Text-to-Speech technologies allow us to create audio files from written words. This conversion provides several advantages, among them:

• Allows us to review the content of a reading by listening to it while jogging, walking, cycling at the stationary bike, or other activities where our attention is available to focus on the content
• Promotes learning, specifically for learners with an aural learning style
• Can take advantage of multimodal learning if visually reading text while also listening to audio 
• Can help avoid eye strain from reading directly from the monitor
• Facilitates content assimilation, specially for learners with any visual impairment
• Saves trees, since there might not be necessary to print some readings 

There are some potential disadvantages too:

• Even though they have improved a lot in the past years, current text-to-speech technologies still keep a “robotic” accent (listen to the sample at the end of this posting).
• “Natural” voices are created by third-party companies (like AT&T). Adding a new “natural” voice to the text-to-speech software might even be more expensive than the software itself.
• The voices lack of any emotion and feeling tending to become monotonous and boring.
• An audio file  might not be useful for all type of content, for instance if it refers constantly to images, pictures, or statistical equations.

 Most text-to-speech software allows you to select voices from different accents (American, British) and languages (Spanish, German, etc.). You can also change the voice speed and pitch.

If you are interested in exploring the benefits of these technologies a little bit further, you might want to try DSpeech which is one of the best text-to-speech applications available for free. Here is a demo of an mp3 file created by this software using American accent and here is another example using a British accent.

 Below is a list of commercial text-to-speech software available. The average price is around $45 dollars. We recommend you to install the trial versions first to make sure the software will provide the functionality that you expect.

•  Natural Reader
• Text Speaker  
• Verbose Text to Speech Converter
• Text Aloud
• Speak Aloud

Video has always been a useful instructional tool for use in the classroom.  From an on-the-ground perspective here in the Office of Instructional Consulting, there certainly feels like an upswing in the use of video, or at least in the digitization, conversion, and assistance with accessing video clips.  This increase in digitization and availability of video on the web, creates some gaps in technology infrastructure at many universities, and begs the question of this post:  Where to store our educational video clips to allow for quick easy access to faculty and instructors?  Fliggo, Blip.tv, and Vimeo.  Of course there is YouTube, but maybe not the best option for educational purposes?

Using Fliggo to create your own video sharing site for your course:
http://www.techlearning.com/article/18016

The latest version of the video conferencing software Skype (4.1 for Windows, 2.8 for Mac) gives users the ability to share their screens remotely – and for free! Although audio and video are great for communication, they are often insufficient to explain step-by-step procedures, such as inserting a video into PowerPoint 2007. Skype’s new feature allows users to share their desktops instead of using their webcams while continue to talk.

Potential applications for this new feature could be: demonstrating procedures, presenting documents, sharing videos, trouble shooting, etc.  

How to share your screen

Simply call a contact and click Share –> Share Your Screen in the IM toolbar (Windows) or Share –> Share Screen (Mac). If desired, one can either share the complete desktop or just a selection.

For more information, visit http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/screensharing/.

We recently conducted a workshop on engaging distance education students with podcasting, and there were several questions, and some confusion about the different types of podcasts.  Thankfully much of the hype around podcasting has died down and is now focused on Twitter, so there is an opportunity to take a good look at podcasting to uncover any potential benefits to teaching and learning.  Although marketing departments and techno-hypers like to throw around many different acronyms and terms for podcasting; about.com has a very long list of any potential combination of a “word+casting” that possibly exists.  We like to tell our clients there are essentially four types of podcasts.

1. Audio podcasts are (yes) audio only.  They are generally mp3 format (can also be AAC) and may be the most common type of podcast.  Audio podcasts (in mp3 format) are the most compatible with all computers and portable media devices.  Positive aspects of audio podcasts include their relatively small file size, usually less than 10MB depending on length, and that they are relatively easy to create.  A negative aspect of this type of podcast is that the content or message is limited to audio only.  However depending on the content, the audience, and the purpose that may be all that is necessary.
2. Video podcast is a term used for the online delivery of video content.  The term is used to distinguish between podcasts which most commonly contain audio files and those referring to the distribution of video.  However, the term Podcast has from its inception described the distribution of digital media files, including video and audio via RSS enclosures and hence the terms video podcast, vodcast or less commonly vidcast. are redundant. (wikipedia, July 7, 2009)  Video podasts are rapidly becoming a popular format for traditional media and television networks.  For example, the NBC and CBS Nightly News are just two of the video podcasts that have been created to “re-purpose” content, and most shows on PBS and NPR are available as either audio or video podcasts.

   Unlike an audio podcast, creating a video podcast is like any other video production project and requires more production and planning time to produce.  In regard to file size, downloading a video podcast requires a high bandwidth connection because they are large files (typically upwards of 100 MB each depending on the length).  The preferred format for video podcasts is typically .m4v or mp4 H.264, and they can be created and consumed by both Mac and Windows users.

3. Enhanced podcasts are a somewhat unique type of podcast that combine audio podcast with synced images, similar to a narrated slideshow.  They often contain multiple still images that change like a slideshow, and you can also add live URL links to Websites as well as chapter markers to skip around the podcast.  Technically, enhanced podcasts are audio files in .m4a format (also known as mp4 or AAC format), with a layer for embedding the synced images.  The enhanced podcast format has been adopted by Apple and Sony, and are essentially playable on any Mac or Windows computer that has iTunes installed.  Enhanced podcasts do not currently play in Windows Media Player.  A benefit of enhanced podcasts is that they present both visual and audio content, but the file size is nearly the same as a typical audio-only podcast, and exponentially smaller than a video podcast!  At the time of this blog post enhanced podcasts can really only be created on a Mac computer with Garageband (for now).
4. A Screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term screencast dates from 2004, products such as Lotus ScreenCam were used as early as 1994. Early products produced large files and had limited editing features. More recent products support more compact file formats such as Adobe Flash, and mp4/H.264, and have more sophisticated editing features allowing changes in sequence, mouse movement, and audio. Just as a screenshot is a picture of a user’s screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on his monitor (wikipedia, July 7, 2009).

