Pod Casting

I sat in on a Podcasting session. The presenter had a number of valuable ideas. Basically she showed us how to create our own simple Podcasting site. A place to create podcasts - (you will need a microphone connected to your P.C if your going to do it in the site) and also a place to store Pods that you have created elsewhere.

Here is the site, and a I have a link in the Links area to the right of this blog. http://www.podomatic.com

A great site, you just click a few tabs here and there [it leads you throught the steps very easily] to create your own site, and hey presto you on your way to uploading your Pods.

A great way to store recordings of your classes etc, especially for those students that need some extra help, or want to revisit , revise etc.

I am going to look into purchasing the iPod Talk connection that will allow me to record my classes and then upload them to Podomatic for the students to access. They can even do this from home, download them to their iPod and listen where ever they are.

WORD OF WARNING: You will need to ensure that you have permission to record the students, get them to sign the waver before class. (For TAFE Staff, this form is located on the intranet POD)

Will let you know how I go...... stay tuned .......

Finally an answer to the out of sequence issue!

At to days Showcase, a colleague offered a possible solution to the out of sequence issue. He said that if the slides were numbered 01 - 02- 03 etc they may not jump out of sequence.

I have now done some trials and find that I am not able to place the 0 infront of the slide numbering in the actual PowerPoint Presentation. PowerPoint presenter will not allow you to change the slide number sequence, so just number them as per usual.

The solution is to:

make a normal PowerPoint presentation and number slides as per normal
save the Presentation to the JPEG format as described below

THEN........

Open the file with the slides and rename then before you transfer them to the iPod.

so... if the slide number is 1, just right mouse click the slide, select rename and place the 0 infront of all the slides below 10.

This will then keep your slides in order and sequence when you transfer them to your iPod with iTunes.

A very big thank you to this colleague, who's name I did not catch.
Funny how such an easy solution can be found, especially when you start thinking it is a major problem ...... the simple things in life hey!

May 18th South Western Sydney Institute Technology and Innovation Showcase

The showcase is designed for anyone that is involved in teaching and learning and who wishes to learn about delivering in innovative ways to further enhance and engage learners in today's "connected era".

The showcase will be held on 18th May 2007, from 9.30 am - 3.30 pm and will be held at the Liverpool Education Training Centre. The showcase will have many activities, discussions and displays that will be of interest to those interested in technology and innovations.

I shall be presenting my reflections related to using iPod's in the class room.

Disadvantages of using iPod in class room.

I had to add these pictures, they express perfectly one disadvantage I went through...... FRUSTRATION

•If your not savvy with technology it can be a frustration
•Can be time consuming to set up presentations – converting etc
•Not all students have access to technology, cost etc
•Cost to individuals / sections

Advantages of using iPod in the classroom.

The inclusion of these few pictures adds a few additional ideas of the Ipods use...
On the move, students can listen and watch presentations anywhere..

They seem to start younger every day!

Groups can work together, mobile learning?

These are only a few ideas,

•Less resources to carry
•Portable, students can use in room or in workplace
•Download presentations in iPod format to College P Drive, students can access and download to their own iPod
•Holds many pictures that can be used as examples – clarification etc
•There are many advantages, to many to list

Connecting iPod to Lite Pro

•You will need to purchase a Apple AC connection Kit, this will enable you to:
•Listen to your music library through your home stereo or powered speakers.
•Watch videos and view photo albums on your television.
•Connect your Lite Pro to show presentations, music videos, etc
•Control everything from across the room, with a remote
•Keep your iPod charged up at all times.
•Included in kit: iPod AV cable, universal dock, dock adaptors, apple remote, USB power adaptor and dock connector to USB cable
•Once connected you can run presentations from iPod with remote control

Another iPod freeze up!

A colleague had her iPod freeze and was unable to get it working by using the previous soft boot up method. In a rage of frustration (even downloading the manual to seek help didn't offer any suggestions) just walked away from it until it ran out of power. She then plugged it into the AC directly using the AC kit connection and hey presto once recharged it worked perfectly again, and had not lost any of the contents...... sometimes walkingaway can be of use!

How to convert your Powerpoint Presentations ready to import to your iPod

Open up your PowerPoint (File > Open) or just double click it. Review the slides and make sure this is indeed what you wish to export, make edits, etc?



To export the slides choose File > Save As? In the pull down list, scroll down and choose JPEG. JPEG File Interchange Fromat (*.jpg)


PowerPoint will ask if you want export all the slides, click ?Every Slide?.

All the images will be exported, depending on how many slides you have it may take a minute or so.

