Podcast Research

I spent some time today researching different methods for creating podcasts – specifically on how to create them with other people who are in different locations.  Without a Mac and the ability to use GarageBand, I downloaded and installed audacity for the PC.  One great way to incorporate multiple people on a call is to use Skype Internet Phone application and then record the conversation using HotRecorder.   HotRecorder has an audio conversion option that will create an MP3.  I’ll be doing more of this in the next few weeks so more notes will follow….

Hitachi Starboard

We had a great training lesson this week from Jack Stewart from Hitachi on the StarBoard Interactive Display Device. Jack discussed the main features of the StarBoard which includes: Navigate, Annotate, & Input. He demonstrated the hand writing recognition tool and showed us advanced features of the StarBoard software. I learned new tricks for creating customized toolbars and new methods for using the different software modules.

Jack’s visit was also allowed us to showcase how we are using the Hitachi product as part of the newly integrated control system that we have prototyped in D004. The control system eliminates the need for web-based control for our Phoenix/AMX Media system allowing an instructor to come into the room and turn on devices without the need for launching a web-browser on the lectern PC. We plan on implementing this new control system as part of the new classrooms in the F-Wing Overbuild. We did an onsite demonstration of this new system on January 5, 2006. NJEdge also streamed the event and has a link to the WebCast.

SharePoint Update

I installed SharePoint on my Windows 2003 VM and it worked like a champ. I am having problems however getting it into production.  I first attempted an install on ACAD6 which is already running SQL Server 2000 and IIS for two other applications.  The SharePoint install broke those other processes.  During the install you are prompted to have it setup the database and IIS links for you or to do this manually.  Had I selected the other option I may have been able to avoid this problem.  Uninstalling SP fixed the other two apps, after I went into IIS and manually set anonymous access was to be allowed for the web services.  When you do a reinstall – it doesn’t give the option to reselect the custom installation.  I also had the same results when I attempted this install on ACAD4 which runs WSUS for fac/staff.

CERT Graduation

Today I completed the last day of required training to become part of Stockton College’s first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) team. So you may ask, what exactly is CERT. Well essentially the CERT Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. This program was formed through a joint effort of the Stockton College Police Department and the Campus Health and Safety Officer. The required training for C.E.R.T involved 20 hours of hands-on classroom training. 18 CERT members out of the 22 that started graduated this Friday. They are Lydia Javins, John Davis, Kelee Gudzinas, Robert Fornuto, Pedro Santana, Josie Stalling, Sara Gendlek, Bill Shackleton, Paul Chambers, Dennis Lepore, James Merlock, Edward Carty, Robert Haviland, Dianne Hill, Terrence Hardee, Barbara Teel, John Smith and myself.

Recent Purchase

A Panasonic RR-US360 Digital Voice Recorder.... Why I am not sure yet, it just seemed like a cool tech tool that I can use.

NJCUITMA Meeting

Today I attended a meeting of the New Jersey College and University Information Technology Managers Association (NJCUITMA). The event was hosted at the Middlesex County College. The president of the organization Neil S. Sachnoff is the Executive Director of Information Technology at this school.

After seeing a demo of some of these products during Educause last summer, Neil decided to ask Microsoft to come to one of our meetings and demo three of Microsoft’s “Almost-Free” products. Microsoft sent one of their top guys, a Productivity Advisor by the name of David M. Norris. David’s background in the Microsoft product line was extremely fluent, which was best exemplified by the excellent responses that he provided to questions that were asked by both myself and members of the group. I was extremely impressed with his level of knowledge as well as the enthusiasm he displayed for the products that we looked at.

David first demonstrated Microsoft’s SharePoint Services application. Although I had previously heard about this product, I had never paid much attention to it before today. SharePoint is an extremely powerful collaboration product which has many uses in the educational environment. David showed us how to create a centralized page for managing information and content and demonstrated how SharePoint ties into the Windows Server and Exchange environment. A central page can be used for announcements, event listings, online journals, online photo albums, threaded discussion boards and other links. The tool is a free download for Windows 2003 users. The SharePoint Portal (not free) product provides management tools for the Services module along with additional features that the free version does not offer. I was most interested in the Document Library feature which allows for multiple users to work collaboratively from a centralized repository with additional features such as searching, file locks, version control and shadow copy. SharePoint also allows users to incorporate external web site content using a web capture tool or even import RSS feeds.

The second product demonstration was on the Microsoft Producer application. Producer is a really straight forward application that enables a user to easily capture and synchronize audio, video, slides and images which in turn creates rich-media presentations. I had seen this application before but also have not had the chance to play with it that much. The obvious benefit of Producer over strictly using PowerPoint is that it allows you to insert Video and Audio with narration all as one component. With PowerPoint when you use video you are limited to only having video on one slide. The resulting files from Producer are HTML. I will check this out, however I want to spend some time figuring out the best way to create some AVI files from video on DVD that I have. The operation of this is also similar to Microsoft’s Movie Maker application that comes free with Windows XP Professional.

David spent a few minutes reviewing the two Learning Essentials modules for MS Office. There is a module that geared for teachers and one that is geared for students. Most of these tools fit better in the K-12 arena. One neat tool shown was a question generator for creating tests within Word. I was impressed however because it took most of the thought process out of using the tool and allows the creator to focus strictly on the content to be generated. These products are also a free download.

The final package that was demonstrated by David Norris was the Shared Computing Toolkit. This package, also a free download, is an interface for defining local and group policies on workstations. It is very useful when deploying workstations that are intended to be used in a public environment such as in a computer lab or kiosk. The package essentially makes the job of securing a machine and restoring it back to its original state after each use very easy. All of these configurations are possible without the software but you need to know the proper registry hacks or policy configurations to modify. There are additional features such as inactivity timeout and on-demand systems restore which I will look into further.

Welcome to the new blog

This is research project of the blogger.com site that I will be working on over the next few weeks. Don’t be surprised if you end up seeing some real nerdy things up here. Thanks for checking in.