Time to Move On

I’ve been hinting around about this for quite some time now, but today was my last day as Director of the IST Solutions Institute. It has been an amazing place to be the last six years. I was one of the first people in the door for the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State back in 1999 … as a matter of fact, October 1st, 1999 was my first day there. The School was a new thing, built from the group up to address the IT worker shortage in the state of PA and beyond. It is a first rate place and one that I leave with nothing but fond feelings for. The people at the School are wonderful, the administration has been very supportive, and the faculty are thought leaders in their respective spaces.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when it came to getting on board. My wife, Kristin, had been hired as the School’s first webmaster — as well as an instructional designer to get the first of many courses online, design a problem based learning curricular approach, and more. One of the first things she did was go directly to the dean and say these plans are too big for a single person. She recommended that he bring some people in to spend a day thinking and talking about the goals … I was lucky enough to be one of those people. That day got me so jacked up about the thought of being part of a second startup that I immediately pressed for a chance to be part of it. So, the next day I was back in the dean’s office getting a job offer.

I spent the first years there building the team, tools, and methodologies that would become the staple of the Institute. We still use the original methods and tools to design courses and other learning environments. The Institute has grown in resources and sophistication, but it still has that start up feel. The thing I am most proud of are the people who have come in and out of the doors at SI … these people have given everything to create the most open and engaging workplace I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. I was talking with Bruce Claflin, CEO of 3Com, once and he said you are lucky if you have the chance to be part of a great team once in your life on a small project … I was lucky enough to create and work with a team like that for six years. Wonderful.

So tomorrow I show up at my new job … Director of Education Technology Services for the whole of the University. It is another one of those amazing opportunities. I am psyched to get the new phase of my life going, but today I am just going to reflect on the last six years and say thank you to everyone who made it the most wonderful time of my life. The time at IST was filled with highs and lows … my daughter was born, I feel like I built a powerful Institute, made the best friends, created outstanding partnerships, and learned so much from so many people. It was a wonderful time and I will miss it. Thank you everyone!

2 New Podcasts

Here are direct links to 2 of the 3 podcasts I did while at Educause in Orlando. The first podcast was with James Hilton and Lynne Johnson of the University of Michigan about their iTunes Music Store for education project. It was a fun discussion … as a matter of fact, I was able to get James to talk a bit about his slant on copyright, what is wrong with it, and how the commons is being impacted and created. I hate to say it, but this is edited down a bit from the original where we spend a bit more time on that stuff. It is a fun talk though.

The second podcast is with Susan Metros from Ohio State and Julie Little of U of Tennessee. Again, too much fun hanging out talking to these two about teaching and learning with technology. Both Susan and Julie seem to have a real passion for not just the use of technology in the classroom, but for the process of teaching well. Fun … by the way, I am not a real journalist — I just play one on my podcasts so excuse my lame interviewing abilities.

iTunes in Education

I am really starting to enjoy seeing things like this. Stanford has joined the party and started using iTunes for content distribution. It is a very cool project … there are several of these out there. I spent an hour or so talking with some of the folks from U Mich during Educause — specifically in one of the Apple Digital Campus Podcasts (Subscribe via iTunes) — about how they are using it as well. What blows my mind is how this product (iTunes) wasn’t really built for this, but over time Apple has really listened to its education customers and realized just how powerful the iTunes environment really is. I mean, if you get right down to it, eEducation is a whole hell of a lot like eBusiness — transactional, relies on scalable infrastructure, and the notions of community. At any rate, these are good stories.

My New iPod

Of course I had to get one … I tried to hold out, but the guy at the Apple Store in Orlando made me do it … as in, when I asked him if they had them he said yes. To me, that is making me get one. It is amazing. Period … really I love all the iPods, but this thing is a work of art. It is what an iPod should be. It looks so much bigger, but it is the same width, the same height, and so much thinner than my other one. My new Nano is sick, but this thing is what it is all about. Ok, enough love.

Here’s the rub, they did away with the little remote control plug thing next to the headphone jack, so all the accersories I care about no longer work. I can’t use it in my car because all I have is a CD player and the iTrip no longer works. I can’t use my iTalk anymore, so there goes mobile podcasting. Crap. I didn’t really think about that when I bought it. Not that it pisses me off to the point where I am going to scream, but it just bothers me becasue I have no options. I guess I can spend the $75.00-$100.00 on an adaptor for my Honda Accord to run it throught the CD Changer input, but that’s another 100 bucks. What I want is an option … the only option I’ll get is to wait.

Here’s what I think Apple should do … oh how I wish I had enough pull to make this stuff happen … just a little list:

  • The iPod Camera Connector: That thing is another wonderful little device. If you don’t know, it lets you plug your USB digital camera into the iPod and directly import photos. works slowly, but is very nice. What would be kickass would be if they let you use that same thing to plug in a USB powered microphone … I just got one of these killer new USB Samson Audio C01U mics and it would be really sweet to be able to just plug the connector onto the bottom and plug my new mic into the other side. Shazam … with the new stereo recording capability (that I have no idea if it works) I could actually have a more or less pro quality mobile podcast studio. That would be perfect.
  • Five Star Ratings: They killed the ability to do on the go ratings on my iPod! I use that so much … I can’t even explain what a kick in the ass this one is. I have been a big proponent of rating student podcasts on the fly using that 5 star rating system. Without it, that is over. I am not sure if they took it away for music because I have yet to put my music collection on the thing, but it isn’t there for video or audio podcasts. Again, crap. Apple, give me that back!
  • A Case: Once again Apple gives us a case, but the sleeve it comes in isn’t what I need or want. They do this every time … they surprise everyone, including vendors … in the meantime my iPod looks like I ran it through the wash. Argh … a case wouldn’t kill you. Let’s not even talk about a dock!