Frozen iPod Resetting your iPod

Never thought it would happen to me..... who was I fooling!!!! Ok my iPod froze up, sat there with do not disconnect and would do nothing at all. Here is a tip.....

Before you take any drastic measures, try a soft reset: hold the Menu and Center buttons down for three seconds. Your music and data will be safe.

Importing your Powerpoint Presentations JPEG file from the PC to the iPod

• I am going to try and keep this simple, afterall every other instruction book, file etc that I have read is so complicated .....arhhhh
  
  Ensure you have the latest version of iTunes on your PC
  connect your iPod to your PC ..iTunes should automatically open showing all files in your library.




• from the menu on the left click on your device (your iPod) and the following summary screen should appear



• on the top menu bar click on Photos, this screen should appear.



• check the box that says ... sync photo's from , this should open the drop down box, select choose folder and locate where you have saved your iPod JPG's on your PC.




• check selected folders , this should show all the files you have previously saved. It should look something like the picture above .....
  
  
  
• In the lower right side of screen click the apply button, your files should now be imported to your iPod, and stored in your photo's on the iPod

FRUSTRATION

Frustration - Frustration - Frustration.

I jump ahead a bit here, only to give warning to others of my frustration. When I imported the file and had it on my iPod, the files import out of sequence. Each slide created did not import perfectly, they seemed to go from slide 1 then slide 10 - 11 - 12 -13 etc and then the begining was at the end. I am at a loss to overcome this at this time and will need to figure it out later. I temporarily overcome this by ensuring that I numbered slides in Microsoft Powerpoint as I created them. At least I could jump slides on the iPod to the one I needed and then backtrack to others etc.

Deciding what to use the iPod for ....

I have been researching the many uses of the iPod, so the basis of this blog is to document my journey in using the iPod as a resource in the class room. I have been logging my PC loaded with my powerpoint presentions to the class room for ages, and have been looing for a way to reduce the amount of resources that I have to carry.

I decided that my iPod would allow me to reduce these resources. I could load my presentations onto the iPod and plug it into the lite pro (projector) and run them directly.

I admit that making the presentations in Microsoft Powerpoint is easy once you have the hang of it, the challenge was importing them to the iPod.

After stumbling about for a few hours, and then hitting the internet is search of answers, I found that you have to save the Powerpoint presenation as a JPG file, not as a presentation.

How to save the presentation to iPod format:

Before starting I created 2 new files on my PC to save my presenations in, 1 file for normal presentations and another for the iPod presentations.

1. create your presentation normally
2. when ready to save, save a normal version as a presentation into your presentation file.
3. open your presentation and again select save as, save as a JPG into your iPod file.

You should now have 2 files the same, 1 x powerpoint presentation and 1 x iPod JPG file. I did this as I did not want to loose any of my work ...being a beginner I just knew I would stuff it up somewhere and loose the original or corrupt the file or something like that, so at least I would have a backup.

Having played with this a few times and found how hard it was, I have made an easier visual reference version in a later entry; How to convert your Powerpoint Presentations ready to import to your iPod

Now I have 2 files, 1 I can use on a PC and another to use on the iPod, the next challenge is to transport the JPG file to the iPod.

The beginning ....

I have been a teacher in Children's Serivces for many years, but it was not until July 2006 that I actually was given the chance to see things from a different perspective.

While acting as the Community Services Teaching and Learning Manager I was introduced to a number of teaching resources that had never been part of my bag of tricks .... the iPod was one of many but quickly took my attention as a resource that had huge potential.

I attented a professional development seminar that opened my eyes to many things ... I previously had a iPod, the older version without the video capacity and only used it for playing music. After seeing many exciting ways to use the newer iPod video I left with many ideas of how I could use it.

What can the iPod do? ....

• can be used with PC or a Mac



• play music and other audio recordings



• show digital stories



• show powerpoint slide shows



• show videos e.g. from the internet - podcasts - MP4s



• act as an external storage device



• create audio recordings

Not only was it good for me as a teacher, but I could use this device to enhance my teaching with students ... I realised that ...

• students are using technolgy with their friends on a daily basis



• the iPod combines visual and auditory - multi sensory learning



• I could show stuff to students individually or as a group



• the iPod is engaging, many people have one and like other technolgy do not realise it's full potential



• being portable I could use it in many ways, on excursions, in the workplace, in classrooms without computers



• the iPod would stimulate interest



• the iPod could be interactive depending on the design of the materials used

So after pondering this for a few weeks, I went shopping for the iPod bargain and brought my first 80GB Video Ipod.

Now with the device in my hands I only had one challenge to overcome .. how to use the thing!