sets for delivery are pricey but the site also has some excellent video iluustrations for downloads that could easily be used for short little “teaching moments” in worship services.

(See specifically: http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/Downloadable_Video_Illustrations )

Poke around. You can watch a preview of most of these downloads to get an idea of what they’re about. There really are some excellent professional multimedia illustrations at this site. The clips are not free but most of them are inexpensive and the quality of production appears to be quite professional. I just passed the site on to my pastor and I have a feeling we’ll be using a few of these in the future.

The example above from bluefishtv videos is called Famous Failures. It even has a lesson plan available for purchase that can assist you with a discussion on this topic. The downloaded video is only $1.99. Honor the videographer and purchase it rather than using the YouTube version that someone has posted. We need to support good art with good messages!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Multimedia in the Church - Part 2

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:48:57 -0700

Another thing that is simple to do for an effective presentation in church is to make a slideshow of photos that is set to a selected poem or prose and music. I have always been a big Maya Angelou fan! If you have never seen her “Live” than you are missing one of the greatest treats life has to offer. I saw her once at San Diego State in the early ’90’s. People were questioning me about whether that could possibly be interesting when they heard I had paid out a pretty good sum to see her. Really, people! You would actually question whether three hours of Maya reading her poetry, sharing her wonderful stories about her life, and singing her favorite spirituals and hymns acappella with that deep, rich, wonderful soulful voice could be interesting? Are you kidding me?

Ah, well... I digress! I especially love the recording Dr. Angelou made where she talks about church entitled It’s Sacred: Church. Our Worship Board Team wanted to do a service on the topic of “church” and relate that church could be much more than the four walls of the sanctuary. Personally, I feel that some of my best times “at church” have been skipping the morning worship service in the church building altogether and communing with God on my surfboard out in the ocean - much to my pastor’s chagrin. I guess that is why my favorite line of this piece is: “And church is where I don’t have to go because it is always with me!” Notice my touch of the photo of the ocean sunset when Maya says that line as a special gift to my pastor. <grin> Preach it, Maya!

We found the audio clip of Maya’s reading and I created a slideshow around it (see the video above on this page). We had a very interesting discussion in church that day combined with a little sermonette by our pastor that made it worth passing up on the ocean waves that Sunday morning. <smile>

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Multimedia in the Church - Part I

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:49:19 -0700

As the Church tries to reposition itself in a world of television, video, cell phones, iPods, and various other means of distraction, it is looking more and more toward how to effectively utilize multimedia in the worship service. For some time now, education has slowly realized that the MTV generation, who grew up watching Sesame Street with its more exciting methods of learning, expected more from educators; they were no longer happy to just sit attentively while faculty played the “Sage on the Stage” role. Thus, the change in education began to take place with more and more collaborative/constructivist approaches and the application of effective technology to enhance student learning.

These days it is not uncommon to attend a church service and see a PowerPoint slideshow playing during the service or have video integrated with the sermon. I, for one (being the techie creative soul that I am), am very happy to see these changes and I embrace it wholeheartedly. In fact, as an active member of the Worship Board Team at my church, I at least attempt to encourage it as a part of our once-a-month more contemporary service where we have more contemporary music and encourage more congregational participation. Often on those Sundays we even break out into small 3-4 people “pods” in the pews for some discussion on the sermone topic and then come back together with one person sharing the overall thoughts of the group to the entire congregation.

Last year, the pastor of my church and I began experimenting with pulling video clips to play during the service with her constructing the sermon around the clips and in some cases, opening up for discussion into the “pod” type of format. It has resulted in some very interesting services with discussions that have continued for several days afterwards in email conversations. Our first attempt at using multimedia in church in this manner was pulling some scenes from the movie Pay it Forward and discussing the implications of each one of us “paying it forward” in “our own little worlds” and what the impact on the world as a whole might be if we would really do that. The author of Pay It Forward, Catherine Ryan Hyde, lives near us on the Central Coast and so that made this movie have even a more personal meaning to our congregation. (BTW: There is a wonderful Pay It Forward Foundation with all kinds of educational information to help people accomplish this approach to life it you’re interested.)

For our second attempt at using video clips, I pulled several clips from the classic movie To Kill a Mockingbird (a movie that most people over 30 years of age have seen and love but just need to have their minds joggled about a few of the scenes). I heard later that several of the youth in our youth group went home and asked their parents if they could rent the movie after they watched the scenes at church. Of course, the topic of focus for discussion from this movie was prejudice -- not just racial prejudice but prejudice on all sorts of levels. Obviously, this movie vividly illustrates prejudice, hatred, and extreme anger in this small southern town when Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) defends a black man against the accusation of raping a white woman. However, there is also a great illustration of prejudice towards those that are different -- in this case, Boo Radley (a young Robert Duvall, which I never realized until recently), a mentally-challenged individual, who ends up being the Good Samaritan figure rather than the awful monster that the town has fanticized him to be. We showed 8 clips in total, stopping for discussion between each clip, which resulted in some very interesting sharing.

Other movies that may be worthy to pursue as sermon topics are:

• 12 Angry Men - Besides the fact that Henry Fonda never really made a bad movie (in my opinion), this movie is excellent for its illustration of personal prejudices affecting the “right” decision. Henry, the dissenting juror in this murder trial, senses their prejudice and has the strength to confront them and convince them of the reasonable doubt in this case.

• A Man For All Seasons - The story of Thomas More standing up against Henry VIII despite the consequences.

• Pay it Forward - A young boy attempts to make the world a better place after his teacher gives him the chance to attempt to change the world through a class project. The concept of "paying it forward" is when one asks that a good turn be repaid by having it done to someone else. More specifically, the debtor has the option of "paying" the debt forward by lending it to a third person instead of paying it back to the original creditor.

• Schindler's List - This story reflect upon how many Jews were saved during World War II due to one man's efforts and perception of what is right.

• The Hiding Place - Similar in theme to Schindler’s List, this movie of Corrie TenBoom and her attempts to hide the Jews during the Nazi regime focuses on the theme of integrity and loving others, no matter the consequences. (On a side note, I was fortunate enough to visit the clock shop of Corrie’s father where the family hid Jews on the upper floor. I stood in the exact "hiding place closet" in Amsterdam when I toured there with the Continental Orchestra as a college student in the 80's. It was a very moving moment for me that I will never forget!) 
• Norma Rae - This movie has a “social justice” flavor and scenes from it may cause the congregation to reflect on standing up for what is right for the underpriviledged espite the fear and pain that ensues for Norma (Sally Field).