Finally, it is important to note that you do NOT need an iPod to create or listen to podcasts! In fact a 2005 Bridge Ratings consumer survey found that over 80% of users simply listen to downloaded podcasts on their computer or laptop and the podcasts never make it to an iPod or other digital media device.

As you may know Indiana University recently signed a groundbreaking software deal with Adobe to provides no cost downloads of a wide array of fantastic (and usually expensive) Adobe software to all IU students, faculty, staff and departments.  Now that the software is freely available to use, there is a need for training and tutorials on how to use all of this great software.  The IT Training group at IU does a good job at offering various STEPS workshops on the more familiar CS 4 applications such as, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, Illustrator, and InDesign.  Hopefully they plan to expand their offerings because there is much more available in both the CS4 Design Suite, and the CS4 Development Suite.  Not to mention all of the others available on IUWare.

This brings us to the point of this blog post.  The staff in the IC find Adobe.tv to be an excellent resource for short Adobe CS4 how-to and training videos and we just wanted to share our good fortune!

Helpful training resources include:

• For example, Adobe.tv has an excellent series of videos on getting started with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.  Adobe.tv has many more published videos to help you learn and discover new features in the CS4 products on their Adobe TV site.
• You can sign up for a free 30 day trial membership at Lynda.com when you register your Adobe software; it includes tutorials on the CS4 interface.  See http://kb.iu.edu/data/axyq.html for more information.
• IU students, faculty and staff can download free Adobe CS4 basic workshop materials to use and learn on their own.
• And of course you can stop by the IC or make an appointment if you have any questions or need any help.

An interesting case study on using Twitter in a face-to-face classroom to help facilitate discussion.  There are many open questions regarding the effective use of Twitter in the classroom, and for that matter anything other than marketing, but these related articles and posts provide some instructional practices as well as some things to think about.

“Monica Rankin PhD., an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas who was looking to incorporate more student-centered activities in her U.S. History course this past spring. How she accomplished this goal is what makes it so intriguing. She used Twitter the micro-blogging site.” Read more and watch the 5-minute YouTube video >>

Here is an additional related blog post to this story with some additional points and comments.

For those of you new to Twitter, below are a few additional links of interest:

• Twitter in Plain English video by Common Craft.
• A Comical YouTube video explaining Twitter: Twouble with Twitters.
• An article in Chronicle of Higher Ed about Twitter: 10 High Fliers on Twitter.

The Office of Instructional Consulting in Indiana University School of Education recently hosted the first in a series of forums on distance education and online learning. This session focused on important aspects of marketing online programs. Darren Klein–Director of Marketing, Kelley Direct Programs, Larry Mikulecky—Coordinator of the online Literacy, Culture, and Language Education Program, and Ted Frick, Associate Professor of Instructional Systems Technology shared their experiences and challenges of marketing their online programs and provided insight on how to effectively market online courses and program offerings. The streaming video is available on the IC website.

Let’s say you or your students used one of the new JVC Everio HD camcorders available from the Teaching Technology Lab in the School of Education, you’ve copied the file to your hard drive but your computer does not play the file at all or correctly (i.e., no sound). What’s going on?

Answer:

JVC uses a proprietary file format called MOD (a mpeg-2 variation) that cannot be played correctly with the standard media players on a PC or Mac.  In order for convert the file to a more common format that is viewable (mp4, mpeg, mpeg2, avi, mov, etc.), you EITHER need to use the proprietary video editing software that comes on a CD with the camcorder (PowerDirector) OR use a different video editing software, such as iMovie ’08 or Sony Vegas Video.

1.     Connect the camcorder to your MAC or PC using the USB.

2.     Open the flip screen of camcorder and select Playback on PC (even when on a Mac).

3.     Your computer should recognize the camcorder as a new hard drive.

4.     Look for the SD_Video folder to find your video clips in MOD format.

5.     Import the file(s) to the video editing software.

After you have imported and edited the clips, you need to export or render them into the desired format.

In our tests, this process was simpler on the Mac with iMovie. Check out this YouTube video for more information:

Note:  For faculty and associate instructors, feel free to stop by Instructional Consulting for more details or help with this issue.

The World Digital Library became a reality today.  This great new digital archive will be particularly useful for historians, scholars, and teachers.  Lead primarily by the Library of Congress and UNESCO, with financial support from partners such as Google, Microsoft, and the Carnegie Corporation, the World Digital Library aims to ”create an Internet-based, easily-accessible collection of the world’s cultural riches that would tell the stories and highlight the achievements of all countries and cultures, thereby promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding”.  The collection includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings, and users will be able to navigate through the digital library in seven different languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian).  The collection currently contains about 1,250 artifacts, with much more to be added.

The initial collection features some very interesting and useful educational materials.  Take for example the Tale of the Genji, a Japanese text from the early 11th century that’s often considered the first great novel in world literature, or these iconic Dorothea Lange photos from The Great Depression,or these images of the great Jackie Robinson.  To learn more about this new digital archive, read this article from The Washington Post.

Noted writer, speaker, and educator John Seely Brown discusses learning in the digital age at a guest lecture at IU. Brown is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California and serves as an independent co-chairman for the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation.