Vlogademia Nervosa

iAlbum - looks nifty

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:41:00 -0700

Margaret sent me an email today. She wanted to share a potentially useful product with the class: the iAlbum MemoryCard Direct-To-iPod Quick Photo UploadingDevice. It looks like it can connect a memory card to our iPod and transfer your digital pictures and videos straight into the iPod. Let me know if you try one - heck! Review it on your videoblog, and I'll link to you!

Born to Be Vlogged

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 7 May 2007 22:00:00 -0700

Click To Play

For the final night of Videoblogging class, we all talked about what we learned and whether everyone had documented their process well enough to videoblog on their own. The consensus was, all the students can do it. But it's okay to make the occasional call for help to Node101 Phoenix.

After our last academic discussion, but before leaving for dinner at Hamburger Works, Mary and Margaret passed out kazoos and lyrics to their rewrite of Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild. Calexi recorded while the rest of us performed, and now you get to view the results.

Mary and Margaret are long-time friends, colleagues, and passionate nursing instructors. I'm thrilled at how excited they are to use videoblogging with their students. I'm pretty sure they plan to perform this song for some kind of teachers' conference in the hopes of getting other teachers to try videoblogging in the classroom. More power to you, ladies!

This class was so different from the other college-level videoblogging classes I know of. There were no prerequisites - none of these folk had ever attempted to edit video before, let alone post it into a blog. I'm not 100% sure, but I think all my students were age 50 and over. And half of them are college professors. So these are people who were not necessarily raised on computers and the internet, reaching out and trying new things and embracing what they can do with new technology. I'm enormously proud of them. Look out world wide web, here they come!

Free Video Converter

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 6 May 2007 08:33:00 -0700

We've been using QuickTime Pro in the classroom to convert AVI files exported from Windows Movie Maker into iPod-compatible MP4 files. Now that class is ending, students won't have access to QuickTime Pro unless they purchase their own copy.

It may be a stroke of good luck that today I heard about the Free iPod Video Converter (Actually I think Shane told me about it a week or two ago). Along with several other video formats, it will convert WMV files exported from Movie Maker into iPod-compatible files. And it's free. So it should save you the step of making an AVI file (because QuickTime Pro cannot read WMV files). And it will save you $30.

I tried it out today and the process is pretty straightforward. You download and install the program, launch it, and tell it what file you want to convert. It has a dialog that allows you to choose the video and audio bitrate using quality sliders. You should probably refer to the settings we've been using in QuickTime and stick as close to those as you can (refer to the Freevlog.org tutorial if you forgot your settings). After choosing the settings, another dialog comes up asking you to set ID3 tags for the converted file: author, genre, copyright, etc. The default options for these may throw you off as they're based on music genres, not videoblog genres. Just type in what you want, or ignore and click through to start the conversion. You get to preview the video as it is converted, and it opens natively with QuickTime or iTunes after conversion.

As a test of the Free iPod Video Converter software, I downloaded and converted Shane's latest Haunted Mansion video from WMV to MP4, and posted it here so you can see for yourself how well the conversion worked. With apologies to Shane ...

Click To Play

Creative Commons Videos

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:31:00 -0700

Wanna Work Together?

There are a bunch of great videos about Creative Commons and their alternatives to "all rights reserved" licensing over at the Creative Commons web site. This one gives a good overview of why you should consider licensing your work under one of the Creative Commons licensing choices. It's easy, it's free, and it makes a collaborative contribution to the world's pool of creative ideas.

RSS in Plain English

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:26:00 -0700

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There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

Revlogged from commoncraft.com, this video shows why subscription to RSS feeds is so great, and the basics of how to do it. Remember, you can subscribe to audio and video, too, not just blogs and news. This is the technology behind iTunes and FireAnt. If you're not using a reader yet, this may convince you!

Playing with Blog Bling from Slide.com

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:15:00 -0700

We made this slide show using photos from Flickr and the slide show maker at Slide.com.

Vlog Lab Sunday April 22 at Copper Star Coffee

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:03:00 -0700

What: NODE101::PHOENIX Vlog Lab
Where: Copper Star Coffee, 4220 N. 7th Avenue, Phoenix (map)
When: Sunday, April 22, 2pm - whenever!

This is an extracurricular lab for the Phoenix College Vlogging Class, but anyone is welcome to turn up. Come out and learn to vlog, or meet the vloggers!

We'll be at Copper Star Coffee, geeking out and optimizing our vlogs.

Click the map to get directions.

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:56:00 -0700

Come and join other Phoenix vloggers at our April Meetup. We’re meeting at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, April 19 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, 2400 E. Missouri Ave, Phoenix, AZ (map). This counts as one of our supplemental labs. I can arrive as early as 6:00 p.m. if anyone from class wants some one-on-one time.

Chris Baker says:

If you take Missouri east of 24th street you will pass some houses and it will wind up taking you to the front of the Hotel. From there you go inside the main Entrance and to the right. There is a Bar and lounge area right there.

Bring yourself and your crazy ideas. Let’s help each other make them a reality.

Vlog Lab Saturday April 14

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 9 Apr 2007 13:51:00 -0700

There is a vlog lab coming up this weekend. On Saturday, April 14, I will be at Copper Star Coffee on 7th Avenue from 9a.m. to 1p.m. It's got free wi-fi internet access and good coffee. Come down and get some help with your vlog. Or bring your camera and get some shooting done. Whatever you need help with. Follow this link for more details and a map.

How to watch all of videoblogging 2007 week easily

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 12:40:00 -0700

Click to Play

Tonight we are discussing ways of publicizing your vlog. So check out this great video from socialninja-tv on how to search for vlogs on a topic of interest, and then subscribe to your search results!