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - The theme of this movie is integrity (so lacking in this world these days) despite disillusionment with government.

• The Emperor’s Club - Clips from this film can address the topic of "What Do You Want Your Legacy to Be?" This movie is both an integrity movie and a legacy movie all rolled into one!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Blue's New iPod Microphone: Mikey

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:44:06 -0700

I’m a big fan of the microphone products that the company Blue creates. I really like their Snowball microphone (See: http://bluemic.com/snowball/) for podcasting or GarageBand recording of acoustic instruments when I am just trying to create a short demo track for someone. As an inexpensive USB microphone, it is really one of the best on the market in its category (and believe me, I have tried out A LOT of USB microphones over the past couple of years). It can record up to 44.1 kHz/16 bit recordings. With its dual capsules and option to choose via a simple flick of its switch to either record from Cardioid, Cardioid with -10dB pad, or Omnidirectional polar patterns (Note: Cardioid is best for voice podcasting and Omni is best for acoustic music recording), it is one of the only all-in-one components I feel comfortable to record both vocal podcasts and low-level music recordings with (low-level here meaning not studio-recording quality). I would suggest that if you get the Snowball, you consider purchasing a windscreen for it (especially if you have “popping p” issues like I do!)

Now Blue is offering the Mikey as a quality iPod recorder for $79.99. With Blue’s past track record of creating excellent microphones, I have no hesitancy in recommending it, even without trying it out myself.

Quoting from their website:

“Mikey features Blue’s superior quality stereo condenser capsules, 3-position user selectable gain settings (enabling high quality recordings from a whisper to a rock concert), and a unique user-positionable head. Mikey works with the iPod 5G, iPod nano 2G, 3G, and 4G, as well as the iPod classic...”

Check it out!

If you already have an excellent microphone at home that you want to use for podcast recording but it is of the XRL variety, consider Blue’s USB adaptor called the Icicle (See: http://bluemic.com/icicle/). The Icicle is a USB converter and mic preamp combo that you can attach to and XLR microphone and then connect to your computer’s USB port. It works with both dynamic and condenser-type microphones on a Mac or a PC. 
Finally...
The webcam that comes with the Mac does a pretty good job but if you’re looking for a good webcam for a Windows machine and you want HD video as well as excellent quality sound, check out Blue’s Eyeball (See: http://bluemic.com/eyeball/) for $99. This webcam seems very simple to set up, especially for non-techie people who would be overwhelmed installing drivers, etc. which might be needed to use other webcams. The Eyeball is pretty much “plug and play” and checking to make sure it is the default sound device for the computer. Heck, I might buy one of these for my mother-in-law! :-)

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Google Wave Demo

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:24:50 -0700

Sometimes something comes around in new technologies that just makes you say “WOW!” Watching the beta demo at the Google Developer’s conference that occurred on May 27, 2009 made me do that. I got that special tingling feeling that I always get when I see a technology that may change the future and how we communicate with one another. I believe this is one of those applications. 
Note: The video demo of Google Wave is quite long (1 hour and 20 minutes total). If you want to zero in on the most important part of the demo, watch from 7:35 to 18:10 -- that portion of the video will give you a pretty good idea of its main functions. The beauty of this new HTML 5.0 application is that it can combine email, instant messaging, social networking, blogging, and WIKI collaboration in one application. I see endless possibilities for this tool in the academic arena.  
If you prefer to read rather than watch a video (I’m always attempting to address diferent learning styles <smile>), then check out this article instead: 
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/05/google-wave-what-might-email-l.html

GO GOOGLE!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Karrin Allyson

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:20:11 -0700

Don’t you love it when someone knows you so well, they know exactly what kind of entertainment you would love when you visit them? My cousin, Darrell, did it again! While visiting him in Indianapolis last week, he took me to see the Ball State Jazz Ensemble play and their special guest artist was Karrin Allyson. Ball State’s Jazz Band was pretty good (although they need some jazz improv lessons from the masters at I.U. - David Baker and Dominic Spera) but Karrin was absolutely fabulous! She was nominated for 2 Grammy awards. Somehow I had missed her. How could that be? I love Brasilan jazz and she just came out with a Brasilan jazz CD - “Imagina - Songs of Brasil.” The album includes lots of Jobim songs with her own special touches. Karrin has the voice of a young Rosemary Clooney (as it was in the movie “White Christmas” before it changed from all the cigarette smoking, I suppose - although I liked Rosemary’s vocal sound with that lower voice that she had in later life as well!). She also is a great scatter! Scat is a dying art these days - so few of the jazz artists really do it well. She performs scat effortlessly and with true style.

For more info on Karrin and to check out her tour dates, go to:
http://www.karrin.com/

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Farafina Kan

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:46:45 -0700

Last weekend I was visiting my cousin in Indianapolis and he took me to see Farafina Kan. Farafina Kan is a professional West African Percussion Orchestra that is dedicated to keeping the history and tradition of traditional African music alive. All I can say is “WOW!” These musicians can rock the house. The drummers were playing some of the most complicated rhythms (2 against 3, 5 against 7, etc.) as if it were nothing. They probably could have brushed their teeth and played those rhythms at the same time and still have kept the beat perfectly! It was amazing! I can’t imagine what your arms feel like after almost 2 hours of straight drumming like that. The women dancers were also awesome with their extreme athletic dancing and I loved the African chant and the wonderful costumes. If you ever have the opportunity to see and hear this group, don’t miss it! They’ll knock your socks off - literally!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Ibanez SR500 Electric Bass

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:02:19 -0700

Of course, this bass is capable of all sorts of sounds with the equalizer and depending on the amp you use it can make sounds from twangy country (those of you who know me know I would never use that sound but it’s possible if I somehow ever get converted to play country) to rock to pop to heavy metal to jazz - it can do everything! All the possibilities are there! The fingerboard is very fast and I love the thin neck. Bravo, Ibanez! Here’s another picture of it from the Guitar Center website. Mine looks darker in color like the picture above.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Melodyne Direct Note Access Plug-in

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:34:39 -0800

Today someone sent me a link about this cool new music plug-in that in my opinion will change audio recording significantly. The plug-in, called “Direct Note Access” allows one to do edits beyond MIDI but within real audio recording situations instead. With Direct Note Access you can manipulate not only monophonic input but polyphonic input as well - a dream come true for all recording engineers, composers, and arrangers! This is so exciting!

Here’s a quote from the celemony web site explaining more about it:

“Like Melodyne itself, Direct Note Access is a development that will change forever the way we handle audio. In the field of images, it has long been possible with the right software not only to correct the tiniest blemishes but also literally to create new realities: pictures that are utterly believable but show us something that in fact never existed. Direct Note Access will give Melodyne users comparable freedom in the field of audio. With Direct Note Access, Melodyne will allow forms of access to audio material that were unthinkable before – ranging from subtle correction to recomposition.”

Check out the web site for more information at:

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

I guess we’ll never have to hear recording goofs again or have 3 million “takes” of a difficult riff that the performer can’t get just right for the recording. This tool would even allow you to correct bad tuning. Just think how different “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and Papas would have been without that badly out-of-tune flute solo (that drives me crazy everytime I hear it on the radio)! We’ll be able to play with the samples of the greatest musicians and even make new music from the old stuff. Sign me up now! Whoo-hoo!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Access By Design Video

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:00:11 -0800

The video, Access by Design: Faculty Awareness Training, is finally ready for primetime! This video will soon be required viewing by all Cal Poly faculty to educate them on the issues of creating accessible course materials in order to comply with state and federal mandates. A link to the video also currently resides on the Chancellor’s accessibility resource web page that the entire CSU will be able to utilize as a training resource for faculty.

My role was extensive in this project. I spent a lot of overtime getting this one done, let me tell you. The purpose of the video was to increase faculty awareness on the issues of ADA compliance and to demonstrate the necessary processes in order to create accessible course materials through proper universal design techniques.

The following lists the “different hats” I wore and my role for the completion of this project:  
• Performed as the acting lead in managing the team to bring the project to completion 
• Assisted in editing the script and storyboarding the project 
• Recorded and edited all the sound and video that was captured for the project 
• Composed and mixed the original musical score for the project 
• Created open synchronized captions to meet state- and federally-mandated accessibility requirements 
• Managed the CTL student assistants’ workload for assisting in the video production 
• Produced the final version of the video with proper compression and output formatting 
• Properly processed the video with hints for streaming to the QuickTime streaming server 
• Created a downloadable version of the video for web site distribution 
• Created a DVD of the finished video for distribution, including DVD labeling and case presentation graphics 
• Assisted in creating the Blackboard course shells for distribution to university constituents 
• Collaborated with other CSU staff to insure that the video worked properly on the Chancellor’s accessibility web site 
A big “thank you” goes out to Jeannie Wells and her team for allowing us to extract clips from the From Where I Sit video series that was developed a few months ago. I believe that the video serves as a excellent example of Cal Poly’s cutting-edge role in encouraging accessibility endeavors to properly train faculty within the California State University (CSU) system.

Note: The video is approximately 16 minutes in length and there are two versions provided here – the first link is for faster-speed internet connections and the second link is for slower-speed internet connections.

You may view the streamed video at either of the links listed below:

http://www.mediaserver.calpoly.edu/ITS/ada/faculty_ada_awareness_384stream.mov 
http://www.mediaserver.calpoly.edu/ITS/ada/faculty_ada_awareness_56stream.mov

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek) 

Blabberize

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 14:22:43 -0800

Well, it’s been a long time since a new entry has appeared in my blog. Sorry about that for you faithful viewers! I have been so busy at Cal Poly lately as well as in my personal life that I haven’t taken the time to make blog entries.

Well, what have I been doing you might ask? First off, I’ve been involved in a time-consuming video project for ADA Faculty Awareness for Cal Poly. There for a while in December before Christmas I was working 50 to 60-hour work weeks. When it can be released to the public, I will post the link in my blog for all of you to take a look at. The current plan is to have Cal Poly faculty view the video to understand the relevant aspects of ADA and universal design that they should be concerned about as they create instructional materials. This is all part of the master plan as the campus establishes its policies for compliance by Fall 2008. Boy, we have a lot of work to do to get there by September!

Things have been crazy in the Center for Teaching and Learning this year as we have not only tried to implement the plan for faculty ADA compliance but we have also taken huge steps to implement the Provost’s plan to encourage faculty to integrate technology more into their day-to-day curriculum. It’s kind of amusing that this is necessary (and it is) at a “polytechnic” university, but oh well... WDWWMD (we do what we must do!)

Secondly, I’ve been working on updating my personal eportfolio using iWeb instead of Dreamweaver and that conversion has taken a VERY long time. It will be worth it in the end (I’m not done yet) but the revamp is rather painful as I have to upload and explain all the compositions I have written, etc. In the end, I’ll know it will be a better representation of what I have to offer and can be burned to a DVD for distribution to possible new employers, etc.

Thirdly, I also did a TOTAL redo of the church website that I am webmaster for using iWeb instead of Dreamweaver. I like the Google map features (Click on the “Location” link on the site to check it out) and the cool new features for creating photo galleries. I’ve also included videos and PowerPoint presentations, which weren’t available on our old website, and I’ve used the blog format to post the pastor’s sermons. Podcasts might be forthcoming if we can get a digital recorder at church. Everyone seems to like the changes. Check it out: http://www.atascaderoucc.org/

Ok. Enough with the excuses of why I haven’t been blogging. I’ve been busy, even too busy to surf the waves in Morro Bay much (those of you who know me now know with that comment that I’ve been too busy when I’m not even getting in the water on weekends!)

What I really wanted to talk about today is another great “time-wasting tool” called Blabberize. I’m home sick from work today with this awful thing that has been going around the office for the past couple of weeks. It finally caught up with me no matter how much Airborne I tried to consume, drats! However, I need to plan for teaching a workshop next week so I have been laying in bed with my laptop searching and experimenting with various multimedia tools to introduce to faculty. Haven’t found any real winners yet but I did find this fun tool. I’m not sure of its use for more effective teaching and learning (unless you’re teaching K-12) but it would be a fun way to send an email party invitation or maybe an announcement to your students about a dreaded homework assignment. Use your imagination!

Basically, this is how it works: you make an account, login and upload a photo (less than 500k), set the mouth area with the tool provided, and then you record what you want the picture to say. Blabberize will record your message with the mouth moving. Play it to yourself and then save it. Blabberize embeds it in a web page and gives you a link that you can use later to share with your friends or you can click on “Share.” Check out the silly one I made with my dog, Coda’s, picture this morning:

http://blabberize.com/creation/playBlabber/11342

Ain’t technology grand?

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Access By Design Music

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:51:38 -0800

More music. This theme was created for the upcoming “Access By Design” video I have been developing to help faculty become more aware of accessibility issues. This is the theme that plays during the closing credits.