Oh well, there are other things, but all in all this is a killer piece of equipment. It just seems to me that if you are going to add some amazing features for education, how about keeping the ones that have already had an impact. BTW, go get one … at least look at it. It is worth it.

Orlando Grab Bag

So, I’m in Orlando … hmm, Orlando. The land of magic, fun, and all around interestingness (?) … I finally have a little bandwidth for the moment. I am standing in the Apple Podcast Suite just wrapping up a nice interview with James Hilton and Lynne Johnson from the University of Michigan … we spent the better part of 40 minutes talking about their use of iTunes in their School of Dentistry. Really interesting stuff. Later in the day I’ll be hanging out with some folks from Ohio State about teaching and learning with technology. Should be cool — but what is it with me and the Big Ten schools. The U Mich people gave me a little grief about the football game last weekend, but not on tape. At any rate, here is the feed that will pump out all the Apple ADCE Podcasts.

I spent the first several days down here with my wife and little girl, Madeline … we went to the Disney kingdom. We hit the Animal Kingdom and Epcot on day one and then did the Magic Kingdom and back to Epcot on day 2. Here’s the deal, that Disney stuff is expensive but it does grab the attention of a 4 year old. The thing we noticed is how the folks at Disney allow you to purchase adult beverages in Animal Kingdom and Epcot but not the Magic Kingdom — hence the 2 trips to Epcot. If you’ve been there then you know all about the countries … we like Great Britain. And we spent a lot of time there drinking pints of Stella while Madeline slept on day two. I can’t tell you much easier the whole Disney experience is with a buzz. Here’s the evidence, when you go to the Magic Kingdom (no adult beverages allowed) you notice how all the parents will lose their shit on their kids at least once or twice. It is actually funny to hear everyone going nuts in different languages … see we are all the same down deep. By the time we got to Epcot, Madeline was sleeping and it was straight to the pub for a few pints … that made it all much easier.

Mixing work with vacation can be a drag, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Several things left this week here with Apple and then it is back home and back to reality. At any rate its been fun. Oh, by the way … I got to see and hold one of the new iPods — you know with video. It is an amazing device … a lot cooler that I thought it would be. One huge disappointment is that you cannot do ratings on videos. That is just lame — imagine how easily you can use those 5 stars to assess student work on the fly. If you are going to give us new features, don’t take away old ones! I want that back in. Ok, that’s it. I’ll be back later this week or over the weekend. Later … back to spending money in the land of Disney.

On the Road Again!

Off to Florida today for Educauase … oh, and for a little vacation. I’ll be staying in a condo, so I will not have high speed (or any other sort of Internet access)! What am I going to do … and it isn’t just me. My wife and daughter are coming along … my wife is a blogger (a good one at that) and she is going to go a little crazy not being able to write or read her favorite sites. I just downloaded the iPod map of the wifi spots in the part of Orlando we’ll be staying, so maybe we’ll find time to get our high speed fix. Pathetic.

On a related note … at the conference, I’ll be workign with Apple (and several others) to produce podcasts for the Apple Digital Campus Exchange. Should be a lot of fun. Look for posts about that next week, with pointers to the content. Until then, enjoy the silence!

Apple is Really Supporting Podcasting Now!

Here is a great sign from Apple — iPods now record in stereo and at multiple levels! Mobile podcasters rejoice … the big knock (as far as I am concerned) on the last several rounds of iPods were their pathetic recording qualities. I wonder if the iTalk works with these? Here is the proof … it says this on the iPod tech specs page, Voice recording settings:

  • Low (22.05 KHz, mono)
  • High (44.1 KHz, stereo)

Now I simply must get one … you know, for research purposes.

The New iPod … Are We There Yet?

I haven’t really been spending much time writing about stuff Apple releases … tons of other people do that — and do it much better than I. At any rate, I listened like everyone else to Steve telling us over and over again that we didn’t want a video capable iPod … then, he told us we did need one and gave us one — all in the same day.

I have to say that now that I see it, I am impressed with it. You can go read all the tech specs yourself, but what is really important here is that opens another set of opportunities for teaching and learning. I have said it before that you cannot walk across campus and not see every other student with white ear buds. Granted these aren’t yet video iPods, but it won’t be long. When that starts to happen, I can go from podcaster to videocaster and actually show my students a thing or two. On the flip side, they can do the same. By using the class blog, RSS enclosures, a video assignment, and a subscription I can now auto receive their work, watch it while I walk (or eat lunch, or whatever), and use the rating system to grade it. I do like it.

I can see this having a potential impact on hybrid/blended class and pure distance education classes … shipping assignments via a cross platform application like iTUnes (or a web site) and allowing students to download portable lessons on the fly. I don’t know about you, but I have seen very slcik Keynote presentation that have been turned into killer voice-overed QuickTime files that do a great job of teaching. I know there are things like Breeze out there, but the ability to quickly produce a learning experience that is filled with video, audio, and stills is interesting. It is actually getting close to the enclosure bundle concept. At any rate, here is hoping there is some killer context for the next great thing. BTW, I need one.