Then go ad your feeds to Blogdigger!

More Ways to Promote!

Add Your Vlog to the FireAnt directory
Add Your Vlog to the Vlog Map
Add your Vlog to the MeFeedia Directory
Add your vlog to the ITunes Music Store list of "Video Podcasts"
Freevlog New Vlogs - submit your videoblog to be included in the running list of new vlogs at Freevlog
Vlog-Universe - join the vlog link web-ring
Read Steve Garfield's on How to Promote your Videoblog
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic by Paul Stamatiou - advice on how to promote your vlog

These links were shamelessly culled from Jen Simmons' handy dandy list of vlogger resources, and there's more where these came from.

Using vPIP with Blip.TV & Blogger

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:40:00 -0700

Click to Play

Screencast tutorial on how to use vPIP to publish multiple versions of your video into your Blogger site, offering your viewers a choice of formats hosted on Blip.tv.

Featured Interview

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:37:00 -0700

A3F Premiere from Off Center by Calexi

Click To Play

Calexi did a great interview with the founder of the Almost Famous Film Festival.

Featured Portrait Post

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 5 Mar 2007 11:30:00 -0800

Portrait posts are due tonight at the start of class. I was hoping to see more of them up by now, but maybe some are encountering technical difficulties.

Dr. A's portrait on Coping has already been featured, so today I am highlighting Dale's portrait of her Urban Field Studies Class.

Urban Freak Studies from Vlog Me, I Love It by Dale

Quicktime Flash

Here is a profile of the students in the "Urban Field Studies: The Art of Finding," with instructor/artist Joe Willie Smith, at Phoenix College. Aren't we a talented group? We are thinking of starting our own carnival.

Assignment 4 - 3rd Post on Place

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 5 Mar 2007 11:13:00 -0800

Two students cannot attend class tonight, so I decided I should start posting your assignments on the class vlog. Should have been all along, really. Live and learn. Evolve!

Due: prior to start of class, Monday, March 19

This assignment asks you to examine a place that is important to you. Maybe it’s a place you like to go to be alone, or a place where something significant happened in your life, or a place you’ve always wanted to visit but haven’t yet. How are you going to explore and share this place for a broad audience? What do you want to tell us about it? How will you present it, stylistically, through image and sound?

Don’t forget to adhere to the Videoblog Assignment Criteria.

AND

Due: end of class, Monday, March 19

Comment on at least three other students' "Place" posts.

Sweet Cheeseus!

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:03:00 -0800

QuickTime | Flash

This is late last night at the end of videoblogging class. We were all a little slap-happy. Margaret brought pineapple mango dried fruit stuff, and I decided it tasted like sweet cheese. The rest just happened.

Kickin' some vlogging butt!

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:14:00 -0800

Nursing 24/7 by Dr. A

Click To Play

This video captures one young woman's strategy to cope with nursing school, family and work demands.

This is a wonderful video from Dr. A's vlog about nursing students and faculty. The strategies given in the video are great for anyone juggling multiple roles. Bravo!

Featured Vlogs from February 12

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:15:00 -0800

We've been in class for four weeks now, and students have gone through the process of setting up a blog, powering it with a Feedburner feed, and adding video via their Blip.tv accounts. We'll be continuing to work on blog customization, but for now we just want to get the process in motion. Each student was asked to post a video incorporating Direct Address this week. Here are some exciting results of this assignment. Please explore the Nervosas links to see the rest.

HemoBlog Arizona by Peter

Click To Play

A vlog that helps young people with hemophilia make the transition to adulthood and becoming responsible for managing their life long health care options.

Think Like a Nurse by Margaret

Click To Play

This vlog will serve as a resource of practical strategies to facilitate the development of critical thinking skills in student nurses.

Vlog Me, I Love It by Dale

Click To Play

A vlog from a Photoshop expert. There can be no explanation for this one. You just have to see it.

Wandering Attention! by Shane

Click To Play

Things that strike Shane's fancy. This is his intro video.

What's Web 2.0?

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:57:00 -0800

Web 2.0: The Web Is Us/ing Us

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, made this hugely popular video that succinctly expresses what we mean by the term Web 2.0. It's appropriate to revlog it here as we begin our own exploration of Web 2.0 technologies in our attempts to forge more people-centric connections. Let the Web unite us.

Alternately, see the video in context on YouTube.

WebCam Test

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:00:00 -0800

Click To Play

This is a test of the vlogademia nervosa system. This is only a test. Do not panic.

We got web cams in the classroom to enable students who do not own video recording devices to create video for their class vlogs. This is just me demonstrating the process of video capture/compression/posting.

Welcome to Vlogademia Nervosa

cheryl.colan@gmail.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:25:00 -0800

You've arrived at the central web page for the Spring 2006 Phoenix College course on videoblogging. We meet Monday nights from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the PC Downtown campus. I'm the instructor, Cheryl Colan, and soon you'll meet the rest of the class. There are no prerequisites for taking this course, so you'll need to bear with us as we learn to shoot, capture and edit video, compress it for the web, and get it into a blog. Once the students pick their themes and get rolling, this site will link to their vlogs and feature some of their episodes.

We have a very exciting group, including several Maricopa Community Colleges faculty. I think you'll enjoy what they produce, and I know I'll enjoy seeing them evolve as vloggers.

For the first night of class, we brainstormed names for this class vlog, and eventually voted for Vlogademia Nervosa, which reflects our current state of mind. We're learning to vlog in an academic setting, and we're a little nervous about this whole new videoblogging thing. Join us on our journey of discovery.