Stay tuned for the upcoming video - it’s almost finished!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Memorial to Mozelle Nutt

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:18:17 -0800

After a long struggle with Alzheimer’s, my mother passed away on Tuesday, November 27, 2007. This page is dedicated to her and to all she meant to those who had the privilege of knowing her in this lifetime.

Spy Theme Music

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:26:40 -0800

Here’s another composition created with Garage Band for a Cal Poly project. This one was designed for a Business 346 online course (taught by Professor Brian Tietje in Marketing) that had a spy theme for the entire course. It’s a combination of using Garage Band loops along with my own composition with a synthesizer. Notice the opening that is played on synthesizer imitating a James Bond type of theme, then the “Mod Squad” sort of cop theme in the middle reminiscent of the early 70’s and the sounds of speed boats, helicopters, and police sirens interspesed throughout taken from GarageBand sound effects. This one was a lot of fun!

Also, check out Brian’s Opening Class video that we created for the project:

http://www.mediaserver.calpoly.edu/Orfalea_College_of_Business/Marketing/btietje/Agent_Briefing_320.mov

Or, how about some bad acting? Stephen Hughes and I created these short videos (10 of them) to provide students with tips before they took the online quizzes in the Blackboard course. The students seemed to get a kick out of them as strange as they were since they added a little pizazz to the course. How weird am I anyway? (If you only knew...) We had to film them in a janitor’s closet. The administrative assistants were starting to wonder what was going on in there, ha. Here’s the first one (yes, that’s me popping in and out of the trees on the Cal Poly campus near the Business building):

http://www.mediaserver.calpoly.edu/Orfalea_College_of_Business/Marketing/btietje/Mole_Instructions_320.mov

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Italian Fairy Tales

Tue, 2 Oct 2007 11:20:36 -0700

A few years ago I assisted one of our Italian instructors, Claudia Cremasco, in creating some multimedia for her third-quarter Italian students. This example illustrates the use of Flash to create a lovely visually-rich audio storybook for the students to listen to in order to increase their aural comprehension.

This example is a small portion of the original version to demonstrate how it worked. The original was a Flash .swf file that the students could control but this demo is simply a QuickTime movie and the Scene Control button cannot be used to advance or go back. The storybook was old (something she had owned since childhood) and out of copyright (how lucky for us!)

Although Section 508 now mandates that such media must be captioned when placed online, this media was not captioned because captioning would take away from the learning objective - aural instead of visual comprehension. Comprehension is generally improved with beginning language learners when they can view the text of what is being said and we wanted them to have the aural experience. In order to adhere to the Section 508 mandates, if we were to still use it today we could provide a second captioned version in Italian and follow that with a post assessment to evaluate the students’ improvement when they can view the text of what is being said versus just the aural version. [There’s always a way to get what you want :-) ]

This assignment lends itself to both collaborative OR individual assessment. Here’s some ideas!

• Post a link of the fairy tale in Blackboard for individual listening 
• Facilitate a discussion about the fairy tale, either in class or in Blackboard’s discussion board 
• After the discussion, provide a text version of the fairy tale with the more difficult vocabulary words linked to definition pop-up boxes. As your mouse rolls over the text, certain phrases have links with translation definitions of what the phrase means. This can be done with standard HTML. 
• Post an online assessment in Blackboard with questions on key points

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

The Radical Rodents (Surfing Mice)

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:30:36 -0700

Ok, if you thought the surfing dog was “out there,” well, how about this? Surfing mice! That’s right - I found this video on YouTube quite by accident while looking for other surf videos. If you liked this one, check out the second video on YouTube of their antics with an explanation by Shane Willmott, their “coach and mentor.” This guy has WAY TOO MUCH time on his hands!

My question is: “Do the mice actually enjoy it?” Some of the mice look like they do and others look terrified. Maybe he should consider making them little mice lifevests to eliminate their possible fear of drowning. Shoot, if Barbie and Ken can have a lifevest, why not the radical rodents?

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

“Nora” - The Piano Playing Cat

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:55:09 -0700

Ok, for you cat lover’s - equal time to the kittens. Rachelle sent me this video of “Nora - the Piano Playing Cat” that I thought was quite unusual. Nora seems to take her piano playing very seriously and even appears to caress the keys. Unlike other cats who may attempt to play the piano, she doesn’t just walk across the keys or lay down on them like most cats. She sits with proper posture and only plays with her paws. I wish some of my former piano students had been this diligent and “in love” with the piano like she is. She must have been a pianist in a former life! She does seem a little frustrated that she keeps hitting multiple keys that are dissonant. Darn those wide paws!

For more info on Nora, see: http://www.ravenswingstudio.com/docs/cats.html

There is also a video of Nora being interviewed on the Martha Stewart show (below) where she is playing a duet with a piano student. In that duet she is much more tonal and consonant with the key of the Beethoven “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” played in an easier key of C major than she was in the YouTube video above. In fact, she even attempted to chime in on the G7 chord with the dyad of “F” and “G” so I guess she already knows fundamental music theory. Her owner says her favorite composer is J.S. Bach (A cat after my own heart)!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

“Buddy” - The Surfing Dog

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:27:26 -0700

I really have got to work on teaching Emily and Coda to surf this summer. I think Emily will be a candidate since she already “duck dives” under the waves when she is at the ocean and chasing her ball in the water but it may not be “in the cards” for Coda since she doesn’t like to venture out past her waist, ha.

Check out this video of “Buddy” the Surfing Dog. Last August Imperial Beach in San Diego ran the first dog surfing competition so there are surely more dog surf stars to come. Watch out Kelly Slater!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Converting GarageBand Podcasts to MP3 Format For Blackboard

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Recently, several of you who have taken my GarageBand podcasting course have asked me how to directly post a .m4a podcast file into Blackboard so that it will play without the use of a Macintosh podcasting server as the conduit. This option is a possibility with Blackboard but first you must convert the file into an .mp3 file. You will also need to convert the file if you have students who wish to sync the podcast to MP3 players other than the Apple iPod (e.g., Zunes or Rio Players, which don’t accept the standard Apple AAC files). Blackboard will accept both .mp3 and .wav files but not .m4a or AAC files, which is the Apple GarageBand default. Since .wav files are much larger in size than .mp3 files, we’ll focus on converting our podcast to .mp3 format for optimal ease of download.

The good news is that you can convert the .m4a file with software that you already possess on your computer - iTunes. Here’ how:

1. First, within GarageBand you must save the podcast .band file to the Desktop as a .m4a file by selecting Share > Export Podcast to Disk…

Once you have the .m4a file saved to your Desktop, open iTunes and drag the file into your iTunes Library. After a few moments, iTunes will copy the file to the iTunes Library. Sometimes it might be difficult to find the copied file but keep looking - it’s in there! Usually, it is copied to the Music section of the Library rather than the Podcast section that you would naturally expect. (If all else fails, you can always do a search by the file’s name in the iTunes Search window to locate it.) Once you locate the file, you will then use the Advanced menu to convert it into an MP3 file.

2. If you go to the Advanced menu right now, you might see that the choice Convert Selection To… already says Convert Selection To MP3. If that is indeed the case, then you won’t need to change the Preferences in the next step. However, if it says something else, such as Convert Selection To AAC or Convert Selection To AIFF, you’ll need to change your preferences as described below in Steps #3-8.

3. From the iTunes menu, select Preferences…

4. Click on the Advanced tab.

5. Click on the Importing tab.

6. From the Import Using: pull-down menu, select MP3 Encoder.

7. From the Setting: pull-down menu below it, select the type of quality you want your file to have. (Remember, the better the quality of the MP3, the bigger the file will be and thus, it will be a slower download for your students in Blackboard. Consider a compromise to achieve your goal of a good-sounding audio file with a minimal download.)

8. Click the OK button to close the Advanced Importing preference.

9. Now, select the file you wish to convert to MP3 from the iTunes Library so that it is highlighted.

10. Go to the Advanced menu at the top of the iTunes screen and select Convert Selection to MP3

11. You will see iTunes processing the file in the upper iTunes window. When iTunes is done converting the file, search for the MP3 version of your file in your iTunes Library.

12. To make sure you have located the MP3 version (not the AAC version), you can turn on the View options. To do this, go to View > View Options… and from the list, make sure that Kind is selected.

13. Now when you look at the columns in iTunes, you should see Kind as a column where it lists the type of file for the podcast (e.g., MPEG, AAC, AIFF, WAV, etc.)

14. Drag the MPEG (.mp3) audio file out of iTunes onto your Desktop. This is the file you will post in Blackboard.

15. Login to Blackboard and click on the Control Panel. (Note: You must have Instructor or TA privileges in the Blackboard course to see the Control Panel.)

16. Click on the link to the area where you wish to place the podcast (e.g., Course Documents, Assignments, etc.) OR specifically create an area in your Blackboard course and call it Podcasts as we have done here.

17. Click on +Item to add an item to your selected Content Area.

18. Type in a Name for the podcast and provide a Text description if you wish.

19. In the Content area of this Blackboard page, click on Choose File (some browsers will have a Browse... button instead) to retrieve the file from your Desktop. (Note: Make sure you upload the .mp3 version of your podcast NOT the .m4a version.)

20. Type in either the name of the file or an instruction for your students such as “Click here to listen” in the Name of Link to File textbox.

21. VERY IMPORTANT: Leave the Special Action pull-down menu on the default of Create a link to this file. Logically, you would think that you should select Display Media File in Page here but that will not allow the file to actually play in Blackboard. In some browsers, it may still download the MP3 file to the students’ Desktop. If this should happen, the student should attempt to play the file with another type of player (e.g., drag it into iTunes, play it with QuickTime player, play it with Real Player). Unfortunately, Windows Media Player is currently not able to play MP3 files (But then, who cares? We hate Windows Media Player anyway!)

22. In the Options section of this page, select the options you desire and then click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

23. You should receive a Receipt of Success from Blackboard if everything was uploaded properly. Click OK. Now go into the student navigation area of your Blackboard course and check to make sure that the file actually works.

24. When you click on the link to the podcast file in your Blackboard course, you should see a play controller similar to the one shown in the illustration below. Make sure you have headphones or your speakers on so you can actually hear the podcast MP3 file!

You’re done!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

The Surftech 8” Cloth Center Fin

Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:12:52 -0800

For you “real” surfers out there that read my blog (not you “web surfers” -- although I suppose it’s possible to be both like I am), I wanted to tell you about this GREAT longboard fin I got a few months ago. Made by Surftech, this fin is the BOMB! My boss, who’s a surfer, told me about it and what a difference it made in a board. My first thought was, “Yeah, right!” but was I wrong. Wow, I couldn’t believe how much more speed it added to my new epoxy longboard, which was already fabulous anyway (See Mama’s Got a Brand New Board). This Surftech fin just made it that much better! I highly recommend it if you are a single-fin longboarder. $70 and totally worth it! Check it out at the Surftech online store at:

http://shop.surftech.com/Custom_fins_for_your_wood_or_tuflite_board_s/25.htm

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Roadside Attractions

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:11:17 -0700

I was talking with a co-worker at Cal Poly the other day who likes to ride his motorcycle to out-of-the-way locations and visit odd attractions and museums he encounters along the way. Just my type of person! The conversation reminded me of the wonderful web sites I found a while back on “roadside attractions” in both America and Canada. Oddly enough, I have considered mapping a vacation drive from the West Coast to the East Coast some time and stopping at significantly weird roadside attractions to make the long drive more interesting. What a hoot that would be! It’s on my list of “things to do before I die.”

Here are three great web sites on roadside attraction. I like the first one the best because you can search by state or by name of attraction (site). You can also map out a specific town location and find out what significantly odd attractions are there:

Check out: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Another Roadside Attractions Web Site:
http://www.roadsidepeek.com/roadside/

Roadside Attractions in Canada:
http://www.roadsideattractions.ca/index.htm

How about helping them spot all the “Muffler Men” in America?
Check out: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/muffler/index.html

Happy Strange Travels!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

A Little Garfield Humor

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:25:05 -0700

Museum Podcasts

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:14:34 -0700

Well, if I haven’t convinced you that you need an iPod to function properly in your daily life by now, I think I have probably failed as a cutting-edge technologist :-( Albeit, you may not need to spring for the video iPod, although they are definitely the most fun, it seems that iPod use is popping up in every part of our lives these days.

Next time you’re at a museum and you see a guy listening to an iPod, don’t assume that he is just providing himself with some Baroque background music while he browses around the Rembrandt collection (although speaking from a musicologist’s point of view, that could be enlightening!). He may actually be listening to a museum podcast tour! A number of museums are now offering free podcast tours for download, either available from the web or at the museum station itself in order to enhance the educational objectives of their museums. These podcast tours tend to avoid the stuffy “enter here and notice the Monet...” lecture format and instead focus upon artists’ discussions about the paintings or casual conversations between academics or critics.

Participating museums include San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco’s De Young Museum, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, St. Louis’s Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Barbara’s Museum of Art, and even the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas. Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center has iPod docks in the lobby so you can download tours on the spot.

Although I haven’t heard it myself, friends have told me that San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art has a great podcast for their exhibit entitled “1906 Eartquake: A Disaster in Pictures” with narration, music, and sound effects to bring this castrophe to life. (Please don’t go running out of the museum to stand in the door shafts for protection unless a real earthquake is occuring, ha!)

Some museums such as Walker Art Center and the San Jose Museum of Art offer cell-phone tours for patrons that don’t own an iPod (or forgot theirs, heaven forbid!). You can simply dial the phone number listed in the museum handouts or the numbers that are listed on plaques near certain sculptures and paintings in order to listen to curators and artists discuss the works. Right now, these resources are free but, of course, the minutes are on you if you happen to go over your cell phone monthly allotment from your carrier.

A comprehensive list of podcast museum tours is a bit hard to come by but MuseumPods.com and Global Museum are great places to start and of course, you can always search for “museum podcast” at the iTunes Music Store (A recent search returned more than 30 tours).

For more interesting takes on art, check out some of the unauthorized museum podcast tours you can find online, such as Rick Steve’s Museum Podcast Tours of Paris’s Musee d’Orsay, Versailles Palace, and the Louvre or Slate’s Unauthorized Audio Tours, one of which includes Slate’s art critic, Lee Siegel, discussing what he considers the most overated and underated paintings in the Metropolitan Muscian of Art’s Modern Art Gallery. That one is quite entertaining! If you like British humor, you might enjoy Paul Rose’s Take One Museum podcasts, which cover a number of museums throughout the UK.

Finally, if you want to get really funky, you can join an Art Mob at the SF Museum of Modern Art and participate in works that can only be experienced by downloading the podcast and showing up at the SFMoMA when everyone else does. Art Mobs at SFMoMA want you to join their cause by sending them your own MoMA audio guides, which they will add to their podcast feed, taking out the proprietary nature of this new tool and putting it into the hands of some fun-loving art critics.

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

iSquint Software

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:33:44 -0700

Well, the video iPod is pretty cool, I must admit. I didn’t really see the need for one until I got Rachelle one and then I was foaming at the mouth. As I formatted it for her, I saw the coolness of having slideshows from iPhoto library right on your iPod to show friends the pictures of your last vacation and the fun of watching video on it. However, I do have a little beef with Mr. Jobs: Why is the video iPod formatted for a Windows computer when it comes from the Apple factory? Huh? I couldn’t believe I had to take the time to reformat it for my Mac when I first got it out of the box. I’m used to being required to reformat for other third-party peripherals because of Windows huge market hold on the world but not for an Apple product. For an Apple product? I was in shock. Mr. Jobs, are you caving to Windows’ large marketshare? And, why did you replace the wonderful firewire connector of previous generation iPods with USB 2.0 on the video iPod? Again, to make it more adaptable for the Windows crowd? I think Apple should at least allow for both a firewire and a USB cable instead of giving the consumer less than they had before. In my experience on an eMac, USB 2.0 took two to three times longer than firewire in order to move my entire 19 GB library over. It was painful! I had to go to bed and let it format overnight, it took so long.

Ok, enough ranting and raving... back to my discussion on the beauty of the video iPod. Thank you, Mr. Jobs, for such a svelte device! Those of you who are thinking of getting one should be aware that the video iPod requires a special type of video format - you can’t just take any kind of video and throw it on there and have it work. Last January, I had gone to some workshops at the MacWorld Conference in SF and learned how to export video into the video iPod format using QuickTime Pro and/or Sorenson Squeeze 4. However, I had never found a way to easily transfer Windows Media video (that awful Microsoft excuse for video) into iPod format without paying the high dollar amount for Sorenson Squeeze 4 or Autodesk Cleaner software (that is, until now).

Enter a little shareware program called iSquint. Another little gem, this software supports .mov, .mp4, .avi, .dv, .mpg, .vob, .3gp, .asf, .wmv, .flv, and .m4v and converts it to the proper codec for iPod video. Futhermore, QuickTime Pro and DivX codecs are not required and it converts your video to either MPEG-4 or H.264 codecs - Whoo-hoo! Did I mention that it’s FREE?

For non-video savvy people, the good news is that you don’t even have to know what your doing since the default settings are great. However, the developer allows you to change the established settings if you wish, providing you with a number of sliders you can alter if your a pro with compression. I especially love this developer’s sense of humor. When you go to change the default settings for video iPod conversion, a pop-up note occurs saying, “What, you think you know better than me?” You can almost hear Robert Deniro’s voice saying that! It gives you pause for thought before you start monkeying around with the settings, ha.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with the output iSquint provided and I was easily able to take a bunch of small Windows Media videos that Rachelle likes and place them on her video iPod for viewing on-the-go. Go iSquint!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Senuti Software

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:15:09 -0700

Shareware is a wonderful thing - donationware is even better! Bless those ingenius souls who create excellent software and put it out there on the web for the world to use! In particular, bless the creator of Senuti. Senuti, in case you haven’t noticed spells “iTunes” backwards and it’s an application that allows you to transfer songs from your iPod to iTunes on your computer. Generally, you can only transfer music one way... from your iTunes application to your iPod. But what if you have a computer crash or somehow mess up your iTunes Library with a recent upgrade and don’t have all your music and playlists backed up to an external drive? (Shame on me for not having done that! It’s funny, I have all my files and applications from my work computer backed up to a La Cie erxternal hard drive to cover myself but not so at home. I need to remedy that!)

So how did this disaster happen, you might wonder? Well, I had configured our home Mac so that Rachelle and I shared only one iTunes Library, which sat in the Shared folder of our computer. iTunes on both our accounts pointed to this shared iTunes Library. It worked out well for several years and saved a lot of room on our hard drive by only having one iTunes Library.

A few weeks ago I decided to buy Rachelle a video iPod as a present and it was then that I realized I needed for us to have two separate iTunes Libraries because: 1) She has more storage space on her iPod than I (she has 30 GB on the video iPod to my 20GB 4th generation iPod) and 2) She was going to want all that nasty country music in her iTunes library for her iPod - a genre of music that is expressly forbidden on mine. (In case you don’t know, I hate country music so much that I once had a bumper sticker on my car that said, “Country is to music what etch-a-sketch is to art!”) Still, that didn’t seem like that big a deal -- I mean just copy over the shared iTunes Library to each of our respective accounts, right? No, no, no! It wasn’t that easy.

iTunes kept saying it couldn’t find songs and asked me to go navigate for each one individually even though I had gone into the iTunes Advanced menu and pointed it to the correct new location of the Library. AUGH! What a nightmare! I have close to 4,000 tunes in my iTunes Library. Trying to format her video iPod in time for our anniversary, even if I were willing to individually hunt for 4,000 tunes, was too much, even for me “the tenacious one!” Then, I really blew it and accidentally threw away some songs that I had purchased from the iTunes Music Store, which I didn’t have backed up anywhere else. Double AUGH!

Figuring there had to be a way out of this nightmare, I started Googling for shareware, donationware, buyware... anything that would get me out of this hole I had dug myself into. Then I found Senuti! Senuti allowed me to rebuild my entire iTunes Library directly from my iPod, including play counts, ratings, and playlists. What a beautiful thing! I felt so indebted to Whitney Young, the developer, that I wanted to contribute (which I did), even though a donation wasn’t required. We need to continue encouraging these geniuses to keep putting out useful open source donationware and shareware software!

The only thing that Senuti couldn’t do is restore my equalizer settings but I found another tool to do that - an iTunes Applescript called Set Genre to Specific EQ. Years ago Apple created a collection of scripts for iTunes 2.0.3 on their website that includes this EQ script, but when I downloaded and opened the .dmg package from the Apple site, it was empty. I tried downloading it several times and finally gave up but later (thank to the marvels of Google) I found the same scripts at the MacScripter website and they worked just fine, even for iTunes 6.0.5. The Applescript allows you to pick a specific genre in your iTunes Library and set that genre at a specific EQ. It takes a little time to reset all your genres but still, this is far better than the alternative -- setting each of the 4,000 tunes EQ manually. Triple AUGH!

The happy ending to this story is that my iTunes Library was restored pristine with Senuti and the EQ Applescript and I was able to provide Rachelle with a working copy of my iTunes Library on her account to begin her collection of music from AND I was also able to present her with the video iPod for our 12th anniversary, all formatted with music, videos, and pictures, right on time. She was a very happy camper and so was I! Thanks, Senuti!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Mama’s Got a Brand New Board

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 08:40:58 -0700

A little post for all you surfers out there (the ocean kind that is)!

Yesterday my new Robert August 9’0” Surftech “What I Ride” veneer finish surfboard came! Whoo-hoo! Can’t you see how jazzed Emily and Coda are in the picture, ha. This was a 12th-year anniversary gift from my partner, Rachelle. Isn’t she swell? I had been saving my Cal Poly pennies up to buy it but I hadn’t been making much progress (since Cal Poly actually pays me in pennies). I had tried out a Robert August “What I Ride” in an 8’4” size when I was on vacation in San Diego in July. I really liked it but I thought a few more inches on the board would make it better for all kinds of surf (both large and smaller days in Morro Bay). The board I tried out was not a veneer finish but I had read an interview of Robert August in which he said if he had one board to ride and take everywhere on earth, he would take this board with a veneer finish in a 9’6”. Here’s the quote:

[Robert] August has designed a variety of boards for Surftech, from 8 to 10 feet long. "There is a 'What I Ride' board, which is basically what I ride, and then there is a Mike Doyle design from my factory and there are also boards from Mike Minchington and the Mark Martinson Wingnut model. I prefer the veneer boards because they are a little heavier, but the TufLite boards are great for high performance surfing."

We know what you're thinking so we asked Robert August for you. If he were doing The Endless Summer again, and could only take one surfboard, which Surftech would it be? "I'd take the 9' 6" All Around board in the veneer. I don't want to be wishy washy but it has a medium rocker and medium thickness and it's good in eight foot surf and in sloppy surf. I could ride that board in eight foot surf and I could ride it in slop. It would go good at Bruce's Beauties, and if I lost it into the rocks, it would come out okay."

Yeah, the veneer finish looks great like the old balsa boards did but it actually has a function too: it really does makes the board a little bit heavier than the normal epoxy board. Well, after I read that Robert August quote I thought, “Hmm... Robert is a bit taller than I am so the 9’0” should be just right.” And I was right! Finally, I hit it on the head! THIS IS THE BOARD I have been searching for since I began surfing. I own 4 other surfboards and have actually had 6 surfboards in my surfing lifetime but I sold one (a little thin pro surfer board that I should have never even attempted at my age in the first place), and I also gave away a Fish board I bought at a garage sale to my nephew. Every new board I have gotten has been slightly better for certain conditions but they never really seemed to be “just right,” as the Three Bears and Goldilocks would have said. Well, this is the one! I couldn’t believe how buoyant it is and I could tell as I paddled out the first time that it was going to be great - it just glided on top of the water. The first wave I took on it was a beauty and I continued to catch good little surf all night (Yes, I stayed out until the sun went down at 8:15 PM and every last person was getting out of the water). If it weren’t for sharks, I would have stayed in longer!

For those of you interested, the dimensions of this board are:

Length: 9’0”
Nose: 18”
Mid: 22.875”
Tail: 15”
Thickness: 3”

With the close-down of Clark Foam -- the largest producer of surfboard blanks in the USA -- there has been a lot of controversy in the industry about using new materials that are more friendly to the environment but hold up performance-wise. Epoxy boards were being made before the Clark Foam debacle but they have made some significant advancements in their performance and I have to tell you, I am sold! This board is awesome! Can you tell I’m stoked?

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

An Embarrassing Moment

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:40:31 -0700

Trust me, I have had my share of embarrassing moments in my life, but I watched someone else this weekend have one of the all-time most embarrasing moments! Yesterday afternoon I drove out to Morro Rock and watched the surfers fighting the heavy gusts of wind and rather large surf. I decided it was a little to rough for my skill level and so I just sat back in my carseat with my binoculars to enjoy the show. As I was sitting there in my car, enjoying the view, another car came up and parked right beside me. I saw a woman, around 35 years of age, get out of the car and start suiting up while her husband (at least, I’m assuming he was her husband - especially by the way he failed to act later, ha!) read the newspaper. Hardly an atypical sight, I sort of ignored them while I continued to watch the surfers get toppled by large waves. However, as she was suiting up into her wetsuit, it was clearly obvious to me that she was a newbie surfer (or what some surfers not so kindly call “a kook”). I don’t know how to explain it, there’s just a way in which newbies suit up that makes it obvious. I was a little worried for her but who am I to tell her she can’t go out? Anyway, maybe she just looks like a newbie and she is going to blow me away when she gets in the water - who knows?

A few minutes later I saw her getting in the water. She clearly didn’t know the routine at the rock of paddling out through the channel. Within minutes she was being pulled by the riptide toward the rocks. Paddling furiously, she was’nt making any headway and it was obvious that she didn’t know how to get herself out of a riptide. Her husband was still oblivious to the whole thing, reading his newspaper. I walked up to the driver’s side of his car and said, “Are you aware that your wife is caught in a riptide? Does she know how to get herself out of that situation?” He looked sort of jostled from his reading and said, “Uh, no, I don’t think she knows how.”

I immedately ran to the edge of the rock and yelled out to her, trying to instruct her to paddle parallel to the shore but she couldn’t hear me. Her husband just stood there but he didn’t seem to have any intent to save her. I got out my binoculars to look toward the lifeguard tower to see if they were watching the situation and I could tell they were so I backed off. One of the lifeguards jumped on a huge longboard and started paddling out to her. He started to talk to her and calm her down. I thought he would be able to lead her back into shore since she wasn’t out among the more dangerous waves yet. But as they continued to talk and paddle, they were both pulled out farther. The lifeguard could have just taken a wave and come in but he had to worry about her. Eventually, he placed her on his board and wrapped the leash to her board around his foot. Then, they paddled out farther trying to get past the breaking waves. Poor guy! All he had on were some red bathing trunks, no wetsuit in 49 degree water... BRRR! Finally, another lifeguard paddled out and put her on his board and the first lifeguard placed her board on top of his and paddled in.

Here’s the embarrasing part: They had called the Coast Guard. And they didn’t come out in their smallest boat, no siree! They brought out the biggest boat they have in the Morro Bay Coast Guard fleet to pick up the lifeguard and her beyond the break. Everyone staring - major embarrassment! And her husband? He was just worried about whether or not they were going to be charged for the rescue. What a guy, huh?

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Digital Storytelling

Wed, 24 May 2006 13:04:59 -0700

In my last blog entry I made reference to digital storytelling and the wonderful way in which it can be used for teaching and learning. Recently I stumbled upon the Scott County Schools (Georgetown, Kentucky) Digital Storytelling web site and found some real gems. Since I taught piano in a former life, I especially enjoyed this digital storytelling project created by a teacher, Judy Halasek, which is called “The Gift of the Piano.” For those of you who teach piano to children and wonder if it is really worth it to deal with their lack of practicing, whining, and overall irritable demeanor at piano lessons, this story should give you hope:

http://www.scott.k12.ky.us/technology/digitalstorytelling/piano_t1.mov (QuickTime required)

To view more of these storytelling gems created by the teachers of Scott County, please see:

http://www.scott.k12.ky.us/technology/digitalstorytelling/teacherstories.html

Due to the fact that there are so many great links on how to get started with digital storytelling and plenty of fantastic examples of people’s finished projects, I hesitate to even list any links. However, if you plan on getting into this sort of thing, you might want to check out some of the links below, which I have found to be helpful but which is by no means comprehensive:

The Center for Digital Storytelling (Berkeley, CA)

Carnegie Mellon University’s Digital Storytelling Site

MIT/University of Wisconsin Digital Storytelling Site

BBC Capture Wales Digital Storytelling Site

University of Minnesota School of Journalism Site

Electronic Portfolios.org Digital Storytelling Page

Tech Head Stories - Links to Key Digital Storytelling Sites

Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal - IMEJ

Born Magazine

Fray Digital Stories

The Digital Storytelling Initiative KQED

Digital Storytelling Festival

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)

Ventriloquist Bloopers

Tue, 23 May 2006 15:43:18 -0700

How many of you are aware that in a past life I was a ventriloquist? Ah... ‘tis true! Performing ventriloquist skits at birthday parties and church gigs with my dummy, Jason, was one way to supplement my pizza money in college. My mother was so attached to him, she sent him birthday cards every year (her only son). Scary, I think he will be 30 years old this year (I got him when I was 16 and waited almost 9 months for him to be constructed at the Maher Figure Factory in Colorado.) Hmm... I guess you could say that in a way I experienced teenage motherhood, ha.

Ventriloquists are an odd bunch. We spend time with a wooden figure, trying to mimic real life and try to avoid moving our lips. Everyone knows that a ventriloquist is “driving” the dummy and making it come alive but everyone wants to play along and pretend. I guess it’s the Gepetto in us all - wanting Pinocchio to become a “real boy.” Speaking of real boys, one time I had my dummy seated on the floor in Sears department store with his head removed, trying children’s clothes on his body. A lady walking by in a Winnie the Pooh costume literally screamed in horror out loud. It turned out that she couldn’t see real well through the eye holes in her Pooh suit and thought there was a child on the floor without a head - that was a hoot!

I had a friend in college named Tim who was also a ventriloquist, but in my opinion, he was “way over the top.” He took his dummy with him everywhere (even into the college cafeteria). His goal was to become a ventriloquist comedian in the nightclub scene. I wonder if he ever made it? To tell you the truth, I found him a bit creepy. Maybe that is why I backed away from ventriloquism after college when I finally had a real job -- it just seemed too strange.

And, of course, there are those people who have been weirded out by Anthony Hopkins’ portrayl of an out-of control ventriloquist in the movie blockbuster “Magic” or that spooky Twilight Zone episode where the dummy takes over the ventriloquist. (My ex-husband was so freaked out by that movie that he didn’t like me to leave my dummy out of its suitcase in our house!)

Unfortunately, it seems that ventriloquism is a dying art. However, there has been a bit of a revival of ventriloquism with the Adrian Brody movie “Dummy” that was in theaters a couple years ago but even that movie portrayed Brody as a loser who couldn’t get a date. No wonder I gave it up... in the public’s point of view now VENTRILOQUIST = LOSER!

So, I guess you can see why I have kept my ventriloquism interests to myself. Feeling brave last year, I decided to reveal this side of my character to the Cal Poly community (Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment). I decided to teach a faculty workshop on creating a documentary with Apple iMovie software. The workshop taught faculty the entire process of digital storytelling on a selected topic with the end results of creating their own documentary. This is a great idea to promote learning if there is a topic you want to approach in which there is no commerical documentary already out there or if you have a particularly peculiar point of view to express about a topic. I have found that students learn even more when they are asked to create a documentary themselves - you might want to give that a try.

As a demo for the workshop, I created a short documentary on the “History of Ventriloquism” that explained the art from Egyptian times to the present day. At the end of the documentary, I added a short clip of bloopers with my dummy, Jason, to provide a little fun while the credits rolled - finally letting the cat out of the bag. This video clip is an excerpt from the end of that documentary. Hope you enjoy it!

~ Dr. Luanne Fose (The Tweed Geek)